KINHIN

November 10

Zen walk — kinhin

Tried kinhin today and learned a couple of things.

1. I breathe 10 times a minute
2. Taking one step for every breath takes good balance.
3. If you walk only 10 steps a minute, it would take 300 minutes to walk around my block: that’s 5 hours.
4. This doesn’t work well on a Canadian street. We are not in Japan :))

This was a useful experiment because it showed me how valuable this kind of practice really is. It was restful and really did expand time. Concentrating the mind on only what is happening in the immediate NOW is truly illuminating. A car passed me and as it passed, I focused only on the wash of sound as it approached and passed. Now it’s not a car passing, it’s just a sound vibrating around me. How interesting.

I tried this for only two minutes because I was outside on my street. When I started, it was completely empty, but within two minutes a couple approached walking towards me and were somewhat startled. I realized I’d have to do this inside my own garden in future.

It seems as if this would be a great practice to do wearing snowshoes when the deep snow comes. When the sun glints of the new fallen snow, it should be illuminating.

Late winter in Ottawa at the Experimental Farm

By the Rideau Canal

Can’t wait to try it. I think I’d better take ski poles with me though. Losing my balance on snowshoes could put me in a position where I would be contemplating nothingness for a long time.