Walking Meditation
At a Zen center or monastery, when you sit two or more periods of zazen in a row, the periods of sitting meditation are separated by brief periods of walking meditation or kinhin.
Kinhin serves at least two important purposes. First, it gives you a chance to stretch your legs and move around between sitting periods. Second, it is a way to take the awareness being developed in zazen—in still, silent sitting—and extend it into a slightly more complicated activity: walking. The movements of the body, the changing scenery as you walk, the sounds of walking, and so forth, can stir up more thoughts, so it can be more challenging in walking meditation than in sitting meditation to notice thoughts and return the attention to the present moment.
The spine and head are held upright as in zazen. The gaze is lowered, though not unfocused. A special hand position is used. Make a fist with your left hand, with the fingers wrapped around the thumb. Put the fist up against your body, about at the waist, with the thumb pointing down, and cover the front of the fist with your right hand. Let your elbows fall naturally at your sides. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki says of this hand position that “you feel as if you have some round pillar in your grasp—a big round temple pillar—so you cannot be slumped or tilted to the side.”
Kinhin is traditionally done clockwise around the room. In the Soto sect of Zen, you take one small step with each full cycle of the breath, moving continuously but very slowly. In the Rinzai sect of Zen, you walk briskly. If you’re doing walking meditation on your own in a small space, you’ll probably want to walk slowly.
In zazen, you notice your breathing and your thoughts. In kinhin, you notice your walking and your thoughts. Feel the physical sensations of walking. Feel your feet on the floor. Feel the movement of your legs. Feel your clothing brush against your legs. Feel the sensations as you lift one foot, move it forward, put it down, and shift your weight to it. When you realize that you are no longer attending to the walking, notice the thought and gently return your attention to walking.
You can do walking meditation anytime you’re walking. You don’t need to walk in clockwise circles or put your hands in any special position. Just notice your thoughts and return your attention to the walking, over and over and over. And if you’re walking near traffic, raise your gaze!
The Essentials of Walking Meditation
•As you walk, be aware of the physical sensations of each step.
•When you realize that your attention has wandered away from walking, notice the thought and gently return your attention to walking.
Notice the thought,
return to walking,
notice the thought,
return to walking,
notice the thought,
return to walking . . .