The great wonder is not to fly up to the moon, but to walk down on earth.
Michel Bovay
Kinhin is practiced between to Zazen units. It is walking in the rhythm of one’s breath. Just as in Zazen, concentration on every point and aspect of the posture is essential. During Kinhin, the thumb of the left hand is enclosed into the left hand, the thumb’s root presses against the solar plexus. The right hand envelops the left hand. The forearms are kept in a horizontal position parallel to the floor, the shoulders are relaxed. The back is straight, the chin pulled back, the neck is straightened, and glance goes down in a 45° angle. During the exhalation one presses the root of the big toe of the foot in front into the ground, the knee is fully straightened. Just like in Zazen the exhalation is profound, long, without noise and powerful. It produces an expansion below the navel and creates great stability in the posture. At the end of the exhalation the body relaxes, the inhalation sets in all naturally, and at the same time one does half a step forwards. Kinhin develops within us a posture and an attitude of great dignity and noblesse. The repeated practice of Kinhin, just like Zazen, influences our life and gifts us with balance and uprightness in all our daily actions. In a Dojo the basic postures are taught, which become the source of all actions in everyday life, like sitting, standing, lying down – it is to come back to the source and to recreate one’s life from this source. Like this, everything becomes the fruit of Zen.