The meditation walk
At Björkö-Arholma Kyrkogård (cemetery)
Walking meditation, sometimes known as Kinhin, is a practice within several forms of Buddhism that involve movement and period of walking between long periods of sitting meditation.
This is a shorter version and a looser version of Kinhin.
First a walk from BKN to Björkö-Arholma Kyrkogård, and then back again. Approximately 3,2 km back and forth.
As you arrive to the cemetery, the person who leads give instructions and read the following poem that is to be read in Swedish when one enter the cemetery.
- When entering the cemetery bow with your hands together.
- Go to your seat on the ground and wait for the others to join.
- Facing and bow to the person you stand opposite to.
- Turn around and sit facing the other direction (to the grass) with your back towards each other. Place yourself comfortable for a 10 minutes’ meditation.
The person who leads make a sound/sign when the sitting meditation starts and ends, then everyone rise.
- Rise.
- Turn around and bow to the person now towards you again. (in front of you).
The person who leads start to walk and the other follows. Walk counter clock. Slowly you follow the person in front of you.
The posture when walking/doing Kinhin is:
- clench your right fist and hold it above your stomach, below your chest, the thumb should be inside your hand when you clench it.
- Then place your left hand over your right fist so it encloses.
- Keep your elbows out,
- straighten your back and
- keep your gaze slightly downwards a few meters in front of you. To the ground
.
In this walk, Kinhin last för 6 minutes. After 6 minutes go slowly to your seat and wait to stand until everyone is in place before bowing, turn around, sit comfortable and meditate for another 10 minutes.
When time is up,
- slowly stand up turn around,
- bow to the person in front of you and leave the cemetery quiet and in peace.
Take a session, maybe two and two on your way back to BKN. To discuss and share your impressions.
In 2024 this walk was performed by Elisabeth Billander on the 10 of September that is the World day of suicidal prevention.
"My body moves forward and my eyes frequently looking at both side of my path. Scanning for details in this new landscape.
My feet feel the ground of gravel, gras or forest.
My ears hear the sound of my feet walking, they hear the wind in the trees and a lot of small sounds.
My body embrace my breath and heart beat. I sweat.
Different scents reach my nostrils.
Theese impressions are pieces in the puzzle I am about to put together".
I found my way to the cemetery at my first day. I´m not sure why I was drawn in that direction.
The sign down the road and to be in a new context could have been the reason to walk in that direction, something about security to walk towards something, Anything.
During my first week it turned out that the cemetery became a supporting part in The Meditation Walk i later did with the others.
The Cemetery
The cemetery is the resting place of the dead,
a room of memories,
a field of God
Hallowed fence the grifts,
Careful hands
provide for care and adornment
Silence prevailed on this one
hallowed ground
Teach us to think
how few our days are
that we may escape wise hearts
Rowan Berries, Rose Hips, Juniper, Sea Buckthorns,
Crowberries .
During our joint walks I picked them.
I thread them as a meditation at first. as a proof of something and to materialise the steps my body took each day.
BACKGROUND
I came to BKN and WAP2024 with the idea that I never used walking as an artistic practice before.
My background is from the crafts field and ceramic art, sculpture and installations. I am a processedbased artist, interested in site specific processes and ideas. And I do a lot of walking.
It took me 5 days at Björkö to realize that I definately had used walking within my practice earlier, I just´t didn´t know about it.
I do a lot of walks and they give me comfort, awerness and ideas there are sometime useful.
I find something, see something, you know feel somethong unexpected That helps me get started in one or other direction.
The fact that I get impulses because my body moves and interact with the surroundings, nature, air, history and future at the same time, makes the walk a necessity for anything materialised to come into existing at all.
So here I was, finding my self being in exactly the right place, at the right time with the right people, to unfold the theme "Spaces of Anticipation", using Walking as an artistic methodology and practice.
Kinhin means in swedish to "walk through"as a tread in a loom. It is a Zen Buddhistic type of meditation which is carried out in the middle of a longer seated meditation, zazen.
As I read about it, I connected my urge of thread the berries, and reflections
I´ve had of the subject of my walking and the keyword; meditation, rythm,
steps, rosary came for my mind.
Walking as a method can be a way to explore , to observe and to immerse.
I struggled a lot with Walking as the central process and experience. I couldnt get rid of the idea of outcome.
Scetching/creating walk, the cemetery seemed like a good place to walk to.
It is a walk of approximately 1,5 km one way.
Once there I wanted to do a meditation walk at site.
To create a quitet space together for remember and
revere thoose who no longer are with us today.
Thoughts of death and possible unprocessed
grief work came to me unexpectedly during walksboth with other people and during moments of solitude.
It was not in my anticipation.
