S: Is walking part of your practice?
K: I’m doan, so Saturday is when I do kinhin. But I also walk every morning with my neighbor. My father said you should never have a walking partner because that ties you down. But he must have done his way of contemplation when he walked. He walked maybe 3 hours a day.
S: Wow! That’s a lot.
K: He would meet people he knew and he would talk to them, and then he would continue with his walking. It was a private thing for him. Even though he walked in a little town, on the coast.
S: In sesshins when I had problems with my back, my teacher would have me go out and walk on a walkway. He said it’s not to be looking at the flowers, just be aware of your walking. It was a pretty rapid pace and the walkway was real rough, so you had to be careful or you’d end up with a splinter in your toe. That consolidated walking in me. Sometimes when I’m walking, I feel like I’m going to the same place as when I was walking in the garden up there.
That kind of walking, it’s not, now my heel is doing this and my arch is doing this and the ball of my foot is doing this, it’s not that kind of close concentration, but it’s being present when I walk.
K: This last weekend I was doing a sesshin with some prisoners in Bastrop, and I told them Reb Anderson’s comment about walking, “You should walk on the earth as if it were your mother’s face.” Then I looked at them and I said, “That’s assuming you like your mother.”
When we started walking, there was a Christian class next door and the guy was telling how everything you needed to know about life was in the Bible, and you could hear every word he was saying. I wanted them to be able to concentrate more on their walking, so I told them that they should create a mantra for each step. I said that for the left foot it could be “Now I step on the earth.” And for the right it could be “Now I step on the sky.” Now I step on the earth. Now I step on the sky. I tried that a couple of hours ago on the sidewalk, and I noticed that the sky step was a lot lighter than the earth step.
About Kim Mosley | Sarah Webb
Please enjoy your walking...
(Edward Espe Brown)
Please enjoy your walking,
the sensations, your breath,
the fresh air—step by step—
"Inhaling … calm … body
Exhaling … joyful … smile"
Having a slight smile for
someone who is angry,
someone who is scared,
someone who can't smile.
Blessings,
Edward
the sensations, your breath,
the fresh air—step by step—
"Inhaling … calm … body
Exhaling … joyful … smile"
Having a slight smile for
someone who is angry,
someone who is scared,
someone who can't smile.
Blessings,
Edward
About Edward Espe Brown
Stepping into Now
(Krishna Bhattacharyya)
Naked foot on flat, smooth misshapen rock
That is, rock with thin green moss-layer
One slowly, carefully down, then another
That’s cool
Heel mashes onto miniscule caviar-like orbs, green
Carefully, quietly, moving undetected
Soon there are hundreds of rocks, pebbles
Foot comes down toes first, then arch, then body, lastly, heel
Onto smooth, rough, sharp, varied textures
Reflexology at its natural best
Poking here, prodding or pushing there, sometimes giving way
Semi-soft leaves
A slight relief
Proud
Brown flakes compact ‘neath the weight
Gravity the helper
Some
Places wet, others, dry
Here, a sun-drenched spot
Nothing wrong with brown warmth
Somewhat comforting
Here a shadow, there a shadow
Today I prefer the sun
There, the bell is rung
Another sitting has begun
k.b. 3/31/07 Mindfulness Day Retreat-UU
About Krishna Bhattacharyya
That is, rock with thin green moss-layer
One slowly, carefully down, then another
That’s cool
Heel mashes onto miniscule caviar-like orbs, green
Carefully, quietly, moving undetected
Soon there are hundreds of rocks, pebbles
Foot comes down toes first, then arch, then body, lastly, heel
Onto smooth, rough, sharp, varied textures
Reflexology at its natural best
Poking here, prodding or pushing there, sometimes giving way
Semi-soft leaves
A slight relief
Proud
Brown flakes compact ‘neath the weight
Gravity the helper
Some
Places wet, others, dry
Here, a sun-drenched spot
Nothing wrong with brown warmth
Somewhat comforting
Here a shadow, there a shadow
Today I prefer the sun
There, the bell is rung
Another sitting has begun
k.b. 3/31/07 Mindfulness Day Retreat-UU
About Krishna Bhattacharyya
Homage to Sosan
(Xianyang Carl Jerome)
Walking
meditation
is
much
better
than
sitting
meditation
at
showing
me
my
preferences.
And
The
Great
Way
is
of
course
the
Way
with-
out
preferences.
Which is
why
I
so
love
and
hate
walking
meditation.
About Xianyang Carl Jerome
meditation
is
much
better
than
sitting
meditation
at
showing
me
my
preferences.
And
The
Great
Way
is
of
course
the
Way
with-
out
preferences.
Which is
why
I
so
love
and
hate
walking
meditation.
Stepping Off
(Pat Yingst)
I have always loved our slow kinhin walking. But it took on a new meaning for me several years ago when my Rinzai teacher gave me the koan “How do you take the next step off a 100-foot pole?” I found our Kinhin practice to be very helpful in my working on this koan. Each step taken in concert with the outbreath and with a temporary dissolving of thought became, in my mind, a step off the pole. Sometime I could even imagine the void beneath my lifted foot.
In one way of looking at it, each step is a step into the future—the great unknown. I protect myself from facing this great scary unknown by presuming to know it; I dream that my routine, my plans, my expectations are all true and immutable and that I will get in my car after zazen and proceed to my job or whatever activity I have designed for myself. And nearly all the time my prediction comes true. And so it continues—one predictable day to the next. How safe I am!
I protect myself from fear of the unknown—from jumping off that pole. But If I could drop all this KNOWING what is going to happen next— then I really would be stepping off the pole with every step and with every breath. I might still go to my job after zazen, but there would be freshness and gratitude in the experiencing of it. How exhilarating!
About Pat Yingst
In one way of looking at it, each step is a step into the future—the great unknown. I protect myself from facing this great scary unknown by presuming to know it; I dream that my routine, my plans, my expectations are all true and immutable and that I will get in my car after zazen and proceed to my job or whatever activity I have designed for myself. And nearly all the time my prediction comes true. And so it continues—one predictable day to the next. How safe I am!
I protect myself from fear of the unknown—from jumping off that pole. But If I could drop all this KNOWING what is going to happen next— then I really would be stepping off the pole with every step and with every breath. I might still go to my job after zazen, but there would be freshness and gratitude in the experiencing of it. How exhilarating!
About Pat Yingst
Introduction II: Walking the Path
(Kim Mosley and Sarah Webb)
S: There’s something about walking that connects to the earth. You’re not so much up in your head. You’re down in your feet. You’re down on the pathway. You’re getting connected to your body and your passage through whatever you’re walking with, or you’re walking on.
K: I love the idea that we’re feeling the earth. When my daughter got married this last weekend, the judge who did the service asked me, who supports this marriage? I thought, it wasn’t just people—it was everything. In the same way we can walk on the earth as if we are the most important thing and the earth is just this receptacle, or we can walk as equal partner, or we can walk as if the earth is the most important thing, kind of like a Chinese landscape painting and we’re just getting a favor from it for a short time
S: Like a blessing or a gift.
K: Yeah.
S: Something that struck me when you were talking about the wedding is that walking is part of the ceremony. People walk down the aisle. They walk out of the church. Walking is a sacred element of the marriage ceremony. Also there have been times when people circumambulate something that’s sacred. Walking—it’s not just in Zen—but walking is a sacred act.
K: I love the idea that we’re feeling the earth. When my daughter got married this last weekend, the judge who did the service asked me, who supports this marriage? I thought, it wasn’t just people—it was everything. In the same way we can walk on the earth as if we are the most important thing and the earth is just this receptacle, or we can walk as equal partner, or we can walk as if the earth is the most important thing, kind of like a Chinese landscape painting and we’re just getting a favor from it for a short time
S: Like a blessing or a gift.
K: Yeah.
S: Something that struck me when you were talking about the wedding is that walking is part of the ceremony. People walk down the aisle. They walk out of the church. Walking is a sacred element of the marriage ceremony. Also there have been times when people circumambulate something that’s sacred. Walking—it’s not just in Zen—but walking is a sacred act.
Every Moment
(Kathy Goodwin)
Every moment of every day, every person we meet, is an opportunity to walk the path. How do I remember to remember this?
About Kathy Goodwin
About Kathy Goodwin
Three Blind Men
(Kim Mosley)
I drove by three blind
men walking down the
street. One had a white
cane. They held onto each
other 4 dear life.
men walking down the
street. One had a white
cane. They held onto each
other 4 dear life.
About Kim Mosley
Gardening
(Ronnie Gaubatz)
I spent some quality time in my garden this morning. My garden is not so much a place to do, but a place to think. I thought about the flowers as I prune them back, trimming off the dead ones so new buds might bloom. It seems a shame to cut off a flower just after it blooms. With a good dose of guilt, I added some weed killer to my soil. I seriously dislike the idea of a weed killer, but I truly hate weeds. I offered my apologies to the environment. Yesterday, I added some cancer killer, round three hundred it seems of chemotherapy, to my body. I hate cancer even more than I hate weeds.
As I water the flowers, I think of the trail of tears that seem to be following me lately. I am blessed with a number of concerned friends who cry for me since this latest season of cancer in bloom. If only tears shed could bring new life the way this garden hose will do for my plants. I both comfort and take comfort in my worried friends. I tell them it’s okay. I remind myself that we are all going through this together. I assure them, and myself, that I’ll fight this time just like I did all the other times before. This is my path, mine and everyone on it with me, my friends, my family, my dear children. I’ll walk it with dignity, courage and hope.
The morning pours on and I weed, I water, I weep and I worry. I pray for strength. I pray for my girls. I give thanks for flowers and friends that cry. After a while, thoughts of errands to run and what’s for dinner interrupt me, and I gather up the cold coffee I forgot to drink when I came down here and the gardening tools and head on up the yard to the rest of the things I’d like to do today. I leave all the sad and sometimes scary thoughts back there in the garden, lying in the warm soil next to the spent buds I had cut back -all of it, just compost.
This is my beautiful path.
May 20, 2011
About Ronnie Gaubatz
As I water the flowers, I think of the trail of tears that seem to be following me lately. I am blessed with a number of concerned friends who cry for me since this latest season of cancer in bloom. If only tears shed could bring new life the way this garden hose will do for my plants. I both comfort and take comfort in my worried friends. I tell them it’s okay. I remind myself that we are all going through this together. I assure them, and myself, that I’ll fight this time just like I did all the other times before. This is my path, mine and everyone on it with me, my friends, my family, my dear children. I’ll walk it with dignity, courage and hope.
The morning pours on and I weed, I water, I weep and I worry. I pray for strength. I pray for my girls. I give thanks for flowers and friends that cry. After a while, thoughts of errands to run and what’s for dinner interrupt me, and I gather up the cold coffee I forgot to drink when I came down here and the gardening tools and head on up the yard to the rest of the things I’d like to do today. I leave all the sad and sometimes scary thoughts back there in the garden, lying in the warm soil next to the spent buds I had cut back -all of it, just compost.
This is my beautiful path.
May 20, 2011
About Ronnie Gaubatz
Active Thought
(Robert Genn)
The mentally challenging nature of artistic activity may help avoid the inconvenience of early senility. I don't know about you, but a steady diet of crossword puzzles to tune up the mind just doesn't cut it for me. I've got enough mind-benders with my painting.
On the other hand, there's the sedentary nature of our business. Long hours sitting at an easel can be as dangerous as computer work or couch TV. Recent studies by James Levine, a medical researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, have surprised and shocked the conventional wisdom. Specifically aimed at understanding the sources of obesity, sensors placed on the bodies of a wide range of folks with similar diets found that those who moved around more and, most important, stood a lot, tended to stay trim and fit. Levine figures we have to stop thinking of food as the source of fatness and begin to understand that it's inertia that does us in.
People who move around, even nervously, and stand rather than sit, also reap creative benefits. According to Levine, even really bad habits can be somewhat neutralized by sheer movement.
On the other hand, there's the sedentary nature of our business. Long hours sitting at an easel can be as dangerous as computer work or couch TV. Recent studies by James Levine, a medical researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, have surprised and shocked the conventional wisdom. Specifically aimed at understanding the sources of obesity, sensors placed on the bodies of a wide range of folks with similar diets found that those who moved around more and, most important, stood a lot, tended to stay trim and fit. Levine figures we have to stop thinking of food as the source of fatness and begin to understand that it's inertia that does us in.
People who move around, even nervously, and stand rather than sit, also reap creative benefits. According to Levine, even really bad habits can be somewhat neutralized by sheer movement.
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