Saturday, June 22, 2013

Nondual, self-inquiry meditation while walking...

Q.  i just don't have time, patience or the body for sitting meditation.  i have tried sitting meditation but it hurts my hips and knees and i believe i'm just too nervous to start there.  i do walk about an hour a day for exercise.  Is there something i could do while i'm walking?  

G.  Yes, there is much that you can do w/meditation while walking.  Not surprisingly, you are not the first folk to have had this question.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Walking meditation was first popularized in the US by Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk who was nominated by Martin Luther King for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize.

Thich Nhat Hanh's current book "Walking Meditation" (2006) has gotten mixed reviews on Amazon.  He is a prolific writer w/over 100 books, 40 of which are in English.  An earlier book, "A Guide to Walking Meditation (A Fellowship Book)" (1985) also available on Amazon, IME, is very useful and is something i have drawn upon for my own practice and when working w/others.  

When i was the co-leader of weekly practice at our regional zendo, O-An, we did a great deal of walking meditation as many were unable, or unwilling, to sit for long periods.  At times, the walking meditation was equal to or longer than the sitting periods and a big favorite w/folk.  The zendo folk even constructed special walking paths through the woods around the zendo w/bark on them so walking was easy.  
O-An Zendo

There is a useful short youTube video "Walking Meditation with Thich Nhat Hanh" which will give you a sense of him and what he focuses on when he does his walking meditation.  This is very "Buddhist", IMHO, with some  terms that may not mean much to non-Buddhists.  The best practice segments from "A Guide to Walking Meditation" are "Breath-Counting While Walking", "Pace" and "Getting More Fresh Air" are not covered in this youTube video, unfortunately.  

The guidelines i use with walking meditation:

          1.  Be very conscious of your breath and whether you are taking long or short breaths.  If you are straining, change your pace.  Your breath should be easy and comfortable.

         2.  Couple your breathing with your steps by counting steps, not breaths.  Count how many steps you take when you breathe out and when you breathe in.  

         3.  You will walk more slowly than you usually do.

Buddha Eyes
         4.  Do not try to control your breath; just breathe normally.

         5.  Having your eyes only slightly open (Buddha eyes) and having a slight smile may be useful.   

          6.  Do something with your hands, like put them one on top of another against your body, or rest them naturally at your sides; don't let them flop around. 

          7.  Like with riding a bicycle, this may seem like a lot at first, but soon you will find that breath, counting, stepping, eyes and smile "become one".  

8.  If you find that your pace doesn't match your breathing, adjust your pace.  If your breath can't comfortably last long enough for 3 steps on each inhale and exhale, speed up or slow down your steps so they "fit" with the breath.  you may find that exhalations are naturally longer than inhalations, like 2 steps on inhale, and 3 on exhale, or they may be the same (2-2 or 3-3).  If you go uphill or downhill or the path is rocky, or you get tired or more energetic, adjust your pace as needed to be comfortable.

        9.  As you become comfortable with your practice, experiment with lengthening the exhale at first for several breaths.  This will make you feel more energetic as you get more oxygen that way, paradoxically.  

             you can also lengthen the inhale but don't make it longer than the exhale.  Be sensitive to your body when you are doing this; if it's too much, just revert to your original pattern.

        10.  i did not find the Buddhist visualizations of lotus flowers blooming under my feet or feeling the earth when i walked, etc., to be useful.  IME, visualizations are merely concentration aids, they don't solve the problem of suffering.  Instead, i insert inquiry into my walking meditation.  

To borrow from my book "Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening":

           After you have developed some ability to concentrate in walking meditation, add inquiries, asking a simple question which attracts you and which probes some of your commonly held assumptions and beliefs.  



The question you select is important.   Consider “Who walks”, “Where am I?”, “When am I?”, “What breathes?”, “What feels these sensations?”, etc.   Determine which one is YOUR question, which one has a “feel” that gives you a sense of rightness, of “yes” arising out of your own deep intuition.

i found that “Where am I?” was particularly useful in walking meditation.   As sensations are constantly arising from different places, see if the "I" moves as sensations change while you are walking.
    
Stay with your question for a while.  At some point, you will likely become bored with it, wonder if another question would be better, or consider abandoning the practice altogether.   Persistence is the key.   The I/ego will come up w/many reasons why this particular question is "totally wrong"; it reaaallly doesn’t want to be investigated or probed - its job is on the line.   

During the inhalations, silently ask your question.  Allow it to sink deep into your consciousness.   This is not about getting the right intellectual answer, or repeating it like a mantra; feel the question deeply.  With time, the inquiry will become a feeling, a deep questioning that becomes more presence and energy than statement.   Moving into this phase takes the inquiry into the very structure of the “I”/ego construct.

After becoming comfortable w/doing the inquiry on inhalations, add (or substitute) a negation, a “not this, not this” (neti, neti) during exhalations as you notice sensations or thoughts arising.  Mentally repeat “Not this”, or “I am not this”.   If you notice tightness somewhere, move into the sensation, open, accept and welcome it with “not this”.     

Remember that if you can recognize something, or objectify it, you can’t be that.   You can’t be the object you observe.  You cannot both see your hands and be your hands.   This inquiry moves towards what many call witness consciousness.

Don’t resist or push the sensation or thought away, as that will only strengthen and validate it.  Welcome and accept the thought or sensation to open the way for it to dissolve in your simple awareness. 
     
As with the inquiry during inhalations, the negations during exhalations will move from being mentally generated into a feeling, an intention, an energy operating in a deeper space.   Feeling within the negations, you can "get" the subtle but unmistakable presence of the implicit question, which opens the way to inquiry.    

As you may recall, "walking meditation" is something that Dominic in the blogposts "Dialogues w/Dominic" used in his awakening process (DIY nondual awakening w/big job, family, 3 yrs on/off practice), every day as he walked to and from the train and to and from work:

         6:45 a.m. to 7:30  a.m.  Walk to the train, ride train to work, walk to work...Perform inquiry when i/me/my occur which is usually the whole way to work.

     7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. working

     5 p.m. to 5:45 pm -  Walk to the train, ride train home, walk home...Perform inquiry when i/me/my occur which is usually the whole way. 


Walking meditation is a powerful way to get many hours of pleasurable, strong practice (and exercise) in a situation highly conductive to deep self-inquiry.  you can do it anywhere, even walking around a rug or your office.  It is free and requires no special equipment.  It is highly recommended.







6 comments:

  1. Extremely useful post. Too often we get hung up on how long we sit in meditation during the day, and overlook the continuous opportunities for self inquiry and meditation. Reading Thich Nhat Hanh on this topic, I recall a passage about mindfulness while doing the dishes, and the dishes have never been the same - or cleaner - since. Chanting while walking has been effective IMHE, and chanting while biking even more so. I wouldn't recommend the latter until one is really comfortable biking, but the effects are significant. Finally, another practice that dovetails here is lap swimming coupled with self-inquiry. "Who swims?"


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    1. Hi Rich (Doyle),

      As we have chanted so many hours together, i can attest to your facility in and dedication to chanting, and its marvelous power to alter consciousness, whether it is alone, or w/others, sitting, making videos or eating sushi.

      we have both marveled, repeatedly, at the amazing harmonization in the "coherence of energy", when we chant Nirvana Shatakam, or the 60 Gita verses from "Dancing Beyond Thought" (soon to be published, in Her own time).

      Only She knows "Who chants?"

      stillness

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  2. Hi Gary,
    Thanks for your beautiful treatise on walking meditation. I enjoy how you so beautifully weave the various practices, but always as pointers to their underlying ground of Stillness...I'm reminded of a quote by Nisargadatta: "Understand what you are when nothing is. Before I say, “I am”, this is who I am." Joy, Richard

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  3. Hi Richard,

    Gratitude for the comments and for all of your support, sharing and friendship over so many years. The logical follow-on to this is a forthcoming post on your specialty, yoga nidra, or meditation while lying down, for those who haven't run across it. your iRest program has helped so many over the years to access nonduality and find peace, joy and Stillness.

    gary

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  4. Gary,

    I walk every day at lunch (along the Charles river in Boston) Practicing enquiry and staying in the Heart (Ramana Maharshi). It is good, although it constantly takes an effort to not think of work issues.

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    1. Hi Sol,

      Great to hear from you again. The banks of the Charles River is a great place to walk, inquire and "stay in the Heart". i was in Cambridge in January for several days meeting w/folk and skype w/folk there every week.

      The constant effort is necessary; as Ramana said "the successful few owe their success to their perseverance". Inquiry seems particularly useful and effective as one wrestles w/issues @ work, even during short breaks. As we become enmeshed/entangled in work, getting a break in the ongoing thought streams for inquiry or abiding in the Heart gives the brain a great contrast comparison to work with.

      The break, even if short, shows, in stark contrast, just how much "better" the Stillness is than the on-going "blah, blah" about work issues. These comparisons are critical to the recognition that another way of functioning is possible and preferable, particularly on a "cost/benefit" basis, and that one can "let go, let go" of the work issues for better functioning @ work and elsewhere.

      IME, i never solved a work issue by doing "blah, blah" on it; the really useful solutions, whether they were political, "technical" or "financial", always arose from "somewhere else", "off line" and unexpectedly. All the "blah, blah" did was to drain my energy, increase and exaggerate the emotion and stickiness of the "storyline", and gobble up my bandwidth with a lot of noise.

      Best w/your walks along the Charles; it should be beautiful now.

      stillness

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