Zen Walks

We're having unusually beautiful weather for February right now, so it's a good time for going out on zen walks. That's my name for a way that I walk when I want to go get in touch with myself, or when I really need to think something over.

In its essence, a zen walk is quite simple: put on your shoes, go outside, and begin walking. As you go, make no decisions about which way to go, but simply follow where your feet are taking you. At every intersection (and sometimes between them also), take the motions that feel the most natural in that moment. Let go of your image of where you might be going to, so that you do not just follow a habitual path, yet also let go of the image of avoiding your habitual paths, which also constrains your movements. Go, let go, and find out one step at a time where you are going.

Zen walking is without a goal, except for being there, and it brings me space to find out what I care about and what is on my mind. I am not a person to whom contentment and satisfaction come naturally, though there is surely enough in my life that I "should" be happy about. It is far too easy for me, though, to become caught up in "should" and "ought" and lists that I make for myself that generate unhappiness in their lack of completion. A zen walk is one of my tactics for letting myself re-discover that fact and finding my way back to which things I truly care about and why.