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I have friends who suggest anything they really like doing is a spiritual practice.<\/p>\n
When they\u2019re not just being cute or ironic, as some of my friends do, the principle they seem to rely upon for this assertion is that such things as knitting, bowling, cooking, all involve concentration and at best, perhaps, an achieving of a sense of \u201coneness\u201d with the object of their concentration.<\/p>\n
I have little argument with such observations, and indeed many of the so-called Zen arts such as tea ceremony and archery are just such joining of action and attention.<\/p>\n
But there is another spiritual practice that has no goal, no purpose other than just being.\u00a0In my life this is mainly encountered on the meditation pillow. And I know it can take many forms, possibly even in knitting, cooking, and bowling.<\/p>\n
One must be careful, however. It\u2019s easy to miss the real value in the practice. The difference between what might best be called a \u201cconcentration meditation\u201d and what might be called \u201cobjectless meditation\u201d might at first seem subtly different spiritual practices. Maybe even too subtle. But its not.<\/p>\n
Our Zen ancestor Eihei Dogen addressed this in his \u201cGenjo koan<\/a>\u201d essay, where he says \u201cWhen the self advances toward the ten thousand things, is delusion. When the ten thousand things advance to the self, that\u2019s awakening.\u201d If we mix our self up too much into the matter, it taints our experience. If we\u2019re open, many doors also open.<\/p>\n So, an open hearted knitting or bowling or cooking can do the trick. But, it may be a little more difficult than just sitting down, shutting up, and paying attention. Or, just walking. And here I\u2019m more thinking about how well objectless meditation works with walking.<\/p>\n The great Unitarian Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau\u2019s primary spiritual discipline appears to have been \u201csauntering.\u201d It sure looks a lot like this openness to reality that is at the heart of Zen sitting, an authentic objectless meditation practice. In his essay \u201cWalking\u201d printed in the Autumn of 1862 in the Atlantic, not long after his death we are given Thoreau\u2019s focused reflection on sauntering as a spiritual discipline.<\/p>\n There he points out what comes to us when we let go of our expectations, hopes and fears. Near the end of that essay Thoreau writes \u201cWe walked in so pure and bright a light, gilding the withered grass and leaves, so softly and serenely bright, I thought I had never bathed in such a golden flood, without a ripple or a murmur to it. The west side of every wood and rising ground gleamed like the boundary of Elysium, and the sun on our backs seemed like a gentle herdsman driving us home at evening.\u201d<\/p>\n And at the end he sums it all up, returning to the metaphor of walking toward the Holy Land. \u201cSo we saunter toward the Holy Land, till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than e\u2019er he has done, shall perchance shine into tour minds and hearts, and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light, as warm and serene and golden as on a bankside in autumn.\u201d<\/p>\n For Thoreau\u2019s full essay on Walking, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n