Thank you all for your helpful and expansive responses to my question yesterday. I will print of all of yesterday's comments and read them, because there is more than I can respond to here. So very much appreciated, everybody. Thank you. What a great little gathering this is.
Moose, did you sit at lunchtime? If you didn't, I know you will sit soon :-)
Mary, I also wanted to say in response to the discussion you initiated yesterday: although I have found weekend and week-long retreats a deep and usually enjoyable and peaceful experience, I have found sitting every day, for however short a period, for past periods of several months and for this past 100 days much more significant - not that it's a matter of comparisons - so I would wholeheartedly agree that it's regularity and frequency that matters much more than duration of the meditation period, though I think that as times goes on, when the time is right, you will very likely just find yourself sitting for longer one day...
I've been working at home today on the copyediting job, so had the luxury of getting up a bit later and sitting for half an hour this morning and again for half an hour at lunchtime and maybe I will sit again this evening. By the time I've travelled home from the office I'm often just too physically tired to sit. Sat last night because I'd got up late and not had time in the morning, but I was so tired my legs were crawling and I couldn't keep still... although it was a ten-minute wriggling travesty, though, it still felt as though I'd kept the appointment, the commitment - somehow it is the intention and the effort that matters more than the quality of every single meditation experience.
I know I certainly count lovely & present *walks* as meditation, so why not running?
Earlier today I sat for about 10 minutes & then took a nap, my meditation time revealing how tired I still am from this weekend's grading.
I think this is relevant to the current discussion of how long is "long enough." Zen Centers typically sit for 30 minute periods...but this is following a monastic model. For those of us who live as laypeople, this model may not fit our lives & lifestyle.
I'm not a nun: meditation is not my full-time career. That doesn't mean it isn't important...it just means I have to fit it in with the other demands of my life.
When I sat today, the "message" I got loud & clear was that I was tired. I could have forced myself to sit there for 30 minutes, but instead I took that realization of my own tiredness as a gift: "Ah, yes! Normally I'd run around being oblivious to my own exhaustion, but today sitting has reminded me to listen to my body!"
So in my mind, stopping my meditation to take a nap was the most present, mindful thing I could have done. Forcing myself to continue meditating would have been a mindless denial of what my physical reality truly was.
6 Comments:
I did not sit this morning. I did not sit last night. I'm feeling off-centered. Here it is: I am repairing my commitment and will sit at lunch time.
Thank you all for your helpful and expansive responses to my question yesterday. I will print of all of yesterday's comments and read them, because there is more than I can respond to here. So very much appreciated, everybody. Thank you. What a great little gathering this is.
Moose, did you sit at lunchtime? If you didn't, I know you will sit soon :-)
Mary, I also wanted to say in response to the discussion you initiated yesterday: although I have found weekend and week-long retreats a deep and usually enjoyable and peaceful experience, I have found sitting every day, for however short a period, for past periods of several months and for this past 100 days much more significant - not that it's a matter of comparisons - so I would wholeheartedly agree that it's regularity and frequency that matters much more than duration of the meditation period, though I think that as times goes on, when the time is right, you will very likely just find yourself sitting for longer one day...
I've been working at home today on the copyediting job, so had the luxury of getting up a bit later and sitting for half an hour this morning and again for half an hour at lunchtime and maybe I will sit again this evening. By the time I've travelled home from the office I'm often just too physically tired to sit. Sat last night because I'd got up late and not had time in the morning, but I was so tired my legs were crawling and I couldn't keep still... although it was a ten-minute wriggling travesty, though, it still felt as though I'd kept the appointment, the commitment - somehow it is the intention and the effort that matters more than the quality of every single meditation experience.
did not sit today,it's starting to be party time, but had a very lovely and present run. thank you, moose, for your fascinating help on emotions.
will sit tomorrow and try to bear it in mind.
I think a lovely and present run counts as meditation...
frtfyi: pron. fruitify :-)
I know I certainly count lovely & present *walks* as meditation, so why not running?
Earlier today I sat for about 10 minutes & then took a nap, my meditation time revealing how tired I still am from this weekend's grading.
I think this is relevant to the current discussion of how long is "long enough." Zen Centers typically sit for 30 minute periods...but this is following a monastic model. For those of us who live as laypeople, this model may not fit our lives & lifestyle.
I'm not a nun: meditation is not my full-time career. That doesn't mean it isn't important...it just means I have to fit it in with the other demands of my life.
When I sat today, the "message" I got loud & clear was that I was tired. I could have forced myself to sit there for 30 minutes, but instead I took that realization of my own tiredness as a gift: "Ah, yes! Normally I'd run around being oblivious to my own exhaustion, but today sitting has reminded me to listen to my body!"
So in my mind, stopping my meditation to take a nap was the most present, mindful thing I could have done. Forcing myself to continue meditating would have been a mindless denial of what my physical reality truly was.
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