Walking Meditation

[Mole]

The only problem I have with buses is waiting for them. I have tried ipod and reading and talking to those also waiting, but none has really worked. Until I tried walking meditation. And bingo, my problem of waiting was solved.

So I start to walk slowly up and down the bus stop, but not so slowly as to draw attention to myself. But slow enough to focus on my footsteps, my breathing and the present moment.

And very quickly I enter the moment and the moment around me and I start to relax. And then I go deeper into the meditation as I walk back and forth until I recognise a change in myself. And as I change, the world changes and becomes more beautiful and quiet and peaceful, but more alert and purposeful. And just about then the bus comes.

And how extraordinary as the meditation seems to do two contradictory things. The first is to take me into the present moment, and the second is to change me.

How odd it is that the present moment will change me and so change the world, all while I am waiting for the bus.

 

[matmos]

The only problem I have with buses is waiting for them. I have tried ipod and reading and talking to those also waiting, but none has really worked. Until I tried walking meditation. And bingo, my problem of waiting was solved.

So I start to walk slowly up and down the bus stop, but not so slowly as to draw attention to myself. But slow enough to focus on my footsteps, my breathing and the present moment.

And very quickly I enter the moment and the moment around me and I start to relax. And then I go deeper into the meditation as I walk back and forth until I recognise a change in myself. And as I change, the world changes and becomes more beautiful and quiet and peaceful, but more alert and purposeful. And just about then the bus comes.

And how extraordinary as the meditation seems to do two contradictory things. The first is to take me into the present moment, and the second is to change me.

How odd it is that the present moment will change me and so change the world, all while I am waiting for the bus.

I find clearing the mind in public very therapeutic. Large crowds can disappear; empty streets suddenly become full.

Emptiness is not the problem; fullness is the problem.