When you get down to it, basic meditation is just the process of getting your
mind to focus on a single thing at a time. How you do this can have side effects, of
course, driving your mind into very deep states, such as with yogic meditation
techniques that induce a state of slowed metabolic activity (hibernation) or much
faster mental states such as dervish dancing or high energy shamanic rituals.
The basic idea, focusing on a single point, remains the same though.
Moving meditation is just adding another step to the process, in order to
increase the over all utility and function of this focusing ability, as well as widen
the range of situations in which you can apply it.
By learning, and practicing, meditative skills while preforming slow, simple
movements, you'll gain the ability to stay in a focused state most of the time, or at
least move into that state when you need to with less difficulty, even in stressful
situations.
By practicing emergency skills, fighting, running, even things like first aid or
computer programing (If you need emergency programing skills. I can't think of a
situation myself where this would be needed, but, hey, the world is a big place. If
this applies to you, then go for it.) can be learned and practiced in a meditative
state, allowing you to increase accuracy and decrease response times greatly,
while making far fewer mistakes and not triggering fear or anxiety responses.
Even if you don't feel the need to practice specific skills this way, learning to
meditate while moving, even just taking a daily walk, will act to free your
subconscious mind and deepen your ability to sense thoughts inside yourself.
The sooner you can notice a thought forming, the greater control you'll have over
a given thought. It sounds odd, but when it comes to useful mental skills, being
able to notice and gain control over a thought is perhaps one of the most powerful
things an individual can ever learn to do.
Getting Started:
Pick a time during the day and a location where you can walk, uninterrupted
for at least twenty minutes. A local quarter mile track (Like high schools and some
colleges have) works well for this, since you won't have to watch for traffic.
Walk at a comfortable pace, holding your mind as clear as possible.
When a thought comes, just like in empty mind meditations, simply note the
thought exists, without judging it or trying to understand it and let it fade away.
As you increase in skill, it will take greater and greater focus to find deeper
thought patterns.
*It's normal, with daily practice, to suddenly feel that your mind is full of noise
and thoughts again on occasion. This can be disruptive, if you don't have
someone to tell you that it's a good sign. (So here I am. It's a good sign.) It
generally means that your ability to notice deeper thoughts has increased, rather
than a sudden dropping in skill level. You won't drop in skill with regular practice,
baring major health issues.
It can take a few days each time this happenes for you to move past the new
level, returning a sense of quiet to your mind, and may be weeks, months or even
years between one event and next. This is all normal though and is a sign that
everything is going well.
Is there a point where this will stop happening? Probably. But a casual
mediator likely won't reach it within twenty too forty years, so don't worry about
that part of things. (If you meditate for over six hours a day, then your mind will
rewire rapidly and you won't worry about things like that anyway, so it's a win-win.)
**Walking or moving while meditating is harder to manage, especially at first,
as movement stirs up subconscious thoughts and responses. That's the point.
Don't get frustrated if it's harder than sitting meditation!
Advanced Practice:
There's nothing too special about advanced moving meditation, except that,
since you will be using a complex set of movements instead of a more simple one,
say a yoga routine or martial arts set instead of walking, you need to learn to
place your focus on what you're doing instead of on emptying your mind.
How you do this is a personal choice though.
You can choose to focus on the interplay of muscle and bone to create
movement, or the sense of your body flowing through space.
You can focus your mind on the effects you are having outside of yourself as
you manipulate your world or try to maintain a specific, detached state while
preforming a given task.
How you do it is less important than being consistent in what you do though.
Pick something that feels challenging to you and keep at it. (If it's easy, then
you already know enough about how to do that specific thing, move on to
something harder!)
Finally:
It will be obvious to some that you can do this all the time, focusing intently as
you move from one part of your life to the next, at all times.
I've done it myself, for long periods of time.
It's tends to simplify emotional responses, and does help make concentrated
focus more automatic, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be any great
power or ability that comes from it. Past learning the basic skill well, living in this
fashion doesn't serve you overly, though some people will try to convince you
otherwise.
Unless your choosing to live as a monk, a simple daily practice is probably
more than enough to get by with for this one.
Having fun with it and not taking things too seriously will serve most people far
better in the long run that narrow, near perfect, focus. Keep this in mind when
starting this or any other mental practice. Human beings excel at being
generalists. To great a focus in any one area tends to warp a person into
something less able to get by in the world.
mind to focus on a single thing at a time. How you do this can have side effects, of
course, driving your mind into very deep states, such as with yogic meditation
techniques that induce a state of slowed metabolic activity (hibernation) or much
faster mental states such as dervish dancing or high energy shamanic rituals.
The basic idea, focusing on a single point, remains the same though.
Moving meditation is just adding another step to the process, in order to
increase the over all utility and function of this focusing ability, as well as widen
the range of situations in which you can apply it.
By learning, and practicing, meditative skills while preforming slow, simple
movements, you'll gain the ability to stay in a focused state most of the time, or at
least move into that state when you need to with less difficulty, even in stressful
situations.
By practicing emergency skills, fighting, running, even things like first aid or
computer programing (If you need emergency programing skills. I can't think of a
situation myself where this would be needed, but, hey, the world is a big place. If
this applies to you, then go for it.) can be learned and practiced in a meditative
state, allowing you to increase accuracy and decrease response times greatly,
while making far fewer mistakes and not triggering fear or anxiety responses.
Even if you don't feel the need to practice specific skills this way, learning to
meditate while moving, even just taking a daily walk, will act to free your
subconscious mind and deepen your ability to sense thoughts inside yourself.
The sooner you can notice a thought forming, the greater control you'll have over
a given thought. It sounds odd, but when it comes to useful mental skills, being
able to notice and gain control over a thought is perhaps one of the most powerful
things an individual can ever learn to do.
Getting Started:
Pick a time during the day and a location where you can walk, uninterrupted
for at least twenty minutes. A local quarter mile track (Like high schools and some
colleges have) works well for this, since you won't have to watch for traffic.
Walk at a comfortable pace, holding your mind as clear as possible.
When a thought comes, just like in empty mind meditations, simply note the
thought exists, without judging it or trying to understand it and let it fade away.
As you increase in skill, it will take greater and greater focus to find deeper
thought patterns.
*It's normal, with daily practice, to suddenly feel that your mind is full of noise
and thoughts again on occasion. This can be disruptive, if you don't have
someone to tell you that it's a good sign. (So here I am. It's a good sign.) It
generally means that your ability to notice deeper thoughts has increased, rather
than a sudden dropping in skill level. You won't drop in skill with regular practice,
baring major health issues.
It can take a few days each time this happenes for you to move past the new
level, returning a sense of quiet to your mind, and may be weeks, months or even
years between one event and next. This is all normal though and is a sign that
everything is going well.
Is there a point where this will stop happening? Probably. But a casual
mediator likely won't reach it within twenty too forty years, so don't worry about
that part of things. (If you meditate for over six hours a day, then your mind will
rewire rapidly and you won't worry about things like that anyway, so it's a win-win.)
**Walking or moving while meditating is harder to manage, especially at first,
as movement stirs up subconscious thoughts and responses. That's the point.
Don't get frustrated if it's harder than sitting meditation!
Advanced Practice:
There's nothing too special about advanced moving meditation, except that,
since you will be using a complex set of movements instead of a more simple one,
say a yoga routine or martial arts set instead of walking, you need to learn to
place your focus on what you're doing instead of on emptying your mind.
How you do this is a personal choice though.
You can choose to focus on the interplay of muscle and bone to create
movement, or the sense of your body flowing through space.
You can focus your mind on the effects you are having outside of yourself as
you manipulate your world or try to maintain a specific, detached state while
preforming a given task.
How you do it is less important than being consistent in what you do though.
Pick something that feels challenging to you and keep at it. (If it's easy, then
you already know enough about how to do that specific thing, move on to
something harder!)
Finally:
It will be obvious to some that you can do this all the time, focusing intently as
you move from one part of your life to the next, at all times.
I've done it myself, for long periods of time.
It's tends to simplify emotional responses, and does help make concentrated
focus more automatic, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be any great
power or ability that comes from it. Past learning the basic skill well, living in this
fashion doesn't serve you overly, though some people will try to convince you
otherwise.
Unless your choosing to live as a monk, a simple daily practice is probably
more than enough to get by with for this one.
Having fun with it and not taking things too seriously will serve most people far
better in the long run that narrow, near perfect, focus. Keep this in mind when
starting this or any other mental practice. Human beings excel at being
generalists. To great a focus in any one area tends to warp a person into
something less able to get by in the world.
| Moving Meditation |
by Dale Power
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