Not so far as I know. But then I'm an idiot.
Originally Posted by The Weasel
Well said! That's why a hike, especially a long distance hike through wilderness, does not have to be a struggling strenuous affair. It can be a retreat of meditation that returns us to a state of balance where we are meant to exist.
Stay centered(focused) and grounded. Stay connected to the present moment. When we lose connection to this present moment, get lost in fears of the future, or regrets of the past, we lose power to take appropriate action "in the now." When we attain a state of "relaxed alertness", we can then ask...
"What does this moment ask of me right now?"
Life then gets simple, orderly, and clear again. Joy bubbles up from the bottom of the feet. The vital force is opened and flowing in the body, connecting with the stream of life within and without.
So very hard for some to just be rather than always having to be doing something, going somewhere else, being someone else.
I am the raindrop splashing upon the leaf of the plant and into the pond. I am the heart beating inside the deer. I am the fang of the rattlesnake. I am the water flowing over the rocks. I am the warming rays of sunshine. I am the wind in the trees. I am the branch of the tree. I somehow am connected with everything. I am.
When we truely understand who we are we will finally understand what we are capable of doing.
Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes
Long as I got my plastic Buddha
Riding in the middle of my pack
Through all trials and tribulations,
We will travel every nation,
With my plastic Buddha I'll go far.
Plastic Buddha's in the sack
tomorrow's gone and can't go back
ain't no past, ain't no future
plastic buddha is my tutor
up and down I will not falter
plastic Buddha's ridin' on my alter
Plastic Buddha, plastic Buddha
Long as I got my plastic Buddha
Riding in the middle of my pack.....
la..la....la...la...everybody sing..... la...la...al
[COLOR="SeaGreen"] [I]"Mama always said there's an awful lot you can tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going, where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes."
(Forrest Gump; Greenbow, Alabama)[/I] [/COLOR]
I'm not sure there's a difference, or if I am either, both, or neither. Not trying to be cute. But I'm just what I am, and that's hard to know for sure.
Either it stands for "Internal Study, Reflection and Problem-solving" or I made a typo. I'm gonna vote for Number 2, Monte, but then Heisenberg screwed everything up, didn't he?
There are no "Buddhist things." Thoughts, yes. Things, no.
Ah. What insight. Rhymes don't matter. It's the thought that counts.
TW
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
..........
~~^^^~~^^~^^^~~~^^^^^~^~
Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.
He's a lawyer.I'm not sure there's a difference, or if I am either, both, or neither. Not trying to be cute. But I'm just what I am, and that's hard to know for sure.
TW
~~^^^~~^^~^^^~~~^^^^^~^~
Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.
Ah. Thanks for the reply, TW. The reason I asked is simply to try to understand what you meant by Zen. I gather it is the informal or popular usage, in which case I have nothing more to add. LYOL
No, that's what I do, not who I am.He's a lawyer.
I'm not sure what anyone means by "Zen," and I'm a little suspicious of those who say they do, just as I am a bit suspicious of those who claim full knowledge of other mysteries, such as Jesus or cooking with chiles. The more I reflect on Zen, the more I know I'm not fully reflecting on it, and probably can't. So I don't use the term in an "informal" sense, but only to describe how I approach the topic; I think some (who know more than I) would agree that Zen isn't a thing but a way or a method, to help one use one's mind to function most effectively.
Which is why I ponder 'the Buddha in my backpack.' Doing so takes away things from my life - tangible and intangible - that make life harder or more complex. Like sore feet, or anger, or trying to cook with a nearly-empty cannister. I must say, it makes hiking and backpacking much more satisfying, regardless of conditions.
But I know I'm not really good at it. Still, he's there.
TW
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
I know people who have very intensive Buddhist practices who have worked for years and achieved very little. I also know people who have no particular practice or lineage who have achieved much in a short time (a decade, perhaps) or a lifetime. But Zen is a term which originated in China quite some time ago (Chan, pronounced more like Jen; became Japanese Zen) for a particular lineage of Mahayana Buddhist practice and study. The study is as important as the practice (meditation) as a quick perusal of the Noble Eightfold Path will suggest.
The way we use the term in the English speaking world has little to do with this, and is a matter of some amusement among Zen practitioners. Zen perfume, Zen this, Zen that. In fact, most of the mystique of popular Zen has to do with cultural rather than Buddhist characteristics.
You chose the term Zen, and I don't wish to argue with you about that, but it seems to me that what you are gesturing at is perhaps more like what a number of American writers have been discussing. People like Thoreau, Albee, Muir and many others. These are all students of the open natural places, of nature, and She, if I may personify, is a very good teacher, if you know how to listen. A Hindu sadhu or holy man said, "Everyone comes pre-taught by Mother." This was to explain why it is so difficult to show people a different way to lead a life. The Greeks called one who failed to follow the cultural herd and idiot, meaning one who follows his own way. Nature will teach us all to become idiots, if we will relax our death-grip on the views we have held since childhood.
That's what I meant by my inquiry, and by my short response. This, like the formal Buddhist practices, and like all other so-called religious practices, have the property of calming and quieting the mind, which makes an opening to the wider spirit. I think of the foundation practices of all valid, so-called religious ways as mental hygiene, and trail walking can be the same. Like going to church every day, if you will. And please don't think this in in any way a diminishment of such practices. Rather it is an augmentation, because few of those who go to church, even every week, can claim this degree of mental preparedness for the true message of Jesus, or of any of the saints and holy people.
But on the trail; I have read many comments and stories here on WB which have shown me that we who appreciate the effect of the gentle contemplation of the world in which we live and move are not alone. This thread has elicited some. You obviously intended that, and have succeeded. Congratulations.
However, if you think that Zen is simply a vague description of this, please invest a little time to find out what its original meaning was and is. You have to unearth it from the cultural baggage it carries and is buried beneath. As one Japanese Zen master said, "Sitting (meditation) is Zen." What he intimated was that the quiet mind (of an advanced meditator) is the achievement we seek. As you may appreciate, such explanations can go on and on, so I will stop here.
Thank you for opening this thread.
GGS2 ---
Your post reminds me of why there is so much in London that I admire, not least of all that it has the 402, which makes it possible to "zone out" between Sarnia and Fort Erie without stoplights.
No, I don't think Zen is a 'vague description', but on the other hand, it's no more necessarily "religious" - in the sense of a belief in a god or gods - than is, say, a good motorcycle repair manual. It's a way to think. If "sitting is Zen" - and it should, or at least can be - so is hiking. Or figuratively or even literally, flying. As you say, and as I tried to, it's not the doing but the being that matters, at least in Zen.
Unlike some, I tend to feel that dharma gets transmitted in some cases simply by the fact of how they exist, or the circumstances someone finds themself in and accepts; hence, one can be a bit of a hiker bum and never have studied Zen, yet feel the unthought peace that comes from that invisible Buddha who sits - trying to be at least recognized even while being invisible - in each backpack.
You're welcome. Thank you for teaching.
TW
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
Very good, TW, and thanks for the compliments. Hope you don't zone out TOO much, next time you pass by on the 402. Nice to meet someone who knows about such things.
You are of course right about the dharma. It is the embodiment of natural law, if you will. What Buddhism and other dharmic cultural organisms try to teach is how to behave in accordance with natural law, or existance, or how to open our minds to this. The religion part of this tends to be a sort of Dummy's Guide to Dharma, designed to protect people from their worst excesses until they can learn or unlearn better. Religions are by nature imperfect institutions. The best of American natural philosophers are not religious so much as naturalists. If we wish to look for a true American religion, we could do worse than to go out into the natural world and emulate the naturalist philosophers, explorers, poets and authors who precede us.
HYOH
"Don't just do something, stand there." Buddha
We are, afterall, called human beings, not human doings
Well, it's also possible to be religious and also practice Zen. Nothing contradictory about that. My religious beliefs help me define what is right thinking - for me - and Zen helps me to know when I am thinking rightly. And hiking then becomes both a Zen, and religious, experience.
For those who think this is a bit abstruse, join me in this little exercise next time you hoist your pack onto your shoulders: As you start walking, just think about breathing. Literally. Think something simple as you do it, like "1-2-3" as you inhale and "4-5-6" as you exhale. Make that your "ear worm", and force the other thoughts out. "Inhale 1-2-3" and "Exhale 4-5-6" or whatever.
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
sorry- didn't finish.
As you do that, just let those thoughts be the only ones. You'll find you still see the scenery, notice the blazes, everything else. But after a short while, you'll find you're going up and down PUDS as if they were puddles. Honest.
TW
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
I'm really enjoying this thread...mirrors many of my own thoughts and views on hiking, and life. Wish i had more to add. But please continue!!
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. -Kahlil Gibran
Here is something similar--but different:
Last summer, I spent 10 days hiking alone (plus four days of traveling alone in my car). I often went 12-27 hours without seeing another person.
I am a Christian pastor. I purposely designed my hike to be a spiritual retreat. Six times per day, I paused for structured prayer and sometimes for scripture readings--similar to the practice followed by Christian monks in a monastery. (I had "formal" prayer shortly after waking, and at approximately 9 am, noon, 3 pm, 6pm and 9 pm)
I found--that as I resumed hiking following my "scheduled" prayer times-- my thoughts continued to be in a meditative or contempletive state. In essence, the hiking itself became a time prayer and a time communion with God, nature and other people. Even boiling water for dinner or obtaining water from a lake was a time of ongoing prayer and communion.
As I walked, I would find myself thinking about and praying about people back home who were ill with cancer (or other medical conditions) or people who were grieving a recent death. My mind casually drifted in and out of various topics for hours on end as I walked and prayed.
The praying eventually became more of a "state of being" than an actual religious activity. The "formal" prayer times and formal scripture readings merely provided a framework for the rest of the day of prayer. The formal prayer times focused (or channeled) my thoughts and prayers down a certain pathway or in a certain direction.
While walking and praying, I also felt a heightened awareness of the "little things"--the light reflecting off of a spider web, the pattens of the leaves, the sound of a bird, an ant crawling on a log.
It was a good ten days of hiking.
"A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world." - Paul Dudley White
I can well imagine it was a good ten days of hiking, in the cloister of the rain curtain. Pray without ceasing. Where does that come from? It's the way. When Christ says I am the way, I cannot but believe that that is what he was referring to.
He's a lawyer.oh, i dunno, i'd say when you seriously threaten a lawsuit against someone for a pretty innocent quip on a message board...... it might be who you are too.
just sayin'
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive." -TJ
t
Well, I didn't think of this thread as about prayer, but about hiking. I've found that some of the practices of Zen make hiking easier, in terms of how to subsume some of the harder challenges - climbing, heat, fatigue, walking during rain - by allowing my mind to experience them without letting them dominate me.
In the begining of an long hike, I tend to focus on how I'm tired, or how the hills are high, or all the other "baggage" that is slowing me down. With some careful but fairly simple techniques - the Zen part - I'm able to let those things go. I am still aware of them, but but sort of "unplugging" them from me, I can stop them from dragging me down. At that point, my step becomes lighter, springier, and I move faster and with greater peace. In a word, I start covering miles faster.
While there are philospohical aspects to Zen for me, I also am not too proud to use it as a way to make my pack lighter or my body more functional. It gets me where I want to go faster, easier, happier.
TW
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
