Sitting time - alarm?

[thomas]

Hi

sitting time and alarms..... Any advice?

I was setting an alarm for 30 minutes, a CD would start playing from nowhere. No matter how quiet I put it on I found it quite a blunt way of ending the meditation, sometimes gave me a real shock.

Next I did the same thing but timed the CD to start 10 minutes after I planned to finish. This is better, I finish before it plays usually, but the new problem is that I think more about how long I've been sitting there for. I get temptations to be lazy. I know I have to deal with this like any other distraction.. and I try.

My Question is - what method do people use to let them know it's time to stop (for those who have time limits)? What do you find most effective and least distracting?

thanks in advance

tom

[Crystal Palace]

thomas,

If time is not a constraint then I would recommend the suggestion that one of our former members, Jhanada, gave: to sit down to meditate thinking you will never get up again. This eliminates the factor of time that can sometimes preoccupy the mind and become a hindrance to meditation.

Nonetheless if time is of concern then you could perhaps check out some timers here.

Warmly,
Crystal Palace

[Quardamon]

Hello Thomas,
I use the alarm of a mobile phone, that buzzes and rings very softly. (To wake me up in the morning, I use a separate mobile phone that I have for my work.)
Regards,
Quardamon

[ivana]

My mobile and I set time at my alarm and I choosed a nice melody.

[thelastrich]

You can use a mp3+speakers or a CD or whatever, with a song modified by yourself.
If you insert 30 minutes (or the time you want) of silence at first, and then after the 30 minutes, the music starts with a soft and long fade in (volume increasing soft and progressive).
You can make fade in with audacity, its free.
If It's complicated for you, send me the song, I'm used to work with Cool Edit.

[Vivek]

I use my cellphone as alarm. Switch it off so that no calls/messages would bother me.

[Jeeprs]

I have an hourglass, bought especially for the purpose, which runs about 50 minutes. I rarely make it through to the end without changing position, but that is the aim, and sometimes I do it.

[Morning Dew]

Before I got the iPhone I used the alarm on the mobile phone. Any alarm clock will do. There are online alarm timers too (try google).

At the moment I use an app called Zen Timer on the iPhone and it is just rocking IME.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zen-timer-meditation-timer/id337472899?mt=8

The singing balls sound very realistic. I set it up for an hour but after 50 minutes I hear the wooden zen sticks clap 3 times to remind me there is 10 minutes left. This I do in times of great restlessness when the Self feel to get up earlier as decided. There is possibility to time sitting and walking meditations etc.

The best of all is the Zen Timer Connect where you can see all other Zen Timer users via Facebook on your timer. When I finish it sais Papa (my Facebook username is Papa Dusko)in Sweden just completed 60 minutes of meditation. and there is an option to add a few words your self. I wrote : Join Vipassanaforum.com
So each time I meditate there is a chance someone might walk in here this is a great motivator for my daily practice. Seeing all those people sharing meditation via this timer realy is something.

But this is for iPhone users only.

Friendly Che

[Matthew]

There are some timers somewhere on this forum that I made and posted .... I'm on the way to the eye hospital as I woke this morning with a severely inflamed eye ... so I can't read the screen well enough to search !!! .... hang on ... sure they are on my hard drive .. I'll just reattach them to this post

They are zipped mp3's you can put on your mobile telephone or anything else that ... plays mp3's but I don't recommend ipod or anything in your ears. Great thing about them is you set it and go and don't have to worry about time.

Warmly,

Matthew

[Matthew]

ps. Each one starts with three gongs then silence for appropriate time and ends with three gongs. Gongs take about 1 minute to play - I use the start taking deep breaths and relaxing into practice and end gives nice time for coming back to the environment. Hope it helps.

[thomas]

pretty amazing response again. thanks for taking the time.

I read them all and funiily enough crystal palaces suggestion right at the start will be my first port of call... combined with my normal CD alarm clock.. but set for a rediulous time .. 1hr or 1hr 30 (rediculous for me)

that way I can assume I wont reach the alarm and imagine I plan to sit forever..... but I wont 'actually' sit there forever. because that would get slightly in the way of living.