Dhamma Letter No. 97
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Dhamma Letter No. 97
Satipatthana 21 : Kayanupassana 12 : The posture 3 : Walking meditation경행1
The Buddha recommended Walking meditation and explained the benefits in five ways.
First, it is beneficial on long journeys as it brings health, strong endurance and strength. At the time of the Buddha, there were no vehicles or means of transport, so one had to walk long distances while alms-round. It was necessary to have strong endurance.
Second, it develops energy for mindfulness practice. This is because walking meditation requires twice as much effort as doing sitting meditation in order to be mindful. In other words, it takes twice as much effort to firmly establish mindfulness with an object that changes from moment to moment.
Third, leaning only on sitting meditation can cause disease. It relaxes the muscles and helps blood circulation. Therefore, balancing sitting meditation and walking meditation is good for health and can be very helpful for the growth of mindfulness.
Fourth, it is good for food digestion. When indigestion becomes a disease, it brings great obstacles to mindfulness meditation. In particular, if you practice meditation right after waking up in the morning, you can easily get rid of drowsiness and effectively develop mindfulness during sitting meditation.
Fifth, you will double your concentration power. This increased concentration plays a decisively important role in sitting meditation.
There is a tendency to neglect the practice of walking, which is a mistaken idea. If you practice walking first and then sit down, you can double your concentration and achieve deep samadhi.
A meditator finds it difficult to maintain strong samadhi and unwavering mindfulness when meditating.
Walking meditation is another subject of focused meditation, and there are cases where you can focus on your feet slowly. This method is not recommended except for those who are particularly distracted.
Just walk at a comfortable, natural pace, but this requires awareness. All sensations arising from the sixth sense already exist, and all phenomena of the body and mind that occur naturally should be targeted. You should be able to see what is happening inside yourself, without focusing on the outside scenery or passing by other people or sounds. To meditate in any posture with movement, whether sitting or lying down, you are targeting the phenomena of the body and mind that occur within you.
It's just different from the usual walks. A walk will focus your mind on objects other than yourself, and you will fall into delusions and into a daydream. This is not different from sitting, standing or mindfulness of daily life.
Mindfulness meditation aims to develop wisdom. Walking meditation also develops wisdom by understanding the impermanent and non-self through body and mind (material and consciousness). To the extent that wisdom arises, one is freed from all defilements and the enlightenment that leads to nirvana is manifested.
In the sutta, we can often see cases of attaining enlightenment through walking meditation. I hope that all of you will be freed from pain in body and mind through continuous practice repeatedly.
In the next Dhamma Letter, I will introduce a more detailed walking meditation method.
To be continued...
May you cultivate your Sati continuously (Samma-Viriya)!
May you develop the wisdom through Satipatthāna (vipassana meditation)!
May all practice well and reach to Magga (道, the path of enlightenment) and Phala(果, the fruit of enlightenment)!
With Metta,
Ayyā Kosallā
Edited by Euna Bonovich
If you have any questions related to dhamma & meditation, please feel free to ask. You can reach Ayya Kosalla directly at Bhikkhuni.Kosalla@gmail.com .
법에 대한 질문이 있으신 분은 위의 이메일 주소로 질문을 남겨주세요.
위빠사나명상의 마음관찰에 대한 논문을 한글 원본으로 읽고 싶으신 분은 클릭해서 다운로드 받을 수 있습니다. (네이버에 PDF 첨부)
The Korean Dhamma Letter is here 담마레터.
Buddha Sāsanaṁ Ciraṁ Tiṭṭhatu!
May the Buddha’s teachings last a long time!
Bhavatu Sabba Sotiṁ ca Maṅgalaṁ ca!!
May everyone be led on the path of peace and blessing!!
Sādhu Sādhu Sādhu !