Hiking with a heavy pack, it’s easy to slip into a mindless one-foot-after-another, not really noticing everything that’s passing by. Some find this to be a zone of quieting the mind. For me, I try to resist it, and resist it with all my might. Yes, the mind can become quiet, but it must then be filled with some kind of content. And the content I seek is the world around—nature; society. If my mind slips away from this, what it perceives is not really for me or anyone really, but only kind of me. I seek insight. Into the world around. And that means staying present, staying awake to what is moving by, moving through. Not greedily grasping, but staying with—with a focussed then open attention. This is the difference. And so walking with heavy pack, or any labour really, can be a good training for this—a good training of constantly bringing one’s self back.