Speed and distance

Kinhin (walking around, about: walking meditation; often done between bouts of seated meditation) can be done at a variety of speeds and various lengths of time, but it is always done mindfully. I've been to sesshin ('collecting the mind': intensive trainings) where we began slowly, but then increased the speed till we were almost running, and then decreased the speed until we we arrived back at our cushions to sit some more.

At our zendo in Mt. Washington we always take a slow pace for Kinhin. We are mindful of every change in pressure on our feet, mindful or our breath, and mindful or our heartbeat. Breathe in and step forward....left..... right, breathe out step forward... left.... right. In some zendo we've gone around the room 2 times, or three times; at our zendo we go around only once. We're in tune with eachother but we don't really 'try' to be. We're in tune with our own breath and heartbeat, and this is similar and tied to eveyone else's in the room, so we draw eachother around the room.

Many think the kinhin is a break from the sitting, and I suppose it can be. But more than that we are taking our sitting into walking, and this is practice for taking our sitting into our daily lives. Sitting alone, is never enough....we must interact in the world in a 'sitting' way, in a mindful way.

Of course, there are spiritual, philosophical, and mystical energies at work in Kinhin, but these are best discussed with your roshi when the two of you are ready.

Zen & Walking

There is a great history between Buddhism and Walking. The 'takuhatsu', carrying the bowl or begging rounds, could be up to 3 hours of walking door to door. 'Angya', going on foot or pilgrimages, are a tradition that also goes back to the beginning of Buddhism with the wandering medicants. Some traveled to follow the seasons, others to find another teacher to guide them on their way.

Also, in Zen we have Kinhin (kin = walking about, hin = around). We usually use this to mean the walk around the sitting area between zazen (za= to sit, zen=mediation). But we contrast this with Ruten (Ru=float, ten=circle) but ruten is floating aimlessly from life to life without ever finding the path from this circle of lives.

So Zen walking, though it has no goal, is not aimless.