The Buddha said that mindfulness must be applied to the four postures of the body, i.e. walking, standing, sitting and lying down.
While you are walking, you must be mindful of it as it is__
while you are standing, you must be mindful of it as it is__
while you are sitting, you must be mindful of it as it is__
while you are lying down, you must be mindful of it as it is.
So, in every posture, there must be mindfulness.
We instruct meditators to practise walking and sitting meditation alternately so that they can concentrate more easily and hence attain insight in to the walking and sitting processes. Every session of sitting must be preceded by walking because in walking meditation, the movement of the foot it is more distinct than the abdominal movements when sitting.
When your meditation practice matures, you may then need sitting meditation for a longer period than walking. When you have reached the sixth stage of inside knowledge, you may practise sitting meditation longer than walking. When you have reached the sixth stage of insight knowledge, you may practise sitting meditation longer than walking; you may sit for two or three hours and walk one hour. At that stage, your concentration is good, deep and strong enough to realise the dissolution of nama and rupã (mental and physical phenomena). But in the beginning of the practice, you need walking meditatio to be longer than sitting because you are not wet able to sit for as long as you can walk. You can attain some degree of concentration more easily in walking than in sitting. So first of all, you should practise walking meditation by being aware of stepping. When you make a left step, note it as 'left'. When you make a right step, not it as 'right'. In this way note 'left' right, left, right, or just 'stepping, stepping'. Labelling or naming is not so important as the mind that observer the movement of the foot. You should lay stress on awareness, sharp awareness of the movement of the foot.
However, in the begining of the practice we have to use labelling or mental note such as: 'rising, falling' 'left, right' to help the mind to focus on the object attentively and precisely. When the meditative experience is in an advanced stage, labelling or mental noting may be dropped because the mindfulness has become sharp and powerfull.
When you practise walking meditation, you must not close your eyes. Instead, your eyes must be half-closed (which means, relax and keep your eyes normal). You should look at a place on the floor about six feet in front of your foot.
You must not bend your head too low. If you do this, you will soon feel tension in your neck or shoulders. Also, you may develop a headache or dizziness. You must not look at your foot. If you do, you cannot concentrate well on the movement. Nor must you look around here and there. Once you look around, the mind goes with the eyes, then your concentratio breaks. You may have a tendency or desire to look around when you feel that someone is coming towards you or passing in front of you. That tendency or desire to look around must be very attentively observed and noted as 'tendency' or 'wanting to look' until it has disappeared. When the tendency or desire has disappeared, you won't look around. Then you can maintain your concentration. So, please be careful not to look around so that you can both maintain your concentration and make progress in concentration and insight during walking meditation. Your games should be locked together in front or behind. If you feel you are not yet able to sit for as long as you can walk. You can attain some degree of concentration more easily in walking meditation by being aware of stepping. When you make a left step, note it as 'left'. When you make a right step, note it as 'right'. In this way, note 'left, right, or just stepping, stepping'. Labelling or naming is not so important as the mind that observer the movement of the foot. You should lay stress on awareness, sharp awareness of the movement of the foot.
However, in the beginning of the practice we have to use labelling or mental note such as: 'rising, falling' 'left, right' to help mind to focus on the object attentively and precisely. When the meditatiod experience is in an advanced stage, labelling or mental nothing may be dropped because the mindfulness has become sharp and powerful.
When you practise walking meditation, you must not close your eyes. Instead, your eyes must be half-closed which means, you should change the position of your hands, you may do so, but mindfully.
