Walking meditation

An ancient meditation practice
 

image When Buddha once was asked what his teaching consisted in he answered: we sit, we walk, we eat. And when he heard the reply that this seemed to be nothing special because everybody did this he explained: when we are eating we know we're eating. When we are sitting we know we're sitting. And when we're walking we know that we're walking.

So the Buddha told us that walking in complete mindfulness (or eating, sitting etc.) is at the heart of his teaching. And that's all? Yes, that's all.

It might sound simple (and it is) but nevertheless we need the right effort in order to be able to really walk in mindfulness and there are some suggestions that help us to free ourselves from illusions, thoughts, worries and problems by doing walking meditation. Many of these thoughts and problems keep working in our minds without control and often by doing so they simply ruin our life.

I talk about these suggestions in my book "Gehmeditation im Alltag" which was published by "Windpferd Verlag" in German in 2014 and by "Edizioni Il Punto d'Incontro" in Italian in 2015. An English translation will be published soon.

Walking meditation is

- simple and possible everywhere
- not necessarily something spiritual
- very helpful.

Only our un-mindful and uncontrolled thoughts separate us from getting in touch with the present moment and with life itself. But we can stop living a life in the cage of these automatic thought processes. And we can stop to do so here and now.

Walking is a fantastic opportunity o get in contact with the present moment because it's an activity that most of us do normally and everywhere every day. So it's an opportunity that's always available, every time we walk. Try it! Start walking into freedom!