This Very Body

Meditation is normally thought of as a quiet, seated activity, and I have pursued formal meditation in the Zen style for some years. But I've always been interested in a more dynamic approach to meditation, posing the question "is it possible to do a Zen of movement, of activity?" What has encouraged me in this is the physical culture surrounding the meditative culture in Zen: the Zen or Japanese way of handling materials and expression, through the tea ceremony, gardening, poetry, art and so on. I have also been influenced in this by my love for martial and movement arts. The way of expressing wisdom in these movement arts is often limited and rudimentary, where Zen has a whole vocabulary of meaning available to those willing to delve. So I will do a somewhat cheeky thing: I shall beg, borrow and steal the wisdom of Zen, and then use it illuminate our life of movement and activity. I have been encouraged in this further by writings of some of the Zen masters ...