And as to walking meditation the Buddha said there are five benefits of walking.
(1) The first benefit is that you can walk on foot a very long journey, because you have practised walking.
(2) Then the second benefit is you will be perseverant with the strenuous effort in your practice. Because you see, its the nature of a human being to stay still and sit idly, enjoying something. He doesnt want to walk or stand. He likes sitting better than straining and walking. In other words he is naturally lazy to walk so he would like to sit always. So if a person trained himself in walking for a very long time then because of his exertion he likes to walk. He is not reluctant to walk. That means he has the energy or effort to do something actively with alertness. Walking makes him active and alert. So whatever he does he puts the utmost effort in the doing of that thing. Thats why the Buddha said, if you practise walking you become industrious, perseverant, with utmost effort.
(3) You yourself know when you are afraid of cholesterol in your body you do jogging every morning or every evening. Jogging is a sort of walking practise. When the time comes up you are not lazy to do jogging. Thats because you have practised that jogging. Thats what the Buddha said. One of the benefits of walking is the perseverant and diligent effort one can have.
(4) Then the fourth benefit of walking is healthiness. If a person practises walking he is healthier than the person who is lazy. By practising walking you can be healthy both mentally and physically. Mental health is much more important than physical health. Regarding healthiness, the Buddha said the food you have taken is easily digested. Because of the digestion you are healthy. Thats the benefit of walking. After you have taken a lot of food into your stomach, if you lie down or if you sit its somewhat difficult for you to digest it. After you have taken that much food, then if you walk the food is easily digested. So healthiness together with digestion is one of the benefits of walking.
If you are lazy you cant meditate. If you are lazy you do not come here for meditation. Because you are not lazy you come here to meditate. Yesterday when I explained how to practise walking meditation systematically, after the talk most of the yogis took an interest in walking and they practised it. Then at the time of the interview they told me, `I enjoy it.` Why do you enjoy it? Because you like to be industrious and to be perseverant as the result of walking meditation.
(5) The most important benefit of walking, what the Buddha said in accordance with this discourse, is concentration. The Buddha said the concentration you have attained in walking meditation lasts very long. You can easily concentrate your mind on the movement of the foot in a short time when you take an interest in walking, and also do it strenuously, because in walking the object of meditation is more pronounced than in sitting.
In sitting the respiration or abdominal movement is not distinct to your mind. In the beginning of sitting you may find it and you may be able to note it very well: rising, falling, rising, falling. Sometimes it becomes irregular because you make too much effort in your noting of the abdominal movement so that it can be more distinct. But in walking you didnt have such a problem. In walking naturally the lifting movement, pushing movement, dropping movement of the foot is very prominent, very distinct to your mind so that you can easily note it.
When the object of meditation is prominent or predominant then you can easily note it. You can easily watch it. Because you can easily watch it your mind becomes very quickly concentrated on it. Then that concentration becomes also deep so it will last very long. One of the benefits of walking is to attain a long lasting concentration of the mind. Naturally some of you practise walking meditation systematically and diligently so you have had some concentration of the mind which is somewhat deep, better than you have had in sitting meditation. You know it through your experience.
Thats what the Buddha said, you can attain long lasting concentration by means of walking. So when you are aware of each individual movement of the foot, and sometimes the intention too, then the mind becomes gradually concentrated on the movement of the foot very well. And the more energetically you note the movement the more deep is the concentration of the mind. Then when concentration becomes deeper and deeper you feel your feet become light as they automatically lift, automatically push forward, automatically drop down. You come to realise it. Sometimes you get startled at the experience of this automatic lifting and pushing and dropping of the foot. and as soon as you feel it you say to yourself, `Hah, whats that? Am I mad or not?` In this way you get startled at the unusual experience of the movement of the foot.
When I conducted a meditation retreat in England at the Manjusri Tibetan Monastery, the Manjusri Institute in northern England near the border of Scotland, one of the meditators had put much effort into his practise both sitting as well as walking, and awareness of the activities too. So after about four days meditation he came to me and asked a question. Venerable Sir, my meditation is getting worse and worse, he said. Now what happen to your meditation? I asked him. Then he said, When I am walking one day, Venerable Sir, then gradually I am not aware of myself. The foot itself had lifted, and it itself pushed forward, and then dropped down by itself. Theres no I or no me, no self, no myself. Sometimes though I control my foot, the foot doesnt stay with the ground. It lifted by itself. Sometimes it pushed forward very long. I couldnt control it. Then sometimes its getting down by itself. So my meditation is getting worse and worse. What should I do? Then eventually he said, I think I have gone mad. Such an experience was very amazing.
This is a benefit of walking meditation. First of all he said, I dont know myself. Im not aware of myself. I dont know my body, my leg. That means the realisation of the movement of the foot. The movement of the foot has destroyed the idea of an I or a you, a self or a soul, a person or being. Here what he was realising was the impersonal nature of our bodily process called Anatta. No soul, non ego, non self nature of our bodily phenomena.
When he said, The foot is automatically lifted up by itself. Its automatically pushed forward by itself, that means theres no person or no being, no self who lifted the foot, who pushed it forward, who dropped it down. Its the realisation of the impermanent nature of physical processes or physical phenomena: Anatta. Before he didnt realise the physical process of the rising falling movement and the other parts of the body in sitting, he realised the processes of rising, lifting movement, pushing movement, the falling movement of the phenomena as it really is. So he has destroyed the false idea of an I or a you, a person or a being, a self or a soul - Anatta.
It was very interesting. Not only this yogi but also many yogis in Burma experienced it in this way. And sometimes before you experience this stage of insight knowledge you feel you are walking on waves of the sea. Or you are standing on a boat which was floating on the waves of the sea. Sometimes you may feel you are walking on a heap of cotton. Sometimes you feel you are walking in the air. That is also one of the insight knowledge which penetrates into the true nature of material process, material phenomena.