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Vipassana in the Mahayana Tradition
It is possible to have good concentration without making a lot of effort or without any effort at all. When a deep seed in us—love, hope, the desire to know and to help—is touched, concentration arises naturally, as when a woman learns she is pregnant and her whole being transforms. In Mahayana Buddhism that seed is called bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, the desire to understand, to love, to free and to help. With bodhicitta alive in us, concentration permeates mind consciousness and store consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna), so that whether eating, walking or washing, we remain present and nourished by that inner “baby.”
The five mental formations connected to this practice are:
- Desire (chanda)
- Determination, resolve (adhimokṣa)
- Mindfulness (smṛti)
- Concentration (samādhi)
- Understanding, insight (prajñā)
Walking meditation trains us to dwell happily in the present moment (diṭṭhadhammasukhavihārī), preventing rushing into the future and enabling breakthroughs here and now. In Plum Village we practice deep walking all day for twenty-one days, supported by “I walk for you” shoe-tags that remind each of us to be a bell of mindfulness for the community. Before walking, we perform the traditional ritual of compassionate water—holding a willow branch, invoking Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, chanting the gatha and dhāraṇī—to bless our feet and transform every step into an act of compassion.