Q1-19880323-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-samadhi_in_action-1548 Leandra Tejedor (1)

Talk: 19880323-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-samadhi_in_action-1548 Leandra Tejedor (1) Start_time: 47:48 Display_question: I would like to ask about the walking meditation. It seems the vipassana meditation is a specific walking meditation, that is very slow. Keyword_search: walking meditation, vipassana meditation, slow, Mahasi Sayadaw, United States, Burmese, concentrated, calm, daily life, spiritual practice, sacred, attentiveness Question_content: Questioner: I would like to ask about the walking. Larry: Sure. Questioner: The vipassana meditation is a specific walking meditation…it’s very slow. Larry: Nope, that's not true. There…within Vipassana there are many… as in any of these teachings, many different schools, and styles. The main…the reason that people think it's slow, is that one school, the Mahasi Sayadaw school, which has been is very prominent in the United States, it's a Burmese approach. Questioner: So to do that…if you feel like doing that walking, the slow… lifting moving placing. Somehow I finally found myself doing that, and I thought well, perhaps I should be walking more quickly. Larry: Well, what's the problem? Why…the issue isn't quick, or slow, really. It’s, are you awake, while you're walking? The slow walking has certain, obvious, advantages. You can get very concentrated, and calm down. And some disadvantages. When you do a lot of it, it’s very…you're not practicing walking, the way you walk, in daily life. When you leave here, you don't walk that way. If you walk naturally, and develop awareness while walking naturally, that immediately transfers to wherever you're going from here. And that has certain disadvantages. It's easier to space out on the natural walking, because we've done so much of it. It's hard for us to think of it as being, in quotes, a spiritual practice, but it is. Whereas when we walk very slowly, it seems kind of holy. Break_line: There's nothing sacred about slow, it's just slow. But if your mind is very scattered, slow would probably be much more helpful. If your mind is very sleepy, then more rapid walking would probably get some energy going. I would… to look at it as… people have different tendencies, and interests, and don't get caught on the speed. The main thing is, is the meditative mind at work, while you're walking? Is there really attentiveness, at whatever speed. End_time: 50:01