QUESTION

 
>>>KK
Yes. I agree with you. The instructions given for Vipassana retreats are very different. You have probably seen people do a very  V E R Y slow walking meditation at such retreats where the emphasis is on noticing each of the parts of the movements which occur in the foot. Bhante was trained this way originally in Burma (Myanmar) too. It took over 45 minutes for him to cross a room sometimes with these extremely slow  movements as he attempted to note them. It does have value in a particular way. It is a lesson in observing the many movements to a step and that each fraction of a movement in the process is IMPERMANENT.
 

BUT, the question here is, what are we learning overall during the meditation? Once you go into the suttas and you begin to realize that the meditation instructions have the intention of helping the practitioner to see clearly the impersonal process of Dependent Origination, then you wonder about the value of observing thousands of movements in each step and so very slowly?
The other very important point for the walking meditation is that "walking" is supposed to "get the circulation moving in the body for a healthier situation to sit longer and deeper and see more". This is pretty cut and dry.  With this practice of Tranquil Wisdom meditation using the Breath or Loving Kindness for the object of the meditation, there is no 1 hour sit, 1 hour walk again and again with a bell happening on the hour. Here, people join together in one room for the first sit of each morning and the first sitting after lunch, for whatever length of time they can. Then, after doing the walking meditation, they go and sit wherever and for however long they individually can within their own point of development. So in this way it differs from a group Vipassana Retreat.

You do learn about impermanence by walking slowly, it's true. But it's more important to get the blood flowing when you are in a retreat for days on end sitting and walking. the longer you sit, the longer you should walk. So this is why we do a more natural form of walking which increases circulation and stretches our muscles.

So, what are we doing with our minds in this situation when we walk more naturally? One is continuing the meditation of the previous sitting, keeping it going, continuing to send out the loving kindness and tranquilizing or using the breath and tranquilizing while OBSERVING THE MOVEMENTS OF MIND'S ATTENTION MOMENT TO MOMENT. One is just walking now instead of sitting while they are staying on the object of the meditation: the observation. In this way the student continues the meditation without a break.

Another point to this walking meditation is that one should think of this as the first step of integrating the practice of the meditation into one's life. HOW? Because you are now walking and continuing to observe in the same way as when you were sitting!  One discovers that you can walk to a car, be doing most anything and as it becomes more and more a part of you this observation technique will eventually continue to be going on all the time at some level. You begin to see how your mind can wander off task as you are working and as this happens, you release the arising distraction, relax body and mind, begin to smile again and then put that smile into what you are doing while you are doing it.

 You get to observe how this practice can become integrated into daily life firsthand and it begins with the technique of keeping the meditation going while walking. The amount of time you can focus on any daily task is directly proportional to the development of this technique.

This training is an amazing practice for a person who is in R&D work environment of any kind performing concentrated work with experiments or engineering projects where tasks can take large amounts of time needing special focus. This technique can be put to the test to see the difference by training a particular team to try it out.

Therefore, in this way, our walking meditation  is seen here as simply an extension of our sitting meditation, a continuation of the observation technique observing the movements of mind's attention while getting our circulation moving in a healthy way.

[ Side note: Ever since I began training with Bhante, having previously been in personnel placement work, I have wanted an opportunity to train project teams in this way for a company. This would be a case to prove the specific difference this can bring about for the results of a specific project team. But the opportunity has never come about for us to work with a large company, YET.]

KK
December 22, 2005

Gainesville, FL

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