Well, as promised, I've decided on making meditation a part of my life. I don't know if you're still around here sivason, whether this course is still going or whatever, but anyway if anything this might serve the purpose for me to check back on my progress as I go with the practice. I'm planning on making daily contributions to my workbook, laying down my practice for the day and my thoughts on the experience as I go with it. It may not be necessary to post daily, and no one is particularly obligated to read it. I just feel the need to express the results of my practice (at least personally) in order to further confirm and reaffirm my commitment to the practice and to check back on it and be sure that I'm doing what I said I was going to do. I understand meditation is a journey, a continuous learning experience and that's a trait I'm particularly interested at when choosing something to learn about.
Now, I read the "Basic Skills: Lesson 1" thread and I have some questions about what was discussed in it, specifically about the first level of the practice. The question is: Is it productive for a beginner to become aware of a set number of sensations (whichever they may be) throughout the meditation than to focus our awareness on just one of those sensations? The reason I'm asking this is because I read one or two books before about meditation, particularly mindfulness meditation (since it was of my particular interest when starting out, and still is), and I remember the recommendation being that the idea was to become aware of something (anything) and remain mindful about it. The most common example of course being, the awareness of the breath, and maintaining awareness at all times of our breath. Then, if one where to get distracted, one would calmly return his/her focus or observation back to the breath. Also, I remembered reading that the times one where to get distracted said person could focus on whatever the distraction was at that particular moment, and after some time return to the primary focus of observation. So, as I see it, the whole idea appeared more as a passive observational practice than an active one. The way you've outlined the practice, it appears to lie more towards the active side, since in this case we're choosing what to focus on and jump from our object of focus constantly throughout the practice. So, I'm getting a little confused about what to do, and don't know if each form of practice changes the whole meditation experience or if it doesn't ultimately matter. Anyway, I'll begin my meditation according to how the practice is outlined in the Basic Skills thread.
Another question I have has to do with the time the practice might take. What would be a valid time length for the practice to take? Is 20 minutes sufficient? Or should we strive for a consistent hour of meditation? Or, perhaps (and this is the one I initially adopted) one could begin meditating and end the meditation whenever one feels it should end, regardless of how long the practice might get?
Well, that's about it. In case you're wondering, I'm interested in the "Feel an Intense World" version of meditation and it's the one I'm going to practice on for the time being. I'll begin the practice this Monday, the 15th of December. My initial plan is to meditate for at least 20 minutes a day, for the 7 days of the week. The overall time length of the practice isn't limited, so if I find myself continuing meditating well past the 20 min. mark then excellent. But I do want at the least 20 minutes of meditation, not less. Naturally, as I get more proficient or experienced with the practice, I will increase the minimum time length accordingly.
Alright, well then I'm really looking forward to this journey, hopefully it turns out to be memorable and a timeless learning experience. Happy dreaming y'all.
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