1996-07_03 Vipassana Retreat, Part 3 of 8 - Q&A 11

Talk: 19960703-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-vipassana_retreat_part_3_of_8-43307 Start_time: 01:26:33 Display_question: Is it appropriate to be attending to different parts of the foot during walking meditation? Keyword_search: attention, foot, toes, toe, arch, balance, rest, motion, sense, sensing, experience, focus, feet, ankle, concept, awareness, sensation, pulsation, heaviness, light, throbbing, meditation, energy, subject, human, being, breath, walk, walking meditation, basic, natural, whole body Question_content: Questioner: I have further question about that because I found myself directing my attention to different parts of myself. Larry: Of yourself. What do you mean by self? Questioner: During the walking, I had my attention to what my toes were doing and then my arch and so forth. And at one point, I was paying attention to my balance, so I was resting the motion, or I wasn't following through because I was sensing, not through words, just through experience. Now, is that outside the focus? Larry: Well, you know, eventually that's what, there's so many different ways to do walking meditation, but what I've been suggesting for us to begin with is, let's say, if you settle on the feet, it's not ankle or arch. Those are concepts. If they are in your mind, maybe you're just communicating with me. Questioner: I was locating my awareness in a different… Larry: Intentionally? Questioner: Intentionally. Larry: Yeah. Okay. What I would suggest is simpler. It’s just, let's say, located in the foot, which would include the arch and the toes, and just feel what's there. Now, people at the beginning will say, I don't feel anything. Fine. That's what, you don't feel anything. As you practice, you'll see there's a lot of life in the foot, and you start experiencing sensations. If you do a fair amount of walking meditation, especially after you've done it for a while and feel at home with it, you'll feel all kinds of sensations and throbbing and pulsations, heaviness, light, you know, it's quite a microscopic, little world going on of energy. Were you feeling that? Questioner: Yes. Larry: Very good, very good. Yeah. Questioner: But I began to be, partly as a result of this discussion, knowing what it means to stay with the subject. Larry: Yes. Yeah, you were doing that. You were doing that it sounds like. Questioner: I was, but then it sounded to me that I might be outside the subject to be interrupting the process. For instance, the issue of balance. I was paying attention to how the upper part of my body felt as I moved one foot up and was supporting one foot with… Larry: Okay, that's not necessarily outside. Was balance becoming a problem for you? Questioner: No. Larry: Yeah, you became interested in that. Yeah. Look, you have interests. We're a full human being. We're not just foot specialists, unless you're a podiatrist or something. So it's a convenient object. But just to get ahead. For example, when I do walking meditation on my own, when I'm not trying to be instructing and all that, I don't have any particular place that I attend to anymore. I just walk. And the awareness is in the whole body. Sometimes it's in a different part of here, and it's a sense of movement. And I live inside the body with the breath. And when it's happening, there's virtually no thinking because I'm attentive to the body. To begin with, what we have found is that it's helpful to pick a smaller region and let that grow naturally. But everyone's temperament is different. Now, spending a lot of time on your balance would be a little bit outside of it. Yes. So I would go back to the basics of what you seemed you were doing, which is fine. One more, please. End_time: 01:29:52