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Charlotte Community of Mindfulness In the Tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh |
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Excerpt from A Guide to Walking Meditation
Walking meditation is practicing meditation while walking. It can bring you joy and peace while you practice it. Take short steps in complete relaxation; go slowly with a smile on your lips, with your heart open to an experience of peace. You can feel truly at ease with yourself. Your steps can be those of the healthiest, most secure person on Earth. All sorrows and worries can drop away while you are walking. To have peace of mind, to attain self-liberation, learn to walk in this way. it is not difficult. You can do it. Anyone can do it who has some degree of mindfulness and a true intention to be happy.
In our daily lives, we usually feel pressured to move ahead. We have to hurry. We seldom ask ourselves where it is that we must hurry to.
When you practice walking meditation, you go for a stroll. You have no purpose or direction in space or time. The purpose of walking meditation is walking meditation itself. Going is important, not arriving. Walking meditation is not a means to an end; it is an end. Each step is life; each step is peace and joy. That is why we don’t have to hurry. That is why we slow down. We seem to move forward, but we don’t go anywhere; we are not being drawn by a goal. Thus we smile while we are walking.
In daily life, our steps are burdened with anxieties and fears. Life itself seems to be a continuous chain of insecure feelings, and so our steps lose their natural ease. Our earth is truly beautiful there is so much graceful, natural scenery along paths and roads around the Earth. Do you know how many dirt lanes there are, lined with bamboo, or winding around scented rice fields? Do you know how many forest paths there are, paved with colorful leaves, offering cool and shade? They are all available to us, yet we cannot enjoy them when our hearts are not trouble-free and our steps are not at ease. Walking meditation is learning to walk again with ease.
If I had the Buddha’s eyes and could see through everything, I could discern the marks of worry and sorrow you leave in your footprints after you pass, like the scientist who can detect tiny living beings in a drop of pond water with a microscope. Walk so that your footprints bear only the marks of peaceful joy and complete freedom. To do this, you have to learn to let go — let go of your sorrows, let go of your worries. That is the secret of walking meditation.
Worry and sorry cling to our lives, and we want to let them go. How shall we do this? Take firm, calm steps. Take courageous steps. Be alert and strong-willed — alert to your burdens of worry and sorrow, strong-willed in your determination to put them down. Ask yourself, “Why should I wish to keep this weight on my shoulders?”
Be clear that you are indeed carrying the heavy luggage of worry and sorrow, and be compassionate with yourself. You can experience compassion for others only when you are compassionate with yourself. You feel this compassion when you see that you are bound to the frame of worry and sorrow. You understand that worry and sorrow cannot help you to solve any of your problems. Instead, they obstruct your peace and joy.
From such awareness, decide to let worry and sorrow fall away. If you want to, you can — like taking off a raincoat and shaking off all the raindrops that are clinging to it. As you let go of worry and sorrow, bring a smile to your face. This may be just a beginning of a smile, but keep it on your lips, like the Buddha’s half-smile. Learn to walk as a Buddha walks; to smile as a Buddha smiles. You can do it. Why wait until you become a Buddha? Be a Buddha right now, at this very moment!
This half-smile is the fruit of awareness and joyful peace of mind, and it also nurtures and preserves that awareness and peaceful joy. It is truly miraculous. It not only brings you peace and joy, it also brings peace and joy to people around you. It transforms samsara into the Pure Land. Don’t forget to maintain your half-smile when practicing walking meditation. It will keep your steps flowing with ease, and give you more awareness and more peace and joy.
Be aware of your breathing, and this too will nourish each step. Awareness of the breath is a wonderful way to preserve your mindfulness and peace. |
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About Us |
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For more information about Charlotte Community of Mindfulness, Leslie Rawls leslierawls@carolina.rr.com Tel: 704-583-1279 PO Box 38325 Charlotte, NC 28278 |
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To contact us: |
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For more information about Charlotte Community of Mindfulness, Leslie Rawls leslierawls@carolina.rr.com Tel: 704-583-1279 PO Box 38325 Charlotte, NC 28278 |
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