Just ten minutes again this morning. This might be how it is most days for the next couple of weeks, as this is my most horrendously overworked time at work (I work in a university and the new academic year starts end of this month). That ten minutes, with longer sessions when I can manage it, along with the lasting effect of the week-long retreat/sesshin I did in August is serving me well at this stressful time, though.
Jean, isn't it funny how we get hung up on the number? I do it all the time and making that judgement sometimes prevents me from sitting at all. "Oh, there's no way I have time to sit for 35 minutes." So then I end up not bothering to sit at all.
Oy! When will I learn?
I think sitting for 10 minutes is great and sitting for how ever long EVERY DAY is even better!!
Like Jean, I am in a stressful work period and (unexpectedly) a tricky one in personal relationships. Am all the more grateful to have this point of reference. Thanks you Jean for your good wishes - much better healthwise today.
Sat this morning for 20 minutes with a wandering mind which I had to keep bringing back, to the point of tedium. Grrr.
Kalu Rinpoche used to say that if you bring your mind back every time you realize it's wandered, you are meditating perfectly.
And he meant that quite literally. Suppose you sit down to meditate for an hour, and you sink into luminous stillness right away, the mind completely at peace for fifty-five minutes, and then you decide that you've had such a good session that you'll just let your mind wander for the last five minutes. That's a worse meditation, Rinpoche would say, than if you sat for an hour and never got your mind quiet at all, and were distracted hundreds of times -- provided you brought your mind back every time as soon as you realized you were distracted.
The mind resting in its own quiet luminosity isn't what we're trying to achieve. That's it's natural state; we can't cultivate it or "learn how to do it." All we can learn is how to recognize we're distracted and bring the mind back. That's the skill we're actually building.
The luminous peace is wonderful and of course it's what we want, but it's not really the mark of a valuable meditation session. Staying with it to the point of tedium -- *that* sounds to me like a valuable session.
Jean & John (John I? John the Elder?) -- I've always liked my lama's image of "keeping the pot stirred." Sure, ten minutes is better than three minutes, he's wont to say, but the really important thing is just to keep the pot stirred.
Thanks for this, Dale. I remember you posted a piece on this topic a little while ago, and I almost asked in my previous comment if you would put in a link in to that piece.
"Quiet luminosity" - what a beautiful picture that conjures up though. :-)
Okay, count me in! I'm late starting, but better late than never!! I got to here through Hoarded Ordinaries as well. I will try to start with 10 minutes!
After putting it off all day, I finally meditated for 10 minutes before leaving for yoga class...and then of course there was the usual relaxation/meditation at the end. I'm finding that for the first time *ever*, I'm able to stay awake for these relaxation sessions, which I hope indicates a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.
I agree with Jean & John: isn't it funny how we obsess about how *long* we meditate, as if meditating for 30 minutes is "better" than meditating for 10? Dale is right: it's all about bringing oneself back to awareness, and that happens in a split second.
Welcome, John & Rachel: it's great to "see" you (and everyone) here.
Sat for another 20 minutes when I got home from work about 9 pm. Then I slept, which I don't usually do after such a busy and difficult day. I am grateful for this. (not just because it makes me feel better/sleep better. I don't meditate because it makes me feel better. It's not like exercising to get fitter. The motivation is a million miles from that. More like, I'm committed to this busy, unsatisfactory life; I want to have an equal commitment to something different, more real...)
Nope. Didn't sit today. The wife called and said she was staying at work to do a 12 (she was only scheduled for 8). So I had to take over the evening routine with Amy.
I wonder if I try to sit in the mornings if that would work out better?
11 Comments:
Just ten minutes again this morning. This might be how it is most days for the next couple of weeks, as this is my most horrendously overworked time at work (I work in a university and the new academic year starts end of this month). That ten minutes, with longer sessions when I can manage it, along with the lasting effect of the week-long retreat/sesshin I did in August is serving me well at this stressful time, though.
Jean, isn't it funny how we get hung up on the number? I do it all the time and making that judgement sometimes prevents me from sitting at all. "Oh, there's no way I have time to sit for 35 minutes." So then I end up not bothering to sit at all.
Oy! When will I learn?
I think sitting for 10 minutes is great and sitting for how ever long EVERY DAY is even better!!
Sat twenty-some minutes last night -- *much* easier and better to sit first thing when I get home for work.
Like Jean, I am in a stressful work period and (unexpectedly) a tricky one in personal relationships. Am all the more grateful to have this point of reference. Thanks you Jean for your good wishes - much better healthwise today.
Sat this morning for 20 minutes with a wandering mind which I had to keep bringing back, to the point of tedium. Grrr.
Oy, sorry to hear that, Mary.
Kalu Rinpoche used to say that if you bring your mind back every time you realize it's wandered, you are meditating perfectly.
And he meant that quite literally. Suppose you sit down to meditate for an hour, and you sink into luminous stillness right away, the mind completely at peace for fifty-five minutes, and then you decide that you've had such a good session that you'll just let your mind wander for the last five minutes. That's a worse meditation, Rinpoche would say, than if you sat for an hour and never got your mind quiet at all, and were distracted hundreds of times -- provided you brought your mind back every time as soon as you realized you were distracted.
The mind resting in its own quiet luminosity isn't what we're trying to achieve. That's it's natural state; we can't cultivate it or "learn how to do it." All we can learn is how to recognize we're distracted and bring the mind back. That's the skill we're actually building.
The luminous peace is wonderful and of course it's what we want, but it's not really the mark of a valuable meditation session. Staying with it to the point of tedium -- *that* sounds to me like a valuable session.
Welcome to all newcomers! Glad to have you here!
Jean & John (John I? John the Elder?) -- I've always liked my lama's image of "keeping the pot stirred." Sure, ten minutes is better than three minutes, he's wont to say, but the really important thing is just to keep the pot stirred.
Thanks for this, Dale. I remember you posted a piece on this topic a little while ago, and I almost asked in my previous comment if you would put in a link in to that piece.
"Quiet luminosity" - what a beautiful picture that conjures up though. :-)
Okay, count me in! I'm late starting, but better late than never!! I got to here through Hoarded Ordinaries as well. I will try to start with 10 minutes!
After putting it off all day, I finally meditated for 10 minutes before leaving for yoga class...and then of course there was the usual relaxation/meditation at the end. I'm finding that for the first time *ever*, I'm able to stay awake for these relaxation sessions, which I hope indicates a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.
I agree with Jean & John: isn't it funny how we obsess about how *long* we meditate, as if meditating for 30 minutes is "better" than meditating for 10? Dale is right: it's all about bringing oneself back to awareness, and that happens in a split second.
Welcome, John & Rachel: it's great to "see" you (and everyone) here.
Sat for another 20 minutes when I got home from work about 9 pm. Then I slept, which I don't usually do after such a busy and difficult day. I am grateful for this. (not just because it makes me feel better/sleep better. I don't meditate because it makes me feel better. It's not like exercising to get fitter. The motivation is a million miles from that. More like, I'm committed to this busy, unsatisfactory life; I want to have an equal commitment to something different, more real...)
Nope. Didn't sit today. The wife called and said she was staying at work to do a 12 (she was only scheduled for 8). So I had to take over the evening routine with Amy.
I wonder if I try to sit in the mornings if that would work out better?
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