Zen Walking Meditation!

⏱︎

Read time:

1–2 minutes
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]

There is an Innate Kindness associated with Mindful Walking. I notice that the present moment is artful if I am not walking to or from somewhere. There is a palpable absence of any struggle with breathing, or with the movement of my body, or difficult emotions to “overcome.” Thich Nhat Hanh refers to the shift of attention from the “one” that is breathing to the simple and graceful act of breathing, just mindfully taking a breath. I invite surrendering our idea of self to that pure light of awareness. It is like looking at a flower and allowing it to be as it is. It is a simple acknowledgment of what we feel in the moment, not an idea of what we thought we felt.

Rooted in an undivided Self is knowing that we, and the people we share a sacred circle with, are all here to Wake Up and realize that we are here to live lives of service. Zen Meditation and Shamanic Journeying are examples of accumulating Power to Surrender to Now. Mindful walking, breathing, and accepting how we can better serve in this moment are critical to allowing the flower of life to blossom. The more I surrender to undivided attention in the present moment, the more I realize its flowering presence is palpable in bloom. That grows into an appreciation for what the new day has brought us. Breathe it in; remember that you must be here and present to live your divinity. Post what you discovered on your walks to and from nowhere!!

Please take a walk with me, and I will find a way for you to surrender to our shared Divinity and the knowing that we are in this together! A group of us has to meet via Zoom for a few hours to discuss… JUMP.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Share

Categories:

Written By:

Keshav Howe

12 responses to “Zen Walking Meditation!”

  1. Pete

    Hallway Walk (Keshav April 4, 2024)

    Hallway Walks at home are in a tiny hall with an L, maybe 15 ft long serving side rooms. Eyes ahead with tiny shuffling steps. Swaying left and right, pant legs swishing, slow tic-toc, steps like R2D2, like a bobber on water riding low swells, with muffled thumps of foot advances.

    Then slow walks go outdoors alongside the house in a modest walled bower full of trees, large blooming flowers, bushes, vines and grasses of the high desert and mountain foothills here. The bower is 12 ft by 60 ft, swallowed by surging plant life hugging a walkway. Plants are friends we brought from elsewhere years ago and nurtured, and now they are robust and in their element.

    Walks last 5-20 minutes, barely moving. They seem not about starting or ending somewhere. They’re about going without really moving and without time. That is, with time perceived as greatly slowing or vanishing. Walks feel expansive, brimming with lengthy rich experience, and without event markers. Checking a clock at the ends shows the small time intervals expended. The mind empties, and space kind of merges with self, as if I’m enmeshed with all of it rather than scarcely noticing these places/things in passing when I’m intent on tasks.

    These little worlds start to lose their objectness. Walks offer tiny shifts of visual parallax and tiny motions with steps, yet scenes flatten or meld with fading identification of things. Objects seem to subside. Dimensionality seems to change. Boundaries and areas of scenery within rooms or outdoor views seem to link up in unexpected ways, like an Escher drawing. I feel outdoor plants watching me, like travelers or family, not the objects of yard tending.

    Life is so rich and perhaps becomes art with focused awareness and intention. Scenery becomes not-scenery, then just is, without names or histories. What does this looking and hearing become? What does observing mean? There’s no evaluation nor judgment. In these experiences, there’s acceptance and a sense of being absorbed into existence rather than living in mind. Like merging into a singular mushrooming present, or collection of such moments.

    Going for a Walk (Keshav May 8, 2024)

    When I walk long natural-surface trails in the mountain wilds here, I feel at peace and present without mind or language. I’m often alone (not really) and risking while stretching my abilities. This humility, acceptance, awe/wonder, gratitude and immediacy can be in my everyday life, if I am present with my awareness and intention really open, clear, receptive and deliberate.

    In Going for a Walk, I visit a nature park at the edge of town walking a slow saunter. Letting the mind empty as best it can. Breathing, going, no expectations. If little stories well up in my mind here or there, I let most of them go, floating away, just thoughts. As mind and stories subside, the walk environs (plants, animals, water, rocks, air) become vividly alive, in endless moments, brilliant, radiant, lush with color and sound, consuming the senses. Maybe I imagine this, yet I feel a neutral sort of kindness or acceptance from all around me. Ants, beetles, grasshoppers, hummingbirds, song birds, many kinds of trees, long grasses, wild flowers, a noisy bubbling brook, earth, rocks, timeless wind and more all do their thing. Impressions come without naming, analysis or opinions. There is a merging. I breath this shimmering awareness.

    I’ve been to this area with family, engaged socially and not much present for what is being offered here. Now the ongoing sounds, visuals, wind on skin, sense of ground below and endless sky above create an emotion. Gratitude in receiving. I realize as my mind kicks in that these creatures offer such a fountain of gifts by just being, without placing any conditions on their sharing. Do I have the respect, humility and acceptance to honor them and to receive this sharing and help for me, when I’m so wired to be strong and to offer help for others? I feel vulnerable. From prior training and experiences, I realize it’s OK and I accept it.

    My rush of feelings leads to an imagining. I picture my son, deceased for years from mental illness, walking up beside me, and we take hands in this saunter with little more than knowing nods to each other. He enters this state of utter acceptance and impersonal benevolence that I’m feeling, while the critical judges once living in his mind are silenced. He is in a state of emptiness to be filled by the unconditional generosity, lack of judgment and dare I say love emanating from the creatures in this walking experience. I wish it so. His torments live on in me, yet so do his deep unwitting teachings for me. He’s then absent from this experience, if never gone. Everything is allowed, just as it is. Breathing helps mind subside again. This is a good walk.

    Reply
  2. Raven

    Comfortable awareness…A second walk in my yard this morning with a different feeling. When I walked out onto the porch I noticed the lightness in the air. There was a cool, gentle morning breeze inviting me to explore. Though it was 80 degrees, the heaviness of humidity had not accumulated yet. I slowly walked and decided to lay down on a chase lounge we have. The earth felt so alive, so many happy little birds talking, the leaves of the trees dancing, the sound of silent flight as two turkey vultures swept across the yard. I felt embraced by the it all…

    Reply
  3. Raven

    This week I tried a walk in my yard and the monsoon humidity was unbearable but it was enlightening to notice the effect of the weather on my physical body. So the experience turned into noticing how my body was reacting to climate and listening to when it had enough!

    Reply
  4. Anny

    Ive spent a lot of time this month in the mountains where I went to college 30 years ago and had my first remembrances of Zen Buddhism and Shamanism during a class titled Witchcraft, Magic and Religion. I had picked each topic out of a hat to research and write 2 thirty page papers – only to feel I was reading about myself and remembering. As I have walked familiar paths through the woods now that I once walked 30 years ago with a sense of excitement and wonder within the mind, I watch walls of rocks move like water, colors explode within the moss and ferns and experience familiarity in a vibrant and present way. Life that is breathing through all. I am so grateful for this path, and for having found you, Keshav, and all of you, 20 years ago to continue to explore the depths of consciousness and life.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *