A Guide to Walking Meditation

　　by Thich Nhat Hanh

　　Your Steps Are Most Important

　　What activity is most important in your life

　　 To pass an exam, get a car or a house, or get a promotion in your career

　　 There are so many people who have passed exams, who have bought cars and houses, who have gotten promotions, but still find themselves without peace of mind, without joy, and without happiness. The most important thing in life is to find this treasure, and then to share it with other people and with all beings.

　　In order to have peace and joy, you must succeed in having peace within each of your steps. Your steps are the most important thing. They decide everything. I am lighting a stick of incense and joining my palms together as a lotus bud to pray for your success.

　　You Can Do It

　　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.

　　Going Without Arriving

　　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 drawn by a goal. Thus we smile while we are walking.

　　Trouble-Free Steps

　　In our 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 easiness.

　　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 because our hearts are not trouble-free, and our steps are not at ease.

　　Walking meditation is learning to walk again with ease. When you were about a year old, you began to walk with tottering steps. Now, in practicing walking meditation you are learning to walk again. However, after a few weeks of practice, you will be able to step solidly, in peace and comfort. I am writing these lines to assist you in doing that. I wish you success.

　　Shaking Off the Burden of Worries

　　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.

　　This World Contains All the Wonders of the Pure Land

　　To have peace and joy and inner freedom, you need to learn how to let go of your sorrows and worries, the elements that cr…

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