originally posted April 2015

From Yoga to Zen Buddhist Meditation walk to yoga to hip surgery to Buddhist meditation walk

Back in 1992 I spent one year at a zen Buddhist meditation center in the Catskills of New York.

Every morning we started the day with a morning sitting meditation and always followed by a slow silent walk around the meditation hall. This wasn’t just a slow stroll, this was a conscious slow walking meditation.  In Buddhist traditions this is often called mindful meditation and the classical name for the practice is: Kinhin and can be translated as “Walking the truth”  Each step is a conscious observation of the most subtle dance of WALKING.

Back then I found it more of a welcomed distraction from the long periods of sitting meditation and a relief to my achy legs, feet, and shoulders from sitting cross legged for too long, then any reach into spiritual awakening.

That was years ago.  Now, after having Hip replacement surgery a little over a week ago I am beginning to walk around the house without a walker. Speed is not an option and, in fact, a handicap to finding balance, strength and direction.  My friend and I were taking a stroll up my street and I remembered the meditation walk. I decided to set in mental motion what I had practiced over 20 years ago. Teaching her, as we both were walking, she was amazed that she could feel how hard her muscles were working and the awareness she gained of her body consciously slowly moving through space. For me it was a way to regain the awareness of walking without the limp that had become my new normal for the last few months.  It slowed me down to allow me to regain the grace that accompanies balance, good posture and confidence.

From years of delving into many different and compatible studies, Isn’t it nice to know that it doesn’t matter when one might find that practice, that book, those notes, that seem to find their time and way back into one’s life.  We are the collectors knowing that one day the door will open and the right timing and situation invites them back into a time that makes more sense.  Now go take a walk!  Slowly.