Garden Kinhin Mandala
by Stephen Damon
In Zen practice, after a period of sitting meditation we do “walking meditation,” or kinhin. In Soto Zen, we walk in half steps, following our breathing. The foot goes up on an in-breath and goes down on an out-breath. The word kinhin means sutra walk in Japanese. Usually this is done by walking in a circle around the Zendo. This most likely comes from the traditional Buddhist practice of circumambulating a holy site as a way of taking in and generating blessings, often by reciting mantras or sutras. A sutra is a record of a talk or discourse by the Buddha and it often connotes a presentation of Awakened Mind. In this latter sense it is a continuation of our sitting practice after we leave our seats and move back into the “world.” As Anzan Hoshin roshi said: “Taking a step in mindfulness is itself a presentation of the wisdom of the Buddha.
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Sometimes, especially in nice weather, the leader of a retreat will offer people the opportunity of doing kinhin outside in the gardens. When doing kinhin outside one is able to get deeper impressions not only of nature, but also of oneself. Often, the grounds outside a Zendo are filled with small altars of stone or wood which offer the opportunity of experiencing one’s life in the context of something “greater” and “older” than one’s ordinary sense of “life.” While you walk through space you are entering the “three worlds of time.”
Garden Kinhin Mandala
A sleepy-eyed sparrow
Standing on a Buddha
Watches me carefully
As I step onto a path
A long winding path
Of cool gray gravel
Through a garden, alive
In colors and sounds
Of an early spring
The crunching sounds
Of my shoes on the gravel
Conjure up memories
Of driveways, alleyways
And the other ways
I walked before.
I hear the soft steps
Of those who walk with me
And those who walked before.
Nestled under a tree
Stands a gray wooden Jizo
With a long red robe.
He comforts and guides
The spirits of dead children
And others who wander
Between this world
And the next.
He shows me how
To follow my breath
That guides my feet
One step at a time
A kinhin mandala
Of cool gray gravel
Red robes in the breeze.
Bows,
Stephen
