Hey,
This is Ish and today I wanted to talk to you about the importance of walking meditation or adding some sort of movement in your meditation practice So oftentimes when we think of meditation,
We just think of some monk sitting in a cave Sitting still and not moving at all.
And this is actually not true at all when you look at certain spiritual disciplines So in yoga for instance you have the asanas which you commonly see in yoga classes where you do different poses and in the Zen tradition you have something which is called Kinhin,
Which means walking meditation and Walking some sort of movement in your spiritual discipline is actually very important for a couple of different reasons So let me start off by talking about the Zen side of things So I've been recently reading a book by Omoro Sogen called the introduction to Zen training And this is what he had to say about Kinhin or the walking meditation By getting to our feet and walking in Kinhin while we are one with the koan Which is the phrase that you say or if you're just sitting in meditation We discipline ourselves to realize the oneness of tranquility and movement So that we may not be controlled and upset by our environment in our everyday life If we can understand this well,
We will not take Kinhin lightly So basically what this means is that when you're in movement you want to bring that same spiritual effort that you're taking in your sitting and Translate it over so you'll typically find that if you can literally learn how to master meditating in movement so bringing the same kind of awareness in your meditation sitting to your daily activities and Especially walking you'll find that that actually translates over to your daily life so Just for me personally.
I For when I first started off meditation practice,
I would just sit in a corner and meditate and that was it I didn't incorporate any kind of movement but once I actually started going to a Zendo and actually learning the correct way to do it in a Zen style I was introduced to Kinhin which is a walking meditation And I found that typically once after I had learned how to do the walking meditation That the effects of my meditation practice.
So how how calm I felt and how Relaxed I felt actually translated over into my daily life and something cool that really happened Was that the same effects of my meditation practice would just naturally just kick in When I'm about doing about different chores or tasks So for instance if I was doing groceries and I'm just walking around the same kind of awareness that I felt just doing my walking Meditation kind of just kicked in and I was in in the flow so Kinhin is very important in the aspect of Bringing that awareness into your daily life and something you should kind of incorporate in your practice So in terms of actually Using Kinhin or any kind of walking meditation in your practice.
I recommend if you're sitting for a one hour session What I typically recommend is meditating 25 minutes for a seated meditation for 25 minutes and then doing a 10 minute Kinhin or walking meditation and then Also finishing it off with another 25 minutes sitting after you're done with a 10 minute walking meditation so it's 25 minutes of sitting 10 minutes of walking and then 25 minutes of sitting and Typically,
You'll find that when you incorporate the walking meditation.
You also Invigorate it and you kind of get blood flowing And into your limbs and this will help you stay alert in your meditation practice And if you've ever noticed personally that when you sit for a long periods of time you kind of just doze off or you kind of get sleepy Doing a Kinhin a vigorous Kinhin exercise can really help and invigorating you So I hope this topic helps and I really urge you to start Incorporating walking meditation in your practice.
Thank you.
