METHODS OF WALKING MEDITATION
Even though walking meditation isn’t as common as sitting meditation, it is just as important. The Buddha told us that we can achieve great realizations through walking meditation. The main difference between sitting and walking meditation is our focus on our meditation object. With sitting meditation, our meditation object is our breath. With walking meditation, our meditation object is our feet.
With walking meditation, we can develop a strong mindfulness practice. Walking meditation is typically done outdoors in a garden or park. Somewhere open and undisturbed. There won’t be the typical distractions from people, cars, construction, etc. Instead, we might get distracted by the things we see, hear, and smell. But just like with sitting meditation, we must acknowledge the distraction and continue with our meditation.
If you are doing walking meditation with a group, you will have to follow the pace of the person leading the meditation. However, on your own, it’s a good idea to experiment with difference walking paces. Walking, like breathing, is automatic and we have our regular pace of walking. Though we want to have a slower than usual pace for walking meditation, you can experiment with different speeds to see how each affects your practice.
Walking and sitting meditation are usually done together. You can start with either sitting or walking meditation first. Walking meditation is great for helping clear and settle the mind before sitting down for sitting meditation. Or you can do walking meditation after your sitting meditation to help get some movement in your body and recover from motionless sitting. Never treat walking meditation as a “break” from your practice. If you really do need to take a break, do something that’s completely different, like eating a snack or taking a nap.
Again, the best location for walking meditation is outdoors. Try to find a walking path that’s level and smooth. As mentioned, our focus now is going to be on our feet. There are different levels when focusing on our feet. The easiest level or step is simply being mindful of when the foot is rising off the ground (lifting), when it’s moving to take the step (moving), and dropping back to the ground (placing).
Normally when we walk, the back foot starts lifting before the front foot is completely placed on the ground. When we do walking meditation, you want to complete one step entirely before the other foot begins to move. Because we’ll typically be walking slower for walking meditation, this will be much easier to do than we we’re walking normally. So when we walk, don’t let the back foot move until you have shifted your weight onto your front foot. Your attention should always be on the sensations in the moving foot. Once your foot is firmly placed, direct your attention to the other foot.
The main objective of walking meditation is to stay mindful of the present moment. Not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Simply walk and enjoy being here. Since we have a “moving” object of meditation (our feet), our focus should be pretty stable on just that. However, if focus is shifted to a distraction or wandering thoughts, simply bring your attention back to the sensations of your feet and continue with your walk.
After a while of focusing on the simple form of walking meditation (lifting, moving, and placing), you can add more “steps” to it. The step to add to the second level is “shifting.” You are simply adding the shift on your weight from one foot to the other. So the steps would be: (1) Lifting your foot, (2) moving, (3) placing, and (4) shifting your weight to the other foot.
Once you’ve been practicing walking meditation for a while with the three and four steps, you can then move on to an even more advanced technique. This last technique has nine parts, three for each of the three main steps.
The first part of lifting is where the heel and middle part of your foot leave the ground; the second part is where the ball of the foot comes up; and the third is where the toes break contact with the ground. The first part of moving is when the foot rises vertically in the air; the second part is when it moves forward horizontally; the third part is when it’s lowered toward the ground. The first part of placing is where the toes and ball of the foot make contact; the second part is where the rest of the foot makes contact; the third part is the shifting of weight onto the foot.
You
want to be able to follow all the sensations in each step. At first you can
mentally note each step and movement, but eventually you will want to just feel the sensations instead of mentally
calling them out. We can practice walking meditation all the time, wherever we
are, anywhere. Practice walking meditation when you’re walking to your house,
car, job, or even just around the house. Every walking moment is an opportunity
to practice walking meditation. Just like everything else we do (cooking,
cleaning, driving, etc.) is an opportunity to practice mindfulness and
meditation.