quote from william blake

To see the world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour.

Flower

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change ~Buddha

Walking

I think that walking is natural and healthy. With mindful walking we can have an experience that can be found no other way. Zen walking, can be any walking when we are mindful of everything. This 'everything' depends on our consciousness. Everything even includes nothing...the spaces inbetween the individual things. So how many individual things and nothings make everything? The more the merrier, in my opinion. But everything in it's totality is the zen experience.

Zen is often translated as meditation, but I'm not sure that zen is what the English word meditation means. But zen is being quiet and still...zen is living our connection to everything and interacting from this place of being.

We call this Nin-Gen-Kan-Sei (to be a human being...to be a complete human being...some say even, to be a perfect human being)...but isn't being human mean not being perfect? What is it that makes us human? What elements of us are reserved only for humans, and not other animals? But aren't we animals too? All of reality counts.

But zen is also a practice, a practice of being here and now...in this moment. And in this moment quiet and still, these questions fade away and we are left knowing what it is to be human. Sit, Stand, lay down, Walk...be in this moment only, fully, and completely...and know you are...

7 Principles of Zen

The 7 Principles of Zen are:
1. Fukinsei (Asymmetry)
2. Kanso (Simplicity)
3. Koko (Austerity)
4. Shizen (Naturalness)
5. Datsuzoku (Unworldliness)
6. Yugen (Subtlety or Mystery)
7. Seijaku (Silence)

A couple of the kanji used in these is quite interesting. Shi-Zen for instance is made of the kanji for self and to be, or being. Datsu-Zoku is to take off or strip off, and the other is vulgar or common. Sei-Jaku is is quiet and lonely.

Where did these come from? These ideas all eminate from the notion of Mujo (impermanence). Mujo is our realization that everything changes. We truely understand Mujo when we come face to face with our own mortality.

zazen - seated meditation

Although I am 'Zen Man Walking', I am a big believer in zazen (seated mediation). Afterall at Kanzeonji we follow shikantaza (just sitting) style of zen practice. I think it is best to have zazen has the fundamental practice, then from there find ways of extending this practice into our daily lives. Walking Zen can be a method to help us extend our sitting practice into our daily lives. Tai Chi, Yoga, Kyudo, and other similar practices can be a bridge between our walking practice and our daily activities as well.

But walking is so simple, so basic to our human condition of walking upright, that I really really like Walking Zen. There's nothing to learn, just walk. Of course, mindful...upright...walking is especially nice for bringing our sitting practice along with us.

It's healthy; take a walk around the block today...I did.

Walking around the block

One of my Buddhist teachers, is also my kyudo (japanese archery) teacher (Hirokazu Kosaka Sensei). He once told me that the only exercise you need is kyudo, that the movement, done properly, gives us both a resistance exercise with the bow and without the bow all of our chemicals move and our blood flows smoothly. but later I discovered that dispite this pronouncement he takes a daily walk around the block. I decided to copy this example and take a daily walk as well. It didn't take long to see the meditative mind can be used while walking to a great effect both in speed and efficiency of the walk. Though I hadn't started at the Zen Temple yet, I think this is when I became 'The Zen Man Walking'.

Zen is often thought of as just zazen (sitting meditation). It's thought that zen practitioners only sit. Indeed, Shikantaza (just sitting) is the style of Zen we practice at Kanzeonji in Mt. Washington California. But Master Dogen Zenji had told us that the experience of sitting must be experienced in our daily lives. Kinhin helps us do just that. It's a stepping stone from our sitting to our daily lives.

There is a term Gyo(u)ju-Za-Ga (Walking-Sitting-Lying Down). This means that no matter what we are doing we should do it mindfully; in this way we take our mindful sitting to our mindful lives. If we can live mindful lives, perhaps this will also help us live thoughtful lives as well.