Hiking Zen: Train Your Mind in Nature by Zen Monks Brother Phap Xa and Brother Phap Luu

Transform every hiking trail into a walking meditation with Hiking Zen, a groundbreaking guide from Brother Phap Xa and Brother Phap Luu of Blue Cliff Monastery. Born from their profound seven-week mindful retreat on the Appalachian Trail, this meditation book invites you to discover the joy of sensory awakening through each step, turning outdoor adventures into opportunities for deep peace, healing, and connection with the living world around you.

“The mind can go in a thousand directions,
but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.
With each step, the wind blows.
With each step, a flower blooms.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh

Hiking Zen offers something rarely found in Appalachian trail books—a complete reframing of what it means to walk in nature. Rather than viewing hiking as physical challenge or personal achievement, these zen monks guide you toward experiencing the trail itself as teacher, healer, and gateway to profound presence.

Brother Phap Xa and Brother Phap Luu share wisdom gleaned from leading multi-week mindful hiking retreats, where participants learn that pain, anxiety, and despair need our attention to transform—not our phones or distractions. This approach makes Hiking Zen stand apart from typical books about Appalachian trail hiking that focus solely on logistics and endurance.

Each page invites you to engage all your senses fully. Feel the earth supporting each footfall. Notice wind touching your skin. Hear the countless voices of the forest speaking in bird song, rustling leaves, and flowing water. These aren’t romantic ideals but concrete mindfulness practices that generate measurable inner and outer peace, practices you can carry from wilderness trails into daily life.

The book serves as what the authors call a “mobile monastery”—wisdom you can slip into your pack and access whenever you need reminding that the path itself is the destination. Through personal narratives of monastic life at Blue Cliff Monastery and practical exercises for the trail, you learn how connection with nature supports both personal resilience and collective healing.

Whether you’re an experienced hiker seeking deeper meaning on familiar paths or someone just discovering the transformative power of mindful walking, this buddhist book meets you exactly where you are. The practices don’t require perfect conditions or pristine wilderness—they work on urban walking paths, neighborhood parks, or anywhere you can take conscious steps on this beautiful earth.

Hiking Zen belongs in the Plum Village shop tradition of offering tools that support genuine practice rather than mere consumption. These zen monks aren’t selling you an experience—they’re inviting you to wake up to the miracle already present in every step you take.

Key Takeaways / Transformative Benefits

• Transform Hiking into Walking Meditation: Learn concrete practices that turn every trail into an opportunity for peace, joy, and belonging, discovering how each step can be a return to presence and sensory awakening
• Heal Through Nature Connection: Understand how mindful presence with pain and discomfort—rather than distraction—creates the conditions for genuine transformation and emotional resilience in both wilderness and daily life
• Carry Practice Everywhere: Integrate actionable mindful walking techniques into your everyday routines, extending trail wisdom into work commutes, neighborhood walks, and all movement through the world

The Context and Origin

Hiking Zen grows directly from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on mindful walking and our fundamental non-separation from nature. Brother Phap Xa and Brother Phap Luu, both trained in the Plum Village tradition, bring decades of monastic practice to their exploration of wilderness as spiritual path. In a revealing interview on PlumVillage.org titled “Hiking Zen: Bringing all our Senses to Life,” the brothers share how their seven-week Appalachian Trail retreat revealed hiking’s profound potential for awakening when approached with full attention and open hearts.

Begin Your Mindful Trail Journey – Add Hiking Zen to your cart and discover how every step on every path becomes an opportunity for peace, healing, and deep connection with our living Earth.

Hiking Zen offers:

• concrete mindfulness practices to explore outside for peace, joy, and belonging
• actionable steps to weave mindful walking into the fabric of daily life
• nuggets of wisdom gleaned from leading multi-week mindful hiking retreats
• personal narratives of the monastic path
• insight into how connection with nature supports resiliency and collective and personal health and well-being