Walking versus Sitting Meditation

This morning I was experiencing a weird combination of restlessness and laziness—the restlessness brought on by anxiety over a recent life crisis and the laziness induced by a desire to avoid taking on a work project.

I re-read a passage from a book on Vipassana that said when you are experiencing torpor it is helpful to start a meditation session with a period of brisk walking rather than the slow, deliberate walking that is often practiced.

So I tried precisely that. I went to my meditation space and walked at a more brisk pace than what I customarily do. Much to my surprise and satisfaction, as I developed mindfulness the pace of my walking slowed without my even being aware of it. As my pace slowed and my mindfulness grew I began to cultivate insight. As I did so I had an insight into precisely the causes of those desires and aversions that had created my restlessness and laziness in the first place!

It’s amazing how much my practice matures each day as I work on it.

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Do you devote the same amount of time to walking meditation?

I never did until life circumstances pushed me to do so.

I was surprised how deep of a meditation I could get with my eyes open, standing up, and slowly moving.

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Pretty much, yes. When I set aside time specifically for meditation I almost always devote the same amount of time walking as sitting. There are occasions, however, when I take a long walk (five or six miles) for recreation and find myself during some of the walk in a meditative state. When I engage in formal meditation after that I typically will just do sitting meditation since I have already spent quite a bit of time earlier walking in the aforementioned way.

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@Metaphor,

Maybe it isn’t the length of your walking meditation in isolation, but the length of your combined meditations that is the issue.

Lets say you do walking meditation for an hour, then follow it with an hour of sitting meditation. Maybe the situation is that regardless of the type of meditation you might need a certain amount of time total, like 90 minutes, before your system starts settling deeper.

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I used to do this a lot. I didn’t call it meditation, but it had the same effect, to calm the mind, calmed the body, pleasant emptiness was the result, while the body (including lungs) worked rythmically - very soothing. I had heard that this was a form of ‘yogic breathing’. I don’t attach much importance to labels, just the effects. So this may not align with buddhist teachings on walking meditation, but it had great results for me :slight_smile:

First I should explain how it was done. Walking at a medium-to-fast pace (comfortable but not leisurely), Counting the steps while aligning with the breath

  • In breath over 4 steps + out breath over 4 steps: repeated continually.
    As one gets into a pattern the length of the breaths and numbers of steps can increase, up to 5 in breath 5 out breath. It will come naturally adjusting the pace to match the oxygen requirements, gradually increasing the length of the breath and the number of steps.

With the walking and breathing, and counting, I found 2 different effects beneficial/interesting.

  1. Because one has to keep count in the mind of how many steps per each in breath and how many for each out breath, the amount of attention this requires is enough to stop the mind from wandering. It’s almost a hypnotic type of effect, but it gives a good physical workout - at whatever pace one is capable (disabled to ultra fit). so a still and focused mind results.

  2. I was able to get up to crazy lengths of in and out breaths. up to 20 steps in breath, 20 steps out breath… No idea how this was possible… However, this was just a matter of interest as it defeated the purpose because I was then focusing on attainments. a nice 6-8 steps per in breath was sustainable for long periods.

Metta

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I was taught (by the German bhikkhuni Ayya Succinta) a slower coordination, with two breaths per step. I no longer remember the exact foot movement with each in and out breath that she told me, but I practice it as follows E.g,

  1. In- With all weight on the forward foot, lift the heel of the back foot
  2. Out- Bring the back foot forward and touch the ground, but don’t transfer any weight
  3. In- Let the weight of the forward leg rest on the forward foot.
  4. Out - transfer the weight to the forward leg, without lifting the back foot.

When my mind wanders, I find I fall into a one breath per step pattern instead of two breaths per step, so it is a good check.

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Have you tried watching the breath during walking meditation?

I have been doing that and it is helpful. I should add that since I posted my initial question on this topic I have been practicing with greater awareness of maintaining concentration during walking meditation. I have also had additional lessons with the head monk at the Wat where I practice as well as my fellow meditation workshop participants. Along with comments from the kind members of this forum I do detect an improvement in my ability to maintain mindfulness during walking meditation.

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Correct, it is easier to concentrate because causes have been put into place to make concentration easier. That is, performing walking meditation has dealt with the five hindrances to a great degree, making it easy to then do the sitting meditation. However this doesn’t mean that each time sitting meditation is done, walking meditation is required. Sometimes when the hindrances are at bay, in the mind, it is possible to slip into good concentration right away. This is seen more at intermediate or advanced ‘levels’ of developing samadhi, when the force of fabrications of samadhi will ‘suppress’ (stop arising altogether, more accurately, …temporarily) the hindrances as well as other myriad of defilements. It becomes more meaningful to start with a quieter sitting practice.

Its useful to match the probable level of agitation in the mind (as it cannot be known right away), to how active the meditation technique is ie. they will be a better match, and eventually lead to mental states which are quieter. If someone hasn’t meditated in a while it is a ‘safe bet’ to start with some walking meditation. Or even meditation on the divine abodes, as they require (at least the modern incarnation of it) active thinking. Asubha meditation is another possibility, if its helpful to one’s practice. Counting the breath may be used in a similar manner. When counting becomes ‘too loud’ (too much of an agitation) it is time to stop and just watch the breath. If the match is not quite right and someone is plagued with thoughts, then using a more active form or more active meditation might help in getting the hindrances that produce such thoughts ‘under control’, if you know what I mean! If one’s samadhi lasts throughout the day, from one sitting practice (and isn’t dispersed) then it maybe possible to match that with still sitting practice. Developing awareness of one’s state of mind in this way is helpful for the meditator. Then there are steps to take to ‘protect’ the samadhi thus developed- mindfulness and sense restraint can be helpful in this. Being mindful throughout the day, as much as possible, helps to maintain samadhi for sitting practice, where deeper work will happen. In EBTs this is awareness of the postures, which leads to ‘clear comprehension’ -bending an arm, extending, talking, etc. from the Four Foundations of mindfulness. In terms of the Dhamma it makes sense to include these ‘exercises’ in Right effort, though, IMO. They help to purify the mind of hindrances and defilements, to allow the deeper work of samadhi (samatha and vipassana, Satipatthana) to be effective.

with metta

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Anapanasati allows us a subtle but distinct object. The subtlety means our mindfulness has to develop to notice it increasingly better- it isn’t ‘in your face’ :ok_hand::-1:. It -the breath- also moves and all animals have evolved to notice movements and therefore it is natural the mind comes back to the breath after being caught up with thought. The gentle movement is calming in nature, and allows the hindrances to be neutralised by reducing levels of agitation in the mind- however the downside of this approach is of course that it becomes a ‘friend’ to laziness and sleepiness, which tends to develop when the mind has calmed down to a certain degree. Persistence pay off here as well as other approaches to reducing sleepiness, and laziness. These will eventually overcome -hard to predict- this hindrances as well and lead the meditator to increasingly subtle states of samadhi. Walking meditation alternatively keeps the mind alert but reduces the hindrances be ‘processing the thoughts’, thereby reducing the emotions or hindrances brought to the mind by each of those thoughts or topics. The mind runs out of things to think if the object (sensations at the sole, for example) if well utilized. This allows something to come back to the present moment to, from the domain of thoughts. Alternatively walking seems to facilitate rumination, or contemplation- it is up to the meditator to think if the content of these thoughts are helpful or not/wholesome or not. Because of the active nature of walking meditation when the mind reaches a calmed state, it maintains alertness and does not fall into laziness and sleepiness. It is possible to experience the first jhana (or walk around in the post-jhanic bliss) but all movements stop (in my experience) when the first jhana is attained. It might be possible to do more with standing meditation, but balancing might become an issue, unless already well balanced to begin with. However these are not necessary as what matters is not the posture but the jhana, and even then, the samadhi of the jhana is what will take is beyond samatha meditation by making the mind hindrance free, malleable, conducive to insight or wisdom, showing up a calm surface against which ripples of the defilements show up against and reducing the need for sensual gratification which makes living in monasteries viable. In the first jhana what matters is the fruit of it- the degree of samadhi it leaves in the mind, at our disposal.

with metta

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Walking in Cankama (walking in a line?) was performed by monks during the Buddha’s time. The divided the night into 3 divisions and in the first and third divisions they would do walking meditation and ‘clean their minds’ of defilements, so they spent a good amount of their day doing this. This was practiced before starting satipatthana practices. This has parallels with modern day Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy used to process traumatic memories and rid them of negative emotions and make them into ‘normal’ memories. EMDR also uses bringing into the present moment to remind that the trauma has passed, and keeping the memory alive isn’t necessary.

At the root of most thoughts there is craving, aversion or delusion. Or to say it in another way, the three poisons generate a lot of thoughts that we have (not all). To reduce craving, aversion and delusion is to increase the quietness, and clarity, in the mind.

Walking meditation is quite a versatile technique. It can be used to see intention (in the mind) before the movement of the leg as it’s own incident. This allows the practitioner to see subtle mental and gross physical phenomena. If a person keeps watching it, they become aware that intention isn’t intensional but automatically generated by causes that came immediately before it. It’s possible to see the cause (reaching the end of the walking path) and the effect (intention to turn around) happening pretty much on its own, without the need of a ‘doer’.

Walking meditation can be used to sharpen awareness-mindfulness so that much more subtle phenomena can be picked up. For example we can be aware of the left and right leg. Or we can be aware of the leg ‘lifting, moving, and keeping’ or simply the sensation at the bottom of the foot. Or we can be aware of a sole hitting the ground at the heel, ball of foot and toes. Or mindfulness could be further intensified to feel each centimetre of skin touching the ground as the sole comes into contact, depending how people keep their feet on the ground. It helps to break up long stretches of sitting, while in retreat setting or longer. Exercise if of course an important aspect of mental health and well being. The pace is probably dependant on whether it is formal practice, if informal practice -running to catch the bus, etc, or the ease of maintaining mindfulness effectively, whether it is calming or agitating that is required or at what pace everyone else in the group is going so as it doesn’t look like showing off/not an actual need of the practice to slow down.

I am prone to drowsiness so lying down and attempting to meditate sends me to sleep, unless I’m doing it in a group like in Mindfulness based cognitive therapy, body scans. It’s possible to enter jhana lying down. However all this assumes that it was first practiced in the sitting posture and some skill was developed previously.

with metta

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@Mat, you are insightful as always. These are very helpful comments. So much appreciated. Thank you!!

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Hi friends! I prefer to practice sitting and walking meditation, and I recommend this article from Ven. Vimalaramsi Walking Meditation.
Metta.

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I agree, I find that intention is much easier to discern in walking than in sitting meditation (where it’s almost impossible, at least for me). It’s sometimes said that walking is only about “gross” aspects of experience, but I don’t think that’s the case, particularly if you slow down enough to catch those details.

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