Poll on Frequency of Practice

Discussion of meditation in the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions.

Usual Frequency of Formal Meditation Practice

Poll ended at Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:24 am

I do not engage in formal Buddhist meditation practice at all.
3
7%
I practice formal Buddhist meditation sporadically.
3
7%
I practice formal Buddhist meditation about once a week
0
No votes
I practice formal Buddhist meditation about 20 minutes a day
4
9%
I practice " about 40 minutes a day
8
19%
I practice" about one hour a day
5
12%
I practice " about 1.5 hours a day
4
9%
I practice " 2 hours a day or more.
16
37%
 
Total votes: 43

Yudron
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Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Yudron »

I'm interested in knowing the frequency of meditation practice among DW users.
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dharmagoat
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by dharmagoat »

It will be interesting to see the results as they come in.

I sit several times a day and average about 1.5 hours, although this is steadily increasing.
Yudron
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Yudron »

By the way, the poll will close after ten days. I thought it would be good to check only at this time in the development of DW, others can check in the future.
DGA
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by DGA »

I cast my vote with the understanding that reading and study, organizing or participating in discussions, and promoting the teachings are not counted as "practice" per se.
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dharmagoat
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by dharmagoat »

Jikan wrote:I cast my vote with the understanding that reading and study, organizing or participating in discussions, and promoting the teachings are not counted as "practice" per se.
I understand that 'practice' here refers to formal (usually seated) practice.
pemachophel
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by pemachophel »

Since I retired a few years ago, I've been doing 10-11 hours of practice per day, basically something like loose (non-boundaried) life retreat. It's wonderful! :namaste:
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
Blue Garuda
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Blue Garuda »

The poll is clearly about the frequency of formal meditation practice, yet there are also options about duration, so the title is a little misleading.
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heart
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by heart »

pemachophel wrote:Since I retired a few years ago, I've been doing 10-11 hours of practice per day, basically something like loose (non-boundaried) life retreat. It's wonderful! :namaste:
Emaho! This makes me genuinely happy!

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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conebeckham
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by conebeckham »

I also rejoice in PemaChopel's activity. That's great! I hope to follow your example, post-retirement, myself! :twothumbsup:
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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dharmagoat
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by dharmagoat »

pemachophel wrote:Since I retired a few years ago, I've been doing 10-11 hours of practice per day, basically something like loose (non-boundaried) life retreat. It's wonderful!
You are an inspiration.
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kirtu
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by kirtu »

pemachophel wrote:Since I retired a few years ago, I've been doing 10-11 hours of practice per day, basically something like loose (non-boundaried) life retreat. It's wonderful! :namaste:
:applause: :cheers: :woohoo:

(This is why we need that stompy icon from esangha)

WOW! That's amazing!

Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Yudron
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Yudron »

Jikan wrote:I cast my vote with the understanding that reading and study, organizing or participating in discussions, and promoting the teachings are not counted as "practice" per se.
That's what I was interested in, formal practice.
pemachophel
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by pemachophel »

Kirt et al.

Not so amazing when you have heart disease and Yama is breathing down your neck all the time. My recent heart surgery was not the fix I had hoped it would be. In any case, my "retreat" is the fulfillment of a life-long desire. :namaste:
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
Arnoud
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Arnoud »

Very inspirational indeed. Do you live alone while doing your practice or are you with someone who is okay with you putting in those long hours?
pemachophel
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by pemachophel »

Clarence,

My wife is also a practitioner (although we have different Root Gurus). However, she still works. So she's not home when I'm practicing. I get up at 4 AM and practice till 6 PM with three breaks (breakfast, lunch, and mid-late afternoon). On the weekends, I practice less in order to do chores and be with my wife. From 6-9 PM, I hang out with my wife unless it is a special Dharma day. In that case, we do puja together at home or at a local Nyingma center. We'll see what happens when she also retires in 18 months or so. She probably won't devote herself to retreat the way I have. She's a gregarious people-person. However, she's also very independent and is also an artist (meaning she will probably spend more time in her studio). So I don't foresee my "retreat" changing markedly even after she retires. We will probably go to more drubchen, retreats, and teachings together after she retires.

But, all that being said, my health condition forces me to live day to day. Hence any and all of the above is just Dawa Drakpa's fantasy.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
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heart
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by heart »

pemachophel wrote:But, all that being said, my health condition forces me to live day to day.
I, and I am sure others here as well, will keep you and your situation in our minds when we practice. Your spirit is a great inspiration.
lots of love
magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
deepbluehum
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by deepbluehum »

pemachophel wrote:Since I retired a few years ago, I've been doing 10-11 hours of practice per day, basically something like loose (non-boundaried) life retreat. It's wonderful! :namaste:
Amazing. I have to work. But I can usually get in 4-6 hours in. I have this week off and I'm doing Vajra Armor in retreat.
deepbluehum
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by deepbluehum »

pemachophel wrote:Clarence,

My wife is also a practitioner (although we have different Root Gurus). However, she still works. So she's not home when I'm practicing. I get up at 4 AM and practice till 6 PM with three breaks (breakfast, lunch, and mid-late afternoon). On the weekends, I practice less in order to do chores and be with my wife. From 6-9 PM, I hang out with my wife unless it is a special Dharma day. In that case, we do puja together at home or at a local Nyingma center. We'll see what happens when she also retires in 18 months or so. She probably won't devote herself to retreat the way I have. She's a gregarious people-person. However, she's also very independent and is also an artist (meaning she will probably spend more time in her studio). So I don't foresee my "retreat" changing markedly even after she retires. We will probably go to more drubchen, retreats, and teachings together after she retires.

But, all that being said, my health condition forces me to live day to day. Hence any and all of the above is just Dawa Drakpa's fantasy.
Nothing like death staring at you in the face to make dharma a priority. It's a good thing.
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Thomas Amundsen
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

I voted 1.5 hours/day. My daily practice practice (Longchen Nyingthig Ngondro, focusing on prostrations at the moment) takes me about 1:45. But I have a lot of samsaric commitments and consistently miss one or two days a week. This sounds pretty good to me... but to be completely honest with myself, I could easily do four hours a day if I just cut some of my worldly ties.
deepbluehum
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by deepbluehum »

pemachophel wrote:Since I retired a few years ago, I've been doing 10-11 hours of practice per day, basically something like loose (non-boundaried) life retreat. It's wonderful! :namaste:
Out of curiosity, what is your main practice?
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