​Adding Chan to Your Exercise: Q&A on Exercise and Chan Practice

Is it true that we can lessen the amount of soreness, and feel less tired and out of breath by applying the method of Chan practice while doing exercising? How do we synchronize our exercise experience with Chan practice? Let's find out with the following Q&A.

Q1: What is the connection between exercise and spiritual cultivation? How do they facilitate each other?


A: Sound health can help enhance our spiritual cultivation. Most meditation beginners start by learning how to harmonize their bodies, since good physical health facilitates the training of our mind.

Nowadays, the habitual sedentary lifestyle, combined with increasing reliance on electronic products, have made more and more people develop poor postures, leading to various physical problems over time. As a result, when people want to start their practice at a meditation hall, their bodies tend to suffer from all kinds of soreness, numbness, aching, and itching, thus rendering them hard to focus on the method they are using, as it may require a longer period of time for readjustment.

This situation is no exception for Chan practitioners, as many of them focus solely on static sitting and fail to balance it with practice in motion. Therefore, for proper Chan practice, in addition to sitting still in meditation, yoga exercises are also adopted to help people loosen up their muscles and bones, enhancing the flow of qi and blood. By doing so, people will experience fewer physical issues during their practice, in order to enhance the effectiveness of their sitting meditation practice, Buddha name recitation, and scripture reading.

Nowadays, many Buddhist practitioners choose yoga as an aid to their practice to help them become more aware of their body movements in the present while practicing yoga asanas and breathing techniques, as well as stretching their bodies. Some also take running as an aid to their Chan practice by focusing on their movement in the here and now, and maintaining aware and reflective of their body and mind. If we can successfully apply the method while in motion, then we can certainly better synchronize our body and mind with the method when returning to our effort to practice while in stillness.

As it can be observed, Chan practitioners experienced in long-distance running or marathons tend to have a higher tolerance for various kinds of physical pain during sitting meditation. This is because they have built up strength and willpower through exercise.

Q2: What is the difference between Chan running and marathon? 


A: Chan running incorporates the concepts and methods of Chan practice into the act of running. It mainly involves the essence of moving meditation: keep your mind where your body is; be clearly aware of the relaxation, and relax the whole body. First is to relax the body and mind. Through adjusting your breathing to match the rhythm of your movement during the running–in addition to harmonizing bodily actions, breaths, and thoughts–running becomes a way to cultivate the mind and achieve the union of body and mind, rather than as a mere running activity.

During Chan running, the mind should be clearly aware of (a) the rhythm of the body while running; (b) allowing the rhythm of breathing to match the rhythm of running; (c) maintaining awareness of the rhythm of running and breathing, as well as that of the body and mind. This is running with the method of Chan practice and how we can apply the idea of fast-walking meditation as practiced at a Chan hall into daily life.

Grasp the principle of clear awareness and relaxation, and simply experience your breathing and how to constantly return to your bodily sensations during the running, and you'll achieve concentration and stability. So, using running to enhance Chan practice not only helps keep our body to stay balanced and healthy, improving our fitness and stamina, but is also a training exercise for the mind.

In a time when competition and efficiency are highly esteemed, many office workers and students have picked up the habit of running either for the sake of their health, out of personal interest, or at the invitation of their peers. When participating in road running and marathon events, they more or less expect to break their personal best. Seeking to become faster, higher, and stronger, they tend to compare themselves with others, and can easily be subjected to worries about gain and loss, eventually suffering tremendous physical and mental pressure. This is far from the purpose of Chan running. It is not about comparing ourselves with others, being anxious about success or failure, gain and loss, but, rather, about running at the pace we feel most at ease, for maintaining inner peace and serenity.

Q3: What is the difference between Chan running and fast-walking meditation?

A: Fast-walking meditation is a method in the Chinese Chan tradition for practitioners to harmonize the body and mind by alternating between motion and stillness. For intensive Chan retreats, fast-walking meditation helps to relieve leg pain or drowsiness caused by the sitting, and is also a Dharma approach to adjusting the body and mind, thereby preventing practitioners from falling into an overly sedentary state due to long sitting. Meanwhile, the practice of fast-walking meditation can prompt practitioners to become more aware of their attachment within, to practice letting go of the body and mind, and not to cling to the quiet meditative calm and to their body. 

Practice fast-walking meditation by walking fast and barefoot in the Chan hall or outdoor space in a clockwise circle. Start with a natural walking pace, and then speed up steadily, with the whole body swaying naturally to the tempo and the torso leaning forward slightly. Then, accelerate gradually by taking small steps with only the forefeet touching the ground. To begin with, focus on the whole body, being clearly aware of each step. As the pace increases, have only one thought in mind – "Fast!"

In contrast to "running," fast-walking meditation is "brisk walking" with both hands hanging down and swaying in a natural way, while your heels don't touch the ground. When your heels pound the ground making a "bam bam bam" noise, that means you are not doing it correctly. Instead, simply walk with small steps and at a fast pace.

The principle and method for Chan running is the same as that for fast-walking meditation. However, Chan running can be practiced in any open spaces, and requires wearing well-fitting sneakers to avoid knee injuries or other sports injuries. For the posture of Chan running, hold loose fists, bend the elbows and let the arms swing back and forth in synchronization with the running pace. Run with an appropriate stride, at a comfortable pace, and without gasping for breath. While running, constantly direct the awareness to your bodily sensations, and practice clear awareness, relaxation, and concentration.

Q4: What obstacles do runners usually face and how to cope with them?

A: The bottlenecks encountered while running can be divided into two categories. One is the physical reactions during the running, such as poor breathing, full-body soreness and aches, low stamina, and even sports injuries. These issues can be improved as long as runners have a correct understanding of the running method, and supplement training with adequate rest.

A second is the motivation for running, which is a fundamental issue. When you feel like giving up running, try to remember why you wanted to start in the first place. You can overcome this bottleneck by recalling your initial motivation, asking yourself the question of how you regard running, and contemplating the benefits of running.

In addition, peer power, or the power of group practice, can also help us overcome the urge to quit. Or, we can simply look at the thought of quitting as a deluded thought and practice ignoring it, and meanwhile keep returning our attention to the method and the bodily sensations.

Q5: Is achieving a flow state or a sort of zone during running equal to entering meditative concentration?


A: Some runners enter a certain state of mind when engaged in long-distance running. In that state of mind, runners immerse themselves fully in the present activity that they're engaged in, as if all the external circumstances did not exist. They may feel as though their actions and consciousness become one, and that their body becomes so light that the running, whether going uphill or downhill, is not strenuous at all. They can achieve an extraordinary performance while feeling as if time has passed in the blink of an eye. Some people refer to runners in such a state as "having runner's high" or "being in the zone," while scholars refer to it as a "flow" experience.

As Ven. Huimin (惠敏法師), President of Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA), noted, "flow experience" is a term proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago in 1975. Through in-depth interviews with highly creative and accomplished people in various fields of life, Professor Csikszentmihalyi and his students discovered that these people shared one trait in common: they found joy and sustained satisfaction in the activities they engaged in, and thereby entered a state of "flow."

According to research, people are more likely to have "flow experience" while engaging in physical and mental activities such as rock climbing, ball games against a comparable opponent, running, yoga, tai chi, or sitting meditation. Many runners who have had such experiences may not be Buddhists; however, through the practice of running they naturally entered the so-called "unified state" in Buddhist terms, rather than by means of sitting meditation. They do not understand the reason behind it, nor do they know how to benefit themselves with this method; they only know that running for an extended period of time can enable them to achieve this state of being.

For people experienced in Chan practice, if they can make good use of the method of Chan practice—that is, keeping their body and mind relaxed and their attention constantly focused on the present movement, while maintaining a clear awareness of their body and mind–they will develop positive emotions such as joy, happiness, and Dharma delight. As they become more skilled in concentration and more effective in using the method, their state of mind can progress from being focused to being unified, with their body and mind going from being coarse and heavy to being light and at ease. This can in turn enhance their skill of concentration. Thus, the "sense of lightness and ease" and the "skill of concentration" can mutually reinforce each other, creating a virtuous cycle, while also serving as a way to enter "the zone."

Q6: What exercises are suitable for monastic members, and what are not appropriate? Why is that?


A：For the sake of their own spiritual cultivation, for propagating the Dharma to benefit sentient beings, and for introducing people to Buddhist practice, Buddhist monastics nowadays are usually so busy with all kinds of Dharma services, group practices, and courses that they simply cannot help but to involuntarily ignore their own health.

As Master Sheng Yen often said, when we sit in meditation, although our body and limbs are not in motion, our circulatory system, digestive system, and endocrine system are actually "working out," which also counts as exercise. In addition, monastic practices such as prostrating to the Buddha, walking meditation, and prostrating pilgrimage are most suitable exercises for Buddhist monks. Some monasteries also teach Tai-chi and yoga. These all revolve around the principle of "holding onto stillness while in motion, and calmly carrying out the motion while in stillness." The DDM Eight-form Moving Meditation, developed by Dharma Drum Mountain Meditation Center, is also meant to help monastic and lay practitioners to strike a balance between motion and stillness, as well as to release bodily and mental tension through physical exercises and methods of Chan practice.

Exercises such as stretching, walking, running, yoga, martial arts, and cycling are suitable forms of fitness training for monastics, which can also enhance their aspiration for the Path.

For sports such as basketball, soccer, swimming, archery and horseback riding, Master Sheng Yen once mentioned in the Great Dharma Drum TV program that they are more intense and often involve physical confrontations, so the players are prone to have an aggressive mindset, often reflected in their actions and even shown in their facial expressions. These forms of "exercise" can compromise monastic demeanor and thus are not suitable for Buddhist monks. The Master emphasized that monastics should be aware of their demeanors; they're required to act differently from the laity in terms of movement, bearing, and norms. Nonetheless, the Master did not oppose monastics engaging in gentle, non-intensive sports, such as badminton.



Related articles:

Toning the Body and Strengthening the Mind – Exercise and Chan

​Adding Chan to Your Exercise: Q&A on Exercise and Chan Practice

Let's Practice Chan Running

Walking with the Method – Chan Walking


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Resource: Issue 423 of Humanity  Magazine, Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation
Translation: Sinag-ling Li (李祥苓)
Editing: Keith Brown, Chia-Cheng Chang (張家誠)