A Guide to Walking Meditation – Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda

Once when the Buddha was dwelling at Suṁsumāragira in Bhagga territory, Venerable Mahā Moggallāna was meditating in the village called Kalalavālamutta in the Magadha country. He was drowsing in his meditation seat when the Buddha saw him with his divine eye since he was invigilating him from a distance. Then the Buddha approached him through his psychic powers and as if catching him napping, said:

“Aren’t you drowsing Moggallāna. Aren’t you drowsing Moggallāna!” Venerable Moggallāna admitted to his weakness and the Buddha gave a systematic course of treatment to it as if administering 7 ‘waking pills’ – the peerless ‘physician – cum surgeon’ that he is:

1.   If that is so, Moggallāna, whatever perception you had when drowsiness overcame you, that perception you should not attend to. That perception you should not make much of.
2.  If that drowsiness does not leave you even when you are dwelling this way, then Moggallāna you should think about, reason out and mentally ponder over the Dhamma as you have heard and learnt.
3.  If that drowsiness does not leave you even when you are dwelling in this manner, then Moggallāna, you should recite at length the Dhamma as you have heard and learnt.
4.  If that drowsiness still persists even when you are dwelling this way, then Moggallāna, you should pull both your ear lobes and go on rubbing your limbs with the palm.
5. If that drowsiness does not leave you even when you are dwelling like this, then Moggallāna, you should get up from the seat, rub water over the eyes and look around in the directions and look up at the stars in the sky.
6. If that drowsiness does not leave you even when you are dwelling like this, then Moggallāna, you should attend to the perception of light. Determine the perception of day: ‘Just as day, so is night. Just as night, so is day.’ Thus with a clear unshrouded mind develop a luminous mind.
7. If that drowsiness does not leave you even when you are dwelling this way, then Moggallāna, determine the pacing up and down (caṅkamana) being conscious of ‘the behind’ and ‘the before’ (pacchā-pure-saññī)  with sense faculties turned inwards and with mind unstrained.  

If that drowsiness is not abandoned even as you are dwelling this way, then Moggallāna, you assume the lion’s sleep lying to the right side, placing one foot on the other, mindful and fully aware, attending to the perception of waking up. And on waking up, Moggallāna, you should get up quickly with the idea: ‘I will not
dwell giving way to the ease of lying down, the ease of contact and ease of drowsiness.’

Thus should you, Moggallāna, train yourself.”

This exhortation makes it clear that the meditator should try to maintain the seated posture which is more restful and take to the walking posture (caṅkamana) only as the last resort in one’s course of training for overcoming drowsiness. One should not uncritically interpret the onset of drowsiness as an invitation
to the promenade. Owing to the necessity of a fixed timetable, in some meditation centres, the routine of one hour sitting and one hour walking is recommended. It is true that it affords a certain amount of training to the beginner. But if even a beginner builds up some concentration (samādhi) towards the end of the period for sitting, it is not advisable to make it compulsory for him to break that samādhi and go to the caṅkamana. 

However….   read more

Extracted from WALK TO NIBBĀNA book  written by  Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda (page 2-4)

kāya saṁkhāra, vacī saṁkhāra, citta saṁkhāra.

Coming back to our subject saṁkhāra, we see it occurs as the second factor in the Paṭicca Samuppāda, following avijjā. You know we have many a time repeated and so on. The Buddha has himself given a clarification of the term saṁkhāra, in the  Vibhanga Sutta   (Division II  Nidāna,  Abhisamaya Saṃyutta,  Buddha Vagga,   Saṃyutta Nikāya

Monks, what are the preparations? There are three, preparations of the body, speech and mind. Remember they are in the singular. There is yet another clear analysis of these terms in the Cūlavedalla Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya.   We meet Arahant Therī Dhammadinnā making a comprehensive analysis of them in reply to lay disciple Visākha’s questions. He wished to know what exactly is meant by kāya saṁkhāra, vacī saṁkhāra, citta saṁkhāra. Arahant Therī Dhammadinnā explained “Friend Visākha, inhalation and exhalation are the preparation of the body, reasoning and deliberation are the preparation of speech. Perception and feeling are the preparation of the mind.”

Again the layman Visākha questions, “Noble lady, how do inhalation and exhalation be the preparation for the body? How do reasoning and deliberation be the preparation for speech? How do perception and feeling be the preparation for the mind?” Then the Arahant Therī had to explain further. “Friend Visākha, inhalation and exhalation are physical and bound to be associated with the body. They are therefore the preparation of the body.” Then she continues. Here she explains something special. “Friend Visākha, first, one reasons out and deliberates. Then expresses in speech. Therefore, reasoning and deliberation are the preparation of speech.” Then she continues, “saññā ca vedanā ca āvuso visākha cetasikā. ete dhammā cittapaṭibaddhā. tasmā saññā ca vedanā ca citta saṁkhāro.” Perceptions and feelings are mental phenomena. They are associated with the mind. Therefore they are the preparation of the mind. Now let us explore the implications behind these words…..Extracted from page 327-328 – The Law of Dependent Arising (Paṭicca Samuppāda)- Library Edition, Bhikkhu Katukurunde Ñāṇananda

One was that the evening talks seldom related the practice of mindfulness meditation we were engaged in during the day to the actual teachings of the Buddha. Exception made of some excellent talks in a more traditional style by Joseph Goldstein, the teachers said virtually nothing about the backdrop to the practice of mindfulness meditation as we find it described in the Pāli Canon, which I had studied in Sri Lanka. There was no talk about our bondage to the beginning less cycle of rebirths; nothing about the role of kamma, understood as the impact of our volitional actions from one life to the next; nothing about the goal of the practice as release from the round of rebirths. All these topics, central to the Dhamma, were simply passed over in silence, or at most treated as metaphors. The Buddha’s discourses were seldom taken up as themes for the evening talks, and if on occasion the Buddha was quoted, it was only by selecting snippets from the suttas, individual lines that would be cited out of context and freely interpreted by the speakers, somewhat in the manner a jazz musician might improvise on a tune by Cole Porter……..

…….Numerous times I heard things that even jarred my sensibility, such as: “The Buddha didn’t teach Buddhism; he taught the Dharma.” The implication of this, it seemed, was that all the other sages and saints being quoted were teaching the same thing as the Buddha, and despite the vast diversity in their expressions, what they were all teaching could be reduced to present-moment awareness…

………………purpose in maintaining present-moment awareness, in so far as it was directed toward any goal beyond itself, was to enhance appreciation of the present moment. The actual purpose for which the Buddha taught the way of mindfulness, I learned, was to help us to live in the present, to savor each moment in its immediacy, to ride the ever-changing flow of events with uncluttered minds,  letting whatever arises take its course without clinging to anything…

..We began to hear about such things as mindful business strategies, mindful shopping, mindful dating, mindful sex, mindful investing, mindful sports, mindful politics, and mindful military training. One would never have imagined that mindfulness would travel so far from the ancient monasteries where it was first proclaimed as “the direct way for the purification of beings and the realization of nibbāna.”

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