In fast walking, the body is very active, but the mind is still. I say, "Don't think. Just walk, the faster the better." The feet should be moving quickly, with very short steps. If you walk single-mindedly, thinking of nothing else, eventually you forget who is walking. At that time you may wonder, "Who is walking?" So this technique uses fast movement to get the person to forget himself, or at least forget his body.

LH: Seven days under these circumstances, being silent, eating sparingly, sleeping sparingly, the periods of quiet and intense sitting, the self-massage and yoga, the miles of fast walking, the combination of the whole thing, all began to have an incredible effect. Shih-fu told me earlier there are many details about the retreat that I don't know about-subtle details, that one would have to go on many retreats to be aware of. After all, I'm a complete neophyte, having only been on one of these retreats. So I'm just giving you the most obvious kind of report about it.

There are subtleties within subtleties as to how Shih-fu guides people. One example was the evening lectures, which had a peculiar quality of stimulating everyone's practice in an unusual way. So after a whole day of trying hard perhaps with little success, Shih-fu told us, and we felt this too, that usually our best sitting would come after hearing the talk. Shih-fu, could you explain what's going on in those talks and what you are doing for people on those talks?

Shih-fu: