[firewns]

I have read some meditation books that state that walking meditation is a fine complement to sitting meditation.

For example, when one finds oneself feeling sloth and torpor during meditation, one can exert more energy during walking meditation as an antidote to the sloth and torpor; otherwise one may fall asleep during meditation.

Walking meditation also allows one to note the arising, maintenance and passing away of phenomena such as the initial touch of one’s foot upon the ground, the balancing of the foot and the lifting off of that foot.

Yet according to my understanding, walking meditation does not seem conducive to the development of the second jhana and other higher jhanas, as initial and sustained attention must be absent from those jhanas, which would probably not be possible if one were walking.

Would you do walking meditation as part of a formal meditation session?

How important do you think developing the jhanas are in walking the path to nibbana? I think developing jhanas, though not essential to developing panna insight, can be helpful because they develop piti, tranquillity and upekkha to an advanced degree to help one cope with the sometimes earth-shattering insights that one will realize on various stages of the path. Do you agree with this?

Thanks very much in advance for any of your shared insights.

[Tobias G]

You may do walking meditation to calm down your mind. It will not help to realize Nibbana or to gain panna for release.
Walking and breath meditation are the common ways of contemplation today. The Buddha advised another way to Nibbana which goes with understanding of the true nature of this world.

Regarding Jhanas you may read:

Ascendance to Nibbāna via Jhāna (Dhyāna)

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