A year ago I resolved to meditate every day. Today, I can report that I have succeeded in meditating every single day of 2013.
Even though I practice a very demanding form of power yoga, for me meditation remains the most difficult practice. There is nothing harder than wrestling with, what the Buddhists call, your monkey mind.
I started out sitting for only ten minutes a day, after about a month I moved up to fifteen minutes, where I remain. When I began I used recorded guided meditation programs. I found these helpful at first, they made made it easier to sit for the allotted time. However, over time I found them distracting and I abandoned them.
Most teachers recommend that you meditate at the same time every day but, given my schedule, this was impossible. On many days it was a struggle to find the time and was only possible by being flexible about time of day.
The Insight Time app was invaluable, especially because it makes you feel part of community of meditators, which helped to maintain my motivation.
I have tried various forms of meditation, and have settled on a version of Metta (loving kindness) meditation. I also use the word Metta as a traditional two syllable mantra. One of the reasons I like Metta is that it is meditation for an ethical purpose. Even though meditation has been shown to increase compassionate behavior, reading Mark Oppenheimer’s The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side convinced me that meditation can become unmoored from ethical practice. Metta meditation recognizes the centrality of Buddhist ethics to practice.
Here is Larry Terkel explaining mediation:
Related articles
- How Metta Can Help You When Meditation is Hindered by Overwhelming Feelings (anelegantmystery.wordpress.com)
- Why You Must Meditate in a Noisy Place (yatinjpatel.com)
- Meditate to multiply joy… (resaleevangelista.wordpress.com)
Congratulations on a big achievement! I’m going to go back and read your posts thoroughly for inspiration in my own practice.
Good luck with your meditation practice. Namaste.