Balint Pinczes:
Hi Folks,
I have a friend who wishes to do spend part of the coming holiday season meditating, maybe approximating something like a home retreat, but more realistically maybe three hours on the cushion a day for about a week given she has other (work/academic) obligations, too.
...
All suggestions are welcome and any feedback is highly appreciated!
Thank yous,
Balint
For a beginner ("newbie") (or even a more advanced meditator) I suggest starting the day with one meditation session for 30 mintues and then meditating for ten minutes every hour for the rest of the day.
Inbetween meditation sessions avoid anything that causes mental turbulence. Try to do things as mindfully as possible. It's okay to take a walk, read, watch videos, do chores around the house - as long as it doesn't cause mental turbulence. Reading and watching videos have to be monitored carefully, both can cause turbulence or be relaxing depending on the content.
What you find is that if you avoid mental turbulence the mind coasts along in a meditative state between sessions so that it is really like you are still meditating, with short boosters every hour. Like you're riding on a child's scooter gliding along smoothly but pushing with your foot every once in a while to keep up your momentum.
It might sound ineffective with too little meditation, but I find it is very, very powerful, very very effective.
It's very easy to do so it doesn't need as much will power. And it helps you learn to live your practice so you can keep up the habit of living mindfully and keeping the mind tranquil even after the "retreat" is over.