What Should Be the Result of the Correct Practice?

This is my comment on the article see the link below. It's worth it to comment since that path of reductionism that some Buddhists practise is inherently flawed and leads to delusions. The same practice - being in the present moment - if performed incorrectly, can lead to the opposite result.

Our entire lives are nothing but a chain of moments in which we perceive one sight, taste, smell, touch, sound, feeling, or thought after another. Outside of this process, nothing else happens.

Such reductionism means that the author lost the sense of integrity of the situation - to what enlightenment could this possibly refer? Enlightenment is an understanding of a situation in its entirety, so the path of reductionism is inherently flawed. First, it's not correct to say that when it comes to Zen mind, you perceive just the object you're looking at: you perceive the whole situation at once. Secondly, the same applies to the perception of time: it's true that understanding can only be achieved through the present moment (this is so because we understand by denying, which is a pure sensation of the present moment), but understanding is in fact grasping a situation in its past, present and future at the same time.

There is no place for understanding in the author's scheme. Liberation is the result of the final understanding: as soon as you recognize yourself (the universe recognizes itself), the world doesn't scare you anymore.

Nothingness V.S. Emptiness

This is my comment on the article see the link below.

I doubt that for the author awareness is equivalent to understanding. Let me recall that when concentrating on the external world, you should also be fully aware of your body (see Zen Training : Methods and Philosophy by Katsuki Sekida.) Otherwise, no special skills are required, if you lose the feeling of your body while focusing on something. And you can really be aware of your body only by denying the outer world: the context (zazen in fact is a total denial of everything.) That's why spiritual practices have always attached great importance to such challenges as dousing with cold water, for example. Otherwise, you can easily concentrate on a sexual object and by doing this dissolve your self - to what elimination of dualism could this possibly refer?

At this stage, try to live just by reason, not intuition...

At this stage, try to live just by reason, not intuition. Try to see the world as if you saw it for the first time. At the beginning, try to see people only as some amount of flesh and bones.

Looking from the Darkness behind You

There is another trick for beginners: sometimes instead of focusing on the point Seika no Itten or on the Animal, you may find it's easier to concentrate on your back, which will enable you to feel the whole body. That is, you can concentrate on your back and as a result be aware of the whole body.

This works especially well if you're doing the walking zazen: try to see the world from your back (from shoulder level to the tailbone) through the eye sockets - ie, try to see from the darkness behind you while pulling the road towards you with the legs. Remember, you can be fully aware of your body and of the outer world at the same time if and only if you feel like an immovable centre relative to which you move everything around (with the legs, for example.) Over time, in this way you'll learn to think with your body.

You Have to Get Used to This New Way of Looking at the World

So, you don't just walk but rotate the earth with the legs - now you perceive the world in a different way. This is a different, new point of view, and you have to get used to it. Do this exercise: as you start to rotate the earth, imagine that you're pursuing someone or being pursued - now the situation looks completely different for you, not like as if you walked like all 'normal' people (and I prefer to do this type of meditation in a deserted place.) Now you're changing the situation with the legs - try to figure out what I mean.

You have to get used to this new way of looking at the world. Accustomed, you'll learn to grasp the situation as a whole.