A begginer in need of some advice from experienced buddhist practioners

Ford5780

I know that there is a section made for beginners but I need the advice of people whom have been practicing for a good amount of time. I was wondering how a regular day goes for you guys. What is the usual of the day especially when relating to the practice of buddhism. As of now I practice being mindful(aka walking /running/siting/jumping/weight training meditation /etc...) and sometimes but not to often I will sit some times for mindful meditation. That is as far as my time set aside for meditation goes. But every minute every second I can I'm always trying to be present for it. Something I feel is akin to a lucid dream. As of a month ago I started following the dalai lama on twitter so I can have a nice source of helpful and insightful things to read on me.


Thanks yall. Oh an I still am not receiving my email alerts when I get a reply to threads I make or participate in.

federica

First of all, experienced practitioners frequent the Beginners forum, so we're actually more likely to see your query here, than in the Experienced Practitioners forum.
And you're the beginner, so it's appropriate your thread be in the Beginner's Forum. You'll receive more coverage! Honestly!

as for your e-mail notification it seems you've ticked the right box, so I'm alerting Admin to your post, and see whether there's a glitch in the system....

zidangus

Hi ford5780,
I am only a lay Buddhist and can only talk about the practice I do, I would like to spend more time practising, but I find it quite hard because of the responsibilities I have.
Anyway to sum up my day relating to my practice.
To begin when I wake up, the first thing I do it meditate on metta, this is for 20 mins and usually gets me in a good mood to start the day off. I try to read parts of the dharma every day and I find myself a lot of the time reflecting with my thoughts about my actions and their consequences, about parts of the dharma I may not understand and about life in general, this is especially the case when I am alone. I think this helps me a lot especially when I come across situations in which I have a choice of being skillful in my actions, by that I mean it makes me a lot more mindful of my actions. Lastly on a night time before I go to bed I meditate again usually for 30 mins or so and this time to begin with a mindful meditation, which usually then turns its focus on the dependent arising of everything, or impermanence.
And of course I try to follow my Buddhist ethics and morals throughout the day.
As I say I am only a lay Buddhist and still have a lot to learn both academically and spiritually, but I believe I am on the right path and the changes I have made to my life because of my Buddhist beliefs have greatly improved my happiness.
Hope this helps.

metta to all sentient beings

Linc

Have you checked your spam folder?

Ford5780

Its weird yet not to surprising a lot of the times when I participate in discussions on Buddhism I find my self giving my self answers to my own questions. Ill post a reply and by the time I'm nearly done I feel I have pretty much answered my own questions. Not to strange though as in Buddhism your lead toward better understanding ones self. None the less I find the thought full things said by buddhist practitioners to be very heart warming. I'm not sure what they are called but I know the dalai lama always post thoughtful and insight full things to say say daily. The thing that I like is that none of it is far fetched and its all very understandable another thing I like is that every thing said in these types of comments (I'm not sure what they are called people in christianity they might be referred to as daily proverbs or something any one whom knows the legitimate technical. Name for what I'm talking about please let me know ) hits close to home its things I feel are close to heart yet need to hear more often as a sort of reminder.

RichardH

Ford5780 wrote: »

I was wondering how a regular day goes for you guys. What is the usual of the day especially when relating to the practice of buddhism.
.

The day is full of work and family and all those little contacts and connections with the world. There is financial responsibility, health matters, relationships to maintain, things to juggle. The difference between before practice and after practicing a number of years is there is no energy wasted on pointless worry and spinning around in my mind trying to get a handle on everything. The little inner captain who used try to control emotion and thought is mostly missing. When walking down the street the feeling of the feet touching the ground is not easily lost. There is a fraction the amount of daydreaming compared to before.

I remember being at a retreat once and seeing some monks come into the lunch room chuckling to themselves. I went over and (breaking "noble silence") asked them what was so funny. They pointed over to everybody eating and one monk said .. "I guess Enlightened people eat in slow motion". It was so funny and true. Everybody was veeeery carefully eating veeeery "mindfully". The effect was like a room full of zombies slooowly walking to get...more...tea, or sitting... staring....cheeewing. The point of this is that practicing awareness means doing normal things at normal speed. Apart from regular formal sitting practice the outer form is normal.

Aeonuniversalis

Haha I find that funny

ZendoLord84

Richard H wrote: »

I remember being at a retreat once and seeing some monks come into the lunch room chuckling to themselves. I went over and (breaking "noble silence") asked them what was so funny. They pointed over to everybody eating and one monk said .. "I guess Enlightened people eat in slow motion". It was so funny and true. Everybody was veeeery carefully eating veeeery "mindfully". The effect was like a room full of zombies slooowly walking to get...more...tea, or sitting... staring....cheeewing. The point of this is that practicing awareness means doing normal things at normal speed. Apart from regular formal sitting practice the outer form is normal.

treederwright

Enlightenment is for benefit in the world and its application is there as well. Meditation is great but not an end in itself. its like HH the Dalai Lama says " if you meditate , your less likely to over react because a part of the mind is in meditation during moments of anger ".

So the purpose of meditation is to make the mind pliable to views of selflessness and emptiness which the mind holds on to with vigor and a seeming unbreakable grasp.

Once the mind is pliable then it can be introduced to the "view" which will cut the root of samsara. This will make the practitioner more and more receptive to selflessness and emptiness and therefore happier and happier.

FoibleFull

treeder, that was very insightful and put out for us with great clarity. thank you!

Jeffrey

I don't do things regularly (same time each day) but often I get up early and I listen to my sanghas liturgy CD while doing slow circumambulations (easier to keep paying attention if walking than sitting) of my living room.

Some time during the day (almost always) if even for 5 minutes if I feel a lot of anxiety/restlessness I will do a sitting meditation.

Quite often I do some studying of a book or my coursepack. Not every day but almost every day.