Monday's Practice - Meditative Walking - Advent 2016

 As I was working on these Monday Practices, and trying to tie them in thematically to the readings and videos, I already knew I wanted last Monday’s Practice to be about Examine. I was thinking about using Contemplation as the next Monday Practice, when I read my email with the following reflection from Richard Rohr. This fits so well with the Slowmo video (and sailing or slow-boating) in general, that I had to include it for today’s Monday Practice.

Enjoy and Blessed Be,

Joel

From Richard Rohr’s Saturday, December 3, 2016 email mediation.

Practice: Walking Meditation

Jonathon Stalls, a Living School student and founder of Walk2Connect, writes about learning how “we share a common journey of wanting to love and be loved; that we want to feel safe, comfortable, and connected; that we want to belong—somewhere. . . . We’re afraid of exposure and vulnerability. We’re afraid of the unknown. We’re afraid to be wrong. We’re afraid of abandonment. We’re afraid of weakness, of truly trusting, and the fragility of letting go.” [1]

Stalls offers this wisdom from Thich Nhat Hanh:

When we practice [mindfulness], we are liberated from fear, sorrow, and the fires burning inside of us. When mindfulness embraces our joy, our sadness, and all our other mental formations, sooner or later we will see their deep roots. With every mindful step and every mindful breath, we see the roots of our mental formations. Mindfulness shines its light upon them and helps them to transform. [2]

Stalls continues:

I can’t think of a better way to bring mindfulness practice into our body and into the outside world than through walking, strolling, or rolling at one to three miles an hour. It changes everything. It trains us, both on the inside and the outside, to begin seeing God, the Great Spirit, in ourselves and in others in such foundational ways. This humble posture invites us into the fragile details behind our own breath, the curious creatures high in the trees, and the struggle in being a pedestrian in today’s time. Whether it’s twenty minutes or four hours, mindful walking can invite new ideas, new ways of seeing, and new ways of understanding with every step. [3]

I invite you to step outside and walk mindfully, present to God’s presence in all things.

References:

[1] Jonathon Stalls, “What Really Frightens Us?” “Evolutionary Thinking,” Oneing, Vol. 4, No. 2 (CAC: 2016), 99-100. Learn more about Jonathon’s work at walk2connect.com.

[2] Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (Berkeley: Broadway Books, 1999), 75.
[3] Stalls, “What Really Frightens Us?”, 100.

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