More than a hundred of us slowly ascend the steep asphalt road that leads to the top of a mountain overlooking Deer Park Monastery, a 400-acre Buddhist monastic community in Escondido. We walk in silence, accompanied only by the sound of our footsteps and the birdsong emanating from the surrounding chaparral. Our pace is slow and steady as we focus on coordinating our breathing with our steps.
Periodically, the petite nun leading the day’s walking meditation — enveloped in long brown robes and a Vietnamese straw hat called a Nón lá — pauses to gaze around her. We pause, too. When she begins walking, we begin walking. As we flow in a steady stream up the hill, I experience fleeting moments when it feels like my consciousness melts into the collective consciousness around me.
Once we reach the top, however, individuality reasserts itself, and everyone branches off to explore or rest among the trees. Some visit a statue of Buddha that sits on a pedestal at the base of a rock outcrop. Others spread out along the cliffside, admiring the expansive views. A few disappear down some steps leading to a small stupa, or Buddhist shrine, perched on the side of the mountain. Soon, however, we all begin funneling back down the road as silently as we arrived.
Practicing mindful walking, individually or in a group like this, is the foundation of “Hiking Zen,” a guide to practicing mindfulness on the trail. Published in May 2025, the book was written by two Buddhist monks, Phap Luu and Phap Xa, who were ordained and trained by the late Vietnamese Zen Master Thick Nhat Hanh — widely credited with bringing ancient Buddhist mindfulness practices to the West and making them accessible.
As a long-time hiker who has also practiced yoga for much of my adult life, I find the idea of combining mindfulness meditation with hiking hard to resist. After all, practicing mindfulness means to be fully aware in the present moment, focused on what you’re feeling and sensing, without any judgment. It’s about being open and curious. What better way to experience nature?
Plus, multiple studies have shown that regular mindfulness practice provides profound physical and mental health benefits, including reducing anxiety, depression and stress; lowering blood pressure; reducing physical pain while also increasing pain tolerance; and improving memory, decision-making and sleep.
In addition, spending time in nature has its own slew of physical and mental health benefits, including reducing anxiety and stress; improving mood; enhancing concentration, working memory and problem-solving; boosting creativity and immune function; accelerating healing; and strengthening environmental connection.
One of the book’s authors, Phap Luu, has been teaching at Deer Park since 2020, and I’ve come to the monastery to talk with him about “Hiking Zen.” He tells me that he and his co-author Phap Xa didn’t initially set out to write a book. As nature lovers and longtime hikers and backpackers themselves, they simply wanted to develop a retreat that incorporated the elements of their monastery-based retreats into a backpacking trip.
The result was a seven-week backpacking adventure along the Appalachian Trail, starting at another monastery in upstate New York and ending in Washington, D.C. Each week, a core group of monks, including Phap Luu and Phap Xa, took a separate group with them on the trail for five-day retreats.
The trip was such a success that they decided to not only do more hiking and backpacking retreats, but also to write a book that would act as a guide for others to organize similar retreats or to simply use the practices in their everyday lives.
Throughout the book, the authors provide guidance for applying the concepts in everyday life.
Here are some tips for incorporating mindfulness practices into your hikes:
Learn mindful breathing and mindful walking before hitting the trail
The first two chapters of “Hiking Zen” are devoted to these two practices because they are the foundation for everything else. “Breathing is the anchor that keeps us from drifting away on the current of our thoughts when we walk,” the authors write.
The book provides exercises to help you practice mindful breathing and mindful walking, and there is also a free online course, “The Essentials of Mindful Living,” on Deer Park’s website that provides lessons in each. And, yes, there’s an app for that. The free Plum Village app includes guided meditations and other trainings.
Choose a hike without a destination
This is a tough one for hikers, who tend to be destination-oriented, but Zen hiking isn’t about reaching the waterfall or peak or whatever other destination you might set for yourself.
“Having a destination can be an impediment because of the habits we have around destinations,” explains Phap Luu, who made this discovery on a hiking retreat in Nepal. “When we were coming back from the Annapurna Base Camp, we noticed people weren’t as mindful of their step,” he says. “It kind of felt like, well, we’ve reached the destination, now it’s over.”
Choose places that are less frequented where there isn’t a particular destination and then use the practice of mindfulness to help you see the beauty in everything around you, advises Phap Luu.
Leave your AirPods at home
Another impediment to mindful hiking is closing yourself off to your surroundings by wearing AirPods or headphones. “You go out on a lot of trails, and you see people who are wearing AirPods, listening to music playlists. It becomes just about the physical challenge and not so much about the experience of listening, of smelling, of seeing,” he says. Mindfulness will come, he adds, by “taking out the AirPods, shutting off the playlist, and just really being with the natural playlist, right where you are.”
Use your five senses
Nature is the perfect place to tune into your five senses. While you’re walking, feel the sensation of your feet connecting with the soil or the warmth of the sun on your back. Listen to the sounds of a creek or birds singing. Look at the intricacy of a spider’s web or the glistening minerals in a rock. Smell the damp earth or the pungent aroma from a leaf of sage. Taste the salty sweat on your upper lip. “The main thing is to feel free to follow your own creativity, your own spirit of curiosity and experimentation,” says Phap Luu. “You should feel curious about life and the wonders of life in us and around us.”
Don’t walk and talk
One of the practices Phap Luu says they have implemented in their retreats is no talking while walking. “It’s very difficult to be aware of your breathing while you’re having a conversation,” he says. “I would say it’s impossible. Your mind is in the conversation, so you’re not really with your step or your breathing.”
That doesn’t mean you can’t have conversations during your hike. When you want to talk, simply stop and have your conversation, so you can fully focus on your conversation, he says.
Make every step count
One of my favorite practices in the book is called “Walking Between Trees.” It’s an exercise that Nhat Hanh would give young monks, says Phap Luu. You pick two trees some distance from each other. One tree represents the beginning of your life, the other tree represents the end of your life, and you practice walking from one to the other. “Would you rush to that tree knowing it’s the end of your life?” Phap Luu asks. “It’s a practice to enjoy arriving at every step.”
RESOURCES
Deer Park Monastery is one of three Buddhist monastic communities and mindfulness training centers in the U.S. that follow Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition of engaged Buddhism. On most Sundays, the monastery is open to the public for free “Day of Mindfulness” events, which generally include participating in a walking meditation, attending a Dharma talk, joining a Dharma sharing circle, and dining on a vegan lunch. They also offer a variety of retreats. The next mindfulness backpacking retreat is scheduled for March 1-7. Details were not available at press time, but will be posted on their website.
Deer Park Monastery, 2499 Melru Lane, Escondido, CA 92026.