are home to many extraordinary architectural treasures. Later in my trip, in the South of Sri Lanka, I walked through the gardens, stepped through the giant lion’s claw threshold and climbed the stone staircase to the top of Sigiriya, the Lion’s Rock,. This gigantic volcanic rock rises over 1,200 feet above a flat plain and has been a royal retreat with a surprising gallery of Buddhist paintings and, more usually, a Buddhist monastery. It too dates from the earliest days of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Unlike the desert plains of Anuradhapura, the breathtaking vista from atop the Lion’s Rock provides the kind of sobering perspective on the world which gives one pause. At that time, I was not sufficiently knowledgeable about pilgrimage to benefit from all the practice has to offer. Nonetheless, it still took the form of a pilgrimage, in the sense of leaving me with life-shaping memories and inspiration and, more than thirty years later, continues to connect me with my chosen faith.
These experiences signified two parallel abode-leaving transitions – my leaving my family home and entering young adulthood, and my leaving the vagueness of my late teen spiritual musings for the more formal Buddha-way. Both were equally important in forming my spiritual identity. From my naivete and lack of worldliness, I had almost no sense of how important this abode-leaving would be. Further, it seemed coincidental that walking should be so much a part of these leavings. As with many pilgrimage experiences, it is only through reflection over the years following that understanding and meaning emerge. Leaving one’s abode is itself an act of faith, part of that mix of conviction, despair and hope which drives our search for new meaning.
UNFOLDING THE MAP
Like any good walk, this book covers a variety of both new and familiar terrain. It offers gentle strolls, steep climbs, shady nooks and expansive vistas. It won’t wear you out nor will it (I sincerely hope) fail to challenge you. Like any good book or walk, this one is a journey. It starts where we are and points to a destination without revealing all of its adventures too soon. It’s a book to be read and a book to accompany you on whatever walks you take.
Any walking reader will already have a similar slim bookshelf with titles about walking. It may feature one of the many pilgrimage diaries, like Dempster’s Neon Pilgrim, or Tony Kevin’s Walking the Camino. There will be a selection of technical books, perhaps some edition of Colin Fletcher’s The Complete Walker or titles that begin: Hiking the…, or Nordic Walking for…, or The.…Walker. The reflective walkers will have Basho’s Narrow Road to the North, Thoreau’s Walden or My Life in the Woods, and probably his Walking. The spiritually-oriented will have Halzer’s Warrior Walking or Kortge’s The Spirited Walker. For the religious, there may be a copy of Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress, Steven’s thorough The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei or Thich Nhat Hahn’s multi-media collection, Walking Meditation. Every one a great companion.
This book is a unique resident for your bookshelf or backpack. This is the first book to deal with the many forms of Buddhist and other contemplative walking practices in a comprehensive way. It is the first to address the interests and needs of Buddhists and other spiritually-minded walkers in actually using traditional and more recent Buddhist and Buddhist-friendly foot practices as part of their contemplative journey. Its written with these people in mind. You’re likely one of them if:
• you already have some regular Buddhist practice and may have had some introduction to kinhin walking;
• you have some form of meditation practice, Buddhist or otherwise, and need something to provide some variety between or as an alternative to sitting;
• you are curious about reflective practices, especially Buddhist, but find the prospect of sitting quietly for very long to be a bit daunting;
• you have participated in a pilgrimage or other contemplative walk and want to expand on that experience;
• you regularly enjoy walking and feel the need to give it a more structured reflective dimension;
• you have participated in socially-conscientious or fund-raising walks.
People are drawn to walking for many more reasons. Rather than the reasons above, yours might include walking for fitness and/or weight loss, competitive and race walking, trophy or ‘bucket list’ walking (that is, to collect trails as achievements), and walking for human or animal companionship. There are merits and benefits to each on this second list, however, in this book, we are concerned with the first list and have little to contribute to that second collection of interests.
SCANNING THE TERRAIN
Through all of this, I discovered there are many books about walking. Some call it walking, some call it hiking, the more common North American term, others trekking, which one sees more often in Europe. There are those that locate trails of interest and detail highlights one might pass en route. There are instructional guides which explain types of packs, boots, poles and so on. There are memoirs of “great trails I have done.” There are manuals that extol the health benefits of walking as exercise. There are training guides that prepare one for competitive walking. There are books on walking Tai Chi, walking yoga, warrior walking, Nordic walking and walking chi kung. City, country, forest, mountain, pilgrimage, tourist, on and on.
As mentioned above, this is the first book to address the interests and needs of Buddhists and other spiritually-minded walkers in actually using traditional and more recent Buddhist and Buddhist-friendly foot practices as part of their contemplative journey. Our concern here is understanding and using those traditional and newer Buddhist foot practices within a personal contemplative training regimen.
There has been some debate about a proper term to describe the kind of walking I mean here. Some readers have objected to psycho-spiritual, some to the term spiritual, some are uncomfortable with the term religious. My intention has been to appeal to both the professional and lay psychotherapy reader, especially those using mindfulness methods, and to readers with more of a concern for religious issues, largely but not exclusively Buddhist. The term which has gained greatest resonance with me has come to be contemplation. This seems to encompass multiple styles of meditative practice, therapeutic mindfulness, and a wide inter-faith perspective. For that reason I will stick with contemplation/contemplative when referring to these kinds of walking practices.
In many Buddhist practice environments, walking is often either ignored as a practice mode or treated as an optional practice, more as a relief from sustained sitting practice. Here, we assume a great value for walking and concentrate on the how-to aspect of walking practice. In fact, we will come to understand walking practices as a fully legitimate and comprehensive set of practices. We will come to appreciate their value as a complement to more familiar sitting methods to fulfill the Buddha-way. As Zen Patriarch Yin Kuang explains:
Since sentient beings are of different spiritual capacities and inclinations, many levels of teaching and numerous, methods were devised in order to reach everyone. Traditionally, the sutras speak of 84,000 (i.e. an infinite number depending on the circumstances, the times and the target audience.) All these methods are expedients - different medicines for different individuals with different illnesses at different times - but all are intrinsically perfect and complete. Within each method, the success or failure of an individual’s cultivation depends on the depth of practice and understanding, that is, on his mind.
Pure-Land Zen, ed. Forrest Smith, p. 7
PHASES OF OUR JOURNEY
Parables, stories and metaphors of travel and journey are part of the fabric of our culture. As I write this, the radio music in the background is singing the praises of “the broken road which leads me back to you,” just one example of such stories of life as life on the road. In chapter seven of the Lotus Sutra, which is sometimes called The Apparitional City, we are told of a leader
