View Full Version : Zen and Backpacking
The Weasel
07-31-2007, 17:48
Who else, besides me, sees backpacking essentially a form of Zen? A life stripped to its essentials, seeing the world in both beauty and all of its challenges, yet accepting that life is a series of tiny steps. I've long said "There's a Buddha in every backpack," and, indeed, the concept of "Hike your own hike," is so much a synthesis of Buddhist approaches to life as to be something one would expect to hear The Gautama Buddha actually say while sitting on Big Bald.
Am I alone in this?
The Weasel
Am I alone in this?
The Weasel
Nope.
Walking and meditation go hand in hand.
Be it by such Western "Zen" people as Thoreau, Whitman etc. or more traditional types we associate with meditating (Basho), walking and meditating has gone hand in hand (foot on trail?) for years.
See THE ART OF PILGRIMAGE (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Pilgrimage-Seekers-Making-Travel/dp/1573245097/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3169278-3944160?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185919317&sr=8-1) for a take on this matter.
Chaco Taco
07-31-2007, 18:13
I use both walking meditation and vispasana meditation when Im out on the trail. Much harder for me to use it when at home. Jack Kornfield is agreat person to download to your mp3 or ipod. He is great with guided meditation.
The Weasel
07-31-2007, 18:27
I use both walking meditation and vispasana meditation when Im out on the trail. Much harder for me to use it when at home. Jack Kornfield is agreat person to download to your mp3 or ipod. He is great with guided meditation.
I'm not talking about meditating while backpacking. I'm talking about backpacking being mediation. As in when I'm packing my gear, I'm going through a very mental ritual. When I am walking in the rain, and feeling the cold, feeling the mud in my boots, feeling the wind making my sodden legs twitch, feeling the soreness of my shoulders from the wet straps rubbing on them, feeling.....
I'm talking about the very essence of how we exist as backpackers: Individual in effort, social in function. Living in the moment, while appreciating the infinite. Mediation is doing; Zen is being.
Am I the only one to have read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
The Weasel
I'm not talking about meditating while backpacking. I'm talking about backpacking being mediation.
Weasel, again look at Basho. Or Thoreau for that matter. The journey is indeed the meditation.
Am I the only one to have read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Nope. I (emphasis on *I*) think it is an overrated book with a few interesting points.
The Weasel
07-31-2007, 18:36
Weasel, again look at Basho. Or Thoreau for that matter. The journey is indeed the meditation.
Nope. I (emphasis on *I*) think it is an overrated book with a few interesting points.
Mags...been reading both since you were in short pants, maybe longer. :)
You're still not getting my point. I'm talking about the fact that the entirety of backpacking is Zen, not merely the moments spent on a trail. I spend untold hours before and after every trip that are every bit as much philosophically 'pure' about backpacking as actual trail time. Sometimes I will spend weeks getting a tiny piece of gear to be compatible with all of the rest of my things. Gear, weather, walking, planning, eating, urinating, all of it is far different in approach and result than much of the rest of life. Not the 'journey' but the being.
Ah well.
The Weasel
Chaco Taco
07-31-2007, 18:44
Mags...been reading both since you were in short pants, maybe longer. :)
You're still not getting my point. I'm talking about the fact that the entirety of backpacking is Zen, not merely the moments spent on a trail. I spend untold hours before and after every trip that are every bit as much philosophically 'pure' about backpacking as actual trail time. Sometimes I will spend weeks getting a tiny piece of gear to be compatible with all of the rest of my things. Gear, weather, walking, planning, eating, urinating, all of it is far different in approach and result than much of the rest of life. Not the 'journey' but the being.
Ah well.
The Weasel
Ok Ive got ya now.
You're still not getting my point.
No. You are not getting my point.
The journey IS the being. And the journey begings when the trip is planned, when you pack, when you are getting ready.
"...who can say where a voyage starts - not the the actual passage but the dream of a journey and its urge to find a way?"
You say the journey begins when you set on the trail.
I say the journey begins much before. And the journey, in my mind, is the being.
Anyway, northing more to say.
Feel free to put in your last comment.
The Weasel
07-31-2007, 19:24
No. You are not getting my point.
The journey IS the being. And the journey begings when the trip is planned, when you pack, when you are getting ready.
"...who can say where a voyage starts - not the the actual passage but the dream of a journey and its urge to find a way?"
You say the journey begins when you set on the trail.
I say the journey begins much before. And the journey, in my mind, is the being.
Anyway, northing more to say.
Feel free to put in your last comment.
Sounds like we differ little, and say so differently.
And it also sounds as if no one else feels what we few do.
The Weasel
Tha Wookie
07-31-2007, 19:47
I'm with you. There are various viewpoints on this phenomenon. One is called "flow theory", from performance psychology. There is an interesting book on this called "Flow: the art of happiness" or something like that.
Also, there is a wonderful Buddhist book called "Landscapes of Wonder" that London '00 & '01 mailed me one time as a nice gift.
Also native american scouting faces this head-on, which is much discussed in Tom Brown books.
hiking is pretty cool.
Auntie Mame
07-31-2007, 20:34
I kinda think, actually, that backpacking preceded and informed Zen. People journeyed since the dawn of time. Later, a few heady types began to organize the elements that seemed to offer the most to their awareness, formed some principles and practices and voila. The cloister, the monastary, the desert retreat.
Long distance hiking offers so much variety that it feels rich in ways that the distilled essence doesn't.
I need to get on the trail, clearly! its been a long day.
Cheers.
BucketHeadnBryn
07-31-2007, 20:50
ask a sherpa
aaroniguana
07-31-2007, 21:12
Meditation and iPod do not belong in the same sentence, much less paragraph.