Kinhin is a very important practice here. As Nyojo Zenji, Dogen Zenji's teacher, mentioned, the speed of kinhin is when you see a person who is doing kinhin from a distance, you don't see her movement, but one or two seconds later you see she has changed position. That kind of slow and soft movement is what I am speaking about. When you do kinhin with a very aware mind, you notice in everyday life we are always skipping that kind of space; we always get up and run immediately. Or, when you get up and stand straight, alone, immediately you hold onto something, or lean, or do something. I used to watch older peoples' kinhin. It has a very good feeling, you know. For young people, old peoples' walk is very uncertain, but when you get into their physical condition, their mind state, the step of their walk is very different from our unaware walking, which has no direction, which is a sort of spinning walk.
When you walk very slowly there are two feelings. If you are really awake and together from head to toe and are very contented, and know the energy and weight of your body, you don't wobble. You feel not only you are walking, but the world is walking with you. But at the edge of that, there is the sensation that still you are walking. Old people's walking is toward the certain object, and even wobbling they are moving to the object. Our wobbling is just wobbling. We don't know which direction we are walking.
I don't want to talk about what kind of sitting we are doing. I would like to sit with you, and you sit also and discover real understanding of what sitting is by youself. It's impossible to teach the meaning of sitting. Even if I speak, you won't believe it! Not because I speak wrong, but even if my talk is right, until you really believe so, experience it, and confirm it by yourself, you cannot believe it. I feel that Dogen is truly right, that sitting is the action to go into Buddha's world. Without having anything, just turn to Buddha's world. In other words, because you are Buddhas yourselves, so you can sit.
Some say Buddhism doesn't admit the existence of God. This is a very big question. Who knows? Who knows? If you say Buddhists don't decide one way or the other, maybe that is much closer to the truth. But I believe that a real Buddhist knows what God is, and does know peoples' minds, so there is no argument about what it means between sitting people and people who believe in God. Because sitting in shikan taza is not depending on human intellect. It is not just depending on the dynamics of this body only. Dharmakaya is not mere human body. Of course, a human body sitting there is complete proof that it happens. Nirmanakaya's existence is that. And Sambhogakaya as one whole is sitting in this way. In other words, when you sit, the cushion sits with you. If you wear glasses, glasses sit with you. Clothing sits with you. Your house sits with you. People who are moving around outside all sit with you. They don't take sitting posture! And it is not something you understand. It's indescribable. And yet, when you are experiencing sitting with all, that understanding, each is all there, and here with you.