Walking Meditation

I agree. Though I also add in intentions.

I totally agree about intention, and am a big fan of walking practice in general.

Also, as things progress, could add the whole feeling of the body moving in space, the sensations of balance shifting, the shifting perspective of the room, and finally take in the whole moving, fluxing, shifting, mix of analog and digital 3D field when you get better at it.

If it rains, it's cold or too hot outside or you're bored with the walking meditation, you may try this Taichi exercise: stand shoulder width, bare feet, feet parallel, and draw eights with your soles by shifting your weight. If relaxed, soon you'll notice how this actives the muscles of the thighs, in a spiral sense.

You may also note the activation of the "bubbling wells" in the middle of the feet, just 1-2 centimeters towards the toes. Also, through the thighs, the muscles and tendons pulling the dantian.

In order to get the eights, you may first try balancing forward/backward, left/right, and in circles.

Intention is easy to get a hold of, but it goes deep. It's most conspicuous when you are about to reach the end of the lane* and turn around. It's even more obvious when you hit 2nd ñana, and you get that ratcheting back and forth between intention and movement. As intentions become more clear in the 3rd ñana, there's no obvious sense of self to be had in them. One is aware of the intention to move, and one is aware of the muscle fibers contracting, though each happens exactly where it happens and disappears with no obvious connection to be found between them that isn't itself happening right where it happens and disappearing, etc. This all gets so much more complex after you cross the A&P...

*It could literally be a lane if you do it in the basement of IMS.

You can do it either starting to move from the pelvic region (more restful practice), or from the soles of the feet (which shows more clearly the ascending & descending spirals, at the expense of some tension). In Taichi you actually need to practice both ways and then blend them.

Once you're comfortable with feet parallel, you may try (edit: just as a variation) one foot 10 inches forward, like a small step, and rock back an forth doing the eights, but carefully putting 100% of the weight in one foot before going back to the other.

Regarding intention, you can have that too in body works. There's an exercise where you blend with the space surrounding you, feeling it dense like water while you can actually sense the vacuum of your body. If you're interested I may try to explain in detail here.

Standing feet at shoulder width, extend in a circular way your arms forward at hips height. Then, bring your arms back to your lower belly. Very similar to this at 2:13 but with hands facing to the ground. At first, the full circle should be done at that speed, in order to connect your arms muscles and fascia with those of the torso. When extending the arms you'll feel the lumbar region stretching. When bringing them back, you'll feel some contraction in the lower abdomen. Soon you'll notice the out-breath matches with the arms expansion and the in-breath with the contraction. Once you're comfortable with it, slow down the speed gradually to around 20 seconds per full cycle. Eventually you'll notice chi-energy-vibrations on your arms, and the extending to the torso and fully body. These vibrations will grow and the air where your arms display will be felt thicker. You can make use of intention to broaden that sensation to all your surroundings. Then, if you focus inside, your body will be felt empty.

Please, keep your knees slightly bent and let your weight rock slightly forward and backward at the soles of the feel. All by itself, the lower abdomen will go forward when the arms go backwards, and vice versa. Much like rowing. Eventually the whole movement happens by itself, your're kind of watching what's happening.

A nice variation is doing the arms cycles in sequence. That is, your right arm doing an anti-clock circle with a 1/4 to 1/3 delay from your left arm (doing a clock circle). In this exercise, slightly shift weight from leg to leg, following the circles. Here you can notice the soles of the feet doing the eights I mentioned before. The arms circles may be done with different sizes. If you do them small and closer (and slow), you'll notice how one arm pull-push the other. This sensation will grow to the whole torso.

 I know this is an old thread but I've started some walking meditation recently and wanted to ask if anyone could elaborate on "mix of analog and digital." I get the 3D field thing in general, as i feel the makeup of perception in general seems to be a 3D field, but I don't understand the distinction between analog and digital in this context and how noticing it can help progress?