WALKING MEDITATION

I am feeling very grateful today for the many habits and techniques of seeking God consciousness that I learned from the Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism.

With apologies to the respected spiritual teachers of those many traditions, it is my experience that walking meditation is one of those things that can easily be adopted and adapted to the needs of spiritual seekers of all faiths.

There is only one ultimate creator God or original cause of the universe. However you envision Him/Her/It or even if, for you, there is nothing but emptiness, whatever your tradition or practice at the moment, walking meditation, and other types of meditation combined with movement, is something we can all do with great benefit.

Sufi Dancers

Famously, the Sufis have their highly ritualistic ecstatic dances, and Brother Lawrence used to say that he was as much with God, while washing his pots and pans, as he would be while singing in the choir stall, which was considered a high status activity.

Brother Lawrence

among his pots and pans, in the kitchen

Granted, the higher reaches of ecstatic union with God, such as what the saints, sages and mystics have experienced and described, would probably be a challenge, in concert with walking or other activity, but it is probably fair to say that, for most of us, these high ecstatic states are not a daily occurrence, nor a constant one, when they do arise.

Saint Theresa of Avilla,

in ecstatic union with Christ

- statue closeup -

Lately, I am particularly recommending "walking meditation" to all my disabled and elderly friends, partly because it takes us much longer to accomplish our daily tasks than it did when we were younger and/or more fit and healthy, thus challenging us to find the lengthy periods of uninterrupted meditation while sitting in our schedule.

For myself, as a quasi-hermit on a very limited budget, operating a body that has started to deteriorate, I find that, when I previously waited for a break in my daily tasks in order to meditate in a formal way, there were some days when very little was possible. Doctor appointments, cooking, cleaning, dog walking, ate up my time, while the silence I would prefer was also eaten by other beings in their quest to accomplish their life goals.

"Busy Street Scene"

by Phill Burrows

Living in an apartment community with more than 100 other beings, on a main thoroughfare through town, is not particularly conducive to quiet meditation! I long ago gave up trying to create an oasis in my apartment. Instead, I am working within the noise and the chaos.

I realized, at some point in my journey through pain and disability, that the purpose for spiritual "practices" was, at least in part, to train the mind and body to always be aware of its at-one-ment with the Lord. Formal sitting meditation practice is just that - practice! It isn't the goal. It is A practice for the real thing - continuous God consciousness: the state of awareness of continual connection and identification with Deity (or "original cause" or whatever your tradition / understanding / language provides.)

Jesus meditating in the forest

Those who are unfamiliar with walking meditation are encouraged to do some reading about it, look for local sources of information, watch some videos, hear some talks, and then seek out a venue for the practice of this valuable technique. If you were here with me, I could train you, and I suppose I could write more detail about it in this blog, but why reinvent the wheel? Others have already done this far better than I could.

I will tell you that sometimes I use what is called a "mantra." My favorite is the "Jesus Prayer" sometimes called "centering prayer" I believe:

"Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God,

have mercy upon me, a poor sinner."

You could even just say "Lord" or "Jesus" or something similar. In the Hindu faith, there are a lot of considerations about this mantra, as in the Buddhist zen tradition, that it should be transmitted to the student by an ascended master or guru, but we do not have this tradition, per se, in Catholicism. In any case, let's not let perfection become the enemy of the good by drawing too many demands around this practice, as much could be lost if one felt that contemplation or meditation was essentially impossible without the presence of some elevated teacher-saint to "give" you a magic pill that would open your heart, etc. Once you start along this path, a teacher does sometimes appear, but don't worry about that right now. Just get started.

The addition of a mantra, recited interiorly, is typically what I do when I am having trouble focusing. Usually, I just put my consciousness at the feet of the Lord and hang onto that while I perform whatever household function or life task I have to perform at the moment. If you are new to meditation, you'll want to start with mantra. Eventually, this drops away of its own accord.

Granted, there are times when your full attention is required and you just can't hold God's hand while you do it: important conversations that carry crucial information, that sort of thing, but if you expand your concept of meditation to include a lot of your daily tasks, you will be surprised at how much peace and blessedness this will introduce to your life.

Anyway, I am finding the walking meditation very helpful these days. Also the dish washing meditation, dog walking meditation, grocery shopping meditation and painting meditation. You get the drift.

Old Woman Meditating on the Scriptures

by Gabriel Metsu

If this sort of meditation is a new thing for you, please feel free to write me and tell me about it. I may be able to answer some questions, but I recommend you get a local teacher, if a teacher is what you are looking for.

Primarily, I am writing this to encourage you to give walking meditation a try. I know that I personally experienced some frustration when I found that my life circumstances continually prevented me from enjoying a quiet, meditative life, and I got a lot of benefit from falling back on my training in walking meditation. I had to learn to embrace the reality of my situation and adapt. After many years of formal meditation practice, I found the transition seamless. You can also!

God bless us all.

Silver

SHOCKING NEWS - UPDATED

Saint Lucy

Patron Saint of the blind

I had imagined that the increased blurriness of my vision and my inability to read street signs lately was just a part of my "ordinary" bad eyesight, which has been worse than 20/500 since I was a child. (They don't or can't measure beyond that point) but I was shocked to learn, recently, that my macular degeneration has progressed from "dry" to "wet" in my left eye, which means that blood is seeping into that eye and destroying my vision, starting with a black area in the center. Eventually, barring a miracle, I will be functionally blind.

I am still able to drive, but I am unsure how long that will continue, because I have already started having trouble seeing the writing on the street signs.

UPDATE:

When I first wrote this post, I had anticipated undergoing a series of shots in my eye and, since writing it, DID get one of these shots in a very traumatic procedure at my doctor's office.

Communication with the employees at the eye clinic at the local university hospital has been a nightmare. They're very nice when you show up for your appointment, but God save you if you try to telephone them.

The afternoon that I learned of these shots, I called and asked that patient materials about the drug be mailed to me. They should have given it to me during the appointment, but failed to do that. The clerk mailed it to me without my apartment number on the envelope AND NO POSTAGE! I didn't receive it until more than a week later, on the Monday afternoon before the Wednesday morning appointment!

I almost cancelled the appointment because I didn't have enough time to thoroughly read the patient materials, and I couldn't get anyone to return my telephone call. In fact, one of the clerks hung up on me Tuesday afternoon during my 3rd attempt to get someone to talk to me. As of today's date, no one has even opened the messages that I sent them through the patient portal 8 days ago.

The injection in my eye was very painful and remained so for more than 24 hours. I wish now that I had not followed through with that procedure because, according to the patient materials I was finally able to study, there is something in this medication that can cause stroke or heart attack. It is not just a matter of some patients having experienced a stroke or heart attack coincidentally during the study period (which is what the doctors' assistant had told me the morning of the appointment!)

In addition, only 3,000 patients were part of the study and this medication is still very new.

I have numerous syndromes and allergies, most of which are odd and atypical. If anyone were to react badly to a medication, it would likely be ME. This fact, combined with the disorganized office procedures and difficulty getting questions answered, I have decided not to have any more of these shots at this time.

Instead, I am going to focus on things I can do to improve my situation. Mostly, it involves the special diet and supplements that the doctor prescribed to slow the process of the disease. It is the same diet prescribed by the doctors who are monitoring my arthritic conditions.

I could use some help with:

• The organic anti-inflammatory diet, vitamins and supplements prescribed by my doctors;
• Supplies for my writing and art, to assist me in resurrecting those careers, in order to attempt to fund my increasing needs, over time; and,
• Organizational items for the household, so that I can function independently now and in future, as my vision disappears.

If you would like to donate toward the supplies that I mentioned, above, please click on the DONATE button, above and to the right, and follow the prompts.

If you want to help but do not feel comfortable donating money, I would be very happy if you would take a look at my DONATIONS WISH LIST on Amazon. In fact, I would prefer it! It is one thing to tell you how I intend to spend the money, but it is more clear cut when you see for yourself that this is, indeed, where your money is going. 

AMAZON WISH LIST FOR DONATIONS

If you are not able to contribute, I would be MOST grateful if you would share this blog post on Facebook and twitter.

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MOST OF ALL, I ask that you pray for me, as I pray for you.

[UPDATE: OCTOBER  5, 2020 - I have lost most of the vision in my left eye. It is like trying to look through a puddle of water.]

God bless us all.

Sister Silver "Rose"

(Sannyasini Kaliprana)

Silver Cottage Ashram Hermitage

Albuquerque, New Mexico

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