WALKING MEDITATION Archives - Mindful Happiness

June 30, 2017 By Admin

Henry David Thoreau and Walking Meditation

Henry David Thoreau & Walking Meditation

Henry David Thoreau is, perhaps, the most individualistic of the American Transcendentalists. He asked us to consider what we have learned that is useful as we travel our own “stream of life.” He cautions us not to regret when we die that we “had not lived.” He advised us to stop hurrying about, and consider slowing down. This is a good mindfulness path. Major contributions he made to the art and skill of walking meditation have often be forgotten, So here, I will refresh our memories about what this sage taught us. See the list below and try your best to practice this way the next time you do walking meditation in nature.

When you walk just saunter at will, and be the nature you are beholding. Walk and move about without any conscious destination in mind. Be there with mindful enjoyment!
Probably influenced by Eastern thought on this topic, Thoreau advised us to walk with aware joy, then at some point turn around and roughly retrace your steps back to where you began.
When walking, do your best to free yourself from “worldly engagements.” Allow the sun’s light, the windy air, stars and moon to enter your body.
Allow nature’s “subtle magnetism” to embrace you. See if you notice an inner felt sense of being “joyous and serene.”
In many ways nature is a sacred place (santum santorum). Allow yourself to be where good things are “wild and free.”
Walking meditation in a natural setting can lead us to eventual liberation from daily suffering and fears. It is a healing practice.
He recognized nature as our mothers. Thoreau wanted us to rest and heal in the sun’s “informing light.”
To get the most out of walking meditation, one must stay in the present “of this moment.”
Intentionally bathe yourself in happy silence. Allow, allow, allow the healing power of nature to enter our mind-heart-body of being.
Practice more, and enjoy yourself more.

For more information refer to Thoreau, H. D. (1937, 1965 Edn.). (Edited by B. Atkinson). Walden and Other Writings...New York: Modern Library, pp. 597-634.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

October 24, 2015 By Admin

Mindful Walking Meditation

Mindful Walking Meditation:

How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh – A Powerful Short Book of Wisdom

In my opinion, Thich Nhat Hanh and The 14th Dalai Lama are the two most important and wise teachers of mindfulness, meditation, compassion, and Buddhism in the 21st century. Below I will offer my interpretation of Thich Nhat Hanh’s new book. At the same time, I will attempt to distill his wise instructions about how to walk. The post will end with a short segment on formal walking meditation. My agenda here, is to write my comments so they may be useful to both lay and Buddhist practitioners.

Part 1: The Basics of Walking with Mindfulness

Here we’ll review instructions on how to make any walk a mindful walk. Settle in and take a few calmer, slower, deeper breaths. Use your intention to prepare yourself for walking. As you lift your foot, inhale; as you place your foot (heal first) on the earth, exhale. Remain silent – just breathe and walk. Deeply appreciate the solid mother earth under you. Focus complete attention on the act of walking, thus relieving your mind of the need to think, evaluate, associate,tell stories, etc. Concentrate fully on the present moment of touching the earth. You arrive with each step. Allow mind to follow body with breath – feel your inner peace and joy. Adding a peaceful smile may improve your experience of “just walking.” Reflect on your gratitude for your moving legs, beating heart, working lungs and being on solid ground. Allow your walking body to liberate your mind from the incessant tangles of daily life. Bring your attention back to focused walking each and every time your mind wonders off into something/somewhere else. Notice your inner peace – feel it gently. Value and respect it. Give great appreciation for your bodhisattva ways (helping others). You may want to imagine that you are walking with the Buddha’s fee – being one with the Buddha. Be one with the peace and joy of walking slowly, effortlessly, lovingly. Walk this way more often at work, at home, outdoors, etc. (See pages 1-50 for more details.)

Part 2: More Details and Depth on How to Walk

Notice great ease as you allow your breath to lead your walking body. Continue to concentrate of how the moving body/legs feel; this will reduce distractions in the mind. You may walk alone, with others, or imagining others are with you (ancestors, friends, people you love, the Buddhas, etc.). Feel their wonderful energies. Walk in honor of them and mother earth, and all those who have walked here before you. Since enlightenment and nirvana cannot be understood as mental concepts or perceptions, just allow the body to walk in mutuality with the breath, the mind, the earth. Bring full mindful attention to the feelings of walking; be the awareness – stay present and return your mindful awareness if/when it moves away. No past, and no future – just the present moment “here now.” Notice internally – there may be subtle or strong feelings of deep peace, compassion, and wisdom – even possibly love. As you walk, observe, feel, and appreciate everything that appears in the present moment of movement. Allow yourself to forget the past and the future – the past cannot be changed, and the future gives you little control over it. While walking adopt the Buddha’s view that practice is non-practice and attainment is non-attainment. Be effortless! Just walk – BE the moving body, the quiet mind, the inner peace, the silent joy. (See pages 51-97 for more details.)

Part 3: More Formal Walking Meditation

Building from the earlier parts of this post, prepare your intention for formal walking meditation practice. Complete a few calm, slow, deep breaths. Place hand/arms in front, behind, or by your sides. Hold your head level and allow a gentle gaze 2-3 feet in front of you. Pay close attention to the feelings in the body – lifting the leg inhale then placing the leg on solid earth exhale. Breathe the movement, peace, and joy – all in unison. If/when your mind distracts or goes elsewhere, gently and lovingly bring your focus back to just walking. No self-criticism. Be silent! Smile! Count your breaths if it helps. It will be more relaxing if you extend the exhalations slightly longer than the inhalations. This will activate your vagal nerve network and bring more calmness. You may want to add a brief mantra to your walking: “May I breathe and walk in peace.” Other phrases may help: “in and out,” “deep and silent,” “I smile and let go,” or “my wonderful present moment.” Make up what you want to say if helpful, or say nothing. Just concentrate on feelings of movement and touching the earth. Slow down; speed up. Walk at the pace you desire. Do what work best for you. Bring breath, mind, body, joy and self together – fully integrated in the act of walking meditation. Take personal refuge in your walking. Attend to the outside, but feel the inside. Be the walking; be the peace; be the joy! Hold strong gratitude for your walk, and appreciate all aspects of this meditation practice.

For best experiences, consider walking meditation outside in the natural environment.

Be like the Taoists; be in nature’s beauty. Enjoy! (See pages 99 – 117) for more details.)

Nhat Hanh, Thich (2015). How to Walk. Berkeley,CA: Parallax Press.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

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July 3, 2015 By Admin

Mindfulness Practices

Mindfulness Practices to help Reduce Your Worry & Suffering

My last post dealt with various mindfulness-based practices and skills that may help to reduce created suffering due to excessive worrying. I will add a few more practices in this post. First, let us go back to Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and his Meditations. In Book 2, page 14 he advises himself (also us) to allow nothing to interfere with our emotionally stable directing mind (as I interpret – the mindfulness-based mind using prajna/wisdom skills). He also reminds us that we are an integrated part of the force of NATURE that governs all worldly and universal activities (change, impermanence, our good/bad fortune). Since we have no independent origination, and since we are subject to all forces tied to cause and effect in NATURE, Marcus tells us to deal with our tasks in a diligent manner – but a diligent manner including dignity, sympathy and dispassionate justice. It does appear that Marcus Aurelius had a touch of Buddhism and/or Taoism in his philosophy of life.

Recently Tricycle Magazine presented five other practices that may be helpful in reducing secondary suffering related to compulsive worry. Zen teacher Barry Magid recommends that we learn to leave ourselves alone. Do your utmost best to STOP self-criticism, self-devaluation, and feeling “less than” in your worldly activities and interactions. Just sitting in zazen will open up your mind-doors to this possibility. So do more meditation – just sitting and observing your thoughts go by like clouds in the sky. Practice bare attention and pure awareness without any storylines or evaluations whatsoever. Just be aware of what comes up (worry, reasons to worry, stories about your worrying), and LET IT GO as you bring attention back to your breath. Do this over, and over, and over again.

Teacher Gil Fronsdal recommends that we practice more and more metta, loving kindness meditation. This is my personally most favored meditation practice. It can do wonders for one’s troubled mind. It is both a practice in self-compassion and compassion for others. Since you are the one worrying, do your loving kindness meditation on yourself – and possibly for the person/s you are worrying about. May I be safe. May I be healthy, May I be free from suffering and worry. May I be happy. May I live with more ease.

The Sri Lankan monk, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, recommends that we practice more and more vipassana meditation (insight meditation). Practice on both your joy and your suffering. Bring full attention then concentration to the very earliest arising of either joy or worry (suffering) in your awareness, and get to know their arising qualities. Just pay concentrative attention to their arising and their falling away. Do not go into storylines and memories about your joy or worry. Just observe closely their arising and falling away while in meditation. Do not track associations or causal thinking. Pay strong attention to only the arising and falling away of these mind-states.

Insight meditation teacher, Peter Doobinin, recommends that you do much more walking meditation. Just walk inside or outside (better I think). Walk at the pace you desire. Pay attention to your feet touching earth and the movement of your legs lifting, placing forward, and landing on the earth. Hold your hands by your sides, in front or behind you. Just pay attention to the walking body movements. Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, sometimes add a more sensory approach to his famous standard walking meditation format. After walking in meditation on your legs moving and your feet touching earth (complete stability in sensation), you may want to add paying attention to what your sense-doors perceive. What do you see, hear, feel, taste, smell? Just notice and note it; do not evaluate it or judge yourself or others.

For more information refer to Marcus Aurelius (translation by M. Hammond, introduction by D. Clay). (2006). Meditations. New York: Penguin Classics, Book 2, page 14. Also see http://www.tricycle.com/practice/five-practices-change-your-mind

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

March 1, 2015 By Admin

Mindful Movement as a Form of Meditation Practice

Using Mindful Movement as a Form of Meditation Practice with the Body

In Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction practices Hatha Yoga has been used as part of the recovery process from both psychological and physical suffering. In my own clinical use of mindful movement with children, youth and adults, I found that basic Qi Gong/Che Kung, Walking Meditation, and Trauma-Informed Yoga proved to be very helpful in improving participants’ mood and personal motivation. So why/how does repeated, formal sequences of body movement help people? Like general regular exercise, these mindful movement routines tend to lubricate the body (tendons, joints, etc.), improve strength (muscles), enhance resiliency (sticking with it for reinforcement), perhaps modify neurotransmitters, change breathing rate and depth, produce cognitive distraction from negative thoughts and emotions, lead to bodily stimulation and later relaxation, as well as improve attention, mindfulness, and concentration. There are many ways regular body movement can help us. The Buddha’s own advice was to move the body to improve attitude and mood: sit, lay down, walk, and stand up the next time you experience unhelpful emotions to see what happens. Today many examples of these movement meditation forms are available – often free online, through Google, in social media, and via Apps.

One of the most interesting explanations about why yoga (body meditation) is so helpful to people has been presented by the 14th Dalai Lama ( Tenzin Gyatso along with Khonton Peljor Lhundrub and Jose Ignacio Cabezon) in the book, Meditation on the Nature of Mind. The Dalai Lama suggest that there are many ways to attain enlightenment: four ways of yoga, five paths, and ten stages of the bodhisattva. Although he supports all means for attaining enlightenment, The Dalai Lama makes a special effort to support the “yoga of single-pointed concentration.” Apparently this form of yoga is one of the most personally “experiential” in its application. In the yoga of single-pointed concentration the self arises in the body (asana); there is complete awareness in the present moment of the body (holding its suffering or joy) but without distraction and cognitive elaborations (thinking). With the help of a trusted yoga teacher’s guidance, voice and sometimes corrective touch, there arises a strong calm abiding with self-compassion for what the object of meditative yoga is: the body as the personal home of emotional suffering. With this state of being comes equipoise and the “clear light” of experiencing your bodily experience, in the now. There is a self-arising realization in the present moment of the” you” experiencing the body as it passes through life’s joy, suffering and neutrality.

For more information refer to The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), Khonton Peljor Lhundrup, and Jose Ignacio Cabezon (2011). Meditation on the Nature of Mind. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 120-126.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!