Why our temple does not have walking meditation? and why there is someone leading us through the instructions with his voice while we are supposed to be seated quietly during the sitting meditation?

Answer
by Venerable Dhattajeevo Bhikku

Before we start you must first understand the term, “Walking meditation.”

There are many methods of meditation and in terms of, “Walking meditation, ” the true meaning relates to the fact that walking meditation is one kind of meditation, but it is generally used by beginners. The best method is sitting meditation, because if you practice the other kinds you will have difficulty getting your mind together.

However, because one is a beginner, s/he may not be able to sit for that long a period of time. The teacher is afraid that the student will get tired, so the teacher incorporates some walking meditation along with it.

It is easy to say that the teacher alternates the training between walking meditation and sitting meditation.

The meditator who practices meditation for a long time sometimes sits for 5 hours at a time. However when s/he is finished, s/he will be tired and will do some walking meditation too.

At our Wat Phra Dhammakaya it is the same.

It is likewise at Wat Phra Dhammakaya.  For our training at the temple, from 9.30 to 11.00 a.m. in the morning, we meditate for one and a half hour.  One and a half hour is short for us who are familiar to the temple.  Thus, we don't do walking meditation during our meditation session.

Sometimes we go out for meditation in groups. Outside the temple we sit for 3-4 hours. In this situation we prepare the place for walking meditation also.

In the case where they practice meditation right in the temple, for instance, especially on Sundays, they sit for about 1 and half hour during those times. For people who regularly attend, sometimes they feel that one and half hour is not long enough; so in-between they don’t get up to practice walking meditation.

Yet, better than that, due to the large amounts of people who visit, and the numbers are in the thousands of thousands, we have no place to do walking meditation. But it does not imply that Wat Phra Dhammakaya doesn’t have walking meditation.

There are so many methods of performing walking meditation. In some places you focus on the meditation of the mind, in some places the focus is on the meditation of movement of the body, such as focusing the mind on the feet and being aware of each step of walking.

But Wat Phra Dhammakaya does not practice that way. In our walking meditation, we focus our mind in the center of the body at all times. This is similar to a spider in the center of the net. The spider does not run around the edges of the net. By remaining in the center, when anything hits the net, the spider will feel it and be aware of it.

Wat Phra Dhammakaya trains its disciples to practice walking meditation by keeping their minds at the center of body consistently.  We are doing walking meditation, but the other do not know.

So they say that Wat Phra Dhammakaya does not teach walking meditation but it is not the truth. This is because WAT PHRA DHAMMAKAYA TEACHES WALKING MEDITATION ALL OF THE TIME. We begin walking meditation from the minute we enter through the door until we enter into the temple. WE ALL DO WALKING MEDITATION, BUT OTHERS ARE UNABLE TO SEE IT.

In reference to the question regarding why we have to have the Sangha leading with his voice while the meditators are meditating for a certain period, has to do with our method, which is not the same as some other places that maintain quiet when it is time for their meditation.

The abbreviated answer for this question is that for the beginner, it is necessary to give them complete instructions, so they know every individual corner of every technique we teach. We must instruct them to let them know how the experience should occur. While being seated for the first 10 minutes, their minds will be thinking of many things, which is quite normal for the beginner. All of us know that, so we give them instructions by not waiting for them to open their eyes to ask.

When the time then passes for about 15-20 minutes we know that they will have questions in the level of their mind at that time, so we give them suggestions without them having to open their eyes at that point.

When nearly an hour has passed, we know again what level of mind the meditators are at, so again we advise them at the 1-hour time.

THE WAY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION IS TO MEDITATE CLEARLY AND ON TIME WITH THE MEDITATION TECHNIQUE THAT WE TEACH HERE AT THE DHAMMAKAYA TEMPLE.

So, while they close their eyes for meditation, the voice of the teacher will be the guiding sound of the meditation, which will have power and energy to lead the new beginners to be able to lift their minds and enter the quiet zone faster.

So at our Dhammakaya Temple, we have a leader in meditation, who is a member of the Sangha, and who guides the meditators from time to time with the proper instructions at the set increments.