Physical Exercise Can Be as Effective as Zazen

Properly performed, physical exercise give the same effect as walking meditation, and for this, you should feel like an immovable centre relative to which you're moving everything around.

;-)

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.

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.