The Dead Man’s Answer Zen Story
- Dec 11, 2025
- 2 min read
Today we enter… The Dead Man’s Answer.
A story that cuts through cleverness, ambition, and spiritual performance.
It doesn’t comfort.
It exposes.
Let’s walk in, slowly, unguarded.
Let the Story Unfold
A student came to the Zen master and asked, “What is the way to liberation?”
The master replied, “Who is asking?”
The student said “I am.”
The master said, “If you can say ‘I am,’ you are not dead enough.”
The student was confused.
“Dead enough? What does that mean?”
The master said, “Only a dead man can answer.”
The student asked,“Then what is the answer?”
The master struck the floor with his staff and shouted, “This!”
Sit With the Meaning
This story isn’t about literal death.
It is about the death of the self you cling to.
The student wants liberation, but he wants it as the same “I” who grasps, seeks, defines, and narrates. Zen says that “I” cannot be liberated, because it is the source of the cage.
When the master says,
“If you can say ‘I am,’ you are not dead enough,
”he means:
The ego is still breathing.
The story of you is still trying to survive.
Liberation is not an achievement.
It is a disappearance.
Not literal.
But internal.
The death of the one who needs to be special.
The one who needs to be right.
The one who needs to perform awakening.
When the master hits the floor and shouts,
“This!”
he isn’t giving an answer. He is removing the questioner.
At that moment, the student can’t cling to a concept.
He can’t cling to meaning.
He can only meet the immediacy of sound and presence.
That instant, naked of identity, is the answer.
Turn Inward With Your Parts
Is there a part of you that clings to identity, roles, or stories to feel safe or significant?
What happens inside when you imagine loosening the grip on “I am this” or “I must be that”?
Which protector fears dissolving, disappearing, or losing control if the old self grows quiet?
Let Expression Rise
Choose the doorway that feels open:
IFS Journaling
Write from the part that says “I am.”
Let it share what it holds,
what it protects, and
why disappearing feels dangerous.
IFS Parts Art
Draw what “ego clinging” feels like in your system, a shape, a color, a pressure, a texture.
Then draw what “this!” feels like, the instant of pure presence without identity.
Somatic IFS
Sit or stand.
Let your body take the shape of “holding on”, shoulders tight, jaw set, chest guarded.
Stay for a few breaths.
Then exhale and let everything soften.
Feel the difference between the body that clings
and the body that releases.
And if none of these feel right… simply rest with the story.
Let the silence do the teaching.
Stay here with your parts as long as you like, and we’ll meet again in the next story.
Continue Exploring the Zen Stories
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