Walking Out Loud

 Subway reading is one of the most interesting ways to pass the time. But what is it about a moving train that ignites one's relationship with reading? I can only speak for myself, since not everyone totes their book on the subway, but I do think it has a lot to do with the way my thinking depends on a sense of motion. In fact, even as early as age 5 or 6, moving around and walking from place to place was the way for me to go into deeper reflections.
   This doesn't mean that walking is the only way to stimulate thinking. In fact, I do believe that part of the magic of walking is also in its contrast with sitting. "Sitting" and "walking" are contrastive metaphors for the process of thinking. While one is about focus, the other is more about range. If I am only "sitting on" one topic, I often find myself stuck on a problem that a movement will allow me to emerge from. "Walking" offers a metaphor through which a shift can be made from one topic to another.
   When we do the sitting and walking meditation, we are essentially engaging in a contrastive approach as well; sitting, is our mind really still? Walking, is the mind really moving? When one examines the mind in both stillness and motion, they might begin to see that it is neither this nor that.