103 Walking Meditation

What is the value of a walking meditation? How does it work? Why do we walk slowly? Do we have to? How is walking meditation different than a seated meditation? We explore these questions and others as we prepare to do a walking meditation.

Transcript

Hello,

This is William Cooper.

Welcome to Awakening Together,

Relaxing into Happiness.

I trust you're doing well today.

Today,

Let's talk about walking meditation.

Perhaps you've seen it around Zen monasteries or ashrams,

Or you've gone to spiritual retreats and they'll have you do walking meditation.

There are many ways to do it,

And we're going to be very relaxed about our way.

If you want to know other ways,

You can Google it and get different ideas.

In awakening,

Usually you'd slow down and connect because if you think about it,

When you let your thoughts go,

Anything that's distracting and not necessary,

When your emotions melt away,

All the stuff you're holding onto that you don't need,

What's left?

You without thoughts and emotions for the most part.

So there you are.

And what's happening without thoughts and emotions?

You're connecting.

You are one with everything.

One is you.

And what oneness is,

Is a deep connection to everything,

Just by definition and by experience.

You're one.

So you're connected to everything,

Right?

You're connected.

Now think about your life right now.

Do you connect better with a short,

Quick contact or a longer contact?

For instance,

Let's take a handshake.

If you just touch somebody's hand for one tenth of a second,

Is that connection deeper than if you touch their hand for say 15 seconds?

It's going to be a deeper connection the longer you touch.

It's the same with everything.

Connection requires connection,

Which is a long touch,

A long gaze.

We all know this.

So when awakening and oneness,

You're totally connected.

So everything is long.

It's forever.

It's a flow and it feels good because in connection without the painful emotions,

Without the painful thoughts,

All there is,

Is pleasure and love and peace and well-being.

What does that have to do with walking meditation?

Well,

When a person awakens,

They naturally start to connect and therefore walk slowly.

Why did they walk slowly?

So their feet can touch the ground rather than skitter across the top of the ground.

Just like a long handshake.

It's a foot shake.

Your foot is touching the ground.

So you're connecting.

Perhaps you're feeling the earth 10 feet deep.

Perhaps you're feeling the grass.

Perhaps you're walking barefooted,

But you're connecting.

You're connecting to your breath.

So you're breathing slowly and nicely.

You're letting your breath feel good because it does feel good.

You're letting the connection of your feet feel good as you touch the earth because it does feel good.

So that's the natural tempo of somebody that's awakened.

They connect.

So before awakening,

You can do a walking meditation,

Which mimics what you will experience once you are awake.

That's why you'll notice when you go to retreats and they instruct you,

They'll have you do it slowly.

You notice everybody walking slowly.

And they might even give you a method of walking.

Walk this way or that way.

Basically so that you're walking slowly.

Put your gaze down on the ground so that it's not shifting all around.

Or gaze here or there or breathe a certain way.

You'll notice the commonality is usually it's slow and it's steady.

Why?

Because that's connecting.

If it's done properly,

If it's done in an awakening kind of way.

So as you do your own personal walking meditation,

Maybe around the block,

Or if you live in nature,

Walking in nature is so healing and connecting because nature exudes the radiance of being and you start to radiate and harmonize with the nature around you and you become awake as you connect and let go of everything else that would say otherwise.

You just accept awakeness as you walk in nature.

However,

Wherever you walk,

You can connect and therefore awaken to the depth and degree that you connect.

In that moment,

There's somewhat of an awakening and total connection.

There's total awakening.

As you connect and as you awaken,

What you'll notice in your walking meditation,

All the parts of you that you haven't let go of,

That you do maintain,

Which block you and cause you pain,

They will come rushing up.

Thoughts will happen,

Emotions will happen,

Habits will happen,

Tensions will happen.

The reason why they're happening is because they're just spinning around and they don't really have a role or place in a clear body and mind.

So they're exposed.

They just kind of come popping out of repression.

So as you connect to the earth,

They are trying to do the same thing.

They are trying to do the opposite.

They're trying to disconnect you because that's what the role is of separation,

To disconnect you from oneness.

So those can be a little bit painful.

The advantage of a walking meditation is you stay in motion and you stay connected.

So by staying in motion physically,

Your body can burn off a little of this separation energy,

Which can be quite painful.

And you can continue to connect over and over to nature or to the ground or to wherever you are,

To your breath,

To your feet,

To the sensations.

So you're being replenished and re-nourished in a sense through your connection to your natural nourishing awakening energy.

That is you at heart.

And just like in a sitting meditation,

You simply watch your thoughts and let them burn off.

You let that part of your body that snarled in a thought,

Breathe in the well-being of nature or the sensations of the ground or the sensations of your breath or the healing sensations of your movement and separation wants to be nourished.

Hurt wants to feel good.

Fear wants to feel peace.

Unfulfillment and frustration wants to feel well-being.

And all of those are in your connection to everything around you as you walk.

So they can breathe that in,

Relax,

Release,

And let go in their own time,

In their own way,

As they spin and exude their energy and as the light of your awareness lets them melt back into their basic ingredients and building blocks,

Which is peace,

Love,

And well-being.

And we've talked about that lots in past podcasts as we've discussed regular meditation.

So it's the same principles.

You're just fortified and encouraged by the well-being that occurs in a nice,

Easy walk.

So that's walking meditation as I would like to describe it.

You'll notice that I haven't centered on the length of your pace or the number of breaths that you take per minute or anything like that,

Because I'd like to leave that up to you and let it evolve as you evolve.

The main thing that I would like to say is you listen to yourself and every breath,

Let it come in as it feels good to you.

In other words,

What pace should I breathe at?

Well,

What feels good?

And that can shift.

How deep a breath should I take?

Well,

What feels good to the part of you that's breathing it in?

Maybe you just want a shallow breath for this breath,

Or maybe you like deep breaths,

Or maybe it changes.

What feels good?

As you focus on what feels good,

Also how fast you walk or how you're touching the ground,

Or are you wearing shoes or not,

Or what temperature is it outside?

What do you wear?

As you focus on everything that feels good,

You bring in that goodness and let everything that would say otherwise melt away.

And when all that's left is goodness,

You're experiencing goodness.

And because your being is made of goodness,

That's called self-realization.

You are awake.

So I would say more important than your pace or the amount of breathing you do,

I would focus on the amount of goodness.

Just let every,

If you want to feel good,

Feel good.

Match your vibration,

What you allow in with what you want and are.

And that's called self-realization.

All this can happen in a walking meditation,

Including the release of everything,

All of our hypnosis that would say otherwise,

All of our old thoughts,

All of our old emotions,

They can unwind,

Release,

And let go in the process of your walking meditation.

They can be metabolized by your body as you walk,

By that breath.

Slowly as you walk,

By that slow,

Easy exercise,

And they can be released.

And the end point,

As you match it with all of your other spiritual practices,

Can be an opening,

A letting go into yourself,

Self-realization.

Okay.

I hope this has made sense and has been helpful to you.

I look forward to talking to you next time.

Enjoy.

Bye.

Reviews

Beautiful explanation, William. I love the focus on “what feels good” rather than the right or wrong way to do this or that! As usually, I love that you emphasize that allowing pain to surface and release is so important and that we are not doing the practice “wrong” if we experience chaos inside when doing the practice. Going deep allows the cramped mind and muscles to stretch a release and at the bottom- in my experience- we just find our little selves, sad, scared, and wanting a hug from our adult selves. So good! You have changed my practice completely for the better! Thank you!

Upbeat and encouraging. You broadened the scope of walking meditation for me. I think I’ll try it!

Walking meditation is one of my favorites. I especially like doing labyrinth walks.

Thank you 🙏 William. This is very helpful!
Be well!
~ Jennifer Lea