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Daily practices
adele
Blackpool Rocks! Explorer
Hi,
I only took Refuge on 14th Feb this year and am trying to set up some daily practices and some sort of routine.
I have set up a nice shrine to meditate in front of and I do say some mantras, but I am wondering what kinds of things people do as part of their daily practice and why.
thanks,
Adele
0
Comments
Hi Adele, and welcome! we have two threads, started recently, on the subject...
Have a look here - and here.
as you can see, what we do varies enormously!!
Happy Valentine's Day, too!
I'm currently reading a Steve Hagen book on meditation and he talks about making a commitment to meditate for a set number of days, like 85 days without fail.
85 sounded like a lot to me, so I've reduced the number to 50 and I'm currently on day 12.
I'm taking his advice on meditation positions too, and it's a bit like torture all round if I'm to be honest. I don't like meditating with my eyes open, I'm middle-aged and 'plank like' so sitting isn't the easiest.
But he reckons a bit of pain is a good thing to work with, so what the heck, I'll try anything once (or for 50 days).
So having made a commitment to meditate every-day; that's my current practise.
And @federica made me panic for a moment there; I thought she meant today was Valentine's Day and I'd forgotten about it.
Jus' keepin' you on your toes, mah man, jus' keepin' you on your toes....
It's really hard to do 50 days in a row. I do meditation every day and I have an app that keeps track. It is hard to make 20 days but on the other hand I do meditate 90 to 95% of all days and that is good even if I don't do them in a row.
I joined an online course which teaches meditation for 3 months but there is so much 'stuff' on there that I feel overwhelmed so although it introduced me to different types of meditation it was too much too soon. I am enrolled on a different online course connected with a Tibetan centre I go to which starts in April but I wanted to get some sort of routine going now. I find as soon as i sit on the cushion I want to fidget.
re - Valentines day - I guess it was a good day to formally to take Refuge as I will always remember it now. lol
That's quite common! You might find it helpful to stick with a simple practice in the early days, it can all get a bit overwhelming otherwise because there are so many schools and so many methods.
The course I have been on is Theravada but the one I will be doing and visiting is Tibetan as they are much nearer to me and I do love mantras.
@adele, you know, I follow Theravada, but I also recite mantras. Simply because you're drawn to one type of school or Tradition, does not mean you have to exclude all others.
I'm not suggesting you 'cherry-pick' but feel free to incorporate whatever you feel takes you forward....
Thanks Federica, at the moment I am using elements of both and I am happy with that. I also understand that Theravada forms the basics of Tibetan anyway so it's not a problem. I didn't realise that Theravada used mantras too though, thanks for that.
No, that's my point. They don't.
I do.
Ok, thanks, I misunderstood.
-I'll bet you could challenge yourself to do just one minute of cushion time without fidgeting and pull it off; there's your start...
Hi
So fidget. Do walking meditation, prostrations or mantras with a mala.
My practice is not suitable for fidgets. I just sit until finished sitting. I would if you want to specifically do seated meditation break it down into blocks of sitting with formal fidgeting.
Mantras are right concentration. Fine practice. I used to meditate with green tea. Every time I needed to 'fidget' - sip of mindful/slow tea imbibing . . .
Hope that is helpful.
I think I read somewhere that after taking Refuge we should do at least 30 min meditation daily, so much study, repeat the Refuge prayer so many times, use offering bowls and other stuff but I can't find out where.
Walking meditation could help, I never think to do that.
Will Baker, you are right, I could start with one minute though instead of doing nothing as I am now.
@adele
That fidget is not an impediment to your meditation.
It is your teacher. Time to start relaxing into that fidgeting.
Meditation is partly a beckoning to see what you presently find difficult to accept.
Those requests are now simply being answered.
When something becomes an obligation, and you begin to feel it's a chore - stop.
Buddhism is about letting go, releasing and letting 'be'.
If you constrain yourself against your own will, it becomes a trial.
By all means, apply discipline to your practice, but not so much that you silently dread what is to come.
I always (usually) feel like meditation is a chore. I've just got too many distractions. There's my smart phone, my tablet, my computer, my kindle; music, netflicks, bags of crisps. There's lots of things I'd rather do than meditate, if I'm honest, which is why I've always struggled to have a daily meditation practise.
So I'll try something different:
From the Steve Hagen book I'm reading:
It's worked for 12 days; I'll post if it fails.
I get that it can be a chore and I remember a time when stopping meditation cut through and was a positive direction for me. But nowadays I am of the mentality that even if I meditation is a chore and lost its freshness I can still meditate anyways even though it is not fresh. I have confidence that what goes down will come up..
I can't explain it but the transcendence can still come (for me in my situation now) even if I am not getting the transcendence by letting go and stopping. I think a good analogy is your art is getting not fresh but instead of not painting anymore (etc) you just paint anyway and work within the 'dull routine' rather than stopping and restarting when fresh.
It's like there are perhaps 'tiers' of:
1) stopping and feeling that Buddhism 'sucks' and never meditating again
2) stopping as an insight that something is wrong with your approach and then starting again when greater understanding makes it fresh again or whatever I really don't know how it happens that it 'gets fresh again'.
3) staying and just working with the dullness with patience and seeing where that leads.
Thanks, you all make sense. I get the image of a dripping tap - it will slowly fill the bowl up but it will fill up whereas turning it off completely will never fill it up. It also makes me think of my heating - I keep it on at the lowest setting all of the time and the house never gets really cold, whereas if I turn it off completely, then turn it on when I am very cold the house never really feels warm enough.
Instead of following the course meditations I am going to go back to using some You Tube ones that I found were more helpful - I like Ajahn Brahms. I think the course I am on has just not worked for me and it has just become overwhelming and a chore.
I do study Dharma and enjoy it and use mantras though. I will make a new start tomorrow.
As to the original post, I like bringing a little good incense and some fresh water to the altar. A little chanting can even out the breath. A small bow to begin and a small bow to end the session seem to fit in.
And, as my mother once said, "Don't get too holy by next Thursday."
The most difficulty in meditation (personally speaking) is anxiety. My mind is too creative, so sometimes when i sit to meditate it wants to think of creating something else. It easily makes me unmindful and gives me instant low pleasure , so i gotta keep an eye open for it, because its long-term condition is some big ass dukkha. Lol
Outstanding. You get it.
@Tosh explained it well too, the idea of constancy. @how too the importance of the fidgeting.
The important thing is not to brutalise, make an enemy, run away to crisps or distractions but face that fidget. Do it with gentleness and acceptance. This is why shrine, incense and maybe even bringing in three or five fresh bowls of water as an offering can be so helpful.
It is announcing, I am here. I am staying for a while. Let us be together well. The first thing we often realise in meditation is we are not in charge. Everything else is . . .
You can as these arisings occur, these tendencies give them to the water bowls. The Buddha will pass them on to the hell realms, hungry ghost realm or other places when you empty and refill . . .
Anything you find or hear about has a purpose and use . . .
@dantepw you might try to look up the 5 indiryas. The main one is openness (smirti) which can be translated as mindfulness. Developing smirti helps balance the other pair of two.
Clarity is the balance of prajna (seeing) versus shade (faith though different from western 'faith').
Sensitivity is the balance of virya (energy) versus samadhi (concentration).
In your example the creativity you experience is fickle as it can disappear and leave you feeling bad. But when it is there you notice it. Like going to bed you can see pictures or something.
But this is an esoteric thing to a certain extent. So maybe just following traditional teachings on meditation is better. Though others may also benefit from more 'turning lead to gold' esoteric teachings. Still it is interesting in any case!
Do you do anything special on new and full moon days as I read that they are very auspicious and what about prostrations? Thanks.
I find reading posts on this forum and mixing with a spiritual bunch of folk good for my daily practise. My sangha is A.A., and although I don't really go to 'not drink' (that takes care of itself), I think one of the reasons I go is to help me with my motivation for my daily practise (the 12 Steps - A.A.'s program - is a daily practise, part of which is meditation).
When everything is new and shiny, motivation is easy. It's being in it for the long-haul that I find difficult; when the novelty has worn off.
So my point is, I find mixing with other spiritually like-minded people helpful to my daily practise.
A big problem for me is that there is not a Buddhist centre nearby for me to go to - I had to travel for a couple of hours to a place to take Refuge. This is why I am doing online courses and later in the year I will be visiting Samye Ling Tibetan centre in Scotland and Amaravati down south.
I've found that trying to force myself to practice in a particular way to be counter-productive. So I've settled on pretty regular shamatha meditation, the occasional dharma reading and sangha attendance, but I don't do mantras or have a shrine set up. This works for me, but may well not work for you. Try different practices and see what suits you, and stick with that. Some experimentation will probably be necessary. But to reiterate what others have said - if it feels wrong, don't force it.
Often you can find places and teachers who will work with you if you live a distance away. My teacher is 250 miles one way from where I live, but even though I only see him a couple times a year, I communicate with him and senior sangha members via phone and email all the time. For me having the direction of a teacher was important. It's not the only thing that is important, but I needed someone to point out a direction for me that worked, lol. Otherwise, I go far too many directions myself and get confused and overwhelmed when things sometimes conflict or don't align.
Don't be afraid to get in contact from a distance from whoever did the refuge vow with or for you (the group if you did it that way or just the teacher if it was only you). Most of the time, teachers take it pretty seriously that they are giving refuge and will be happy to be a guide if you ask. I have taken refuge with 2 teachers, actually, and both of them very specifically pointed out that they will always be willing to help and that when they offer refuge and a student accepts, they see that student as their responsibility if they (the student) has questions, problems, or whatever.
I am going to some centres in the next few months so maybe if I meet someone I could ask them to be a teacher for me or ask who might be available. I hadn't realised that it was ok to do that - I thought we had to get teachings from someone we had being going to regularly for a class or something similar.
Good advice.
@adele is I feel moving in the right way. Commitment/refuge and seeking instruction and support. The dharma we move towards also comes closer and richer in its offerings to us . . .
Practice even if singular does morph. Courses and centre visits provide many opportunities.
Good luck
Sorry but I have not been able to read all the comments, so forgive me if I repeat what someone else already said.
I don't usually think of wholesome habits in terms of obligation.
I simply do them. Out of curiosity. Try them out for size. Allow for the element of surprise.
Just sit down on the cushion, @adele, for no less than fifteen minutes, ideally, and see what happens.
Try things that make sense to you until you get more acquainted with more alien practices.
My practice of meditation dates back to my Vedanta stint and I have been doing it daily for over twenty-five years.
Chanting mantras was harder for me to accept, but since I seem to continually stumble upon Tibetan sanghas despite myself, somehow the practice has grown into me.
Read a lot, learn, and eventually you will come up with a practice you can stick to.
Buddhism is so wide and complex, you are likely to find something that agrees with you.
I've re-established a daily meditation practice which is good, though at the moment it's complete rubbish, clock watching mostly. But I'm not beating myself up about it.
Thanks, I like mantra's a lot - maybe because I was catholic and I did enter an enclosed convent for 3 years though I left before vows.Chanting the psalms was done 7 times a day. I do have to start small and then get into a pattern though or I will get nowhere.
I am reading a lot but some of it is so confusing - I came across preliminaries yesterday and felt overwhelmed at the amount of practices that are suggested.
It can be quite a large workload, but you don't have to take on anything you don't want to.
I do want to learn and commit and not just stay stuck in the early stuff but don't know how to move on. I guess that's where finding a teacher would be good.
Take your time, there's no rush. Don't be pressured into taking things on until you're ready for them. And some would say that the "early stuff" is all you really need.
As Spiny says . . . it is all early stuff. Being 'advanced', a senior, smelling of zen, losing 'beginner mind' is a major hindrance . . . everything is fine, nobody ever develops patience quickly . . .
@adele
Soto Zen meditation..30 minutes..twice a day.
My partner and I formally meditate when we first get up and whenever we both get home in the evening.
Doing it first thing when we wake sets out the priority of the day and doing it again when we meet again in the evening sets out the priority of our relationship together.
Much of my practice in daily life is spent in the Goldilocks principle about remaining aware of the feel of my breathing.
Not having my awareness of the feel of my breathing be so dominant as to smother any of my other incoming sense data of eye, ear, nose, tongue and mind
** and**
not having my awareness of the feel of my breathing be so soft as to allow me to forget what my practice was.
Just somewhere between....sometimes called the middle way.
Today I used the one foot up, one down that Tara illustrates here:
My eyes were open. Something new from my recent practice of eyes closed.
When you go to Samye Ling, you will have the opportunity to do Tara practice every morning, I hope you will. In Amravarti you will have the opportunity to do insight meditation several times a day. You might ask for instruction in walking meditation.
You can of course write to both places for instruction and preparatory texts, offering to pay or donate.
I notice you are signing in to courses. Very wise.
I do have Green Tara and Cherezig statues on my shrine as I use the mantras for both. I am hoping that the compassion and beginners buddhism course -3 weekends at Samye Ling over 7 months with help me with meditation too. thanks.
Could I ask how you're approaching this, practically speaking?
@adele. Don't waste your valuable time. Tomorrow is not certain for anyone. Go full bore and don't look back.
I do waste a lot of time as I am not working right now. In the past I never stopped working so I seem to go to extremes sometimes. I know I should live in the moment and seize the moment grackle, thanks for the reminder- I need it.
Taking Refuge is not a thing like you take, like taking the liturgical host or being baptized. It is a feeling of gratitude based on how you have changed from doing the Buddhist practices. Until you DO start to change (and genuine change often takes about 3-8 years), you are going through the motions, setting imprints (karma/merit/etc) into your mind.
You do not need a shrine or an altar. You ARE your altar .. the place of exploration. The best thing to do is to find a live, local, qualified teacher (usually an ordained monk) and learn from him. Do the practices that he assigns you.
For myself, I do what my Lama instructs us to do. Without the explanations of the visualization and other internal practices that accompany the chants, mudras, etc, they are of little use. These practices are not some kind of magic that change us .. it is us, through our practices, who change ourselves.
I did a basic mindfulness meditation weekend at Samye Ling last November and we did walking meditation on that - it wasn't much fun in the mud though. We also had lots of sitting meditation practice and I realised that I need to gradually stretch my legs out to be able to sit for longer periods on the cushion.
I do use Green Tara chants most days - thanks Lobster - i will see if i can go to them at Samye Ling in about 3 weeks time - it depends on the timetable. I think the practical course at the center will be a good support to the online course.
Going to Amaravati in June will be a totally new way for me and I am looking forward to it.
Online training would have no pressure of discipline i think so..Why don't you see meditation training center nearby where one has to follow discipline due to presence of teachers and fellow learners.
Are you sure?