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

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conebeckham
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by conebeckham »

He'd tell ya, DeepBlue, but then he'd have to kill ya.


:smile:
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")
pemachophel
Posts: 2226
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Location: Lafayette, CO

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by pemachophel »

Deep Blue Hung,

Since last August, I've been mainly doing the approach, accomplishment, and lay-jor of Pegyal Lingpa's Pema Sangwai Thigle (i.e., Red Vajrasattva). Yig-ge gya-pa's just don't accumulate that fast. All things being equal, I expect to finish some time this fall.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
deepbluehum
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Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by deepbluehum »

pemachophel wrote:Deep Blue Hung,

Since last August, I've been mainly doing the approach, accomplishment, and lay-jor of Pegyal Lingpa's Pema Sangwai Thigle (i.e., Red Vajrasattva). Yig-ge gya-pa's just don't accumulate that fast. All things being equal, I expect to finish some time this fall.
That sounds like a mahayoga practice, though I'm not familiar. I'm partial to this style. You get a feel something's going on.
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dharmagoat
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by dharmagoat »

It would be interesting to conduct a poll on the types of practice we are all doing.
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conebeckham
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Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by conebeckham »

My "formal practice" (which is what I considered this poll to represent) is the Two Stages of Secret Mantra, as well. This probably goes without saying.

I'd guess that for most of us practicing in Tibetan Vajrayana traditions, that would be the case. But it's possible that those practicing in the Tibetan traditions devote their formal sessions to "formal" Mahamudra or Dzokchen sessions, or Samatha/Vipassana, or whatnot.

I think a poll would be interesting, too...but we could likely guess what our Pure Land comrades, our Zen comrades, our Thera comrades would largely be doing with their formal practice time. Affiliation tells a great deal of the story.

So, perhaps a good question would be, what Tradition one follows?
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")
deepbluehum
Posts: 1302
Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:05 am
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by deepbluehum »

Two stages, dzogchen, anuyoga yidams, yantra yoga, thogal. I have a busy practice calendar.
Stewart
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Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:40 pm

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Stewart »

Why have you chosen to list 'Dzogchen' and 'Togal' separately?!
s.
greentara
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Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 4:03 am

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by greentara »

!

Pema Chophel, It is wonderful. One pointed effort till it becomes effortless.
lisehull
Posts: 130
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2010 6:39 pm

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by lisehull »

I practice about 25 minutes of sitting meditation a day, unless I do a deity practice, such as Green Tara or Chenrezig. I find that 25 minutes of calm abiding or vipashyana is long enough, in that I get really fidgety and worried about when the timer is going to go off. Any ideas on how to feel more comfortable with longer sitting, or should I just be content with what I am doing?
:namaste:
Lise
Stewart
Posts: 566
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:40 pm

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by Stewart »

Use the feeling of being 'fidgety and worried' as the object of your Shamatha, rest your awareness on the experience, as you get caught up in it again gently bring your awareness back to simply resting on the feelings. With practice, they will lose their power, and you won't grasp at them.
s.
lisehull
Posts: 130
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2010 6:39 pm

Re: Poll on Frequency of Practice

Post by lisehull »

Hi Stewart, thanks for the suggestion. Will give it a try.
:thanks:
Lise
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