Walking practice

The teaching

As the Buddhist walking path, Zen kinhin and the walking of Thich Nhat Hanh teaches it.

The walking path

The old monasteries laid out a straight path for walking, long enough for a few dozen steps, level and clear, and the monk walked it to and fro, mindful from one end to the other. The early texts count walking as one of four postures, with standing, sitting and lying down, in which attention is kept, and they treat all four as equal. Walking is not a rest from practice. It is the same practice with the body moving.

A path of ten to twenty paces, indoors or in a quiet garden away from traffic, is all that is needed. The walker stands at one end for a breath, feeling the weight in both feet, and sets out with the eyes lowered to the ground a few paces ahead, not looking about, the hands held loosely in front or behind.

Noting the step

The Burmese teachers of insight in the school of Mahasi Sayadaw divide the step and name each part silently as it happens. A beginner notes only left and right with each step. Then two parts: lifting and placing. Then three: lifting as the heel and foot rise, moving as the foot swings forward, placing as it touches down. Later the step is divided more finely still, until the walker notices even the intention to lift before the foot moves.

The words are short and quiet, and they come with the movement, not before it or after it. What is attended to is the feel of the step itself: the lightness of the rising foot, the swing, the pressure as the heel meets the ground and the sole rolls down, the weight passing from one leg to the other. At the end of the path the walker notes standing, then the wish to turn, then turning, then standing again, and sets off back.

Kinhin in the Zen hall

Zen calls its walking kinhin and sets it between periods of seated zazen. The hands are held at the chest: the left hand closed around its thumb, the right hand wrapped over it, the forearms level. The back is upright as in sitting, and the eyes are lowered.

In the Soto school the walk is very slow. With each full breath the walker advances only half the length of a foot, so that the line of walkers seems hardly to move: one breath, one half step. In the Rinzai school kinhin is brisk, almost a stride around the hall. Both keep the mind as it was on the cushion, and both end with a silent return to the seat.

Thich Nhat Hanh's way

The Vietnamese teacher joins the steps to the breath. The walker breathes in and counts the steps that fit into the in-breath, perhaps two, and breathes out and counts the steps that fit into the out-breath, perhaps three, without changing the breath to suit the count: the steps follow the lungs. Words may ride on the steps, such as I have arrived on the in-breath and I am home on the out-breath, meaning that there is nowhere else to get to.

He asks for the walk to be made with a half smile and with care for the ground, as if the feet were kissing the earth, and for it to be made everywhere: from the car to the door, from the kitchen to the table, so that ordinary walking becomes the practice.

What the walker attends to

Whatever the school, the attention rests in the feet and legs, where the walking is actually felt. The eyes see the path but do not take up the sights; the ears hear but do not follow the sounds. When the mind wanders, as it will, the walker notices where it went, stops if need be, feels both feet on the ground, and starts again with the next step.

Slowness is a help but not a rule. The slower the step, the finer what can be felt, but on a restless day a brisk walk with the attention in the soles is better than a slow one fought for. Walking suits the times when sitting does not: after a meal, when the body is restless, when sitting brings sleep, or when stillness stirs too much. Among the Buddha's counsels to a disciple overcome by drowsiness is to get up and walk to and fro, with the senses turned inwards.

The labyrinth

Christians walk their prayer too, and the labyrinth gives it a shape. Unlike a maze it has one path only, with no wrong turns: it winds inward to the centre, and the same path leads back out. Those who walk it today often speak of three parts. On the way in, what is carried is let go. At the centre, the walker stands or sits to receive. On the way out, they go back to ordinary life with what was given. The pace is the walker's own, others are passed gently, and the path does the guiding.

Length, place and the signs to stop

Five to ten minutes is a full walk for a beginner, and longer is fine once it is easy. Choose a level path, with no traffic, steps or edges, in good light. Slow walking can unsettle the balance: anyone unsteady on their feet walks near a wall or a rail, keeps to an ordinary pace, or uses a stick. If slow walking brings dizziness, walk at the ordinary pace or sit down.

For anyone who cannot walk, the same attention can rest on the feet while seated, lifting and placing each foot a little in turn. Outdoors the eyes stay open to the way ahead: the practice never asks anyone to stop watching where they are going.