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Daily Practice

questZENerquestZENer Veteran
edited October 2006 in Buddhism Today
We had a recent thread in which someone queried what members do to support their practice. I'd like to submit the following query:

What is your daily practice? What do you do for daily practice?

I don't want to limit answers for others, but for myself, my sitting meditation is following my breath and attending to my posture. About a year ago, I read a post by ZenMonk, the old bugger, that helped my practice tremendously:

Step 1. Do one thing at a time.
Step 2. Pay full attention to what you are doing.
Step 3. When your mind wanders to something else, bring it back.
Step 4. Repeat step number three a few hundred thousand times.
Step 5. And, when your mind keeps wandering to the same thing over and over, stop for a minute and pay attention to the "distraction": maybe it is trying to tell you something.

What do others do? I'm curious about both newbies' and oldbies' practices.

Comments

  • MagwangMagwang Veteran
    edited September 2006
    *slap on head* This is the best idea for a thread I've seen in a while!

    How do I "support" my practice? The main thing I do is turn it into somehing I enjoy, not a ritual or chore.

    For example, when sitting, I try to "imprint" or remember my joyful emotional response to the reduced chatter, and hold it in front of me, as if to say "remember this joy - may it be like a carrot along with the stick".

    M.
  • pineblossompineblossom Veteran
    edited September 2006
    I am my practice.

    Quest - I enjoyed your ZenMonk quote - missed that one along the way.
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited September 2006
    For support, I refrain from boxer shorts.

    -bf
  • XraymanXrayman Veteran
    edited September 2006
    There's always one :nonono:
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited September 2006
    Xrayman wrote:
    There's always one :nonono:

    There can only be one!
  • edited September 2006
    Sometimes I do Mindfulness of breathing, sometimes Mettabhavana, some Green tara mantra chanting.
    Have to admit am having difficulty maintaining constancy in practice at the moment.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited September 2006
    Lesley,

    May I share a trick that I found helped me immensely? START SMALL.

    One of my teachers spent time with Dom Bede Griffiths at his ashram. Daily meditation was the cornerstone of the personal work and my teacher went at it in his usual enthusiasm (bulls and china shops come to mind). At a meeting with Dom Bede, the old Benedictine told him to do no more than ten minutes at a time! His very eagerness was getting in the way and was unsustainable when he came back into his daily life.

    In my own practice, after years of trying to be 'perfect', I lapsed completely. Starting again, I built up from a few minutes of "warm up" followed by five minutes watching my breath and then anything else that presented. Total not more than 20 minutes, first thing.

    Bit by bit, my practice has grown until, now, it embraces my whole day in various ways.

    Be kind to yourself. Do not demand too much too soon.
  • edited September 2006
    Thank you very much for your kind advice, Simon the pilgrim. I think that a quicker sit is a good idea at the moment.

    Much metta
    lesley
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited September 2006
    I think of it like any other learning. That is why we call it 'practice'. It's neither 'trying' nor 'doing'. Just like learning the piano or to recognise flowers or to ride the surf.

    At first, in love with the newness, we are enthusiasts. Very important, this time, because it gives us some impetus when we get to the inevitable discouragement. There is also a risk, at that point, that we begin to compare ourselves with others. I've always thought that this is what was most unpleasant about the Pharisee in the Jesus story: "I'm glad that I'm not like him." This is the point at which we begin to have to take charge of our own training by doing the work, practising the music or refining our balance. There are tedious bits of this, too and we can easily slide into unskillful habits of self-satisfaction or mindless rirual.

    It was a big moment, for me, when I realised that, despite all my ambition and education e tutti quanti, simple and honest were better for me than clever or complex. Over and again I have gone back to simple sitting with real fruit.... and then done a bit more and a bit more, until the complexity has come back. At first, I found it infuriating, then I found it funny, now it happens less and I notice earlier and go back to silence.

    I have no idea, any longer, if this is the 'right' thing to do. Some of my fellow-pilgrims have more intricate practices and, when we practice together, there is real joy in sharing our differences. I have found, too, that sharing practice time with others as often as I have the opportunity is a great help. I share quiet time at a local Quaker Meeting House when I can get there. We have local churches and places of worship of all sorts: we are something of an 'alternative' centre here. The Sangha is a very important aspect of the Triple Jewel for me.

    The best thing that has arisen is the quiet enjoyment that I now have in a simple sitting practice and the extent to which, by dint of advancing time, it has become essential.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited September 2006
    I LOVE this forum.....
  • edited September 2006
    thank you simon the pilgrim - that was a really lovely message. I think you are doing the 'right' thing - it seems to take a lot of bravery to keep the meditation and Buddhism practice going..
    much metta
    lesley
  • questZENerquestZENer Veteran
    edited September 2006
    I whole heartedly agree with Simon--starting simple and small. The biggest personal challenge I face in my life is: consistency. I start, enthusiastic, and that momentum will carry for months, regardless of the project it happens to be, but especially in my sitting practice. However, that momentum buckles. I go from sitting 30+ mintues everyday, sometimes twice a day for months to not sitting at all for weeks. Then I start again from 5 minutes and start again. I don't actually time my sitting but I used to.

    I also find a piece of Jojo Beck's advice very helpful: be sure to have a firm intention each time you sit. I think what she implies by "intention" is some kind of modest goal. As I posted earlier, it is to just come back to what's here and now, particularly, my breath and my posture.

    In the past I have dabbled in the Chenrezig meditation, which I quite liked but I put down for a variety of reasons.

    Lesley--you may try to choose one practice per sit for a week, say, Green Tara or whatever. Then expand on two sittings per practice. You've chosen these particular meditations for a reason. Mine them for what they're worth--but give them a chance! Vajra--as all Buddhism--is about repetition, but not mindlessly.


    Great discussion!
  • edited September 2006
    questZENer - remembering 'intention' is very valuable. I know what you mean about consistency being a problem - there are just so many choices out there!

    Much metta
    lesley
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited September 2006
    And I'd also like to add that patience is absolutely essential. As my teacher says, better a student who burns like coal than one who burns like paper. The latter is gone in a blink of an eye, while the former might stick around long enough to actually accomplish something.

    Palzang
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited September 2006
    Palzang wrote:
    And I'd also like to add that patience is absolutely essential. As my teacher says, better a student who burns like coal than one who burns like paper. The latter is gone in a blink of an eye, while the former might stick around long enough to actually accomplish something.

    Palzang

    One geshe said to me that "patience is nirvana in samsara", if his translator got it right.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited September 2006
    One geshe said to me that "patience is nirvana in samsara", if his translator got it right.


    Sounds right to me! If you can learn patience, you're halfway there because then you realize that no matter how grim things look right now, it won't be that way forever.

    Palzang
  • edited September 2006
    federica wrote:
    I LOVE this forum.....

    Me too!! :)

    This is a great thread and I have found it very helpful. I miss my "sitting practice" as I have not been able to sit without being in pain for the past two weeks, so I am really looking forward to it again, hopefully next week. I was meditating laying down, but I like sitting on my zafu and zabuton MUCH better!

    Anyways, the advice about taking little steps at a time is so great. When I first started out, I would sit for 5-10 minutes, and now I am just working my way up to longer times. That seems to work the best for me.
  • questZENerquestZENer Veteran
    edited September 2006
    I am slowly making my way through "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind". In one of the sections I just read, Suzuki offers the following:

    "Some people start to practice Zen just out of curiosity, and they only make themselves busier. If your practice makes you worse, it is ridiculous. I think that if you try to do zazen once a week, that will make you busy enough. Do not be too interested in Zen." (p. 58)

    This resonates with something I've noticed below in several members' posts, myself included--the 'goal' of sitting longer and longer periods. Why? Why is this a goal? What's the benefit? If there is no such thing as "progress," what makes us think that sitting longer is more desireable?

    This is an honest question, not just a rhetorical one!
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited September 2006
    Well, I think it has to do with practice making perfect. Although we are discouraged from attributing a quality to our practice, at the same time we do progress in our ability to concentrate, among other things.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited September 2006
    questZENer wrote:
    I am slowly making my way through "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind". In one of the sections I just read, Suzuki offers the following:

    "Some people start to practice Zen just out of curiosity, and they only make themselves busier. If your practice makes you worse, it is ridiculous. I think that if you try to do zazen once a week, that will make you busy enough. Do not be too interested in Zen." (p. 58)

    This resonates with something I've noticed below in several members' posts, myself included--the 'goal' of sitting longer and longer periods. Why? Why is this a goal? What's the benefit? If there is no such thing as "progress," what makes us think that sitting longer is more desireable?

    This is an honest question, not just a rhetorical one!

    I think we need to be clear here, QZer. This is the ultimate paradox of BuddhaNature: it is both causation and fruition, to be found but always present. It is the "gateless gate".

    What you say is true and false, and neither of those at the same time, like the bizarre nature of the fundamental particles of the physical universe.

    In the First Turning of the Wheel, the Buddha Shakyamuni taught a Truth: dukka, however youi choose to translate and interpret it. Indeed, I believe that we cannot come to a 'right' translation or understanding of this Truth without some effort. In the Third Noble Truth, he taught that there is a way out. Comprehending these truths even to the smallest extent would be impossible were there not some means by which we can do the work.

    As I have quoted elsewhere anent Sartre, for liberation to be comprehensible or possible, it must be not only a goal but, also, a pre-existing condition. Manifesting that freedom in our lives is only the outward expression of a growing awareness of sugatagarbha, BuddhaNature. T. S. Eliot put it better than I can:
    We shall not cease from exploration
    And the end of all our exploring
    Will be to arrive where we started
    And know the place for the first time.

    T.S. Eliot LITTLE GIDDING (No. 4 of 'Four Quartets')

    Heraclitus says it in the West at about the same time as the Buddha is saying it in the East.

    As a result, the apparent contradiction between the goalless journey and the journeyless goal is resolved by our understanding the full scope of the Four Noble Truths as more than just a simple description of generalities. The Fourth Truth, the truth of the Noble Eighfold Path, is a description of both the cause of increasing and developing awareness, and the fruition of awareness awakened. Just as we practise whistling a tune until we are doing it without noticing, so, by practice, we awaken citta, compassion, which lies asleep but stirring in all beings.

    You ask: "what is the benefit?" From one perspective, that, say of the Enlightened Ones, the tathagatas, there is neither benefit nor loss. From my simple p.o.v., the benefits can be listed under a number of headings:

    * physical;

    * emotional;

    * intellectual;

    * creativity.
    The more I do it, the more I am able to do it with less and less effort, that's all.



  • questZENerquestZENer Veteran
    edited September 2006
    What an elegant, eloquent response, Simon! I think you've hit the nail on the head with the single word 'paradox', however. Brigid is right about developing concentration, too.

    My understanding of Suzuki is trying to get across that sitting is not separate. Perhaps the "longer you do it, the less effort it takes" bit is also pointing to that as well. Non-duality applies to sitting and not sitting as well!

    Loved the Eliott, BTW! Not quoted enough, he is.
  • edited October 2006
    I would like to say I do enjoy reading everyone's responses, there very meaningful and full of knowledge.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited October 2006
    Hello J4F.... We're into abbrev'ns here....!!

    Welcome to the club!

    Grab a chair, a cuppa cocoa, go to the Lotus Lounge (New Members intro thread) and tell us all about yerself!

    Great to meet you!
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