Walking Meditation: Taking a Complete Step

Before and after tea, we brought our attention to walking meditation or kinhin (Japanese). Walking meditation is often done between periods of sitting, and because of that is sometimes seen as a kind of stretch break. But that misses a vital point of why we meditate at all: to be present in our life, all of it, just as it is. The Zen Master Anzan Hoshin wrote this:

...kinhin means to feel a step when taking a step, in other words, to take a complete step...It is not mindfulness of walking, stepping, or even of a step. It is mindfulness of this step, and this step, and this step.

After a few sessions of practicing, the general consensus was that slowing our walking meditation down made for a deeper and more mindful practice.

PS. Walking really is falling and then catching yourself!

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