walking meditation
INSPIRATIONS FOR WALKING MEDITATION
1) Some general pointers:
Pay attention to the experience of walking, and keep your awareness engaged in this experience.
Feel your feet touching the ground. The movement of your muscles. The constant balancing and rebalancing of the body. Relax.
Be also aware of your location and the sounds around you. The air temperature.
Become aware of your present mental and emotional states. Notice your state of mind. Is it calm or busy, cloudy or focused? Where is your mind?
2) You can do it (by Vietnames Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh)
Walking meditation is being in meditation while walking. It can bring you joy and peace while you practice it. Take short steps in complete relaxation; go slowly with a smile on your lips, with your heart open to an experience of peace. You can feel truly at ease with yourself. Your steps can be those of the healthiest, most secure person on earth. All sorrows and worries can drop away while you are walking. To have peace of mind, to attain self-liberation, learn to walk in this way. It is not difficult. You can do it. Anyone can do it who has some degree of mindfulness and a true intention to be happy.
3) Mindful walking (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Walking meditation is a profound and pleasurable way to deepen our connection with our body, our mind and the earth. Many of us walk for the sole purpose of getting from one place to another. Now suppose we are walking to a sacred place. We would walk quietly and take each gentle step with reverence. Try to walk this way on the earth. The earth is sacred and we touch her with each step. We should be very respectful, because we are walking on our mother. If we walk like that, then every step will be grounding, every step will be nourishing.
To walk in this way, we have to notice each step. Each step made in mindfulness can bring us back to the here and the now. Go slowly. Mindfulness lights our way. We don’t rush. With each breath we may take just one step. We may have run all our life, but now we don’t have to run. This is the time to stop running. To be grounded in the earth is to feel its solidity with each step and know that we are right where we are supposed to be.
4) Each mindful breath, each mindful step, reminds us that we are alive on this beautiful planet. We don’t need anything else. It is wonderful enough just to be alive, to breathe in, and to make one step. We have arrived at where real life is available—the present moment.
5) Going Without Arriving (Thich Nhat Hanh)
In our daily lives, we usually feel pressured to move ahead. We have to hurry. We seldom ask ourselves where it is that we must hurry to. When you practice walking meditation, you go for a stroll. You have no purpose or direction in space or time. The purpose of walking meditation is walking meditation itself. Going is important, not arriving. Walking meditation is not a means to an end; it is an end. Each step is life; each step is peace and joy. That is why we don’t have to hurry. That is why we slow down.
6) Walking with Guruji or Baba
How would it be if we had the opportunity to go for a walk with Baba or Guruji? Imagine walking behind him. How incredibly precious this opportunity would be! We would walk very quietly, very carefully, and keep our mind attentive, calm and joyful.
7) Walking with Baba namam, synchronizing namam and steps. And if it feels natural also synchronizing the breathing.
8) Walking with a reflection or contemplation
To give a theme (maybe from satsang) and reflect on it while walking