Kinhin, the walking meditation that we do between zazen, is poorly understood.
Often it’s explained as just an opportunity to stretch our legs a little whilst maintaining a meditative focus so we can sit for longer, but we can also see it as an energetic practice.
It’s unclear the extent to which it was practiced at the time of Master Dogen. His Master, Nyojo, certainly mentions walking meditation, but with little description and without context. And Dogen, who wrote minutely about all aspects of practice, doesn’t mention kinhin. One view is that it may have been introduced into zen practice by Master Menzan in the 18th century. Almost certainly it came, directly or indirectly, from Qigong.
The nature of the energetic practice is that we’re activating the acupressure point on the sole of the foot called “bubbling spring”. It’s also called “kidney 1.“
When we take half steps forward, exhaling while rolling our weight from the heel to the front and slightly spaying our toes, we’re rolling over this point. When we breathe in, we’re pushing down on this point, activating and lengthening the spine so it’s as if we’re pushing up with the top of the head.
The activation of “bubbling spring” is grounding and energising and clarifying. Many people though can’t manage it on the front foot, or if they can, it’s often only on one foot. However, the back foot is also slightly raised and so is in the position of activating “bubbling spring” as well, so if you can’t get the activation from the front foot then you can push down on the back foot and that has a similar effect — not quite as powerful, but similar.
Kinhin also throws a light on zazen. People very often in zazen are troubled by recurring thoughts, persistent emotions and so on. But very rarely in kinhin because it’s plainly a moving and activating practice. By contrast, some people mistakenly think zazen is waiting for something to happen: waiting for our delusion to clear, for example.
Kinhin helps clarify the nature of zazen as being full activity in the present moment. Just as we have that pushing and elongating dynamic on the in-breath in kinhin, we also have it in zazen. If we’re sitting properly we’re balanced on our base chakra and when we breathe in, it’s as if we’re pushing down gently on the base chakra and pushing up with the crown chakra. Not in a forceful way, but in an energetic way.
If we practise in that way then we bring the body fully back into sitting. We’re practicing fully exerting both our body and our mind. This is completely different from thinking that the ‘point’ of zazen is to change our consciousness, or to do something with our mind. When people say “zazen isn’t meditation”, even though that’s not really true, that’s what they mean.