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Walking Meditation Discourse 5
“Thân hành tức tức” means “making the body relaxed”: keeping the spine, neck, and head aligned but supple, relaxing the whole body, gently smiling, breathing deeply to release tension. Joy and ease arise when we stop and dwell in the present moment, living freely with each step, each breath, in the four postures of walking, standing, lying, and sitting, and in all activities (driving, making tea, washing vegetables, chopping wood…). But joy and ease are only the beginning; we must continue to look deeply in order to transform delusion and suffering, using joy and ease as the foundation to move toward deep understanding.
“Dị nhất sát na hiện quán biên trí” is to look directly, to look deeply into the present moment with wisdom arising instantly, in a single moment of awareness fully realizing the Four Noble Truths. The five sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body) are only bases for contact; consciousness (the sixth consciousness) is the true seeing—when we keep our consciousness clear and bright, the five sense consciousnesses remain neutral. In Buddhism, there are nine unconditioned dharmas (not produced by causes and conditions, not subject to arising and ceasing), which are:
- unconditioned by analytical cessation
- unconditioned by non-analytical cessation
- unconditioned space
- the realm of limitless space
- the realm of limitless consciousness
- the realm of nothingness
- the realm of neither perception nor non-perception
- the nature of dependent origination
- the nature of the noble path
