How to do walking meditation

I believe that the best way to learn this practice is to be led through it. In one way this practice is
simpler than any of the others we teach on Wildmind: one simply takes ones awareness through
ones experience while walking. But in other ways its more complex simply because there is a
lot you can be aware of while doing walking meditation.
So its easiest to be talked through the practice. Ive prepared an audio CD that will guide you
through the practice, in a guided meditation lasting just under 20 minutes.
You can also try walking meditation on your own. To give you an idea of what this practice
involves, you might want to read this transcript, which represents the kind of thing I generally say
when leading walking meditation. There is a CD available which contains a guided session of
walking meditation, as well as other meditation practices.

Standing

So, to begin this period of walking meditation, first of all lets simply stand. Just stand on the spot,
being aware of your weight being transferred through the soles of your feet into the earth. Being
aware of all of the subtle movements that go on in order to keep us balanced and upright. Very often
we take this for granted, our ability to be able to stand upright. But actually, it took us a couple of
years to learn how to do this. So be aware of the constant adjustments that youre making in order to
maintain your balance.

Walking

And then you can begin to walk at a fairly slow but normal walking pace, and in a normal manner.
Were not going to be changing the way that we walk; were simply going to be aware of it.

Awareness of your body

So first of all, keep in attention in the soles of your feet, being aware of the alternating patterns of
contact and release; being aware of your foot as the heel first makes contact, as your foot rolls
forward onto the ball, and then lifts and travels through the air. Be aware of all the different
sensations in your feet, not just a contact in the soles of your feet but the contact between the toes,
the feeling of the inside of your shoes, the fabric of your socks, and let your feet be as relaxed as
you can. Become aware of your ankles. Notice the qualities of the sensations in those joints as
your foot is on the ground, as your foot travels through the air.
And let your ankle joints be relaxed make sure youre not holding on in any way. You can become
aware of your lower legs your shins, your calves. You can be aware of the contact with your
clothing: be aware of the temperature on your skin; you can be aware of the muscles.
And notice what the calf muscles are doing as youre walking. You might even want to exaggerate
for a few steps what the calf muscles are doing just so that you can connect with that and then
let your walking go back to a normal relaxed rhythm. Encourage your calf muscles to be relaxed.
And then become aware of your knees- noticing the qualities of the sensations in your knee joints.
Then expand your awareness into your thighs. Being aware of the skin, again the contact with your
clothing, the temperature. Being aware of the muscles, and noticing what the muscles on the fronts
of the thighs, and the muscles on the backs of the thighs are doing. And once more you might want
for a few paces just to exaggerate what those muscles are doing exaggerate the action of those
muscles. And then letting your walk go back to a normal rhythm.
Becoming aware of your hips the muscles around your hip joints and relaxing those muscles.
Really relax. Even when you think youve relaxed relax them some more. And just notice how
that changes your walk. Notice how the rhythm and the gait of your walk change as your hips relax.
You can be aware of the whole of your pelvis and notice all of the movements that are going on
your pelvis. One hip moves forward and then the other; one hip lifting, the other sinking.
And you can be aware of the complex three-dimensional shape that your pelvis is carving out
through space as you walk forwards. The lowest part of your spine your sacrum is embedded in
the pelvis. So as you feel your spine extending upwards the lumbar spine, the thoracic spine you
can notice how it moves along with the pelvis. Your spine is in constant motion. Its swaying from
side to side. There is a twisting motion around the central axis. Your spine is in constant, sinuous,
sensuous motion.
Notice your belly you might feel your clothing in contact with your belly and notice how your
belly is the center of your body. Very often it feels like its down there because we are so much in
our heads. So seek to what extent you can feel your belly is the center of your body, as the center of
your being. Notice your chest, and just let your breathing happen. Notice the contact that your chest
makes with your clothing. Noticing your shoulders. Notice how they are moving with the rhythm of
your walking. Let your shoulders be relaxed, and let your shoulders passively transmit the rhythm
of your walk down into your arms. Having your arms simply hanging by your sides and swinging
naturally. Notice all the motions in your arms your upper arms, your elbows, your forearms, your
wrists, your hands. And feel the air coursing over the skin on your hands and fingers as your arms
swing through the air.
Become aware of your neck and the muscles supporting your skull. Notice the angle of your head.
And notice that as you relax the muscles on the back of your neck, your chin slightly tucks in and
your skull comes to a point of balance. And you might want to play around with the angle of your
head and see how it changes your experience. You might notice that when you tuck your chin close
into your chest, your experience becomes darker and more emotional that youre more inward
turned, somber. And if you lift your chin and hold it in the air you might notice that your experience
becomes much lighter that you become much more aware of the outside world and perhaps caught
up in the outside world, or much more aware of your thoughts and caught up in your thoughts. And
then, bringing your head back to a point of balance, your chin slightly tucked in.
Relax your jaw. Relax your eyes and just let your eyes be softly focused, gently looking ahead
not staring at anything, not allowing yourself to be caught up in anything thats going past you.
Feelings

You can be aware of the feelings that youre having; not in terms of emotions here, but just the
feeling tone. Are there things that feel pleasant; are there things that feel unpleasant in your body,
or outside of you. So if you notice things in your body that are pleasant or unpleasant, just notice
them. Dont either cling onto them, or push them away, but just notice them. If you notice things in
the outside world that are either pleasant or unpleasant, just allow them to drift by just noticing
them to drift by without following them or averting your gaze from them.

Thoughts and Emotions

You can notice your emotional states. Are you bored? Are you content? Are you irritated? Are you
feeling very happy to be doing what youre doing. Again just noticing whatever emotions happen to
be present. And notice your mind also. Is your mind clear, or dull? Is your mind busy, or is it calm?
Are you thinking about things unconnected with this practice or do whatever thoughts that you
have centre on what youre doing just now. Just notice these things with no particular judgement
just noticing.

Balancing Inner and Outer

And you can notice the balance between your experience of the inner and the outer. I often find that
if I can be aware of both the inner world and the outer world in equal balance, then my mind settles
at a point of stillness, and calmness, and clarity.
So see if you can find that point of balance, where youre equally aware of the inner and the outer,
and your mind is calm, content, and quiet.

Stopping

So, in a few seconds, Im going to ask you to stop. And Id like you to come to a natural halt. So,
youre not freezing on the spot; youre just allowing yourself to come to a stop. So do that now;
come to a stop. And just experience yourself standing. Just notice what its like to no longer be in
motion. Notice once more the complex balancing act thats going on to keep you upright. Feeling
once again, the weight traveling down through the soles of your feet into the earth; simply standing,
and experiencing yourself and, finally, bringing this meditation session to a close.
The stages of walking meditation

Unlike many of the other practices described in this site, walking meditation has no formal stages.
But there is a logical sequence to the practice, and this sequence is rooted in a traditional
formulation called the four foundations of mindfulness.

These are four levels of experience in which we can anchor our minds to prevent them from being
fragmented and strewn around like leaves torn from a tree in an autumn gale.
These levels are
our physical sensations
our feelings
our mental and emotional states, and
objects of consciousness.
These four foundations give us a way of breaking down a very complex experience so that we can
focus on one aspect at a time.
The four foundations crop up in many places in the Buddhist texts on meditation, and so these can
be considered to be a very important teaching.
Essentially, these arent stages that we work through one at a time, like we do with the development
of loving-kindness practice. Instead they are simply a tool to help us appreciate our experience.
However because each foundation is more subtle than those preceding it, well work through them
in order.
We start with the physical sensations of the body, which are relatively easy to experience (except
when as often happens we get lost in thought and all but forget that we have a body). We
then progress to more subtle aspects of our experience.
Well look at each of these in foundations turn, and well also look at how we start and end the
practice.

Starting the practice

We begin walking meditation by not walking!

Its good just to stand on the spot and experience yourself. Experience your body, and notice in
particular all of the minute motions that take place in order to keep you balanced and upright.
Experience how you feel; notice whether your mind is overactive or calm. This will give you a sort
of baseline of experience against which you can check what effect the practice is having on you.
We take walking for granted, but we probably take standing for granted even more. So just spend a
minute or two appreciating your experience.
Standing really is pretty miraculous. It took our species millions of years to learn how to stand on
two legs, and it took you a year or two to get the hang of it when you were a young child.
Often we dont appreciate the simple things in life. Just noticing ourselves in a simple activity like
standing starts to shift the mind to a different level, to a slower pace at which we have time to
appreciate our experience and to experience greater enjoyment.
Its not uncommon to experience boredom or resistance when we first take up a practice like this.
We might think that its ridiculous to be devoting time to something as trivial as walking, or to
standing still. But those emotions of boredom and those judgments we make its boring, this is a
waste of time are themselves very interesting. Just noticing them is part of the downshifting
that were engaged in.
And if we simply persevere with the practice then at some point, perhaps to our considerable
surprise, well find that were doing something thats both fascinating and deeply enjoyable.
Standing meditation is in fact a valid meditation in its own right, but rather than explore that were
going to continue with our exploration of walking.

Being aware of the body

In walking meditation we begin by being aware of the body. Body awareness is the first foundation
of mindfulness.
Its useful to begin any meditation session (whether seated or walking) by paying attention to those
parts of the body that are in contact with the ground. This helps to stabilise and ground the mind,
making it calmer and less likely to wander.
So in this practice I usually start with becoming aware of my feet first standing, and then walking.
Then I lead my awareness systematically through my body, relaxing each part of my body as I bring
in into the center of my focus. Its important to remember to experience these sensations, rather than
think about them.
Thinking about sensations keeps us trapped in our heads, and perpetuates patterns of anxiety,
craving, etc. By simply experiencing our sensations, on the other hand, we help to cut down on
unproductive thinking and bring about more calmness.
This distinction between experiencing something and thinking about it is not at all obvious to some
people. To experience something like the sensation of your feet touching the ground is simply
to be aware of it, to notice it. Thinking about something is where we have inner talk, like I wonder
if this is what Im supposed to be feeling? Oh, theres an itch. Maybe I should scratch it? Why am I
doing this anyway? I think Ill have pizza for dinner.
So the aim is simply to notice physical sensations. Thoughts may arise when we do this, but this is
thinking about and its not what we aim to do, and so we just let the thoughts go. We simply
return to the physical sensations, and as we persistently do that we find that the amount of thinking
we do dies down.
Remember to relax each part of your body as you become conscious of it. This practice is a
wonderful opportunity to practice letting go. You can really notice how your walk changes as you
relax.
Compared to sitting meditation, you may find that its far easier to be aware of your body while
walking. A lot of people find that being aware of their bodies is much easier when their muscles and
skin etc. are in motion. This can make walking meditation into a very powerful and intense practice.
Most of us live rather too much in our heads, and when we find a way to bring our awareness into
our bodies it can be a positive relief and even a great pleasure.
Its particularly interesting to become aware of the angle that you hold your head at. The angle of
your head has a huge impact upon your experience. If your chin is tucked into your chest, and
youre looking at the ground in front of you, youll almost certainly find that you become caught up
in a very cyclical pattern of emotion. If your chin is in the air, youll probably find that youre either
caught up in thoughts or in the outside world. Well look at this again in the section on balancing
inner and outer.

Being aware of feelings

The next stage of walking meditation is paying attention to feelings.

The word feeling has a specialized meaning in Buddhist meditation practice. In everyday speech,
we use the feeling to refer to a number of different things. We might say, for example, that
someones skin feels cold. Here we are referring to a physical sensation. We might also say that we
feel angry here referring to an emotion. By feelings in the context of Buddhist meditation
practice we mean neither of these things.
The word feeling (vedana) refers to a basic sense of liking/disliking, or comfort/discomfort, or
pleasure/displeasure (feelings can also be neutral, if youre not sure whether you like or dislike
them). These feelings are gut-level responses that are less developed than emotions like anger, or
love, or joy, or sadness.
Feelings often stand between sensations and emotions. For example, you turn up in the office one
day, and find that a co-worker is using a particularly pungent perfume that you dont like. There is
the sensation of the perfume itself. Then there is a gut-level response that you dont like this
particular smell (thats the feeling), and then there is a variety of emotions that you might
experience in response to that feeling; emotions such as anger, or compassion (on a good day).
We experience feelings in relation to just about every sensation we perceive, whether visual, or
auditory, or tactile, or whatever. Particular colors have their own feeling tone thats why we have
favorite colors: we like the feelings that those colors evoke. There are some sounds that we enjoy
hearing (our favorite music) and some that we dislike (some other peoples music). There are also
odors and tastes that we involuntarily like or dislike. And physical contact can be pleasant or
unpleasant too, of course.
When we are doing walking meditation, there will be feelings associated with the body, from a
niggling pain, to a pleasant feeling of relaxation. There will also be feelings associated with things
that we see, and hear, and with all of the other sensory modalities that we experience including
those that are imagined. Thoughts and images that arise in the mind also have feelings associated
with them.
In paying attention to feelings, the important thing is simply to notice them without either clinging
to them or pushing them away. When we are unaware, it is very common for the mind to start
grasping after experiences associated with pleasant feelings.
An example would be when I talked earlier about walking past shop window displays. The
shopkeeper has arranged goods and advertising in the window that he or she hopes will give rise to
pleasant feelings. She or he doesnt do this just in order to make your life more pleasant however.
He or she hopes that the emotion of desire will cause you to stop and look, and possibly even to
come in to the shop and make a purchase.
We also respond emotionally to unpleasant feelings. So you might, as in another example above,
feel anger towards the colleague who has such bad taste in perfume. Anger is a form of aversion or
rejection.
In practicing mindfulness, were trying to be more aware of how our experience moves from
sensation, to feeling, to emotion, so that we have more choice over what emotions we experience.
Of course, the aim in meditation is to cultivate positive emotions and to eradicate negative
emotions. So we try simply to notice what feelings arise, without letting our mind 'non-mindfully'
stray into negative emotional patterns.

Being aware of emotional and mental states

The third foundation of mindfulness that we pay attention to in walking meditation is our emotional
and mental states, or citta.
In Buddhism, the word citta means both heart and mind. So here, were becoming aware of our
emotions and of our state of mind as we do walking meditation.
So, as you are walking along, you can be aware of the emotions that youre experiencing. These
will almost certainly change throughout the course of a single period of walking meditation.
A particular meditator might start off experiencing boredom, become slightly irritated as he
wonders what this practice is about, and then start developing curiosity and interest as he begins to
notice his body beginning to relax, and then start feeling intensely joyful as the practice becomes
more and more fulfilling. Then the approach of a large dog may cause some anxiety, which may
turn to relief as the dog passes, and then he may experience joy once more.
Our emotional states often change quite rapidly. The quality of your mental states may also change.
Your mind can be bright or dull. You may notice that you have a lot of thoughts at one time, and
that your mind is very calm at another time.
Often when your mind is very busy, your thoughts are not connected to the meditation practice at
all. You may be thinking about all sorts of other things. When your mind is more calm, your
thoughts are more likely to be connected with your actual experience and with the meditation
practice itself. Its very common, in our day-to-day lives, for us to be quite unaware of our current
experience.
Instead, we are lost in thoughts about the past or the future. Practicing mindfulness helps us to be
in the moment.
In being aware of our emotional and mental states during walking meditation, we try to maintain
this practice of being in the moment. By filling our mind with the richness of the experience of
walking, we leave less room for daydreaming and fantasy. Instead, we are deeply aware of our
present experience, which becomes far more fulfilling than any daydream.
With practice, we become more continuously aware of our emotional and mental states. This is an
important skill to develop. Our mental and emotional states change in dependence upon the way we
think, the habitual emotional patterns that we allow to unfold, as well as the speech and physical
activities that we engage in.
Once we become more sensitized to the effects of our inner and outer actions, we have more choice.
We can choose not to pursue a particularly negative train of thought, or realize that weve been
speaking harshly to someone, because we are acutely aware of the unpleasant effects that these
actions are having on us.
With awareness comes choice, and with choice comes freedom.

Being aware of objects of consciousness

The fourth foundation of mindfulness that we bring attention to in walking meditation is dharmas,
or objects of consciousness.
Here, we are aware not just of the general state of our emotions and of our minds, but of the specific
contents of our emotions and of our thoughts, and are able to categorize our emotions and thoughts
in various ways. At the very least, we can be aware of whether our thoughts and emotions are those
that we want to encourage or to discourage.
Once youve read more of this site, youll be able to categorize your emotions and thoughts in terms
of the five hindrances and the five meditation factors (these are ways of classifying our negative and
positive states of mind, and will be discussed in other sections of Wildmind).
Why is this ability to categorize your emotional and mental states important? The more that you are
able to do this, the more ability you will have to choose to alter your experience.
An analogy would be weeding a garden. You need to make decisions about which plants you wish
to encourage in your garden, and which you want to eliminate. Being aware of objects of
consciousness is thus rather like knowing which plants are weeds, and which plants are those that
you want to cultivate. This kind of knowledge comes with study, reflection, and experience.
An example might be useful. Imagine that someone comes up to you while you are working, and
points out that your shoulders are tense. You realize that theyre right, and that you hadnt been
aware that your shoulders were up round your ears. In fact, you now realize that your neck and
other parts of your body are tense too. So you relax your shoulders and neck, and you feel more at
ease. You can now continue your work without developing sore shoulders and a headache.
It was being able to recognize tension as tension, and knowing that the tension that was something
you didnt want that allowed you to make the change. Also implicit in this example is that you
could recognize the absence of the positive state of relaxation, and knew what to do to bring it about
(i.e. let go of the tension in your shoulders). The more we meditate, the more we become aware that
some mental/emotional states are undesirable, and that there are some mental states that we want to
experience more often because they lead to greater fulfillment.
Of course theres considerably more to working with the mind than simply recognizing tension!
Buddhism offers a systematic and thorough map of the mind and offers many techniques for
reducing the hold undesired mental/emotional states and for cultivating desired mental/emotional
states. But we start just by noticing.
So, in this walking meditation, we start with the experience of our bodies, and then become aware
of our feelings, and then our emotions, and then objects of consciousness.

Balancing inner and outer experience

One thing I havent mentioned so far in this discussion of the four foundations of mindfulness in
walking meditation is our awareness of the outside world.
Our awareness of the world is obviously dependent upon our senses, which are part of our bodies.
So you might think that it would be best to focus on the outside world right at the beginning of the
practice.
However, I find it useful first of all to connect with my body, and only to focus on the outside world
when Im becoming aware of my feeling responses to what I perceive in my environment. Of
course, Im aware of the outside world for the whole of the period of the walking meditation (it
would be dangerous not to), but I only focus on the outside world once I have thoroughly
grounded my awareness in my body. Otherwise Im likely to get distracted.
Once I have been through the whole experience of my body, feelings, emotions, and objects of
consciousness, I like to try to balance my awareness of the inner and the outer worlds. During
walking meditation, there are some experiences that are purely internal (the sensations in your body,
your emotions, etc.) and there are some that relate to the outside world (you are seeing trees, and
grass, and rocks; you are hearing the sounds of the wind and of vehicles).
Its paradoxical, but being more aware of our inner world makes us more deeply aware of the
outside world. When you develop more mindfulness, you become more intensely aware of what is
around you. By contrast, when we are distracted we tend to get rather wrapped up in ourselves and
hardly notice the outside world, or only notice it in a superficial way. When our minds become
calmer, we find we are more open to the beauty of the world.
I find that it is possible to have an awareness of both inner and outer experiences, more or less
simultaneously, and that when I can balance my awareness of inner and outer experiences my mind
settles on a point of quiet, calm, lucid awareness.
One thing that will help you to establish a balanced awareness of the inner and outer is to pay very
close attention to the angle of your head (as I mentioned in the section on body awareness during
walking meditation). When your chin is tucked too far towards your chest, you are likely to get
caught up in your emotional states. Its as if you get sucked into a whirlpool of emotions, often of a
rather dark and brooding nature.
When your chin is too high, and your chin is pointing in the air, you are likely either to get caught
up in a maelstrom of thoughts, or to get very caught up in the outside world.
When you develop a balanced head position, so that your chin is very slightly tucked in, its much
easier to be aware of your thoughts, your emotions, and the outside world in a balanced way. At this
point of balance, youll notice that the muscles on the back of your neck are long and relaxed.
Your skull is also balanced perfectly and effortlessly, with the crown of your head supporting the
sky. The back of your neck feels open, and your chin is very slightly tucked in. Your gaze is into the
middle distance; you are neither looking at the ground directly in front of you, nor are you gazing at
the horizon. Your gaze is directed slightly downwards, perhaps meeting the ground 50 yards in front
of you.
There can come a point where the very distinction between inner and outer ceases to have much
meaning, and there is simply undifferentiated experience, with no sense of self or other. When this
kind of experience arises, its very joyful. It almost feels like a huge burden has been laid down
the burden of self.
Ending the practice

When you begin to end the practice by coming to a natural and comfortable stop, notice what
happens.
It can be a very powerful experience to simply stand once more. Compare this experience with the
standing that you did at the start of the practice.
Notice the sensations from all parts of your body. Notice your feelings, emotions, and thoughts.
Notice the world around you and find a point of balance between your awareness of the inner and
outer worlds.
Most people report a huge increase in physical sensitivity, often with sensations of tingling energy.
Often this is accompanied by a sense of joy, happiness, or even bliss.
Be sure to give yourself a few moment to assimilate the effects of the practice before moving on to
another activity. If you immediately rush off to do something else you may find that the effect is
rather jarring. As you move off from your session of walking meditation, maintain some continuity,
so that theres still a meditative attitude in what you do.
Its quite common for us to be far more sensitive than we are aware off. So make sure that you end
the practice graciously, and try to take the greater degree of awareness that you have gained into
whatever activity you do next.
It may be that youre not able to be as intensely mindful in your next activity as you were in the
walking meditation, but as much as possible let your mindfulness, and any calm and happiness that
youve connected with, percolate into the rest of your day.
Even if you dont make any conscious effort to continue being mindful beyond your session of
walking meditation youll probably find that youre just a bit more together and a bit more
patience and calm than you would normally be.

Learning the practice a little at a time

A CD containing a guided walking meditation is available through our online store, and the walking
meditation track from that album is also available as an MP3 download.
Theres a lot you can be aware of while doing walking meditation. When you first start doing this
practice, you might want to keep the practice very simple especially if you find that you get
distracted easily.
You can start off just by being aware of your body as you walk. Perhaps you might spend most of
your time being aware of just your feet. Its OK to do this, and to build up the practice slowly.
You might then expand your awareness beyond the feet, to include the calves. And then the knees,
the thighs, the hips and eventually the whole body.
Once youve gotten better at keeping your awareness grounded in your body, you can start
becoming aware of other elements of your experience, like your feeling and emotions.
When you can do that and still stay mindful of the practice for most of the time, then you can add
the elements of mindfulness of objects of consciousness and balancing the awareness of inner and
outer.
Id also suggest that the first time you try walking meditation you give it at least 20 minutes and go
to some quiet place like a park, where you are likely to be able to walk undisturbed.
Once youve done a few twenty minute sessions and have gotten the hang of the practice, then you
can start also doing shorter sessions walking from your car to the office, or walking from your
home to a grocery store.
If you have Bodhipaksas CD of guided meditations, then this will also help you to pick up the
practice more quickly, because you can simply let the guided meditation do the work of leading you
through the practice.

Making the practice your own

Some of my students find that they want to do the walking meditation in a slightly different way
from the method that I outline on the site and on the CD.
Some want to spend longer being aware of their emotions, while others want to pay more
attention to the world around them, especially when in the country.
Some want to repeat a phrase of affirmation, or bear in mind a Buddhist teaching such as
impermanence as they walk. I think its an excellent sign when students want to adapt the practice
in this way.
Walking: The Ultimate Exercise for Optimum Health is available on our online store.
Usually, my advice here is to make the walking meditation practice your own. There are no set
stages in this practice. You can do it in your own way. I would recommend always starting with
awareness of your body, but you should make the practice yours and shape it so that it fits your
needs.
Others of my students have adapted the principles of walking meditation practice by applying it to
running, cycling, skateboarding, rollerblading, and even to playing rugby. Im always very pleased
when I hear how students have creatively applied the principles of meditation to other activities that
are important to them.
Two really interesting examples have been to do with hiking and playing rugby. In both cases, the
students concerned have been in very demanding physical situations, where ordinarily they might
have found themselves getting into quite negative states of mind.
Hiking can be pretty tough going, especially when the weather gets bad and you feel exhausted.
One of my students related how she just kept letting go of negative thoughts as she hiked, and chose
instead to simply be aware of her physical experience. Her usual tendency would have been to
wallow in self-pity as she puffed her way up a steep incline, but through practicing mindfulness, she
managed to stay in a balanced and positive frame of mind, even although her body was aching.
My rugby-playing student (also a woman) talked about how she would be in the last fifteen minutes
of a match. She would be physically exhausted and emotionally drained at this point in the game.
Usually shed think of nothing but how much she wanted the game to be over. But through
practicing being in the moment and simply being aware of her experience, she managed to deeply
enjoy finishing her matches even in the moments when shed be lying in the mud with someone
standing on her head! Shes obviously made of sterner stuff than I am!
Making the practice your own in this way allows you more flexibility. You can then do walking
meditation for two minutes while walking from one office to another, or you can practice walking
meditation for four hours during a hike in the country.
You can even adapt the walking meditation so that you practice mindfulness while running, and its
possible to do a sort of cycling meditation as well. A friend of mine who is paraplegic does
walking meditation in his wheelchair.
Once you make the walking meditation practice your own, it becomes a very flexible and useful
tool.

Walking meditation and the practice of lovingkindness

It was a traditional practice at the time of the Buddha for monks and nuns to practice the
Development of Loving-Kindness (metta bhavana) meditation as they walked around. They would
do this while walking through town, begging food. Theyd radiate well-wishing in every direction
as they walked along the streets and through the marketplace.
Monks would also radiate Lovingkindness towards wild animals as they walked through the forests
and jungles. India at that time was heavily forested, and attacks by snakes and other wild animals
were common. It was considered that this practice was a good protection against snake attacks!
A CD containing a guided walking meditation and metta bhavana practice is available through our
online store, and the walking meditation track from that album is also available as an MP3
download.
Even if youre not at risk from cobras, you might still want to try practicing radiating loving-
kindness as you do walking meditation. It can be a beautiful feeling to radiate love as you walk past
people.
You can start doing walking meditation in the usual way, deepening your awareness of your body,
feelings, emotions, and objects of consciousness.
Then you can keep your focus on your emotions or on your heart-center, and wish everyone well.
You can imagine that you have a sun in your heart, and that you are radiating warmth and light in
every direction as you walk. Or you can repeat the phrase May all beings be well, may all beings
be happy, may all beings be free from suffering.
This may also be an appropriate point to talk about what you do if youre practicing walking
meditation and you see someone you know. My suggestion is that you deal with the situation as you
feel appropriate. If its possible, and appropriate, for you just to say hi and keep on going, then do
that.
If it seems appropriate to stop and talk to the other person, then you can interrupt the walking
meditation, but try to bring the qualities of awareness that you have developed in the practice into
your conversation. You might want just to stop for a moment and say something like: Hi there! Id
really like to stop and talk, but Im practicing my walking meditation just now. Can I call you
later?
What you have to watch out for is on the one hand being rude through clinging to the idea that you
are doing something so special that it cant be interrupted, and on the other hand using an encounter
with another person to avoid the practice. We call this being precious about your practice.
Sometimes also we act out of guilt. We feel wehave to stop and talk to this person because we
feel guilty about spending time working on ourselves. This is something we should work hard to
overcome.
If you do happen to stop and talk to someone, then resume your walking meditation practice
afterwards, and at the beginning spend a few moments evaluating what your motives were in
stopping. There is always something to learn from these encounters.

You can adapt the practice of walking metta bhavana to activities such as riding a bus or train, or
driving a car. Rather than have your mind spacing out, you can direct thoughts of loving kindness
toward your fellow passengers and to other drivers, pedestrians, etc. This kind of activity can
powerfully enrich our emotional experience and leave us feeling much happier. Rather than idly
daydream, and have nothing to show for it, we can find ourselves more at peace with the world and
ourselves.

In beauty may I walk

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This prayer is part of a nine-day Navajo ritual called the Night Chant.
In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
Beautifully will I possess again.
Beautifully birds . . .
Beautifully joyful birds
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
A Navajo Indian Prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant (anonymous)

Courtesy from Wildmind.org (Walking Meditation)