Walking Meditation - Stillness in Motion
July 20, 2006
In Thailand, it’s common that when an ajaan arrives at a monastery he’s never been to before and wants to check out how serious the monks are about practicing, he looks at the walking meditation paths. If they’re well swept and obviously well worn by walking, he takes it as a good sign. One of the reasons, of course, is that if you look at the place where someone sits you can’t see how worn it is through the sitting, whereas walking wears a rut in the path. But the other reason is that walking meditation is an essential part of the practice that people tend to underestimate. By and large we emphasize the sitting and see the walking simply as an opportunity to get a change of pace from the sitting, to get up and stretch our legs a bit.