Walking Into Insights

"Every day, in the morning or evening, or both, take a walk in a safe and peaceful environment for less than an hour.  The can be a great fountain of youth.  Choose a place to walk that has no kind of disturbance.   Walking done in a work environment and when your mind is busy is different; it is not as nutritious as the walking you do for yourself in the morning or evening in a quiet, peaceful, and safe place."
-  Master Hua-Ching Ni, Entering the Tao, 1997, p. 135

"As I went walking
That ribbon of highway
I saw above me
The endless skyway
I saw below me
The lonesome valley
This land was made for you and me."
- Woody Guthrie, This Land is Your Land

Walking - Quotations. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

The Spirit of Gardening.  Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

"Our philosophies must be rewritten to remove them from the domain of words and "ideas," and to plant their roots firmly in the earth."
- William Vogt


"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."
- Tung-Shan

Nature and Our Awareness, Interactions, Insights, and Wholeness

 

Nature and Spirituality: A Bibliography
The Natural World and Our Awareness, Interaction, Insights, Wholeness

By Michael P. Garofalo

Readings about bringing natural settings more into our lives, having a deeper appreciation and love for the natural world, finding inspiration and profound experiences while immersed in a natural setting, spiritual retreats a quests into Nature, learning more about our bodies, nature mysticism, and finding spiritual insights with a deep involvement with the natural world.

Manifestos for the Green Movement!

Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth.  Edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee.  2021, 259 pages. EBook. VSCL.

Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery. By Mark Coleman. New World, 2006, 231 pages. VSCL.

An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming. By Al Gore. Vintage, 2007, 192 pages. VSCL.

Silent Spring. By Rachel Carson. 1962, 400 pages. VSCL.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. By Robin Wall Kimmerer. Milkweed, 2013, 394 pages. VSCL.

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. By David Abram. Vintage, 1967, 368 pages. VSCL.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. By Annie Dillard. 2007, 302 pages. VSCL.

Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as a Spiritual Guide. Carl Von Essen. Bear, 2010, 288 pages. VSCL.

Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: Practicing Deep Ecology. By Bill Deval. Gibbs-Smith, 1988, 232 pages. VSCL.

Walden. By Henry David Thoreau. 1854, 400 pages, Annotated. VSCL.

Buddhism. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

Nature Mysticism. By John Edward Mercer. 2012, 271 pages. EBook. VSCL.

Gardening - Quotations. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World. By Karen Armstrong. Anchor, 2022, 197 pages.

Reconnect with Mother Nature: Awaken Your Higher Consciousness. By Alwynn Emerson. Soothsayer, 2023, 231 pages.

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise and Respected Persons

Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth. By Randy Woodley. Broadleaf, 2022, 256 pages.

Walking Outdoors - Quotations. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

The Sky and the Earth Touched Me: Sharing Nature Wellness Exercises. By Joseph Cornell. Crystal Clarity, 2014, 144 pages.

Meditations of John Muir: Nature's Temple. Wilderness Press, 2001, 168 pages.

Modern Druidry. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations from Around the World. By Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. 2009, 480 pages.

Virtue Ethics. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

If Trees Could Talk: Life Lessons from the Wisdom of the Woods. By Holly Worton. 2022, 296 pages.

Listen to Nature: Living in Harmony with the Earth. By Sri Chinmoy. 2021.

Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong Done Outdoors. By Michael P. Garofalo.

The Wisdom of Wilderness: Experiencing the Healing Power of Nature. By Gerald G. May. 2007, 224 pages.

The Five Senses - Quotations. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

The Great Conversation: Nature and the Care of the Soul. By Belden C. Lane. Oxford University Press, 2019, 344 pages.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred. By Victoria Loorz. Broadleaf, 2021, 262 pages.

Tao of Thoreau. By Mark J. Bozeman. 2022, 139 pages.

Taoism. Edited by Michael P. Garofalo.

Yearning for the Wild: Celtic Reflections on Nature and the Soul. By Tom Cowan and Sandra Ingerman. New World, 2003, 208 pages.

Wild Wisdom: Zen Masters, Mountain Monks and Rebellious Eccentrics Reflect on the Healing Power of Nature. By Neil Douglas-Klotz and M. Amos Clifford. Hampton Rhodes, 2021, 202 pages.

Simplicity. By Nancy Braithwaite. 2014, 296 pages.

Looking to Nature: Exploring a Modern Way of Being Spiritual Without the Supernatural. By Todd Macalister. 2020, 149 pages.

Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered. By Bill Deval and George Sessions. Gibbs-Smith, 2007, 280 pages. VSCL. 

Tending To the Sacred: Rituals to Connect with Earth, Spirit, and Self. 2021, 273 pages. FVRL.

Deep Ecology for the Twenty-first Century: Readings in the Philosophy and Practice of the New Environmentalism. 1995, 520 pages.

Journeys of Simplicity: Traveling Light with Thomas Merton, Basho, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard and Others.  Edited by Philip Hamden. Skylight, 2007, 144 pages.

Nature Mysticism. Edited by Michael P. Garofalol.

Two Winters in a Tipi: My Search for the Soul of the Forest. By Mark Warren. Lyons, 2012, 264 pages.

Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us Into the Sacred. By Victoria Loorz. 2021, 245 pages.

VSCL  Valley Spirit Center Library. My home library and books I own.

Walking on a Drizzling Morning

My dog, Bruno, and I walk every morning for 45 to 60 minutes.  We walk in our suburban neighborhood in Vancouver, Washington State. The autumn season can bring cool morning temperatures between 45F to 55F, overcast skies, fog, dampness, and rain.  We wear warm clothes and try to stay dry. 

I began my daily morning walks in 1998.

"I was the world in which I walked."
-   Wallace Stevens, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon

"Allow walking to occupy a place of stature equal with all the other important activities in your life. As difficult as that might seem, here's how to do it. Make it a practice. That's right. Turn your walking into a vehicle for personal growth as well as for fitness. This will add a higher level of integrity and intention to your approach because you will find that it is a way to deepen and upgrade your relationship to your body. Instead of merely giving your legs a good workout, you'll be practicing to relax more, to breathe better, to expand your vision, to open up your range of motion, to increase your energy, to feel and sense your body. The list is exciting - and endless. With all of this to look forward to, your walking program will take its place alongside everything in your life you value most, and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to schedule time for something you really love to do."
- Katherine Dreyer, Chi Walking, p. 56

 

Chi Walking: The Find Mindful Steps for Lifelong Health and Energy. By Danny Dreyer and Katherine Dreyer. New York, Simon and Shuster, Fireside Books, 2006. Index, 258 pages. ISBN: 0743267206.


"Walking I am unbound, and find that precious unity of life and imagination, that silent outgoing self, which is so easy to loose, but which a high moments seems to start up again from the deepest rhythms of my own body. How often have I had this longing for an infinite walk - of going unimpeded, until the movement of my body as I walk fell into the flight of streets under my feet - until I in my body and the world in its skin of earth were blended into a single act of knowing."
- Alfred Kazin, The Open Street

"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."- Tung-Shan

 

     "Walking meditation means to enjoy walking without any intention to arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere. We just walk. We enjoy walking. That means walking is already stopping, and that needs some training. Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go somewhere. Walking is only a means to an end, and that is why we do not enjoy every step we take. Walking meditation is different. Walking is only for walking. You enjoy every step you take. So this is a kind of revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy every step you take.
     The Zen master Ling Chi said that "the miracle is not to walk on burning charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk on earth." You breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that we are here, alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a miracle. But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be possible. We have to bring ourselves back to the here and the now."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Resting in the River

 

The Ways of Walking: Quotations, Facts, Methods, Spirituality, Meditative

• Ways of Walking
• Walking Meditation
• Walking Quotations
• Walking Bibliography
• Circle Walking: Bagua
• Walking the Labyrinth
• Garden Walking
• Walking Qigong
• Walking Staff   

Walking Meditation: When Walking is Only for Walking

"Walking meditation means to enjoy walking without any intention to arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere.  We just walk. We enjoy walking. That means walking is already stopping, and that needs some training.  Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go somewhere. Walking is only a means to an end, and that is why we do not enjoy every step we take. Walking meditation is different. Walking is only for walking. You enjoy every step you take. So this is a kind of revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy every step you take.
The Zen master Ling Chi said that the miracle is not to walk on burning charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk on earth. You breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that we are here, alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a miracle.  But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be possible. We have to bring ourselves back to the here and the now."
-  Thich Nhat Hanh, Resting in the River


Walking Meditation:  Quotes, Bibliography, Links, Information, Methods


"Walking meditation is walking in full awareness of breath, body and everything the senses present.  It is not an aerobic exercise - though it would be a fine lead-in to aerobic walking.  Rather, walking meditation is done slowly and consciously, with each step fully feeling the earth.  During this precious time, body and mind come together, joined in the present moment.  Although the benefits of walking meditation will deepen over time, even from the start, you can experience some measure of the relaxation, balance and quiet energy that builds through this practice."
-  Ginny Whitelaw, Body Learning, p. 55.   


"Research conducted at Harvard Medical School’s Mind/Body Medical Institute has found that focused walking meditations are highly effective for reducing anxiety and producing  what’s called the “relaxation response.”
-  Borgess Health    


The Ways of Walking
Compiled by Mike Garofalo
Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Facts


"Walking meditation is not just for stretching our legs. It is a technique just as powerful as sitting. Within the Buddhist world there are many styles of walking meditation: the formal kinhin of Zen, the kaihogyo of Mt. Hiei, the rlung-sgom of Tibet, etc.
    Walk slowly but naturally. Try to register as much information as possible about the sensation in each foot as it moves. Break the movement into distinct components and note each one.  Distinguish the lifting, swinging and down-tread. Experience each change in tactile sensation against the floor as you lift and touch down. Try to feel the many tiny jerks of muscles involved in the foot's seemingly smooth motion. Try to see that each component and sub-component of the foot's motion has its own distinct beginning, middle and end.
    At first you may want to make explicit mental note of the components by saying to yourself something like "Begin lift, lifting, end lift, begin swing, swinging, end swing, begin coming down, coming down, begin touching ground, touching..." However, as you become more and more aware of subtle events, you will not have time to characterize each with words. In any event, keep an unbroken stream of awareness about the foot. If your attention wanders, be aware of that fact and return to the foot. Remember, it is very important to keep the rest of the body relaxed
while you do this.
    Our sense of solidity and separateness comes about because we habitually grasp and freeze each moment of sensation. The vipassana walking exercise is designed to so completely flood your consciousness with reality moments that there simply is no time left for grasping and freezing. As soon as a piece of data is registered, move on to the next piece of data without allowing the memory of the former piece of data to congeal."
-   Walking Meditation, Shinzen Young
  

 

 

Beachcombing near Bandon, Oregon

Raining all last night and most of the day. 
Cold and windy.  Heavily overcast gray day;
until the late afternoon.  

Explored the Bandon and Bullards Beach State Park areas of Oregon today.  

From my Yurt campsite, you can drive a mile or so out to the parking area at the north jetty.  The Coquille River enters the Pacific Ocean at this jetty.  There are many stone and earthen dykes far along both sides of the Coquille River to control flooding.  There are extensive tidal marshes extending farther inland.  

Here are three photos in the areas north of the jetty.  Lots of driftwood on the beach shores from high King Tides.  To the north, miles and miles of rolling big sand dunes covered with grasses, shrubs, and trees fed by high precipitation.  To the east, the Bandon Bridge, tidal marshes, and the coastal range.  

Bandon March National Wildlife Refuge.  A wide and long tidal marsh land-water environment. Tidal Marshland   I enjoyed a dine view of the tidal marsh lands near Rocky Point County Park, a few miles north of Bandon.  This year, from Bandon all the way notheast via road 42S to Coquille City, 30 miles, major flooding of the entire area was widespread and impressive in the fog.

Coquille River Photos

Bullards Beach State Park, Bandon     Photos

Bandon Bridge Photos

Bandon Photos

Bandon City - Information  

South Jetty State/County Park

Four Days in Grayland  

The Jetty as Metaphor
The Sandwich
Anjali Mudra and Bowing
Gassho, Tai Chi Chuan Salute

Waves of Reflections at the North Jetty
By Michael P. Garofalo
January 2023

In 2023, I will be studying the books by Deng Ming-Dao.

Taoism

Bandon, Oregon, Discoveries

Explored the Bandon and Bullards Beach State Park areas of Oregon today. It was sunny, cool, and not windy.  Started to cloud up in the evening.    

From my Yurt campsite, you can drive a mile or so out to the parking area at the north jetty.  The Coquille River enters the Pacific Ocean at this jetty.  There are many stone and earthen dykes far along both sides of the Coquille River to control flooding.  There are extensive tidal marshes extending farther inland.  

Here are three of my photographs in the areas north of the jetty.  Lots of driftwood on the beach shores from high King Tides.  To the north, miles and miles of rolling big sand dunes covered with grasses, shrubs, and trees fed by high precipitation.  To the east, the Bandon Bridge, tidal marshes, and the coastal range.  

Bandon March National Wildlife Refuge.  A wide and long tidal marsh land-water environment. Tidal Marshland   I enjoyed a dine view of the tidal marsh lands near Rocky Point County Park, a few miles north of Bandon.  This year, from Bandon all the way notheast via road 42S to Coquille City, 30 miles, major flooding of the entire area was widespread and impressive in the fog.

Coquille River Photos

Bullards Beach State Park, Bandon     Photos

Bandon Bridge Photos

Bandon Photos

Bandon City - Information  

South Jetty State/County Park

Four Days in Grayland  

Here are more photographs from others:

The Jetty as Metaphor
The Sandwich
Anjali Mudra and Bowing
Gassho, Tai Chi Chuan Salute

Waves of Reflections at the Bandon Jetty
By Michael P. Garofalo
January 2023

In 2023, I will be studying the books by Deng Ming-Dao.

Taoism

Sitting Becomes Tiresome

A typical American watches and average of 34 hours of television each week.  A few people don’t watch television and, of course, many people watch television more than 40 hours a week.  Neilsen surveys report that children aged 2-11 watch over 24 hours of TV per week, while adults aged 35-49 watch more than 33 hours a week. The average American watches more than five hours of television every day. Once we pass 65, the typical person watches more than seven hours a day.

 

Sitting and watching television for seven hours each day?? ... how tiresome.  And, sitting for long periods is very bad for your health.  Even more, most television programs and their incessant commercials are, for me, just boring, repetitious, and tiresome. 

So, a secret revealed:  You will get, on the average, 21 hours of “free” time every week by not sitting and watching more than 2 hours of television each day.  Even better, turn off your television for a month and you will get 136 hours of free time in that month.  And, another benefit is that by not sitting you will improve your health. 

"A monk asked Hsiang Lin, "What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?"
Hsiang Lin said, "Sitting for a long time becomes tiresome."

-  The Blue Cliff Record, Case 17, Translated by Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary, 2005, p 110


Standing Meditation

Walking Meditation

Gardening

Taijiquan Moving Meditation