Walking Practice 3: Alms Rounds
No doubt, the oldest formal Buddhist foot practice is that of alms rounds. As Shakyamuni assembled his steady group of followers, they adopted the already accepted practice for wandering ascetics, that of daily visits to homes and estates to exchange the presentation of teaching, for some material contribution, most often food and drink. This is not begging, in the sense of someone down on their luck asking for support from someone more materially successful. Alms rounds are a recognition of the intersection of two distinct competencies. Those with material goods exchange them for the receipt of salvational teaching by those who specialize in that knowledge. The religious are not seen as ‘needy’, but rather in possession of specially acquired knowledge. Since laypeople were viewed as incapable (at least in earlier times) of their own religious education, the gift of teaching was the primary way they could benefit from the efforts of clergy. (It was, in fact, part of Buddhist vows to make efforts to present the Dharma to other people.) Providing for wandering ascetics was, of course, a means of acquiring merit, good karma. How the spirit of this walking practice can be transformed for our modern situations is an as-yet answered question we will ask.
Chapter 7: Threshold 2 – Turning Back
At some point, every walker must decide to transform the walk from a letting go to a coming back. We will take time to reflect on the symbolic and ritual meaning of this moment, what we previously called our journey’s liminal or threshold moment. With our time behind us increasing, we come to appreciate the path-builders, the trail setters who preceded us. We understand their sincerity and effort, and will feel some gratitude. We turn to practices that represent that appreciation and thankfulness.
Walking Practice 4: Circumambulation
Circumambulation, for Buddhists, derives from the practice of walking around some sacred or honoured site. As part of the practice of venerating the remains of a great teacher, practitioners performed a walking and recitation practice which slowly encircled the stupa, in a clockwise manner. The recited material would be a familiar chant or a sutra. Such a practice not only deepens the practitioners mind-practice, but generates merit for themselves and others. Doing circumambulation is an essential part of any Buddhist pilgrimage.
Over time circumambulation around stupas or pagodas became possible around other sites, relics or statuary. In modern times, in its most extravagant form, it begins to merge with pilgrimage walking as circumambulation around sacred mountains becomes a practice.
Walking Practice 5: Walking Nembutsu
Nembutsu is a practice which emerged later in Buddhist history and is characterized by a reliance on a direct personal relation between the practitioner and a Buddha figure, most often Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light. It understood that human history had moved through an era where it had been possible for individuals to achieve Buddhahood by their own effort (jiriki), and entered a more decadent era (mappo) where it was necessary to rely on the intervention and effort of the Buddhas, that is, Other effort (tariki).
Because practitioners had to rely on super-human intervention, it became necessary to not only honour those figures, but also to request their generosity to aid struggling humanity. The new form of practice was this prayerful and personal plea for the Buddhas to employ their power to accomplish the work of Liberation. The address to Buddhas became the practice of nembutsu. The Jodo sects became the earliest formalization of this practice, although it found a home in other schools, especially Tendai, and even Zen.
Such entreaties could, and ought to, be made in and through every action. Nembutsu practice most frequently looked like extended chanting and silent prayer services. One version combined devotional chanting with walking practices. In some instances this would overlap or even replace sutra chanting during circumambulation. In others, it was a new practice form, that of walking nembutsu.
Prayer Walking
As modern walkers, we can draw on modern walking practice. One of the most popular is Mundy’s ‘prayer walking’. We will meet this Christian preacher and experience how his methods add a new devotional dimension for us.
Chapter 8: Journey 3 – The Long Road Back
Once our footsteps have turned to home, that stage of the journey may, in different moments feel the longest and the shortest part of the walk. We feel a growing eagerness to regain the familiar, yet resist abandoning this road and its freshness and richness. We can admire and imagine joining the millions who made the longest walks their practice.
Walking Practice 6: Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage, within Buddhism, likely existed from the time following the physical demise of Shakyamuni. With the appearance and promotion of stupa practice, it must have become desirable for early Dharma followers to re-trace the travels of Shakyamuni as part of the adoration of his physical life. Itinerant ascetics were nothing new in Northern India during that period, Shakyamuni himself was but one of countless, nameless men who left the relative comfort of towns and courts to explore the meditative life.
As Buddhadharma began its steady march, along the legendary Silk Road, across Asia into China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, it set up a ‘supply-chain’ back to the great monasteries of India. There are many tales of monks returning to India to retrieve versions of sutras, rupas and other learning materials. Once these East Asian Sanghas became established, it became similarly important for Japanese monks to travel back to the home monasteries to retrieve teachings, sutras and religious objects for their own national centres. The giants of Japanese Dharma, Kobo Daishi (Kukai), Dengyo Daishi (Saicho), Dogen and many more, made the dangerous return trip to the Chinese home-base of Dharma.
With the establishment of Dharma centres at a national level it became more common and desirable for practitioners to undertake pilgrimage to places of importance. Pilgrimage in the Buddhist context is not different in form or in intention from those of many other faiths. It is a substantial endeavour for any practitioner, one that separates them from their normal routines, placing them on a super-temporal plane, a kind of symbolic level where their daily activities interpenetrate the cosmic realm of great human or super-human figures. In past times, pilgrimage was a dangerous and life-altering experience. In our world of rapid transit, high-speed rails and roads and helicopter charters, the risk has been dramatically reduced. Yet the symbolic importance of leaving one’s life to become a pilgrim offers unique opportunities for practitioners.
Walking and Bowing
No doubt, greeting bows, the simple physical honouring of the Dharma in the presence of another, would be part of a monk’s daily routine. The practice of formal prostrations, a structured sequence of bowing, is a well-established one in Dharma history, although one which needs coaxing for Westerners. Not only is there little tradition of bowing or prostration, there is overt resistance and hostility to the idea of even bowing to anyone or thing, let alone a full-out prostration. There are various styles from the more elegantly restrained Chinese-Japanese style to the all-out stretching prostration of Tibet. We won’t take too much time to discriminate these differences here. We will describe the different styles and consider how to blend them in with a walking practice, be that indoor or outdoor.
Walking Practice 7: Kaihogyo and Kokorodo
Kaihogyo has been called the greatest physical challenge for human bodies, far more demanding than Western marathons. It belongs within the Tendai sect, and consists of rapid-paced daily walks, extending approximately eighty kilometres, up and down a steep and risky mountain route. Very few people ever receive authorization to undertake the training or perform the practice. It is an undeniable inspiration for all walking practices. It is, however, not something the majority of Dharma practitioners would even request.