Walking meditation

[Mangaka]

Hello everybody,
does anyone here know, what is the proper way for practice of walking meditation? Should one be aware of steps itself (like contact of the feet with floor) or it's right to focus on meditation object like breath, mettā or foulness of the body? Or are both methods right?

[User13866]

Afaik the sutta instruction is that when walking one should make oneself fully aware 'I am walking'.

I just pace back & forth as i see fit, sometimes contemplating wholesome themes, sometimes not contemplating, sometimes noting (if distracted), sometimes not noting anything much, sometimes i walk slowly, sometimes at moderate speed.

I think the point is to be mindful & alert and not being distrated from perceiving the beginning & end of things [thoughts, feelings & perceptions].

Imho it's not wrong if you want to walk slowly, focusing on immersing the awareness in every detail, i do that sometimes.

I don't do the focusing on breathing much but i don't think it's wrong.

The excerpt from an7.61 is apparently difficult to translate

No ce te evaṁ viharato taṁ middhaṁ pahīyetha, tato tvaṁ, moggallāna, pacchāpuresaññī caṅkamaṁ adhiṭṭhaheyyāsi antogatehi indriyehi abahigatena mānasena. Variant: pacchāpuresaññī → pacchāpure tathāsaññī (katthaci)

Sujato: But what if that doesn’t work? Then walk mindfully, concentrating on the perception of continuity, your faculties directed inwards and your mind not scattered outside.

Thanissaro: “But if by doing this you don’t shake off your drowsiness, then—percipient of what lies in front & behind—set a distance to meditate walking back & forth, your senses inwardly immersed, your mind not straying outwards. It’s possible that by doing this you will shake off your drowsiness.

[JamesTheGiant]

I love this little book. It's three monks giving teachings on walking meditation. It's a good read but maybe not the simple instructions which may be most useful for you now.
https://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh464_Nyanad ... tions.html

[SarathW]

I found that the following video is very good.



viewtopic.php?p=365349&hilit

[User13866]

I think that

If one is a monk 2500 years ago, alone in a forest somewhere in northern India, at night and bafefoot.

There is only one way you will be pacing back & forth, that is very attentively, trying not to step on a centipede, a snake or a scorpion.

[Indañano Bhikkhu]

Or are both methods right?

Both methods are “right”, in the sense that they create the causes and conditions for calm and insight to arise. The reason why following the sensations in your feet is the most commonly taught one, is simply that most people seem to find it easier.

Generally speaking, any applicable meditation object may be combined with any of the four postures, though some combinations work better than others for most people.

[mikenz66]

Hello everybody,
does anyone here know, what is the proper way for practice of walking meditation? Should one be aware of steps itself (like contact of the feet with floor) or it's right to focus on meditation object like breath, mettā or foulness of the body? Or are both methods right?

I am mostly aware of the motion. The contact of feet with the ground is only a small part of the experience of walking ("I am walking"), and I'm always a bit confused when that contact is suggested as the primary awareness.

However, as others have said, the instructions on this, and other meditation in the suttas are general enough that there is plenty of room for creative approaches to using walking to develop mindfulness, calm, and insight.


Mike

[sunnat]

Meditation on truth. It is in the present moment that truth is found. So bringing the mind to bear on a subset of the truth of mow means focusing in on for example what the breath is doing in the now, or what walking is. Moving from the gross to the subtle. From ‘I am walking’, ‘there is walking’ to every minute nuance of foot talking a step, to the moment to moment feeling on the sole of the foot. It’s a progression from a gross reality to the subtlest of the continual change, anicca, of all things composed.

[thomaslaw]

Hello everybody,
does anyone here know, what is the proper way for practice of walking meditation? Should one be aware of steps itself (like contact of the feet with floor) or it's right to focus on meditation object like breath, mettā or foulness of the body? Or are both methods right?

Seek nothing, just walk.

[asahi]

I think that

If one is a monk 2500 years ago, alone in a forest somewhere in northern India, at night and bafefoot.

There is only one way you will be pacing back & forth, that is very attentively, trying not to step on a centipede, a snake or a scorpion.

I suppose they have oil lamp

[frank k]

Hello everybody,
does anyone here know, what is the proper way for practice of walking meditation? Should one be aware of steps itself (like contact of the feet with floor) or it's right to focus on meditation object like breath, mettā or foulness of the body? Or are both methods right?

see AN 3.16
https://lucid24.org/an/an03/an03-v01/index.html#s16

The Buddha says do sitting or walking meditation, all the time.
He doesn't tell you how to allocate how much to do each, so it's an individual choice.
Other suttas mention all four postures (standing, lying down).
So it's not about the posture, or whether you use a chair to sit.
It's the same set of meditation techniques in any posture.
All the weirdly specific walking meditation techniques they teach in modern times, didn't come from the Buddha.

As long as what they teach is in accordance with Dhamma, then nothing wrong with trying it out and seeing if it helps you.
But don't think there's something special you need to do for 'walking meditation'.

[Goofaholix]

There is no proper way of doing it, just do what works for you.

Walking mediation is the bridge between sitting and daily activities, you want to take the awareness you've developed in the controlled sitting practice into a semi controlled walking practice then into the uncontrolled daily activities. So while you could pay attention to one thing I think its better to pay attention to everything, body movements, mind states, thinking, seeing etc.

[Aloka]

Here's Ajahn Amaro talking about walking meditation: