How to Practice Breath Contemplation from Stillness to Movement

After your contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) in sitting meditation has become proficient, you should practice keeping the mind calm while being active, and still be able to continue observing the breath. When you have sat in meditation very purely and your contemplative practice is very focused, try slowly getting off the cushion and doing walking meditation (caṅkrama) on the ground, walking and strolling, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. See whether at this time your mind can still rest on your own breathing without being swayed by the surrounding sense objects. If you are not carried away, it shows that your meditative concentration (samādhi) in observing the breath is very good; then you can practice observing the breath with relative focus at any time. If you can still observe the breath while being active, it shows that this power of concentration is excellent—even stronger than during sitting meditation. At that point, your skill in observing the breath is quite deep, and the practice can become continuous whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down.