The text below is from a book by Daichi Rōni, a nun who was one of Koten Roshi’s principal teachers. Koten Roshi did commentary on this text at the beginning of his ZCA zoom teishos in May and June 2021. The text drew interest from those attending the teisho and has been translated again here for clarity.
『　修　行　の　根　本　』	Fundamentals of Zen practice by Daichi Rōni
正修行とは、前後際断された様子を自覚した念に投入して行くのです	For true Zen practice, endeavor to become one with one’s present condition itself, just as it arises, detached from past and future.
ですから、無とか随息に関するものではありません	Therefore, practice has nothing to do with nothingness, emptiness, or even the breathing.
つまりこれは只管なのです	In other words, this is Shikan — “simply”, “just”, or “solely”— simply sitting, simply doing, etc.
この只管の一念をどこまでも護持していく	One’s present condition just as it is this present moment…we keep practicing this, endeavoring not to separate from it.
護持して行かないと必ず煩いを起こす事になります	When you lose the present moment, confusion and anxiety swell up, begin to emerge
さて只管とは余念の無い事	Shikan is without distraction utterly devoting oneself completely to the present moment
余念無ければそれ自体	Completely devoting oneself is forgetting the notion of “me” and becoming one with the thing itself, becoming one with one’s present reality
それ自体には何の癖もない	“Now”, as-it-is, is a state/condition free of all personal preferences
縁に応じて自在である	It is the freedom to become anything according with cause and effect
癖が無いから何にでも成って行く力が自然に具わっている	Without personal preferences, one is endowed with the ability/power to become—be one with—whatever may come along.
元来そうした力、本質を皆持っているのに、念の上に念を重ねて本質の純粋性を不純にしておる	In spite of the fact that we all are originally endowed with this natural ability—our original nature—we fall into the habit of piling thought upon thought—consciousness upon consciousness—thereby separating further and further from what was originally pure and unblemished.
不純にしている念の根本は、相手をたてる、つまり認める事によって起こるのである	The source of our delusion/confusion is perceiving self-and-other where originally no such distinction or separation exists.
良い事でも悪い事でも呼吸でも、無でも坐禅でも只管でも、修行でも如何なる事でも認める事の非なる事を知らねばならぬ	Whether good things or bad things, or the breathing, or nothingness or emptiness, or shikan, or Zen practice, or whatever it could possibly be, to perceive something—to acknowledge the existence of something/anything—is impossible and would be a mistake
とにかく、前後際断されて、認めようの無い事を自覚した】念なればさわりが無い	In any case, having cut off past and future, and awakening to the reality that it is impossible to perceive a gap between self and other—between self and things—in other words, if you endeavor to become one with the reality of the present moment as it is, then your practice should bear fruit.
このさわりの無い］念を護持してこそ正修行の本筋である	This is the main thread of true Zen practice.
即ち工夫無き工夫である	In other words, It is Zen practice of things simply as they are; it is practice-less Zen practice.
ここまで至るには大努力を要するが、しかし人に依っては気楽に至ることが出来るのである	To get this far in one’s practice requires great effort and perseverance. However, depending on the person there are some who more easily reach this point than others.
そうしてみると人々の性格にもおおいに手伝う事を知って、自分で自分を単調に単調にともって行く様に努力してほしい	In this respect, knowing that character or a person’s nature can have considerable influence in one’s practice, please make the effort to practice calmly and level-headed
つまり、ここは単調の極ともいえるのである	Keeping level-headed and calm is of utmost importance.
そこで坐禅とか只管とか、無とか随息とかにのみ想いを置かず、常に「今」にある	Then, always dwell in, keep, the present moment. Practice is not just sitting or shikan or the breathing, not just emptiness or nothingness (ku or mu).
相手なし	Be one with the present moment, don’t raise dualistic views.
ものの上に考えや念を添えねばそのもののみ	If you don’t inject/embellish the present moment with thought or conception, then there is only the thing itself, as it is, just as it arises.
この心得を中心に「今」を離さぬ事	Keep this as the center of your practice and don’t abandon/separate from the present moment.
これは動中の工夫になりますが、坐禅にあろうが動中にあろうが一念の千変万化であるのですから、根本の一念の真相を速く体得すれば、一切ＯＫである	This is what zen in/during activity is. Thought-feelings (“mind”) is ever-changing. Our practice is to realize, awaken to, the present mind, the present moment. Awakening to the present, we find peace whatever the circumstances may be.
何人も皆、この一念に苦心して頂きたい	I would like everyone to penetrate the mind of the present moment as quickly as possible.
一念を離れての千変万化はない	Separating from/losing the present moment, one becomes shackled by things.
一念を「今」と言う事に代えて、中心を「今」に置き、	The present thought—this present mind—is the present, the present moment. Place the center of your practice here.
自分の考えを加えぬ様に注意し、千変万化を千変万化のままに「只」ある様に努力してほしい	If you are careful that your own ideas do not interfere here, then everything “simply/just” arises, arises freely according to cause and effect. Please make your effort here.
そうすると「あるがまま」の真実の、いちゝゝが如法となる	Practicing like this, reality as-it-is simply manifests moment by moment. This is the truth of the Buddha Dharma.
ですから、坐にのみ心を置かず、万事にご注意ある様願いあげます	Therefore, when sitting zazen, forget sitting, forget zazen, and be one with the present moment, one’s present reality.
現実を「一念」とも「今」とも、或いは「即今」とも又¬一心」とも「満身」とも、「只管」とも「如法」とも「三昧」とも、代えてご覧になって下さい	To refer to one’s present reality as the “present mind”, the “present moment”, “now”, “Shikantaza”, “as-it-is”, “samadhi”, “the Way”: all of these are interchangeable.
人々の因縁は何処 何処に在るか知れません	We don’t know the cause and effect circumstances of each person.
性格無辺なると同時に因縁も又無量である	But when a person’s nature becomes free and unrestricted, then at the same time their possibilities/potentialities become immeasurable.
要は意の全く無い一念を護持し通す菩提心の強い事が肝心なのです	In short, the aspiration to keep penetrating (to become one with) the immediate present, the present mind/thought/moment—before consciousness of it engages—is most important. (Translator’s comment: consciousness/cognition of the present moment arises after that moment passes, which is why we are able to perceive the present.)
只それを熟せしめておれば、結果は自然に万法の方からやって来るのです	Simply bringing that to maturity/fruition, then the outcome or result will naturally manifest from everywhere, from all things.
とにかく前後の無い、認め様の無い念に速く気が付く事です	Just cut off past and future, and awaken to the world of the very present, where even the present is imperceptible.
念のまま千変万化、いちゝゝ如法化し	The present, ever-changing and just as it is, each and every thing arising due to cause-and-effect
明らかに差別を純粋に護持して失わなければそれで良いのです	Diligently endeavor to keep/preserve the present moment of things arising just as they are, without getting involved with them.
「今」「今」菩提の行願として仏行を奉じて行くばかりです	Each moment, just “now”, “now”, dedicate oneself wholeheartedly to Buddhist practice.
この事に最大の努力をして欲しいものです	Please exert yourself to the utmost to awaken to the Buddha Way.
菩提心　菩提心	Bodaishin Bodaishin (Devotion to reach the Way)