How To Do Walking Meditation

Walking meditation is a wonderful practice, as we are moving while in a meditative state, bringing in more of our senses to experience in the meditation. There are many benefits and insights to be gained in practicing walking meditation.

Transcript

So Raz, You had asked if I could talk a little bit about walking meditation. So walking meditation is very, Very much a part of the Theravada Buddhist tradition and walking meditation is a nice balance between the sitting meditation. There's many benefits to walking meditation. One is that our eyes are open and because our bodies are moving but very, Very slowly. So as we do walking meditation, Typically you have about a 30-foot path that you would be walking on. So if you have a space somewhere where it's roughly, I mean roughly 25-30 feet and as you walk, You really feel, You're feeling your heel lifting off, You know, Your toes lifting off, Moving through space as your heel comes down, Right, And presses down again. Going so slowly as each foot is coming up, Lifting off the ground, Pressing back down, Both feet firmly on the ground until the next foot comes up. And as you're doing this, So there's a lot of insights we can gain through walking meditation. A lot going on here because there'll be that temptation to want to walk quickly, Right? Isn't this our MO? We always want to get somewhere faster, Save time, I'm winning, I'm winning the clock today, Right? So you notice that impulse to want to, Ah, To kind of get there closer and you slow down again. So you're moving but very, Very slowly. Your hands can just be resting, Kind of, You can put your hands together resting in front of you, Have them by your side, And your eyes just cast down at about a 45-degree angle. So you're not looking around at everything, You're just kind of looking at about a 45-degree angle. And as you get to the end, Right, We want to spin around, Get going the other way. It's like very slowly as you kind of, I'll usually take like four steps to kind of come around to the other side to do 180-degree turn. And then even just standing, Pausing for a moment before the next step comes up again. It's a really good practice for us because we're so used to wanting to race to the next thing. And I think it really integrates a lot of our practice that we're doing, A lot of the sitting meditation then with our mindfulness outside of the sitting mindfulness, Right? The walking meditation is such a great practice to help us kind of bring in that the eyes are open, The body is moving, But we're in that meditative state and going so slowly, So, So slowly as you take each step. You know, Hear the sounds and you might notice something in the pathway, You notice your eyes falling upon it, But not labeling it, Not getting lost in it. And you might notice that for a moment, You just bring it back. So really good at integrating using some of our other senses in a more meditative way. And also, But always, Always as well, Rasa, And to anyone that's practicing walking meditation. And I do encourage it, It's a fabulous, It's a wonderful practice. Also, Because if you do a lot of sitting for anyone who's done Vipassana retreats, You meditate for 10 hours a day, But it's alternating, Usually about an hour. The ones I've done is an hour sitting and then 30 minutes walking and then an hour sitting and 30 minutes walking. So it also is good for our body because we need to get our circulation flowing. So we still have that meditative state, But we also get some circulation going in our body as well, Which is important because the mind needs to be alert for meditation. So it's also nice for that. So as well, Maybe you want to meditate, But your body's really sore. Maybe you've been sitting at a desk all day, Or you just got off of a long flight, Or you've been driving somewhere. And so you think, Oh, I don't want to sit. I need a little bit of movement, Or at least don't want to be sitting. I mean, You're not going to be getting your heart rate up with walking meditation, But you are moving your body, You are moving your legs, And you're not sitting. So there is a little bit of circulation happening. And so it's a really good practice. And also if you are just feeling particularly tired, Right, That sometimes if we're meditating sitting and then really we're just dozing off, Right, And we feel good at the end because we kind of had a little nap, We were just daydreaming the whole time, Or we weren't really paying attention. So that's where also walking meditation can be good because your eyes are open. And if your eyes are open, You're a little bit more alert, And just that little bit of movement in the body. And then also to take this practice really into deep insights, See if you can notice when one foot starts to take off, When both feet are firmly planted on the ground, Notice what's happening, Where the impulse is for when the foot takes off and starts moving. This is what we've been talking a lot about on our Insight Timer on Sunday Sangha. And I keep saying on Insight Timer because they wouldn't let me put up one of the recordings here. I think they thought I was referring to classes outside of Insight Timer. So I'm always going to say the Insight Timer class on Sundays, Where we're talking a lot about how we are arising in each moment and flowing in each moment, That there's nothing solid and independent inside of us, That choicing happening, Decisioning happening, Brain processes happening, No thing, No one making those decisions or choices. And so I've been asking or inviting you to look for yourself, See how this process is taking place. We have this such a strong felt sense that there is something independent and separate inside here. And as long as we think that, We will feel separate and independent. As long as you think that, You cannot awaken to reality because you're separate, You're not connected, You're not connected, You're not a part of it any longer. And it's just a, It's a thought that I'm controlling this, Right? Just it's ego, Right? Thought coming in afterwards always to claim it. I know I did that, Right? So in walking meditation, Such a beautiful practice to notice what is it that's, You know, When you see it happening, You know one foot's going to rise or the other, And then all of a sudden it happens. Watch the process. See if you can find anything there that's causing one leg to rise versus the other. Pay attention. That was a practice I was given about 11 years ago from a nun, Aya Palignani, Who was also a student of I think Sayadaw, The Burmese master, He's not, He's not alive anymore. Sayadaw, I think is his name. And she had given that to me on a practice, I was at a monastery in Australia, Where she was the abbess at the time. And she was like, Watch this. What is it? Just pay attention, Pay attention. I was doing hours and hours of sitting and walking and I couldn't quite, I couldn't quite get it then, It took me a while, But she planted a seed, She planted a seed. And as I kept paying attention and kept paying attention years afterwards and finally, I see what she's talking about now, I see what she's pointing to now. What I see that she's pointing to is there's nothing, Nothing solid independent making this choice. You don't know what it is that all of a sudden causes the next foot to rise and then to go. So it's a wonderful practice, Walking meditation. It's again, Vipassana, Which Vipassana, Vipassana practice very much associated with with Theravada Buddhism. And so if some of you practice other traditions, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, They do some walking meditation in Zen Buddhism, Actually, They do it there. But it doesn't matter what your tradition is, Or what you're practicing, You can always bring some walking meditation into it. And there's a lot of benefits to it, A lot of benefits.

Reviews

Thank you so much for this instruction, I would like to incorporate a walking practice into my current practice, and I found this to be very helpful.

Thank you. Walking meditation does something for me that I can't really explain, but it is a rich experience. It is engrossing to me to notice the autonomy of balance. After listening to your description here, it seems like maybe I could slow it down a bit more.

Thank you again.