Please be sensitive and aware that some people may have limitations or disabilities that impact their ability to do some kinds of mindful movement. Please don’t assume that you will know by looking! Please assume there are some folks in the room with limitations, and provide alternatives and options when giving instructions for any movement practice.

Often when movement meditation is taught without an accessible alternative, Sangha members who can’t do the movements feel excluded from the practice. You might not be aware this is happening if they don’t speak up. The Dharma is for everyone, regardless of what type of body or level of ability they have, and it’s important for our teachings to convey this as much as possible. Providing movement practices that are accessible to all really helps Sangha members feel included in the practice, and understand that the Dharma is for all bodies, regardless of level of ability.

If there is a student or students using a wheelchair or motorized scooter, please ensure that there is adequate space for them to move comfortably back and forth in the hallway by the bathrooms and to move around in the main meditation hall area.

MAHASATI MEDITATION, AN EXCELLENT ALTERNATIVE TO WALKING MEDITATION:

Some EBMC teachers have been giving instructions for Dynamic Meditation, also known as Mahasati Meditation or Rhythmic Meditation. This is a type of movement meditation developed by Luangpor Teean, a teacher of Thai Buddhism. It involves movements that can be done while seated, lying down or standing. Instructions can be provided to the whole group, then people can be invited to choose which type of movement they’d like to do.

From Luangpor Teean:

There are certain techniques we use to achieve a goal. Cultivating self-awareness to achive Sati-Samadhi-Panna (Awareness-Attention-Insight) needs technique too.

When practicing, do not sit still. Move rhythmically all the time.

Do not close your eyes.

When you move, know that you are moving.

You can sit in any position on the floor or on a chair; you can stand or lie down.

Be natural. Be simple and just move. Do one movement at a time and know you are moving. Practice comfortably.

Move with ease. Do not concentrate or desire for the results. Move lightly and gently.

(from http://www.mahasati.org/learn_to_meditate.html where you can also view more instructions)

Another video below:

Recording done in 2019. Closed captioning provided. The teacher, Bhante Kovida, speaks in English with excellent, clear instructions; at around the 10 minute mark, he switches from Mahasati meditation to mindfulness meditation / vipassana using awareness of the breath as the object of meditation. As always, if mindful awareness of the breath causes you any kind of discomfort or anxiety, you do not need to use the breath sensations as your primary “anchor” or object. You can use any physical sensations that are comfortable enough for you to notice with kindness to yourself. This video comes from a retreat center in Minnesota

[Download PDF of 15-point Mahasati Movements]

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Mushim is pleased to share a new YouTube video, “Mindfulness Meditation for People with Disabilities,” from the Asian Art Museum San Francisco. They had some tech problems, so the class is slow to get going; however, once it does, it’s a model  (imperfect as all models are, I’m sure) of how to share instructions for beginners in mindfulness meditation in a stationary posture for people with disabilities, including Deaf participants, Blind participants, people with chronic fatigue and chronic illness, and a wide variety of other disabilities. Unfortunately, the Zoom recording did not capture the window that spotlit the ASL interpreter. The Closed Captioning does work.

OTHER IDEAS:

Another alternative, if you are doing walking meditation, might be to invite people who cannot do walking to gather their chairs, wheelchairs or scooters near to one another in one part of the room, and request that they use the time to either do Mahasati Meditation, or do mindful stretches of upper body: relaxing jaw, neck, shoulders, arms, then if they feel they’ve stretched enough, to sit quietly in meditation for the remainder of the movement/walking meditation period.

You can also suggest that people who are unable to do certain movements can visualize the movements as you give instructions. Recent studies show that people can benefit from visualizing doing physical movements and exercises.