Transcript for:
Exploring the Art of Walking Meditation

now with when we imagine the traditional way of meditation we imagine a person sitting down crossing their legs and closing their eyes and meditating but meditation is not always about sitting and meditating meditation can be done while sitting down while standing while lying on a bed and also while walking so today from this video we are going to find and we are going to learn how to do The Walking meditation in the proper way so to find out come with me okay now we have come to the monks walking meditation track now this is a specially designed track for the monks to practice the walking meditation you usually we make this track around 30 to 40 ft long track for us to easily go back and forth mindfully now I know you may not be able to make such a place in your home to practice walking meditation but don't worry we have another option for all of you to practice the walking meditation but this is the special place and this is the special track that we monks practice the walking meditation now in P language we call this track as CH and in my language in singala language we call it Sak Malu so this is where we practice the walking meditation so basically there are two ways of doing walking meditation now the first one is first way is to meditate while walking that means you can do some kind of meditation another meditation Like Loving kindness meditation or compassion meditation on the meditation track while walking in this way you don't pay much attention to the walking process you don't much be aware of walking process process you your awareness is in the loving kindness meditation so you can do this in this meditation track as well but now here I need to demonstrate the second type of meditation and that is to use the walking as the object of meditation that means mindful walking to walk each and every to keep each and every step mindfully so to do that the first step is to approach the meditation track now if you're doing the walking meditation in at home right you don't if you don't have a walking meditation track then one thing that you can do is to determine a specific length for you to walk back and forth so you say in your mind to yourself that I am walking from this point to that point mindfully so you determine a specific length for that and do the walking meditation so the first step is to approach the meditation track so when you approach the meditation track the first thing that you have to do is not to be Panic or not to be hurry right meditation is not meant for you to be hurry or panicked meditation is meant to be relaxed and you have to take time okay one thing that most meditation teachers advice is to sit down for the meditation like that you have time forever okay so do not be hurry first of all approach the meditation track and just stand right do not try to meditate or do not try to walk one thing that you have to do is just to stand and feel the standing posture okay so now you have to take some time to stay standing and feel and be mindful about it now this first step helps you to be more Mindful and and to take your busy mind to this standing posture and to calm a little bit and to just to relax a little bit so the first step is to do nothing but just stand okay and feel that you standing know that you're standing that is the first step and then once you feel that you are comfortable with this standing and once you feel that you are nice and relaxed and calm inside and and you're ready to do the walking meditation now you can approach the second step and the second step is to take the first step of the walking meditation okay now to do this first of all you have to make an affirmation or make a wish to yourself that I'm going to walk from this point to that point mindfully okay make a wish to yourself and say to yourself that I'm going to walk from this point to that point mindfully so that your mind is getting ready for the meditation to do it mindfully so the second step is to take the first step to the meditation so you can do it either you can do it the left foot first or to the right foot first so when you're doing this okay the whole point of walking meditation is to be more aware and be be more mindful about the each and every step now each and every step has three different faces and they are the lifting face and moving face and touching face let's say you lift your right foot you lift your right foot and you move your right foot and you touch the ground from your right foot so lifting moving and touching the ground lifting moving touching the ground these are the faces of each and every step so what we have to do is when we lift our foot in each and every face we have to be mindfully lifted and when you move your feet then you have to move your feet mindfully and go to the next phase and when you keep your feet on the ground you have to keep it mindfully on the ground okay know that you're lifting the food know that you're moving the food and know that you are grounding the foot keeping or touching the ground from your foot that is how to do it so I will demonstrate how to do it with mindful way and in the correct way e and now you keep practicing and keep walking mindfully from this end to the other end of the walking meditation track or in the space that you choose to do the walking meditation and now you come to the end of the walking meditation track now there's a special thing that you have to do and that is to turn around and walk back and when you do this there's a way to turn around and that is to turn around and keep your foot 90° away from the left foot and then raise the left foot mindfully and keep it parallel to the right foot and then keep again the right foot 90° away from the left foot and keep it parallel again when you do this you have turn around one side and now you're ready to walk back to the other end of the walking Track mindfully so this is how we do the walking meditation so it has the walking phas and turning around and coming back and then you walking you have the walking face and then turning around and coming back so this is the way that we practice the walking meditation okay always remember we have to be mindful about each and every step okay now during during the meditation one thing that one problem that we face is we become distracted we get distracted about The Walking okay and we our mind starts to jump here and there so one thing that we can do is to be kind to our mind because the normal nature and the inherent nature of our mind is to be distracted and it is easily will be distracted so one thing that you have to do is to be kind to your mind and take this distraction Ed mind to the meditation again to the mindfulness again and keep practicing it so that is one way of dealing with the distractions or distracted mind okay always be kind to your mind and also think of yourself as a baby when you're meditating because we all are babies in according to the meditation we are all are beginners okay so don't expect too many big results from yourself okay just try to practice if you are if let's say you became mindful about just one step okay the only thing that you could do was in one session of meditation is only to be mindful about just one step it's okay be kind to yourself thank yourself of being mindful to yourself okay and then you will enjoy the meditation so remember in this meditation We Don't Close Our Eyes okay we don't close our eyes we keep our eyes open in the Scriptures it is mentioned that you have to look to the front at least 6 ft forward okay keep your eyes to the six feet forward focused and then you can practice the walking meditation very easily without falling down and also we have to mention about the disclaimers to not walk too much slowly because when you walk too much so slowly you might fall okay because we are not used to this slow walking okay because usually when we walk we walk in a certain speed we are not walking very slowly so in here it is okay to walk slowly it we should walk slowly slowly and also we we should get used to walk slowly but when you practice the mindful meditation find a speed where you can be mindful about each and every movement of your step of your foot and then walk but do not walk too much slowly you might fall it okay and also you do not walk and also do not walk too much fast so that it is very difficult to be mindful about each and every phase of the of the food okay so these are the things that you have to keep in your mind so this is the way to do the walking meditation and this is how we do the walking meditation so add this walking meditation to your daily practice and develop the mindfulness and the Buddha said if you develop the concentration and the tranquilized mind and the focused mind while walking in this walking meditation that concentration is very strong and it will last long so practice this walking meditation and enjoy it Nam budhaya