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How do I develop a practice?
followthepath
Explorer
Hello everyone. I am new to Buddhism and would like to incorporate it into my life. I'm not sure how to develop a practice, though.
I came to Buddhism after searching for some relief from my anxiety. That makes me wonder whether I should start off with Right Mindfulness.
I'd appreciate any help.
1
Comments
start with right view - read about it after searching it in google - then try to understand right view - then add meditation in your daily routine, starting with small duration and slowly trying to increase it - for the time when you do not do formal meditation practice, try to be mindful in whatever activity you are doing - try to read about the other factors of 8-fold path. read about dhamma in your free time and try to contemplate the teachings. have patience and persistence for your spiritual path. relax as it is not a race and let go as there is no one to get anything finally, nor there is anyone who has even got anything at the first place.
metta to you and all sentient beings.
If you decide to practice mindfulness of breathing then know when you're breathing in long or out long, or breathing in short or out short, simply watch the breath closely without locating it anywhere, and if after a little while you start to notice breathing is happening by itself then I would say from my own experience that, that it is a good sign indicating that your not controlling the breath and have mindfulness of breathing.
To begin with, you should have a good idea of what the Buddhist path entails: the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path are a self-help system in itself.
Your practice should cover all three pillars of the Buddhist practice: Morality (Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood), Concentration (Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration) and Wisdom (Right View and Right Intention).
Right View is the alfa and omega of the Path, since cessation of suffering results from development of insight, liberation from ignorance, seeing things as they are.
You could find Bhikku Bodhi's "The Noble Eightfold Path" very useful to give you an idea of the basics.
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/noble8path6.pdf
As to mindfulness and meditation, Thich Nhat Hanh's book "Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices" gives some fine tips on how to incorporate mindfulness in your daily life.
Start small. Baby steps. As @DhammaDragon has pointed out, read up on the basics, and learn a little about Buddhism's foundation.
Don't try to absorb too much at once, and don't think, or believe, you need to know everything, about everything, ASAP.
Whenever you come across something thought-provoking, or that stimulates questions, Stop.
Think about it, digest it and consider it...
Come onto this forum, ask questions, seek responses, input opinion and different PoVs. We won't have all the answers to all your questions; sometimes, one question will provoke differing responses, and people will give you THEIR perspectives.
But don't worry, it's not a test. There's no entry exam, or finals for which you have to study until word-perfect.
Above all, relax, breathe, and enjoy the journey.
While others may seem "miles ahead", in reality, we're all on the same path, and enjoying the company....
Where do you want to start? I'd focus on knowing where you are, before implementing anything.....
You know, while the Buddha is often likened to a Doctor, whose best prescription is the Dhamma (or Dharma - both mean the same thing, but the first is Pali, the second, Sanskrit) you're the one who has to "take the medicine" and "heal thyself". In other words, You came searching, but anything you find will have to be because YOU reveal it to yourself. It won't do it FOR you....
Always here, always available.
Just as we have been for one another.
Welcome, glad you joined us.
Enjoy yourself.
Read the anatta lakkhana sutta, then contemplate the teaching on not self.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.059.mend.html
No, don't.
This is far too mind-boggling at this stage.
Really, @bookworm.
He's a novice and new member... such a person cannot be expected to study such matters yet! I know that if someone had suggested such a thing, to me at the 'beginning' of my journey, it would have quite put me off!
Hello friend @followthepath , welcome.
In my experience daily mindfulness practice complemented with sitting-lotus-whiles ("meditation times") is truly supreme.
You can always add more theory to your practice, but the best goal is that of no goals -- to churn and weave theory and life into practical understanding.
I believe meditation is best because it can be a good foundation that holds everything together. If your meditation practice produces good results, virtues and wisdom will follow. They also work hand in hand, because meditation without virtues and wisdom will not produce good results.
Find a teacher and learn how to DO Buddhism from them.
If you cannot find a teacher locally, I suggest buying a copy of "Mindfulness in Plain English" by Bhante Gunaratana. Most of the book is an instruction on how to do Buddhism and how to deal with the snags you run into along the way.
The not self sutta was one of the first suttas that I read when just discovered the teachings of the Buddha, I contemplated the teaching for like a few minutes while I was having a cigarette around 2:00 am lol.
I would start a meditation practice from a teacher ideally. Doesn't have to be the 'right' teacher just a step along the way. If not a teacher in your area perhaps a sangha with learning experience from a distance. Of course right now today you can google 'youtube meditation instructions' and get started today.
From then lets see if you enjoy meditation. There are four things to contemplate: the suffering you have experienced and still experience, how karma keeps you getting caught again and again into mentally or physically bad situations, how this life will end and you might never overcome suffering, and fourth that you have a precious human mind with the so called 'ordinary' quality to know things even if it knows that it does not know. Contemplate these before your meditation and ask yourself if you want to try to overcome suffering and perhaps explore spirituality such as Meditation and Buddhism.
In relation to @Jeffrey's post you may find this series of meditation from AJahn Jayasaro useful.
https://vimeo.com/album/180330
Hello @followthepath and welcome. I am also very new to the path, so I don't have a lot of advice for you except to tell you what I'm doing. Meditate and try make it a regular daily routine. Do it even when your "monkey mind" is telling you to skip it or to cut it short. Just keep going but don't try too hard. Some sessions will be more focused than others but it doesn't matter, it's all good. Over time it will get more and more natural. I'm a lifetime chronic worrier and after 4 months it's gradually come to make a huge difference for me.
I'm just beginning to study and I think @federica's advice to start small is right on. Read elementary level books at first. I'm just finishing "Open Heart Clear Mind" by the Venerable Thubten Chodron and I have found it very useful. Also, since you have anxiety, let me suggest you google Dr. Tara Brach. She is a Buddhist psychotherapist who has written a couple of good books that were suggested to me by a therapist I was seeing. They are not strictly speaking books about Buddhism, but rather about applying Buddhist concepts of acceptance of what is and mindfulness to your life.
@followthepath
How to develop a practice.
I'd suggest a bit of a reading exploration of the different expressions of Buddhism.
When one stands out as more appealing or connects more deeply with you than the others, then you've got a course heading to investigate further.
Eventually this will simply evolve into a wish to practice it instead of just reading about it.
No need for any big plans...The process is organic.
This is a development of a practice...which is actually the practice that develops you.
I am not so sure that there are right practices and wrong practices for different people
so long as we truly apply our self to whichever one we eventually choose..
Thanks everyone for your advice!
@Kenneth
I've read a book by Tara Brach before and she helped me a lot. Also, if you don't mind, could you tell me what exactly has changed about you since you started breath focused meditation? Have the worries started to decrease or are you more able to distance yourself from them? I'm asking because on one hand, I want to experience less anxiety, but on the other hand, I worry that if I become less anxious I'll also be more likely to do risky things.
Sending Metta to you @followthepath - and welcome.
Anxiety, fear, brain processing based on but 'what if this happens' resulted in a chronic state of mind for me. It was painful, unproductive and led to health issues in the body.
So a useful practice for me is mindfulness of the breath. The risk is we may have a noticeable increase in calm and equanimity and the risk of feeling better in mind and body. You have been warned.
Distancing myself would be one way of putting it. If it's a real problem as opposed to a "what if?" the worry will still be there, but it does not dominate my focus or cause any great suffering. As for "what if's?" I find that I can nip them in the bud to the extent that they arise which is not very frequently now. If the Tara Brach book that you read is "True Refuge" you will be familiar with the RAIN technique for working with problems (please google it if not). The calm focus that results from meditation practice is really essential to using RAIN effectively.
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I really doubt that. Remember this is not a drug, meditation is about focus and the ability to think clearly and see reality for what it is. I think if anything, the reverse will be true, you will be less likely to do risky things because you will be able to clearly see real risk while preventing "what if?" nonsense risk from dominating you mind. I can tell you that over the span of my life, most of the biggest mistakes I have made have been while my mind was obsessively preoccupied with nonsensical worry or anxiety about something else.
Please just remember, it takes time and persistence. I think others on your thread have said that and I am living it. There will be sessions that leave you feeling awesomely focused and others where you just don't catch the hook. Early on you will feel focused for a couple of hours and then slip back out of focus. I knew for sure that I was really making progress when circumstances forced me to skip a session and I still stayed focused. Its a gradual building process, not unlike physical exercise.
I hope this helps
Buddhism can appear very vast and overwhelming from the start. Be patient as you work through it and find what within it works best for you. Everyone gives advice based on what tradition (if any) they follow and what their experience has been. There is no map. It isn't like many other religions where you do X, Y and Z at certain times in your life and receive certain instructions at certain levels. There is a lot to figure out and sometimes it's very hard because it's overwhelming.
Jon Kabat Zinn writes some wonderful books about Mindfulness. So does Thich Nhat Hanh. Zinn is not specifically Buddhist but the way he teaches is aligned with Buddhism. Both authors are easy to read and understand. Sutras are not (for most people, especially to start). The Eightfold path is not something you just tick off as you conquer each one. Each part works together as a system that is all-encompassing. The more you practice, the more it will come into focus.
Meditation is very beneficial and not only will help to clear your mind but also to prepare your mind for absorbing and understanding what Buddhism has to offer. There are many types of meditation, and you kind of have to experiment with what you prefer. A few days a day of short periods to start is usually better than attempting to sit for 30 minutes right away. Be patient, it takes time. And remember, you aren't trying to make your thoughts disappear!
For me, they key was to learning to understand what suffering really means. Sure, when we hurt, when we are ill, we suffer. But it is so much of a different meaning in Buddhism. Until we can understand what it is and accept that we suffer from it, it is hard to go any further. I focused on the 4 Noble Truths for quite a while because I needed to have a full grasp of what they meant and truly accept them. I did however find a teacher shortly after I started my Buddhist journey which helped me a lot. They are not required, of course, but they help to point the way a bit through what can become a vast jungle of tangled vines that are very hard to untangle on your own. For me it was, others do just fine.
Don't let the overwhelmingness of it turn you off. Understanding will come and so will clarity.
@FollowThePath thank you for starting this thread, the majority of responses have given answers that will help my practice.
I have become too bogged down in trying to read and do everything at the same time. It was almost as if I was trying to find the perfect answer in everybody else's practice rather than finding my own answers in my own practice.
Back to some basics for me.
Ironically I seem to have found answers to my questions in the responses to somebody else's question.
Which is a shame because I've been focussed on find a map rather than finding my own middle way.
Indeed, it is easy to look at someone else and try to figure out their map and follow it to arrive where they are. Except we can't
Because only their causes, conditions, experiences, feelings and so on brought them there. Yours will create your map for you. Which is a fun way to think about it, because I LOVE maps!
Searching for Buddhist GPS satellites...
When you find the middle way it will be the same as the Buddhas.
In response to your reply but going slightly off subject - surely everybody's Middle Way is slightly different, we are all going to be influenced more one way than another by our own personal experiences. If we spend too much effort trying to find the exact centre point of the middle way this is just another form of extremism.
OP, you gotta start repenting for your transgressions rather than just explain them away as "you gotta learn from ya mistakes" or "I did nothing wrong" or "think positive"
NO brah! Not repenting your vexations in your mind means the seeds will still be there, waiting to be ripened at the right conditions! So turn back before it's too late!!!!!
Is it ever late or even early? I think not.
As well as reading dharma books etc and learning te 8 fold etc, it's important, i think, to spend time alone in nature. You can take a solitary walk, and mind fully walk and
Contemplate, take frequent stops and just look and be. Perhaps, find a mantra that appeals and recite it internally to quiet the mind. I use the short form of the Green Tara. More importantly, enjoy.
[lobster faints]
I knew that self abusing, masochistic, 'poker up the ass' mentality was never part of Prince Buddhas, 'sit under a tree and chill' Middle Way ...
Thank Cod! Nirvana be Praised! Buddha Roolz! etc.
So what is your planned practice?
Spot of risky morning yoga/tai chi? Hardcore Mantra? Highly dangerous sitting on a cushion? Mindful food chewing?
... surely you are not tempted by the dark side of the force? [lobster hides behind cushion]