The Buddha Project Reply To: Do you always meditate at the same time and for the same length?
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Dear Sande and the rest of you.
Your reflection on how, when, where to focus on meditation practice is so interesting. As for my practice, it has gradually expanded as I have studied more and more Buddhist philosophy and psychology both by reading volumes of literature and by following several different courses over the past five years. It is as if the daily practice has changed and developed along with the understanding of it, and the experience that the practice de facto gives me greater well-being and greater patience for the variation of reality in which my daily life circles. As for the more practical question of time and scope of my daily practice, it is pretty much the same every day.
It is partly connected with the fact that I have been practicing physical yoga every morning for twenty years. Then expanding it with meditation has not been difficult. Rather the opposite, the physical yoga is today a way for me to wake up the body and create mental focus, and then sit down on the cushion and meditate. What I notice is how the time in meditation increases as I follow the IDMT course. That means I get to get up a little earlier in the morning. Another observation is that I have become more aware of the six perfections in everyday life, more awere of my actions both in terms of body, speech and mind. This, in turn, has made it easy for me to start by ending the day with a shortened and simplified form of meditation before going to bed in the evening. Something that in turn made me sleep better without too many stressful dreams. Realize I could write a thesis on your question but choose to stop there for now.