We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track. If this problem persists help us by reporting it so we can investigate it.
Watch this talk
Login or create a free account to watch this talk and discover other teachings from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Log in or create an account
The Treatise on the Stages of Yoga Practice 3
Walking meditation begins with the unification of body and mind through the breath and each step: breathing in — taking 2, 3, 4, or 5 steps; breathing out — taking 3, 5, 6, or 8 steps (according to the teacher’s experience); when sitting in meditation, the breath may last 6–10 seconds, and you can use the ticking of a clock to count and to end discursive thinking. The meditation phrases “I have arrived, I am home” or “I have arrived, I have truly arrived” help bring the mind back to the present moment; each step is a step into the Pure Land, each breath is a return to the source. Whoever finds joy and satisfaction in the present moment has already succeeded.
Practicing yoga walking meditation is also the realization of non-dual wisdom:
- Seeing that mind and matter are one, like conceptual mind (vikalpajnana) and non-discriminative wisdom (advayajñāna).
- Mind and body (psycho-soma) are not separate; the six sense organs and the six sense objects come into contact and give rise to consciousness, but there is no separate “self” as subject.
- All phenomena arise in dependence on conditions, are neither born nor die: not born from something else, not self-born, merely manifestations of dependent co-arising, transcending the duality of “being — non-being” (Nis Purāṇa Nava Nava).
- The two truths — the conditioned (birth and death) and the unconditioned (no birth, no death) — are harmonized in every instant, opening the way to nirvana and resonating with quantum science.