Walking as a path

Early Buddhism — Satipaṭṭhāna

The oldest form. The Buddha walked a straight path back and forth; the Satipaṭṭhāna teaching names walking explicitly as a posture for mindfulness — ‘walking, he knows that he is walking’. Walking itself is the only object, with nothing added.

In practiceWalk a straight path of some twenty paces slowly back and forth; follow the lifting, moving and placing of each foot.

Zen — between two sittings

Between periods of sitting, to carry the meditative mind along. In Sōtō extremely slow — half a foot-length per out-breath; in Rinzai brisk instead. The hands held in shashu against the chest. No destination but the place where you stand.

In practiceWith each out-breath, take half a foot-length; the place you are then is, each time, the only place in the universe.

Plum Village — Thich Nhat Hanh

‘Walking without arriving’, Thich Nhat Hanh called it: not heading somewhere, but the going as the aim. A short verse (gāthā) is laid upon the steps, and the foot ‘kisses the earth’. The miracle, he wrote, is not to walk on water but on the green earth.

In practiceBreathe in over a few steps with ‘I have arrived’; breathe out over the next with ‘I am home’.

É. Stiegler, 1980s

Stiegler watched Afghan caravan porters cover hundreds of kilometres without exhaustion, breathing only through the nose. He distilled it into a rhythm that couples step and breath, adaptable to flat ground, climb or descent.

In practiceBase rhythm 3-1-3-1: in over three steps, one step holding full, out over three steps, one step empty — all through the nose.

Edo Japan — bushi and farmers

Arm and leg on the same side move together, without twisting the torso. Small, gliding steps, with the power coming from the pelvis and sacrum rather than the muscles. Economical and stable — made for uneven, natural terrain.

In practiceKeep the torso still; move the right arm with the right leg, the left with the left, and keep the feet low to the ground.

Tendai — Mount Hiei

The ‘marathon monks’: up to a thousand days over seven years, in a white burial robe, with rope and knife as reminders of the stakes. Yet the aim is not the walking, but going on foot from shrine to shrine — and seeing the buddha-nature in mountain, river, grass and tree.

In practiceWalk not to get somewhere, but to greet what you pass along the way.

Daoism / baguazhang

An age-old Daoist practice, ‘turning in reverence of heaven’: walking in circles to bring qi and mind to inner stillness through outer movement. In baguazhang one walks the eight trigrams, and so the steady change of nature.

In practiceWalk a slow circle with your gaze turned toward the centre; change direction regularly.

Taijiquan

In the taiji walk every step is a slow transition from full to empty: the weight sinks fully into one leg (full) before the other releases (empty). Attention rests in the dantian, below the navel; the torso stays vertical and relaxed.

In practiceShift the weight completely before you lift the other foot; feel the change from full to empty.

Hinduism / Buddhism

Not toward something, but around it — a temple, a stupa, a mountain (Arunachala, Kailash), the sacred always kept on the right hand. The centre is thus held closer than arriving could ever allow.

In practiceChoose a tree, a stone, a centre; walk slowly and attentively around it.

Islam — the hajj

Seven circuits around the Ka'ba form the heart of the pilgrimage, followed by the sa'y, the going between Ṣafā and Marwa. Here the walking is no preparation for the rite — it is the rite.

In practiceWhat would it be if the walking itself were the worship, and not the road toward it?

Christian pilgrimage, 9th century

The Way of St James, walked since the 9th century to his tomb in Compostela; the pilgrim wears the shell, and sometimes goes on to Finisterre, ‘the end of the earth’. Research on returnees points to lasting shifts: more connectedness, less attachment to the material.

In practiceA long road changes the walker long before arrival — notice along the way what falls away.

Chartres, early 13th century

One winding path to the centre and back, laid into the cathedral floor — a pilgrimage held within a few square metres. Getting lost is impossible; there is only the trust that the path carries you.

In practiceFollow the turns without looking ahead; the detour is the route.

J. Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti walked daily and noted his observations of nature (collected as ‘All the Marvelous Earth’). For him meditation was no method or technique, but a choiceless awareness — one that can just as well arise while walking in a wood full of light and shadow.

In practiceNo exercise, no goal — only looking, without naming the things.

Robert Chuckrow, Tai Chi Walking (2002)

The physicist and taiji practitioner Chuckrow — a student of Cheng Man-ch'ing — brings the taiji principles from the form back to everyday walking: because walking is so natural, it can be refined until it becomes meditation and spares the body. No performance or fat-burning, but a soft landing of the foot, an upright posture and movement that departs from the centre — the bridge between the formal exercise and every step of the day.

In practiceTake a stretch of your daily route and walk it a little slower: let the foot land softly and roll, the crown lightly up, the shoulders loose — and notice how natural walking becomes practice.

Aikidō and iaijutsu

The gliding footwork of the swordsman: the feet keep contact with the ground and each shift stays short and dynamic. One moves from the centre (hara) forward or back, the weight on the ball of the foot and the heel just lifted — ready to spring. In aikidō one stands in hanmi (半身), the body narrow and half-turned, and switches from left to right — hidari, migi, hidari — while the entering movement (入身, irimi) is kept throughout.

In practiceSlide a few steps forward without lifting the feet, the weight on the ball of the foot and the heel just raised; move from the centre and stay alert and balanced with each step.

across the traditions

Walking in silence is, in nearly every form, the carrier. The silence outside is no emptiness but a space, in which what was otherwise drowned out becomes audible — including the unrest within.

In practiceLet the conversation fall away and listen to what the silence releases.

environmental psychology / shinrin-yoku

Attention restoration theory distinguishes the effortful, directed attention from the ‘soft fascination’ with which one effortlessly notices leaves, light and water — and which lets the exhausted attention system recover. Japanese research on shinrin-yoku measured lower cortisol and higher immune activity.

In practiceLet the gaze find rather than search; give attention nothing to achieve.

Afghan walk · kinhin · gāthā

Coupling step and breath recurs in many forms — the Afghan count, the Zen step on the out-breath, the Plum Village verse. A measure the mind need not regulate, one the body carries of itself.

In practiceLet the breath find the pace, not the other way around.

Thich Nhat Hanh / ‘earthing’

‘Kiss the earth with your feet’, wrote Thich Nhat Hanh. With each step a brief contact and a letting go again; the weight that trusts the ground. Walking barefoot is associated with relaxation and better circulation.

In practiceFeel, in turn, the heel, the ball and the toes touch the ground.

J. Krishnamurti / the sangha

Krishnamurti described his relation to the listener as ‘two friends walking down a lane together’ — not teacher and follower. Side by side, facing the same way, a conversation arises that sitting opposite one another withholds.

In practiceWalk beside someone without looking at each other, and notice what allows itself to be said more easily.

the Peripatetics · Nietzsche · Thoreau

From Aristotle’s Lyceum to Nietzsche (‘all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking’), Rousseau and Thoreau runs a long Western line in which the body that walks loosens the mind. Less meditation than thinking-while-walking — but kindred.

In practiceTake an unresolved question with you and let the walking chew on it.

Plum Village / Daoism

‘Wishlessness’, Buddhism calls it: placing nothing before you to chase after, for everything is already here. The baguazhang circle goes nowhere; the walk without destination knows no lack.

In practiceWalk a round in which arriving plays no part at all — there is nothing to attain.

Zen

After sitting, the ordinary walk. In Zen, kinhin is the bridge back to the everyday: the attention of the meditation hall is carried outside. The practice shows itself not on the cushion, but in the first steps after it — when that same attention carries ordinary walking.

In practiceTake the quality of attentive walking into the first hundred steps of your ordinary day.