The first time I tried walking meditation, it was with a Soto Zen group, and I fell on my face—literally. My leg had fallen asleep during zazen, and I didn’t even make it one step before I hit the ground. Not great. And when I finally got my feet under me again, the other people in the room were moving so slowly that, at first, I wasn’t sure if we’d started or not.
The second time I tried it, I was at a Thich Nhat Hanh-style retreat in the woods. It turns out that Buddhists do walking meditation in all kinds of different ways. This time we walked outside in pairs, holding hands and pausing every so often at the sound of a mindfulness bell. (I know everyone paused because I, ever mindful, looked around each time to check.)
Then the third time was in a Rinzai Zen zendo, and when the bell rang, we practically broke into
