Learn the backward step.

They call it a poly crisis. A confluence of existential threats that is actuating around us and within us. Instead of calling it a crisis, refer to it as a collapse.

World population overshoot.
Over-consumption of (and addiction to) algorithm driven social media content.
The failed experiment that is capitalism.
The foreboding uncertainty of Artificial General Intelligence.
An accelerating extinction of animal species.
Political shifts to authoritarianism, fascism and elite-centric governance.
Loss of authentic contemplative, mystical, spiritual, or religious experience.
Global climate destabilisation.
Shifts in unconstrained power to the uber-wealthy and corporate behemoths.
The en-shitification and en-dumbification of our social structures and relationships.

This all leads to an overwhelming dysphoria, and a feeling of being impotent to stop or even divert this tsunami of badness.

I am no different here. I do not have any answers. I am a numpty. Yet I have a strong feeling the most important thing at this time (as Dogen Zenji, founder of Zen in Japan in the 13 century advised), is to:

You should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly.”
Dogen

Take the backwards step that turns your light inwardly. What is that backwards step? For each of us it might be something different.

But there is a sense of making an effort in ways that are not of the thinking mind… and moving in a non-conventional direction. There is a sense of light and of inner illumination and of not seeking deep solace from the other.

Learning the backward step requires commitment and effort.

Hmmmm.

How could this sort of vague, contemplative, esoteric not-really-saying-anything stuff possibly make any impact on the impending collapse?

Wouldn’t you prefer a bullet-point list?
Some tips on recycling? The dates for the next protest march? A prepper manual? A list of social media influencers to follow? Some decent feel-good distractions? A gym program?
SOMETHING CONCRETE I SHOULD DO FOR CRIPES SAKES!

Nope, I got nothing.
Learn the backward step.

Fediverse reactions

Ian Miller

August 14, 2025

Only Words

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2 responses to “Learn the backward step.”

The Dink

August 19, 2025 at 5:32 am

You’ve captured something essential with clarity—the world collapsing around us only highlights how much we depend on hope from outside. The Zen instruction to “learn the backward step that turns your light inward” isn’t escapism—it’s revolution. When thinking fails, that inward return becomes the anchor. It might be vague in words, but it’s deeply concrete in presence.

It reminds me of something I wrote:

“Sometimes the richest joy is found in water, mud, and an unhurried step.”
(The Aligning Power of a Good Rain Walk)

That kind of simple, grounded resonance—that isn’t lost in collapse—it becomes more vital. Thank you for stopping the race just long enough to show us the only real move.

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The Dink

August 19, 2025 at 4:04 am

There’s an almost absurd clarity in how you reframe our era—not as a “crisis,” but as a collapse coursing through every atom of society, interior and exterior. The relentless pull of population overshoot, social collapse, climate unraveling—it’s easier to numb than to face. And yet: “learn the backward step” isn’t denial. It’s an anti-entropy maneuver.

There’s something radical in Dogen’s advice—to stop trusting just thought, and instead turn your light inward. That isn’t passive retreat. It’s the seed of coherence. The non-conscious work you do in stillness may be less sexy than protest hashtags or bullet lists—but if collapse is spreading, then inner clarity might be the ground we need to root in.

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