Almost as common is walking meditation. Walking meditation is generally used as a kind of support and a kind of way to integrate improved concentration into real life applications.
Buddhism classifies the body in being in one of four potential postures at any time. They are: Sitting, walking, standing, and lying down. While in the west we typically associate meditation with the sitting variety, all four of these postures can be used to cultivate concentration and mindfulness.
Sitting meditation gives us an opportunity to work on our concentration with a minimum of distraction, but it can be difficult to maintain that level of concentration when we need to function in daily life. And sometimes when problems creep up in sitting meditation it can be helpful to take a break.
Walking meditation is much more dynamic, and forces the meditator to try maintaining concentration in the presence of distractions.
To try walking meditation, you just need somewhere you can walk where you won't be interrupted. It can be indoors or outdoors. Somewhere you can go back and forth for a length of 30 to 100 meters or so is ideal. And lastly, the path should not be so difficult to walk that you need all your concentration to avoid falling over.
Once you have chosen your path, it is important to know what to concentrate on when you are walking. From Gil Fronsdal at the site of an Insight meditation center in Redwood, California:
Once you feel connected to the body, let your attention settle into your feet and lower legs. In sitting meditation, it is common to use the alternating sensations of breathing in and out as an “anchor” keeping us in the present. In walking meditation, the focus is on the alternating stepping of the feet.
With your attention in the legs and feet, feel the sensations of each step. Feel the legs and feet tense as you lift the leg. Feel the movement of the leg as it swings through the air. Feel the contact of the foot with the ground. There is no “right” experience. Just see how the experience feels to you. Whenever you notice that the mind has wandered, bring it back to the sensations of the feet walking. Getting a sense of the rhythm of the steps may help maintain a continuity of awareness.
As an aid to staying present, you can use a quiet mental label for your steps as you walk. The label might be “stepping, stepping” or “left, right.” Labeling occupies the thinking mind with a rudimentary form of thought, so the mind is less likely to wander off. The labeling also points the mind towards what you want to observe. Noting “stepping” helps you to notice the feet. If after a while you notice that you are saying “right” for the left foot and “left” for the right foot, you know that your attention has wandered.
The process starts with simply walking. As above, there is no "right" or "wrong" way to walk. Walking slowly is ideal however, as it gives time to notice the intricacies of the movement. The purpose of walking meditation to keep your awareness on these intricacies, on the process of walking.
Over time, there are two things a meditator starts to notice about this type of meditation:
One, like the breath in concentration meditation, the walk starts to break down into its component parts. Very rapidly meditators start to notice 4 main phases to walking. There is the first stage where the meditator shifts their weight to the front, then they lift their back foot, then move the foot, then lastly putting the foot down.
Like the breath in concentration meditation, the longer one does this form of meditation the more detail they become aware of. The meditator will start to notice differences from step to step in how their feet move, how their body weight shifts, and the like.
If this kind of awareness is developed over time, it becomes easier to use in daily activities, as all activities requiring physical movement contain similar processes. It's judged so useful that it is becoming more common in western medical practices for elderly who are at risk of suffering from falls, and other areas where body awareness is important.
A person with improved body awareness is likely to stop doing something that is bad for their body earlier (like slouching at the desk). By becoming more aware of our body, we start thinking more about how we use it.
Secondly, over time, the meditator will start to notice that the intention to create movement precedes the movement itself. They will notice that before they move the foot, there is the intention to move it, before they shift their weight, there is the intention to shift it.
This noticing of intention to action creates awareness of the mind to body link. Where improved body awareness makes us think more about how we use the body, improved awareness of how the mind affects the body makes us think about how we use our minds.
With this kind of awareness, it becomes easier to see the links between our moods and our physical feelings. It may give us insight into postural and other long-term health problems. It gives us new understanding that the activities of the mind cannot be separated from the activities of the body. And that the health of the mind is just as important as the health of the body. A person with improved mind-body awareness is more likely to change their thoughts and intentions before negative consequences occur.
By practicing in an environment with more distractions, and by learning to maintain concentration while doing something, it becomes much easier to maintain awareness while performing other tasks. Essentially these other tasks can be practiced in the same way as walking meditation once the principles and purpose of the meditation is experienced. This leads to true mindfulness.
Mindfulness is not so much about practicing our skill in an isolated setting, but about how we use it on a daily basis. Meditation in this sense should be regarded as a type of "work out" for our minds. Then we must use these skills in daily life.
