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Meditating for longer than 5-15 minutes
ShanYin37
Ontario, Canada Explorer
in Meditation
I am having difficulty meditating for longer than 10 minutes. I suppose the obvious answer is just set an alarm and do it. Maybe I can buy a meditation timer.
Also, I seem to go between different meditations. Sometimes I observe thoughts, sometimes I focus on my breath, sometimes I chant the heart sutra.
2
Comments
Well done! Keep it up.
Shorter meditations more often can be very beneficial.
Try breaking it up with a few minutes of walking meditation in the middle. So like 10 minutes sitting, 5 minutes walking, 10 minutes sitting or something like that. I think most timers allow custom settings so you can set a bell for each.
@ShanYin37
Cushion time is important for familiarising the self with the mind's contents, YTMV as to how much time one should spend on the cushion doing this, anything from short one minute meditations throughout the day, to many hours a day...
However thus have I heard, meditation truly begins when one gets off the cushion..
In other words when one can check in to bear in mind, to remember, to recollect (AKA Mindfulness) throughout the day to make sure the mind is not becoming too charmed by its own thoughts...
Believe it or not, nobody can meditate.
So much better to sit still and not meditate. Or do some slow, personally I prefer ridiculously slow, mindful walking/meditation as @person suggests.
Here is how to not meditate …
https://www.tenpercent.com/meditationweeklyblog/how-to-not-meditate
The important aspect of meditation is to relax but not slouch, if sitting.
Here is my favourite sitting posture … Yoga nidra, oops I fell asleep …
https://philabuddhist.org/?p=685
Hope that is helpful
Strangely enough, that is initially the whole of meditation. Can't sit still. It's boring. Mind wanders. Does not do what I tell it and so on …
This is 'monkey mind'. Flitting from thought, past, present, future, day dreams, worries. Jumping around/distracted by sounds. We are a jumble mess. How to untangle?
https://www.insightstate.com/spirituality/monkey-mind/
… meanwhile … I have been bottling meditation … so far nothing in them bottles …
I took notice of the OSHO's meditation method in this forum. He says that thinking is doing and concentration is also doing and I think what I am trying to say is this:
Should I sit and tell myself when I start to do nothing?
Or should I sit and tell myself (instruction) to observe.
Ah ha, ‘of any two options take the third.’
You may realise that observing something that is always changing, is not a self to tell anything. In other words, what are you observing with or telling to?
Look first for this 'my self'. What is it exactly?
https://www.simplytheseen.com/1-i-am-in-the-buddhist-tradition.html
Just observing the experience.
Here, let me read the article you posted and then see if I can respond well.
I don't know what is meant by the "notion". Also, I'm not sure if I agree with the article or why asking if self is real is relevent to my meditation practice.
My teacher sometimes says that doing more frequent but shorter sessions can be better particularly for a new meditator. So you could do 2 or 3 times in a day a short session of 5 to 15 minutes.
And a lot of mediation is experimenting and noticing or getting the right touch with things. I am still working on that myself
Have you tried guided meditation.
I’ve found Ajahn Brahms 25-30 meditation sessions excellent when I need a little help.
There are hundreds of them on the BSWA YouTube channel.
When you put more focus on what meditation you can do in this fleeting moment, than what your minds discriminating evasions are currently offering, a harmonization of body & mind in the form of a meditative life can simply unfold.
It is quality, not quantity. If 10 minutes is all you can do and retain SOME focus, that is good .. longer than that would only be strengthening the mind's habit of wandering.
The mind WILL wander. As long as you have a brain, it will act like an agitated monkey. But EVERYTIME you bring your focus BACK to your meditation, you are strengthening your skill.
One of the most difficult aspects of meditation is this expectation and judgement about how we are doing. It can become so strong that we end up hating meditation and give it up altogether. Meditation is about increasing awareness, so if you are aware your mind is wandering .. this IS the goal, to be aware ... and bringing it back is the response.
I feel like I have never shared feelings with anyone in life. Never. I am also a sensitive person. When I was first practicing meditation, or seated yoga, I was very amazed to see what happens when I keep bringing the attention back to following the breath, and experiment with that and actually concentrating on the nostril tips and noting thoughts as they got hooked by my minds attention and let them go (so to speak) and tried to kindly bring my attention back to the object. It is really inspiring! Something like that.
Now with my chain smoking, and medication I feel like I am fearful and perpetually bored and sometimes cannot sleep at night. Chanting precepts seems to help.
I hope that I can think more positive when it comes to Buddhist forums and in daily life so that I will feel more emotionally intelligent and mentally balanced. I am also very interested in Taoism and there is a Taoist Tai Chi centre where I live.
Stop smoking
Michael Sealey also has many youtube videos for sleep induction as do many others …
Will you be going to do Tai Chi?
Here are my meditation tips that might be helpful.
https://cundi.weebly.com/meditation.html