Walking In Sixes

Walking. How many different kinds of walking are there? We’re going to explore that a bit more later but for now let’s consider two – well… really just one. One can either walk with others or alone. Imagine yourself walking with others - in town, in the city, in the country, or even in the mountains. What are you likely doing? Talking! Now, imagine yourself walking alone in any of those places. Same question – hopefully a different answer. In the first three settings you’re probably going to find people looking at you slightly askance if you are talking to yourself. Someone so long ago in my past that I can’t even remember who it was used to say “I was givin’ them the old hairy eye ball”. I think you know what I mean. Technically, you could probably get away with talking while walking alone in the mountains. Yet, I suspect (hope!) most of us would have the wherewithal to raise a reflective brow within a mile or two. So what does one do while walking alone in the mountains? Trick question! Anything they want to do – or nothing at all.

The sequence of events that created my preferred option for mental (i.e. non-verbal) activity while walking alone in the mountains is frankly, not the point of this post. So with your assumed consent I’ll skip that part and get only slightly more directly to the point. It turns out non-verbal chanting, i.e. to yourself, exclusively within the confines of your own cranium, silently – but make no mistake the target audience is the entire universe – is a great way to go. Recognize that there is a plethora of potential chants – everything from “Hi ya, hi ya, hi ya…” to “Hup, two, three, four…” to “The ants go marching one by one…”. You get the picture. Now, allow me to take a leap. Please leap along with me.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Familiar to you or not, we’re going there. For those familiar, please allow the pathetic abbreviated personal interpretation that follows to suffice (or, as always, you are free to write a comment directed at this post). For those not familiar with Om Mani Padme Hum, it is a mantra which Tibetan Buddhists believe when repeated to oneself silently or aloud invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. It is also said that all the teachings of Buddha are contained in this mantra. (These same words and more can be found at: http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/meaning-of-om-mani-padme-hung.htm if you want more information.)

For those of you that didn’t put enough personal effort into the leap we just took, what I’m suggesting here is that one could, when walking alone in the mountains, on say, a three day solo climb of Mount Wood (see previous post), choose to repeat this mantra to themselves more or less endlessly. It is said that repeating this mantra helps one to get centered. It turns out that being centered spiritually, mentally, and physically can be of great benefit when climbing in the high mountains. I had some sense of this as I headed out toward Mount Wood so I took to repeating this mantra in my head as I walked. The results were…, well…, wow!

It is helpful to imagine that there are lots of ways one can walk and chant this mantra. It could go like: ommanipadmehum – step with the right foot, ommanipadmehum – step with the left foot step, ommanipadmehum – step with the right foot, ommanipadmehum – step with the left foot. Repeat. I have to admit I never got there. It seemed a little too angsty when done quickly enough to make any kind of time while walking in the mountains. You know, sort of contrary to the intent of the entire exercise. It could go like: Om – step with the right foot, Mani – step with the left foot, Padme – step with the right foot, Hum – step with the left foot. Repeat. Or it could go like: Om – step left and right, Mani – step left and right, Padme – step left and right, Hum – step left and right. Repeat.

In my limited experience with chanting this mantra on this trip (really only almost every waking hour for three days), I found that how you chant, i.e. the cadence of chanting depends upon whether you are walking on the level, climbing, or descending. It also depends upon whether you’re walking fast or slow, and whether you are walking on dirt, grass, rock (scree, talus, boulders), or water (only sort of kidding…). Synchronizing the cadence of the mantra with your breathing is not only an option, but likely, and very beneficial. On a prolonged climb up a 45 degree talus covered slope at 11,000 feet it became:

Inhale lift and place left foot, exhale Om – step up.

Inhale lift and place right foot, exhale Mani – step up.

Inhale lift and place left foot, exhale Padme – step up.

Inhale lift and place right foot, exhale Hum – step up. Repeat.

During the first day, mostly on the trail and on modest grade, I’d get distracted by one thing or another and forget to chant. Then I’d find myself walking around a blind corner in tall pines with thick underbrush and the wind to my face, and suddenly I’d remember why I wanted to chant and I’d start up again.

This is the part where providing the reader a frame of reference would be helpful. I mentioned this in a previous post but I’ll briefly set the stage again. Taking a three day solo trip in the Beartooth Mountains was not in my comfort zone at the time. The Beartooths are aptly named. When hiking in the Beartooths it is common to see clowns carrying 44 Magnum revolvers with eight inch barrels. One also encounters many fairly normal looking hikers carrying bear spray – the US Forrest Service’s recommended bear deterrent. Occasionally one experiences a Zen master walking bare (pun totally intended). I know at least one Zen master and when walking in the Beartooths with him I don’t carry my bear spray either. But as I was going solo I thought I ought to start developing my Zen side. So I took up chanting. I also made occasional tobacco and cedar offerings in the spirit of Native American practices – to which I have had some exposure (perhaps the topic of another post at another time). I really am working my way toward the title of this post…

You’ll note that Om Ma-ni Pad-me Hum has six syllables. Recall that within these six syllables are all the teachings of Buddha. That makes pronouncing each syllable seem kind of important!

As an aside, I will admit that I found occasion to stretch this mantra to eight syllables: O-om Ma-ni Pad-me Hu-um. It just fit the situation. Remember all of this is going on quietly in my head. So no-one on the outside world was any the wiser. I don’t think it was demons or the dark side that brought this on and I don’t think I’ll face eternal damnation for this personal deviation from a practice that is thousands of years old. It’s just not the Buddhist way (Thank God! [smirk]).

As I said, on the first day I’d get interrupted, or I’d mispronounce the syllables, or I’d get distracted and get them out of order. By the second day, I was eight to twelve miles in to the back country, navigating my own way to the intended destination without the benefit of trails or cairns, not likely to see anyone at all, and needing all the support I could get to climb my way up 3,000 more feet of vertical and over thousands of acres of boulders, talus, scree, and delicate sub-alpine tundra to negotiate Mount Wood. It’s fair to say I was “in the moment”. By that time chanting the mantra was at least easy, if not totally automatic.

Breathing, chanting, stepping.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Climbing.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Navigating.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Being present.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Being grateful.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Not only becoming the little engine that could, but being elated to find a whole new way to engage with Mother Nature.

Om Ma-ni Pad-me Hum. Om Ma-ni Pad-me Hum. Walking in sixes.

Continue to follow if you are inquisitive - and have the time. Don’t if neither exists.

Regards,
JR