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6 Responses to “Buddhists/Yoga people: How can I shortcut meditation when time constraints are an issue?”
If you really focus you can get good results out of the loving-kindness or awareness meditations in 10-15 minutes a day, though I must stress not to think about time limitations while you are meditating, don’t meditatite until the minute you have to go somewhere, thinking of the burden of time will be a distraction, you must clear your mind, so if stoping meditation a bit early will help you not think about your burdens, I would advise doing so.
I’d suggest starting with guided meditations until you have the correct breathing/mind scape, than when you feel you are ready, go solo, as it is harder to really get into deep meditation with a guide either present or through a recording, you and your mind are all you need.
How can you get to calm abiding in even 30 minutes if you are so busy that you can’t find 30 minutes in a day for anything other than what you are doing currently?
You are not very serious about it…this kind of attitude will get you nowhere. As long as everything else is more important…little progress can be made.
When you first start meditation it makes sense to start off with shorter sessions and build up so start with 5 or ten minutes and save longer sessions for the weekend. I do 15-20 minutes every morning and do longer sessions at the weekend or in the evening.
Time is a choice. Probably if you watch less TV, spend less time eating etc., you can easily find 30 minutes a day.
By the way, real calm abiding can probably be reached only if you chose for an intensive retreat of half a year or longer. 30 minutes of meditation a day and 23 and a half hour of rushing around won’t get you calm abiding, although you can make some progress with your meditation of course
OK, so if you chose that you want to spend less time on formal meditation, you can turn more aspects of your normal life in your into meditation – which is the actual goal of meditation!
For example in Tibetan Buddhism, there are many types of meditation techniques that do not require sitting on a cushion.
So let’s say you are waiting for the bus; you can observe others and try to see how others are suffering with their hurried behavior, angry expressions on their face, busy, busy. Just observe without too much judging, and you are meditating on the Noble Truth of suffering. An almost automatic tendency will arise to want to do something about their suffering – this can turn into a meditation on compassion.
When you are cleaning the house, you can think of turning the world into a better place for all living beings, or that you remove the dirt of deluded emotions from your own mind.
When you are in pain or have problems, you can imagine taking all suffering of other beings on yourself and give them all your own happiness (tonglen).
When you go to the toilet, imagine you empty your mind like you empty your bowels.
When you are at work under stress, stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and try to empty your mind for a few seconds.
When you feel anger, try to realize that the person you are angry at may be a victim of his own ignorance, and is probably suffering under his/her own emotions.
With whatever you do, you can try to be mindful of your motivation and karma.
September 21st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
andree
oh cmon.
mediation is all about spending time to relax and calm down. a shortcut would contradict its purpose
September 24th, 2008 at 2:58 am
colso
If you really focus you can get good results out of the loving-kindness or awareness meditations in 10-15 minutes a day, though I must stress not to think about time limitations while you are meditating, don’t meditatite until the minute you have to go somewhere, thinking of the burden of time will be a distraction, you must clear your mind, so if stoping meditation a bit early will help you not think about your burdens, I would advise doing so.
I’d suggest starting with guided meditations until you have the correct breathing/mind scape, than when you feel you are ready, go solo, as it is harder to really get into deep meditation with a guide either present or through a recording, you and your mind are all you need.
September 26th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
hoskinson
There are no shortcuts.
How can you get to calm abiding in even 30 minutes if you are so busy that you can’t find 30 minutes in a day for anything other than what you are doing currently?
You are not very serious about it…this kind of attitude will get you nowhere. As long as everything else is more important…little progress can be made.
~ Eric Putkonen
September 28th, 2008 at 9:42 am
lanning
When you first start meditation it makes sense to start off with shorter sessions and build up so start with 5 or ten minutes and save longer sessions for the weekend. I do 15-20 minutes every morning and do longer sessions at the weekend or in the evening.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:32 am
arnfred
well, i guess you’ll always be a beginner. because quite honestly, one should take at least an hour every day if you’d like to be a yogi.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
pefis
Time is a choice. Probably if you watch less TV, spend less time eating etc., you can easily find 30 minutes a day.
By the way, real calm abiding can probably be reached only if you chose for an intensive retreat of half a year or longer. 30 minutes of meditation a day and 23 and a half hour of rushing around won’t get you calm abiding, although you can make some progress with your meditation of course
OK, so if you chose that you want to spend less time on formal meditation, you can turn more aspects of your normal life in your into meditation – which is the actual goal of meditation!
For example in Tibetan Buddhism, there are many types of meditation techniques that do not require sitting on a cushion.
So let’s say you are waiting for the bus; you can observe others and try to see how others are suffering with their hurried behavior, angry expressions on their face, busy, busy. Just observe without too much judging, and you are meditating on the Noble Truth of suffering. An almost automatic tendency will arise to want to do something about their suffering – this can turn into a meditation on compassion.
When you are cleaning the house, you can think of turning the world into a better place for all living beings, or that you remove the dirt of deluded emotions from your own mind.
When you are in pain or have problems, you can imagine taking all suffering of other beings on yourself and give them all your own happiness (tonglen).
When you go to the toilet, imagine you empty your mind like you empty your bowels.
When you are at work under stress, stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and try to empty your mind for a few seconds.
When you feel anger, try to realize that the person you are angry at may be a victim of his own ignorance, and is probably suffering under his/her own emotions.
With whatever you do, you can try to be mindful of your motivation and karma.