It understood that human history had moved through an era where it had been possible for individuals to achieve Buddhahood by their own effort (jiriki), and entered a more decadent era (mappo) where it was necessary to rely on the intervention and effort of the Buddhas, that is, Other effort (tariki).
Because practitioners had to rely on super-human intervention, it became necessary to not only honour those figures, but also to request their generosity to aid struggling humanity. The new form of practice was this prayerful and personal plea for the Buddhas to employ their power to accomplish the work of Liberation. The address to Buddhas became the practice of nembutsu. The Jodo sects became the earliest formalization of this practice, although it found a home in other schools, especially Tendai, and even Zen.
Such entreaties could, and ought to, be made in and through every action. Nembutsu practice most frequently looked like extended chanting and silent prayer services. One version combined devotional chanting with walking practices. In some instances this would overlap or even replace sutra chanting during circumambulation. In others, it was a new practice form, that of walking nembutsu.
Prayer Walking
As modern walkers, we can draw on modern walking practice. One of the most popular is Mundy’s ‘prayer walking’. We will meet this Christian preacher and experience how his methods add a new devotional dimension for us.
Chapter 8: Journey 3 – The Long Road Back
Once our footsteps have turned to home, that stage of the journey may, in different moments feel the longest and the shortest part of the walk. We feel a growing eagerness to regain the familiar, yet resist abandoning this road and its freshness and richness. We can admire and imagine joining the millions who made the longest walks their practice.
Walking Practice 6: Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage, within Buddhism, likely existed from the time following the physical demise of Shakyamuni. With the appearance and promotion of stupa practice, it must have become desirable for early Dharma followers to re-trace the travels of Shakyamuni as part of the adoration of his physical life. Itinerant ascetics were nothing new in Northern India during that period, Shakyamuni himself was but one of countless, nameless men who left the relative comfort of towns and courts to explore the meditative life.
As Buddhadharma began its steady march, along the legendary Silk Road, across Asia into China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, it set up a ‘supply-chain’ back to the great monasteries of India. There are many tales of monks returning to India to retrieve versions of sutras, rupas and other learning materials. Once these East Asian Sanghas became established, it became similarly important for Japanese monks to travel back to the home monasteries to retrieve teachings, sutras and religious objects for their own national centres. The giants of Japanese Dharma, Kobo Daishi (Kukai), Dengyo Daishi (Saicho), Dogen and many more, made the dangerous return trip to the Chinese home-base of Dharma.
With the establishment of Dharma centres at a national level it became more common and desirable for practitioners to undertake pilgrimage to places of importance. Pilgrimage in the Buddhist context is not different in form or in intention from those of many other faiths. It is a substantial endeavour for any practitioner, one that separates them from their normal routines, placing them on a super-temporal plane, a kind of symbolic level where their daily activities interpenetrate the cosmic realm of great human or super-human figures. In past times, pilgrimage was a dangerous and life-altering experience. In our world of rapid transit, high-speed rails and roads and helicopter charters, the risk has been dramatically reduced. Yet the symbolic importance of leaving one’s life to become a pilgrim offers unique opportunities for practitioners.
Walking and Bowing
No doubt, greeting bows, the simple physical honouring of the Dharma in the presence of another, would be part of a monk’s daily routine. The practice of formal prostrations, a structured sequence of bowing, is a well-established one in Dharma history, although one which needs coaxing for Westerners. Not only is there little tradition of bowing or prostration, there is overt resistance and hostility to the idea of even bowing to anyone or thing, let alone a full-out prostration. There are various styles from the more elegantly restrained Chinese-Japanese style to the all-out stretching prostration of Tibet. We won’t take too much time to discriminate these differences here. We will describe the different styles and consider how to blend them in with a walking practice, be that indoor or outdoor.
Walking Practice 7: Kaihogyo and Kokorodo
Kaihogyo has been called the greatest physical challenge for human bodies, far more demanding than Western marathons. It belongs within the Tendai sect, and consists of rapid-paced daily walks, extending approximately eighty kilometres, up and down a steep and risky mountain route. Very few people ever receive authorization to undertake the training or perform the practice. It is an undeniable inspiration for all walking practices. It is, however, not something the majority of Dharma practitioners would even request.
We will not detail here, nor encourage this practices for most practitioners. Kaihogyo requires a substantial support-team, that is the involvement of many other monks, and, at certain stages of the practice, a whole lay community, to enable the completion of a super-human and life-threatening effort. It is not our purpose to facilitate such practices.
Kokorodo can be seen as a conflation and scaling back of both pilgrimage and kaihogyo. Not everyone can dedicate years or resources to daily marathon walking, or weeks to following a pilgrimage route. The kokorodo is an abbreviated version of these practices, where individual or groups of practitioners can share the endless road. It can be a taste of kaihogyo/pilgrimage experience that fulfills some of the same purposes. It removes the practitioner from the daily routine, even if that is a routine of a stationary retreat, and moves them into that symbolic/cosmic realm of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The ordinary events of a 20 mile walk become transformed into an expedition into Dharma realms and heavens where century-old trees become encounters with sage-kings and Bodhisattvas; passages through cemeteries become confrontations with the intersection of life and death.
Unlike kaihogyo, the route may be familiar and less associated with great Dharma legends. It does not demand the rigour and repetition of kaihogyo, nor does it demand the extended commitment of pilgrimage. But like a pilgrimage, the practice may be a similar separation from daily routines and relationships.
Part III: In-Between Spaces
The metaphors of walking as journey, as crossing have been steadily with us to this point. Here we display a second powerful metaphor, that of walking in in-between spaces. Borrowing from another modern writer, novelist China Miéville, and his novel, The City and The City, we learn how walking can expose for us new dimensions in-between our day-to-day lives and spiritual realms which they parallel or intersect.
Chapter 9: Journey 4 – New Walking
As we see the landmarks that promise home, we begin to reflect on all the walks we’ve taken, their forms and benefits. Walking now enters a new realm – the symbolic. We envision and map out future walks into that realm. We expand our perspective and make connections previously unmade with other walkers. With the early Christian seekers we enter one of many labyrinth courses. Recalling the author whose words and walking passion opened our journey, we ‘saunter’ with Henry Thoreau along his beloved Marlborough Road, to where it intersects with the roads of our world. Finally, we find new meaning and enthusiasm for the walks which have been chosen by our present Dharma family to transform our world.
Walking Practice 8: Walking
