This is a general wish that you not only want to do before your walking, but what we teach our assistants to do anytime and anywhere. Especially, when they are cleaning the dormitories. In particular, when they have to make sure the dorms are safe from the termites and so on. Think of your actions throughout the day, whatever you are doing, you go to the store and you want to buy a new pair of shoes, you want to buy some paper, you want to buy a shirt. Where has all the stuff come from? A process has been going on. In that process there has been the death of other living beings. Your intention though is to buy a new shirt and so on. Your intention is to walk here, that is all. But in the process of walking, in the process of buying paper, somewhere along that line other beings have died for you.
This is a kind of general attitude that we want to help you to develop, so we start with just doing it before the walking when the possibility is greater that you might actually step on something without seeing it clearly. And in that way your attitude is changing towards other living beings in relationship to your activities. You are actually going to look at all your activities throughout the day in relationship to other living beings possibly suffering for what you are doing.
Now what is that going to encourage within you? It will encourage things like not buying a newspaper every day, not buying magazines every week. It encourages you not to have 50 pairs of shoes, five might be enough. This is where this attitude might actually carry over into your life so that you use less material things, because you have the understanding that other beings may be dying as you are using material things. Then this compassionate attitude also works all through your life - in relationship to the mosquito that is going to come and land on your arm, and whatever else. It will carry over to all living beings.