Episode 29 – Walking Meditation

According to the Buddha, there are four main postures for meditation: sitting, walking, standing, and reclining • walking meditation is often a part of group meditation practice, where there is alternation between sitting meditation and walking meditation • it provides a way of transitioning from sitting still and simplifying, as we do in sitting meditation practice, and re-engaging with the world • walking meditation helps us learn how to mix our meditation mind with the activity of daily life that we retirm to again and again after each setting session • Walking meditation is usually done quite slowly—but not super slowly; it has a contained and mindful quality • it is a very deliberate type of walking: step by step you engage the world with mindfulness, awareness, gentleness and appreciation • walking meditation is also working with the idea of gesture: can you take one true step? can you be fully, wholeheartedly engaged in a single step? • to do so is a way of expressing your entire life—the inspiration for all that you do—in one gesture, one true step.