My concentration is pretty good and I find myself able to sit in meditation for long periods without too much difficulty. I have decided that 2 hours / day of meditation is an ideal middle ground for myself as it will allow me to a wide range of worldly pursuits at the same time as spiritual development.

I am curious however what you guys think would be the best way to break down those two hours. 1x2 hours, 2x1 hour, 4x30 minutes, or even 12x10 minutes. I am leaning toward 1x2 hours as the rest of my day would then be 'free' and I could be spontaneous until fatigue overtakes me.

Right now (and for the past few years) my main practice has been Goenka Style Vipassana (body scanning and noting... I guess). He suggests 2x1 hour.

Hi Daniel
I've thought about this question a lot also
It seems to me that it depends upon your own life circumstances and your own particular traits. I think experimenting would be the only way to find which ways work best for you.

Having said that, I guess the three most important things to keep in mind are:

1. generally, sitting for longer sits is supposed to allow you to go deeper, especially in terms of concentration. so for example if you don't have any problem sitting for 1 hour, then it would probably be much better to do so that than to do 2x30.

1.2 sitting for too long is probably counter-productive if you try to sit beyond your own effort-energy levels

2. there is certainly something to be said for starting and ending the day with meditation. ie. continuity of practice.


I guess that is why Goenka recommends an hour morning and evening, it allows a generous amount of time to dig into the practice, while also giving a certain structure and continuity which binds your practice to your daily life (starting and ending the day in dhamma). Neither 4x30m and 120m sits have these two benefits, they either focus on the benefit of deeper sitting, or of continuity of practice.


I think that another reason for having an hour sit in the evening, in terms of Sila, is that it requires you to intend to not be fatigued/conserve your energy so that by the time evening comes, so you can complete your evening sitting (and I imagine that in terms of Sila or at least health, it's not good to end the day fatigued).

I believe that you hit it on the head with the morality aspect. *blush*

Having a scheduled meditation in the evenings certainly will keep me 'in-line'. lol. Thanks... question resolved.

Hi Daniel,

Where along the path do you think you are/what is your goal? Assuming you're following along with the path laid out in MCTB, if you haven't gotten to MCTB 1st Technical Path (colloquially: Stream Entry) yet, my personal suggestion would be to see if you can ratchet up the number of hours. Instead of 1-2 hrs for potentially many months or even years, why not pound out 4-6 hrs a day and get SE in 2-3 months? (gradually working up to 4-6 hrs)

Doing it vs getting it done, eh?

Still, 2x1 hr (morning, evening) sounds pretty good.

Best,
SuperFox

Hey Superfox,

I kept myself willfully (some would say woefully) ignorant over the years. (lazyness in guise of not wanting to be influenced by other's experiences) Arriving at this site (about a week ago, and right after my 5th 'Goenka' retreat) has been very exciting and a little nerve wracking (so much terminology to learn!). Let's face it Goenka Retreats, at least the introductory 10 day retreats, are pretty 'barebones' as far as information shared.

I am still unsure of my place in the grand scheme of things. I have not had a chance to sit with the MCTB yet (will get to that after the holydaze).

I've experienced a lot of strange states of mind, astral projections and the like, but do not believe that I have progressed very far along the contemplative path. But I do tend to under value my own experiences.