PRACTICE

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STARTING A MEDITATION PRACTICE

―You yourself must strive; the enlightened ones only point the way. Those who follow the path and meditate will be freed from the bonds of Mara.

-Dhp 276

If you have decided to take up meditation and start a practice you will want to optimize conditions to give yourself the best chance for success. Given the busyness our modern lives, with all the distractions that we encounter daily, embarking on a meditation practice can be challenging. The following are some suggestions that many meditators have found helpful. These suggestions are successive and incremental and need not be pursued all at once.

1. Commit to a time period to try a regular meditation practice (i.e., 1 or 6 months). Set the intention to apply effort to succeed. 2. Discuss it with your partner, friends, or family to get their support. 3. Consider taking the 3 refuges and following the 5 training precepts during this period. 4. Dedicate a daily period of time for sitting meditation.

Some people have to give up some other activity to do this (i.e., waking up earlier, less time on the computer or watching TV).

5. Set up an area of your home for sitting meditation.

Some people have an altar with a statue of the Buddha, pictures of loved ones, or other symbolic items. Most important is to have a place that you will be relatively undisturbed. 6. Use a silent timer with an alarm for your sitting periods. 7. Start with 15 -20 minutes sitting meditation daily and over time, increase by 5 minute intervals. 8. Using the guided meditation instructions in this book, start with breath meditation (see page 37) for the first week and each week incrementally incorporate the other instructions. 9. Commit to working with the instructions for the full meditation period and resist impulses to end the session early or get up to attend to some other task. 10. Begin and/or end each period of sitting meditation with a few moments of lovingkindness (metta) meditation. 11. Set the intention to practice mindfulness in daily life.

Using a reminder timer such as the invisible clock (www.invisibleclock.com), sticky notes with mindful reminders, or regularly timed mindfulness breaks throughout the day can be helpful. 12. If you have walking as part of your daily routine, try doing it practicing walking meditation or spend some time on formal walking meditation practice. 13. Study the dharma by reading and/or listening to dharma talks (see “Additional Resources” page 116). 14. Reflect on the teachings and how they apply to your life. 15. Attend a meditation group such as SIM. 16. Discuss your meditation practice with other meditators.

17. Take the SIM Beginning Meditation Course or an online course. 18. Attend a daylong meditation retreat. 19. Attend a residential retreat for several days such as the SIM annual retreat or a retreat center such as Spirit

Rock. 20. Find a qualified meditation teacher to further guide your practice. 21. At the end of your committed practice period, assess if meditation has been a beneficial practice for you. 22. If your practice is beneficial, continue to practice.