Dear friends,
Here is a brief description of my current practice. I would appreciate your review and comments regarding any aspects of practice.
Practice strategy: Combine mind calming (samatha) and wisdom (vipassana) developing practices
Priority #1: Breath meditation (anapanasati)
Methods:
Samatha practices – breath meditation (seated, lying, walking), running, hiking.
Vipassana practices – studying, listening to dhammatalks, observing the true nature of this world (suffering, impermanence, non self), spending time in noble silence to observe processes in the mind
Experience:
1) Achieved excellent results practicing body scanning meditation when I was 18-19. I would get so absorbed by scanning body parts that I would get into a very blissful state with body completely relaxed and filled with what can be described as loving kindness. It was the happiest years of my life. I was able to feel happy just being and felt free. Later stopped practicing, started looking for happiness in the wrong things, developed bad habits, and completely ruined the inner happiness.
2) Have been seriously practicing anapanasati for the last few years with slow but steady results.
Daily routine (weekdays):
- Wake up
- Drink a glass of water, sometimes squeeze in a few drops of lemon juice
- Empty bladder and bowels
- Workout, usually includes running or body weight exercises
- Breakfast and take a few min to read a random sutta or something spiritual such as GWV stuff
- Work
- Lunch and take a few min for a walk outside
- Work
- Dinner
- Solving problems, doing family stuff
- Meditation time
- Bedtime
*Weekends – typically no work and less structured, normally includes some hiking or spending time in the nature, more time for studying and meditation
Seated meditation practice description:
- Stretch for about 15 min to prepare the body for sitting and make the mind more alert.
- Get into a good sitting position, usually quarter lotus or Burmese. Working on half lotus but not comfy yet for longer sitting.
- Then I close my eyes and sit. The mind naturally starts watching the breath and sporadically does some thinking. I don’t try to discern
breathing in or out. I just feel the general breath pattern where it feels natural, which is usually in the nose area. Sometimes when
I’m tired or the mind is very agitated, I might spend most or even the entire session just sitting like this.
- When the mind slows down, I notice that I can concentrate on breathing a little deeper. I start catching breathing in and out more
clearly. But again, I try to be very gentle. My mind has experienced a lot of tension in the last years, so any kind of mental effort
causes tension.
- After about 30 min or more, I might get moments when the mind really starts catching the breath and I get absorbed by it. However,
it only lasts for seconds as there is still tension in the body, which holds me back.
- I typically sit until it becomes painful or I get very tired. At this time, it typically lasts about 1 hour.
- After meditation, I lie down on my back for a few min. Stretch out the legs and relax before getting up.
