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What is your meditation practice like?

weightedweighted Veteran
edited February 2012 in Meditation
What is your meditation practice like?
When do you meditate?
For how long do you sit?
Do you practice vipassana or another form?
Do you make sure to carve out time even on hectic days?

I've only been practicing daily for a month now, and I'm hoping to start meditating twice per day. I'd like to see how others manage their busy lives and still work in meditation to hopefully get ideas to enrich and inform my own practice.

Comments

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2012
    I meditate 10 minutes walking and 20 sitting as my standard. On times when I am really antsy and uncomfortable I do 10 walking 5 sitting or even (just to do something) I will do 5 walking 2 sitting. And I don't worry how much I will do in a day. I just do one set and if I can I do another.

    Another trick when meditation gets really low quality like punching a clock I don't set a timer which brings me more into the experience rather than 'banking time'.

    I practice openness meditation in the method taught by Trungpa Rinpoche. The method is to come into awareness on the outbreath. Be with the breath. Awake. Heart, Present. Space.
  • weightedweighted Veteran
    @Jeffrey Thanks for your input. Walking meditation is something I've never done, but it's something that seems essential in developing mindfulness.

    I will also look into Rinpoche's work in more depth, so appreciate you mentioning him.
  • Lady_AlisonLady_Alison Veteran
    Morning after a litter coffee...walking meditation for 20mins or sit down breathing meditation for 10.

    Present moment awareness all day.

    Night meditation for 10minutes, maybe longer.

    On hectic days, present awareness in-between the stillness of thechaos. Atleast until I can sit and be.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Some days after doing a few of my sittings/walkings I feel I can do another... And then I get more focused and into it and I do another and another etc But there is no pressure and just an enthusiasm catches. But that happens spontaneously and I haven't found a way to predict. It just comes and goes.
  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
    For the past few months I have been meditating in the morning after I shower and at night before I go to sleep. Sometimes I light incense beforehand and in my case I have found that it helps as a gentle reminder of awareness once it starts to float across sense-scape.

    You can do it! Meditation is great for you. Once in the habit of enjoying it, progress can be swift.

    Lately, I usually do some yoga to "tune in" to my breath and body. All meditation practices are founded in an awareness of the present, so let your thoughts go and listen deeply to your breath, your body, and the silence that permeates all.

    To answer your question, in terms of "clock time" sometimes I am sitting for half an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, and sometimes just a few minutes. Really, you can practice throughout the day by becoming aware of breath and inner-body sense (emotions).

    Based on your questions, I would recommend reading Intermediate Stages of Meditation by His Holiness (the Dalai Lama), and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
  • weightedweighted Veteran
    @sova I also practice yoga daily, and I find both yoga and meditation definitely lend themselves to one another very readily.

    I've read some of the Dalai Lama's books, but not that one; the Tolle I have read, and it certainly is wonderful.
  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    my meditation practice is focusing on being intimate with everything that arises.
    then i do the same in everyday life, which in turn allows my meditation practice to be easier, which in turn helps with being intimate with everyday life.

    so what is intimacy? connecting the heart with all things.

    so when the eyes meet the heart we have loving awareness.
    when the ears meet the heart we have loving awareness.
    when the smell meet the heart we have loving awareness.
    when the taste meets the heart we have loving awareness.
    when the thought meets the heart we have loving awareness.
    when the sound meets the heart we have loving awareness.

    i practice for about 20 minutes a day in the morning or when i have time.

    just being intimate. thats all my focus.
  • driedleafdriedleaf Veteran
    One good sitting lasts forever :)
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    edited February 2012
    What is your meditation practice like?
    It's like sitting down and breathing in and out. That's pretty much it. ;)

    When do you meditate?

    first thing in morning and last thing at night.

    For how long do you sit?

    30 min to 1 hour depending. 30 minutes sessions are just sitting and 1 hour sessions are 30 mins chanting and 30 min sitting.

    Do you practice vipassana or another form?

    Zazen and chanting

    Do you make sure to carve out time even on hectic days?

    Yes because that is the most important time to make time for it. Meditation is like a taking a shower. The dirtier you get during the day, the more important a shower becomes. If you can make time to take a shower, you can make time to do meditation. Whenever people say "I just don't have the time to meditate" I don't believe that because it's almost like saying "Well, I didn't have time to take a shower today." That is not a good enough excuse for stinking up the room. :)



  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
    Yes because that is the most important time to make time for it. Meditation is like a taking a shower. The dirtier you get during the day, the more important a shower becomes. If you can make time to take a shower, you can make time to do meditation. Whenever people say "I just don't have the time to meditate" I don't believe that because it's almost like saying "Well, I didn't have time to take a shower today." That is not a good enough excuse for stinking up the room.
    Having just gotten out of the shower I found your post rather delightful ^^
  • DandelionDandelion London Veteran
    Whenever I start to meditate, I feel happy... it feels like 'going home', at least those are the words in my head just before I start. I look forward to meditating, even though I don't meditate for long. That is what my meditation practice is, a sort of 'going home', if that makes sense.
  • ittybittybatittybittybat
    I have shitty meditation practices. Haha. I only do it when I'm actively thinking, "oh, I haven't meditated in a while". This is usually before bed when I'm exhausted out of my mind. I'll sit on my bed, cross-legged and sometimes get a nice, peaceful meditation. Most of the time I'll start thinking about random stuff, be too tired to push the thoughts away, and fall asleep without realizing it. I'll wake up the next morning all twisted up and confused like, "wait, why are my legs crossed?"
  • weightedweighted Veteran
    @seeker242 Do you count the inhalation and exhalation? I know some practitioners of zazen count while others don't.
  • peyruckuspeyruckus
    I have only meditated once, for fifteen minutes. I sat in my window in the lotus position, I believe, and tried to follow the meditation instructions/advice given to me by websites such as ehow.com.

    As I become more interested in buddhism and dharmic concepts, I hope to do it much more.
  • weightedweighted Veteran
    @peyruckus Keep at your practice. The daily results are well worth it! In just one month I feel an immense change in me. Keep at it, my friend.
  • peyruckuspeyruckus
    @weighted Thank you very much. I hope to be able to clear my rampant mind more often. :)
  • SpinyNorman2SpinyNorman2
    @seeker242 Do you count the inhalation and exhalation? I know some practitioners of zazen count while others don't.
    Counting techniques are used in some traditions. Personally I have found counting to be a distraction from the breath, but I know some meditators find it useful.

    Spiny
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    edited February 2012
    @seeker242 Do you count the inhalation and exhalation? I know some practitioners of zazen count while others don't.
    Sometimes I will do counting, sometimes I will do breath following sometime I do "just sitting" or what japanese zen calls "Shikantaza". It depends on how hectic the day was. If the day was really hectic and my mind is "going fast". I will count exhale for maybe 5 or 10 minutes and then after settling down some, then just breath following and after settling down more then "just sitting". If it is a non hectic day. I will just start with breath following or just sitting. At our zen centers, we recommend to beginners to start with a mantra or counting. When you mind is "going fast", it's easier to slow it down with a mantra or counting and when it slows down, then just drop the counting.

  • almer45almer45
    I usually meditate 45 minutes in the morning and one and a half hours in the evening. I have been practicing meditation for about nine years now and another four years before when I was younger. There was a period of time in which I didn't meditate. I think meditation is important but also discipline and the social way. It is notorious to fight against bad habits everyday although it is sometimes difficult. This is the discipline way. The social way for me consists in loving and having compassion for all the people in the same way you love yourself or other people. It is the most difficult way because sometimes people harm you and it is complicated to love them when this happens. I have progressed in a good way these last years, I am sometimes able to be one with the whole universe and beyond it (the infinite) but I still have things to change specially some negative feelings when something happens in a way that I unexpected.
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