Wild Journeying Way

In Wild Journeying Way, Alan Drengson discusses the benefits of meditative walking in wilderness, as experienced by him after decades of the practice, and as reflected in wilderness literature.

Both the walker and the wilderness benefit—the walker benefits by getting in touch with her inner nature, from which flow health and vitality, and the wilderness benefits from the protection of the walker, who has become a lover of wilderness.

To see Nature as it is depends on access to wilderness and to our own inner wild nature. Identity, awareness and place are networks of reciprocal relationships. When we are ecologically aware, we know that we need wild places in Nature to help us realize our wholesome wild energies.

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Lacking regular contact with wild nature in wilderness places, we get out of touch with our inner self. Our vitality and visionary capacities wane. We can become quite ill on several levels. Thoreau's way to wholeness—his prescription—is to walk every day for at least four hours.

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Muir saw that as we recover our wild self by sauntering in sacred places, we become deeply identified with these places as we come to know them. We become their lovers and defenders. Muir's own identification with wild places rings with authenticity. He realizes the ecological Self.

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Wild journeying ecstatically unifies us by movement and breathing in wilderness places. Like Muir, we find paradise in our daily lives. Core spiritual disciplines are not theories but active realizations of our source in the ecological Self. Thus, wild journeying is religious in the original sense of the word, which means the process of binding back to the source. When separated from this in urban life we suffer discord, conflict and sorrow. Wilderness and its preservation are necessary for the preservation and realization of whole humans as well as for its own inherent goodness. When we are fragmented, for whatever reason, we feel insecure, fearful and angry. We are unable to realize our aspiration for a perfect and complete way of being in the world, that is, for wholeness. We can get divided and over-developed in so many ways. Core spiritual teachings are practices for ongoing unification of ourselves to connect with our source in the world around us.

Drengson describes his simple technique:

The basic practice of wilderness walking, with harmonious breathing and set pace, can be learned by such techniques as full out breathing with audible exhalation through the mouth, followed by relaxed, smooth, deep inhalation through the nose. Vocalization is used to strengthen this unifying process. Each exhale is vocalized as "Ho!" These audible exhales are a soft resonating chant. Hours of sustained practice bring the best results.

Drengson mentions similar practices of meditative walking in various traditions around the world. I can add three to his list. Tom Brown Jr., who was raised in the Apache tradition, teaches "fox walking," a technique for walking in wilderness with expanded awareness. The benefits of fox walking, which are much the same as with Drengson's Wild Journeying Way, are described in these two items from The Tracker Magazine.

Quite similar is the "empty stepping" we do in taijiquan (t'ai chi), and apparently in other martial arts. This article by Roy Ashton describes both Apache fox walking and taiji empty stepping in detail. Meditative walking is also part of the Christian tradition. The form I am familiar with is labyrinth walking (adapted from the pre-Christian form), which is more of a spiritual meditation (rather than breath-based), however I find that the act of walking a labyrinth slowly, with one's spiritual awareness open, does slow and regulate the breathing. Of course labyrinth walking does not take place in wilderness, but can hearken back to it, as Drengson says:

Once we master the wild journeying way the wild can be found even in urban parks and gardens. By dwelling in wilderness places we see how to let the wild come back into daily life. We can bring the wisdom of the natural world home. Practicing the wild way removes our cultural blinders. It is the way of spontaneous creative wisdom and natural harmony. This spontaneous ongoing process of creation (cosmogenesis) is Nature's way. When we are whole, we fully participate in creating meaning and value. From this wholeness diverse and ecologically wise, place specific communities and cultures emerge. The world is richer as a result.

Drengson, Alan Rike, 1996. Wild Journeying Way. The Trumpeter 13(4): 183-196.
Read the full article at The Trumpeter.