You that are practicing Vipassana - do you actually meditate 2 hours per day?

[saszaandersson]

Hello everyone!

As I wrote in my last post I did a 10 day Vipassana Course.

Since then I've been meditating 20 - 60 minutes daily. I now try to get the routine to meditate one hour in the morning and one in the evening, as suggested during the course.

By your experience, is that only a recommendation or actually "proven" that the method works better if you practise it at least 2 hours daily?

Best regards,
Sasza

[Laurent]

Hello,

The more you practice is the best.
It does not mean that you will feel better when you practice more.
Generally i feel very happy while practising less (visible for people) and more disturbed while practising more seriously (not visible for people).
I know that the reason is that when you are working hard, you are purifying a lot, and it is not necessarily a pleasant process.
In other words, you have the soft method which runs at long term, taking care of life events, and the strong method which runs through problems to get short path (like meditation retreats or monk life).
My current level of practice is 1H/day with sustaining mindfulness along the day if possible and sometimes 2H/day.
I think 2H a day is a real improvement compared to only 1H a day, but also very important to sustain mindfulness in one's daily life. 2H seems to me the balanced way in secular life.

[playground]

Okay let's compare a 1 hour per day practice with a 2 hour per day practice.
Why is 2 hours better ?
What _specific_ benefits accrue to 2 hour per day practice over 1 hour per day practice ?

[Laurent]

Because satipatthana is a cumulative process.
The more you are in it, the more efficient your efforts are. The more efficient your efforts are, the more you are in it.

[behappy123]

I just finished a 10-day course a few days ago and I noticed that after being thrust back into reality it takes much longer for me to get in the mode of Meditation.  I force myself to do 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening and what I noticed was that it takes me about 30-40 minutes before i can get to the stage of full concentration without wandering.  During the course, it was almost immediate to get to a full concentration state with little to no wandering.

The length of the meditation in my opinion matters since the wild mind so to speak has free reign to run during the day.  During the time of meditation it takes much more to try and tame the mind.  I liken it to a workout warm up.  It takes me 40 minutes to warm my mind up to actually working.

[Laurent]

Dhamma is so wonderful.
I have planned a 10 days retreat 22 fév-5mar. Hope to live long enough to take part of it. It's been a long time...

[playground]

I just finished a 10-day course a few days ago and I noticed that after being thrust back into reality it takes much longer for me to get in the mode of Meditation.  I force myself to do 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening and what I noticed was that it takes me about 30-40 minutes before i can get to the stage of full concentration without wandering.  During the course, it was almost immediate to get to a full concentration state with little to no wandering.

The length of the meditation in my opinion matters since the wild mind so to speak has free reign to run during the day.  During the time of meditation it takes much more to try and tame the mind.  I liken it to a workout warm up.  It takes me 40 minutes to warm my mind up to actually working.

Hi behappy

I find that if i begin my meditation with a Focused Attention exercise
i somehow reach the 'meditation zone' much more quickly.

What do i do ?
I find that my breathing is very light and shallow... there's not much
to perceive there.  So instead i focus on the perceptions coming from
my hands.  As i breathe in... i think about how my hands feel, the
fingers touching the other fingers, the weight of my hand on my lap,
the feeling of my arms and wrist joining my hands.
The tension in my shoulders... which i then release (I'm often
releasing tension from my arms, shoulders and neck when i meditate
-- and i find that helps me 'sink' into the meditation zone).
As i breathe out.. i think again about how my hands feel. 

So i'm _not_ using my breathing as the object of attention.
I'm using my breathing to 'cue' my attention to focus on my hands.

Sometimes i will think about my left hand, sometimes i will think about
my right hand.  I notice that when i do  this... related bodily perceptions
will pop into my mind.  The feeling of my lap having the weight of my
hand on it.  The feeling of my legs generally.  The feeling of my feet
on the floor (etc)

Perhaps you could try this...  perhaps you will find that you can get into
the 'zone' in much less time... And hence make more efficient use of
your meditation time.

be happy  behappy

[Suited4Battle]

Dhamma is so wonderful.
I have planned a 10 days retreat 22 fév-5mar. Hope to live long enough to take part of it. It's been a long time...

ru sick? curious y u hope to live until feb

[Suited4Battle]

I think 1h twice a day would be ideal,,,i always do 1 h in the early part of the day and at least 20 min at night,,,just doing those extra 20 min at night makes a big diff and I imagine an hour would make a much bigger diff.

a few weeks back I added just 15 min to my morning meditation so did 1h15min for a few days in a row and my energy was really off,,felt so tired and mentally confused and agitated,,was really surprised that this happened and how intense it was,,not sure if it was just from adding 15 min but I went back to an hour and everything got better,,maybe some resistance I need to go through eventually?

[behappy123]

Sometimes i will think about my left hand, sometimes i will think about
my right hand.  I notice that when i do  this... related bodily perceptions
will pop into my mind.  The feeling of my lap having the weight of my
hand on it.  The feeling of my legs generally.  The feeling of my feet
on the floor (etc)

Perhaps you could try this...  perhaps you will find that you can get into
the 'zone' in much less time... And hence make more efficient use of
your meditation time.

be happy  behappy

Good advice Playground

I tried this today, and tried something simple with "feeling" my hands, and initially it works.  I had to observe closes to find out why it takes so long for me to get into focus and I realized that it's me looking for a sensation that I'm not getting.

In other words it's attachment to a previous sensation and when it doesn't come my mind immediately thinks something is wrong and right at that "uh-oh" moment, the chattering mind has already pulled at the reigns.  I try and remain conscious and pull my mind back in but in that exact same process more thoughts have flooded and end up losing the battle for a few minutes.  Just trying to feel for the next sensation, my mind is not tame enough.  If it doesn't know where it's going it ends up getting frustrated and wanting to give up faster

I had to go through this a few times this morning and afternoon to realize it fully but at least I know what to work on...don't get attached, just follow a routine and breathe into each part without the expectation of the previous sensation being there.  At least I think I know now what to look for or rather what to not look for...

-Be Happy

[dharma bum]

Sometimes i will think about my left hand, sometimes i will think about
my right hand.  I notice that when i do  this... related bodily perceptions
will pop into my mind.  The feeling of my lap having the weight of my
hand on it.  The feeling of my legs generally.  The feeling of my feet
on the floor (etc)

Perhaps you could try this...  perhaps you will find that you can get into
the 'zone' in much less time... And hence make more efficient use of
your meditation time.

I do this when I'm not meditating. For eg. When I'm driving, and waiting at a light, or walking. It's interesting to see how people experiment and stumble upon similar ideas.

[Ja192827]

For the past three months, I have meditated for 2 hours daily. I have noticed, ironically, that after 90 minutes, it starts to work against me. I start to get frustrated, and consequently my mind wanders. I feel burned out from meditating, and I never thought it would be possible. So recently, I have been doing an hour upon awakening, then in the afternoon, 20 minutes. I do have the time to do 2 hours, so maybe I should just fight through it; curious as to anyone's thoughts.

[cmason]

I haven't got to the point where I'm meditating longer than 30 minutes for a session. But I do meditate throughout the day at different times for 5 - 10minute sessions.

From doing this, I've noticed that I'm able to focus on things better than when I was meditating less and that's I'm not longer as stressed out from doing the tasks at hand. Compared to before where I would be stressing out over the next task. Just from this, I can definitely imagine how much more a person would benefit from meditating for 2 hours on a daily basis.

[Ja192827]

Most people seem to say they need longer periods of meditation to be able to go deeper. I am the opposite; the longer I meditate, the more A.D.D. I get.

[Laurent]

Most people seem to say they need longer periods of meditation to be able to go deeper. I am the opposite; the longer I meditate, the more A.D.D. I get.

This can change 

[TheJourney]

Nothing is as effective as 24/7 practice.

Meditation on cushion, no matter how many hours a day, is snail's crawling pace.

Glad that I didn't take Goenka's instruction as gospel.

Reading and learning on my own has been so much better. You need practice that you can do 24/7 like awareness of awareness or letting go totally.

Goenka retreat: Some people may advance. Some people stagnate. Some people quit.

Remember, not one technique fits all. You have to be willing to explore until one find the one that is most suitable to you.

[Attachless]

100% commitment every moment of your life beats commitment to two hours a day by 100%. It`s the vividness of meditation that you carry into -everything- that grows fruits within everything in real time. It can be treated as a workout, it is beneficial to see it as a workout, but you don`t work out 45 minutes (or two hours) a day and then forget the workout (well, you do, and that's why workout is not sufficient as an analogy). And you can`t possible work out your body 24/7, it needs rest. Your mind needs no rest from mindfulness. It`s either there or its not. If its there 2 hours a day and rest of the day not, that's the benefit you will get.

It`s hard to quantify that's why it`s not possible to say "this or that"; but "working out" helps and can help most definitely to keep it up, because daily intent is there AT LEAST for that period of time. Having both though, in the long run, is essential for real benefits and fruition (and awareness, equanimity are the benefits and fruitions.. what you practice is already your benefit, and it deepens. in my experience at least, I like)

Right now I can hardly find time to sit, but am very mindful every moment still because I make it priority always, I don`t make myself dependent on sitting neither do I exclude practice to sitting. Ideal is both though - whole-time commitment plus spending time in utter focus and committed, undistracted sittings (only for a means and practice to do so all day long anyway). Each strengthens each and vice versa, one is less without the other, it`s hard to quantify but missing either is unfruitful because only practice makes "something". And both is just that. What I`m saying is that I think it`s bad and wrong to say "this will do it". One has to be aware of what is demanded and do it. Seeing "two sittings one hour each a day" as a shortcut or measurement or guarantee for success/results, just to get something, missed the whole point of awareness, of meditation, of being aware, observant every moment of your life ever-deepening and ever-expanding, learningly, tryingly, exploringly.