Let's Die! :-)

Your goal is to see things as they really are - you'll solve all your problems by doing this.

There is an archetype, or let's say a point of view within, that if you look from it, you perceive reality correctly (and even become identical to it). It can be either the point Seika no Itten or the Opposite Point (on the spine exactly at this level of Seika no Itten.) Which of these two points it's better to choose depends on which one it's easier for you to find at the moment. From either of these points you can evaluate what's happening around.

Over time, you naturally come to the understanding that this new viewpoint is not compatible with your former immature self must die: this is an obligatory part of Zen practice, and as I understand, through this go even those who work with koans.

This technique will enable you to see the world as if for the first time without any emotional coloring. When doing the walking zazen, imagine that you're dead, and it's your spirit is travelling unnoticed (this exercise makes sense only if you feel like an immovable centre relative to which you're moving everything around with the legs.) How does everything around you look now? As for me, having a neurosis, I was glad to get rid of my former self; I really loved being dead! This is a curious experience, which some even confuse with enlightenment. Enlightenment comes later: having gone through all this, you should finally resurrect but in a new quality.

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; try to see people only as some amount of flesh and bones.

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.

The Walking Zazen: The Main Trick - Concentrating on the Outer World

 See also The Walking Zazen


It was the summer of 1995 in Sofia; it was already evening, and I was exhausted after spending the whole day in search of new clients. So I found a deserted place near an abandoned railway, right next to the Danone factory, and started to try to freshen myself up.

I began to walk along the rail, training balance, but since I did this unprofessional, looking at the rail about a meter in front of me, I could also see my legs. In this way I was walking for 20 or 30 minutes when I suddenly noticed an interesting thing: I already felt that it wasn't me moving on a immovable rail, but now the rail was moving toward me, ie, for me, I was immovable while the earth was moving relative to me. 'Actually, that's the correct perception of the world,' I said to myself. Thereafter, I knowingly started training this feeling, and I was right.

The Main Trick