I first practiced walking meditation 20 years ago, as part of a zen community at the University at Buffalo. Zen people call it “kinhin” and, as is common in zen, people can get distracted by all of the “rules,” such as keeping your points of posture, where to put your arms, what to do when the bell dings. All that is learnable, if you care to know. But none of that should be a barrier to meditation. After all, we are just talking about walking.
HOW TO WALK AND MEDITATE
So, here’s my technique:
Stand tall, feet together, eyes forward, looking far ahead, with a decently good posture with your hands clasped behind your back or arms at your sides.
Step forward with one foot, and feel the entire soul of that foot make contact with the ground through your shoe.
Leave the trailing toe slightly touching the ground, so you have 90 percent of your weight on the front foot, and 10 percent on the back toe. You are kind of balancing on the well-planted front foot.
When your front and back foot are in place and all motion has stopped, inhale fully over a slow but comfortable span of time. Just fill your lungs.
Exhale over a slow but comfortable span. Just empty your lungs.
Only when your exhale is complete, slowly step forward with the back foot and repeat the whole process, taking care not to start your inhale too early nor take your next step before your exhale is complete.
If you make a “mistake,” forget about it and just take the next step. Nobody cares. And again, this is just walking and breathing.
PLACES TO TRY THIS
It’s true that you will look strange walking at an excruciatingly slow pace if you do this in a mall, or even a public park. Self consciousness inhibits meditation, so my recommendation is to try it walking the length of your living room, or the back yard.
I was recently in a park that had a pretty solitary path, so I tried there. And then again when I was by myself walking a rural neighborhood.
Basically, again, not overthinking it, just pick something ahead of you to walk to: the end of your hallway, one lap around the perimeter of a carpet, a tree at the end of a path, whatever. Distance doesn’t matter, and for me, I feel the effects of walking meditation even after 5 steps. I prefer to walk for longer, but you can work with your environment.
WHY DO THIS?
The human mind can be an uncontrolled immense universe that needs discipline. When’s the last time you showered? Hopefully you have a routine of cleaning your physical body. Meditation is like a shower for the brain. When’s the last time you cleaned your mind? It might be time to do some cleaning.
We walk and move through life with such a speed that we’re not really living life but just being lived. Slowing the walk and the breath down to what will initially seem like a snails pace will be jarring. But after a few steps, I find that a whole world opens. I notice blades of grass flicking that I wouldn’t walking at a normal pace. Slowing the breath means I can pick up all sorts of scents I normally don’t pay attention to. I actually can hear the world when I slow down. Birds, kids playing in the distance. A faint conversation, several blocks away.
Walking meditation can be an easy access point to the human feeling of awe. Awe is a sense of wonder at connectedness to the universe. Awe is a reaction to the profound physical and moral beauty in the universe. When we experience awe, we drop cynicism and suspicion, and become better people in an instant. We must cultivate awe to heal ourselves individually and socially.
When I resume normal walking, it feels like I am running. But at least when I go back to “normal” I know that I am missing universe upon universe that would exist in each step if I resumed paying attention again.
The honor is mine if you read this. Enjoy your next walk and let me know how it goes.
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