Polling of DhO members daily practice routine!

td o ditty, modified 7 Years ago at 5/28/16 9:59 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 5/28/16 9:57 PM

Polling of DhO members daily practice routine!

Posts: 10 Join Date: 5/28/16 Recent Posts
Hi Folks,

Long time lurker here.  Was very curious to simply get a sense for what folks' daily practices are like.  To be specific, here's a few questions I'd love to get a decent size poll response from members here.  Would be nice to see what folks are doing.  Try to keep answers brief so its skimmable for folks.  I would value getting this kind of poll from folks - I'm simply very curious to hear answers.  One request: I would appreciate if folks don't derail thread with comments on posts vs contributions of their own data....please just submit your response.  (If someone wants to start a seperate "discussion" thread of this thread, that's fine by me....just trying to keep this one "pure")

I hope others find this useful and interesting.  Here goes:

0) how long you have been meditating formally for.
1) Daily Formal Sitting Practice (yes/no).  If no sitting but you do have a daily formal practice, briefly describe your formal practice?  
1b) how much time per session (and how many sessions per day).  Feel free to share any historical brief background.
1c) how consistent are you with your daily practice?
2) self-described level of attainment.  (Optional - don't feel compelled to answer if you don't know)
3) Any other observations you want to share about your daily time of practice now/since you began.
4) Longest sit ever (that you measured. Where/what context?)

I'll go first!

******************

0) Started 10 years ago.  First 7 years were all over the map in terms of consistency.  Significant momentum built over past 3 years.
1) Yes, I do one daily formal sit.
1b) 90 minutes minimum per sit/per day (sometimes up to 2-2.5 hours, but 90 minutes usually)
1c) extremely consistent these days.  I have basically not missed a day for past ~2 years.  (Possibly a handful of exceptions...)  Last year I was at 60-120 minutes of practice split daily over 2 sessions, but have migrated this year to just one longer sit each morning first thing upon getting out of bed.
2) Stream entry.
3) First ~7 years or so, my practice frankly felt like "hard work" and took significant effort.  Last year, and particularly this year (post stream entry), I find myself clocking 90-120 minutes of practice that feels relatively effortless.  (Still need to do the time, but doesn't take much energy on my part...sort of feels as routine as brushing teeth)
4) 4 hour sit.  (During 10 day retreat)
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Noah, modified 7 Years ago at 5/29/16 2:02 AM
Created 7 Years ago at 5/29/16 2:02 AM

RE: Polling of DhO members daily practice routine!

Posts: 1467 Join Date: 7/6/13 Recent Posts
0) Been meditating 3 1/4 years
1) Daily formal practice? Yes.  
1b) How much?  1 hour, twice daily (when possible).  History? Formal sitting for only a few months, before that only off-cushion practice.  Did freestyle noting from Jan. 2013 to July 2015.  Then dabbled in different methods, including actualism for 3 months.  Since Jan. 2016 I've been doing anapanasati.  
1c) Consistency?  Daily, sometimes 1 day skipped in week.  
2) Attainment?  Technical 4th path, as diagnosed by my previous teacher.  This means greatly increased perceptual nonduality, absolute understanding relative to changing nanas, moods, phenomena, etc.  With current teacher - Growing skill in concentration, morality, and insight the Thai Buddhist way.  Greatly reduced fetters from that perspective.  
3) Other comments? I only recently developed the patience for formal sitting and am a novice in that area but trying very hard to correct that.  
4) Longest sit ever?  I did a ten day zen sesshin where they would ring the bell every 20 to 40 minutes but sometimes there would be 3 or 4 in a row, so I guess thats 2 hours or so.

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