Finding Time

Here’s a nice passage forwarded from Jamie. It is from a Tibetan lineage publication:

Sometimes it is difficult to find time to meditate each day. But we always have time to watch TV. We always have time to go shopping. We always have time to get a snack from the refrigerator. Why is it that the twenty-four hours run out when it is time to meditate? When we understand the value and effect of spiritual practice, it will become a high priority in our life, and when something is important, we find time for it. It’s good to set up a daily meditation practice of fifteen, thirty, or sixty minutes in the morning. To do that, we may have to sacrifice fifteen or thirty minutes of television the previous evening in order to go to bed a little earlier.
But compared to the benefit of practicing the Dharma, missing a little TV is not a big thing. In the same way that we always find time to eat because food nourishes our body, we will find time to meditate and recite prayers because they nourish us spiritually. When we respect ourselves spiritually, we respect ourselves as human beings. Nourishing ourselves spiritually then becomes a very important priority, and having time for it is easy.

–from Taming the Mind” by Ven. Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications

One reply on “Finding Time”

  1. Thank you,

    That’s a very useful reminder. Sometimes it really does feel as if I don’t have even ten minutes spare, and in those cases I find that simply performing three bows, a single prayer, or even a single mantra recitation is useful.

    Not only does it clear a little stress, often it leads to a few minutes more practice and, hardly without effort, you discover you have time after all!

    Another good idea is meditation on the bus. Or, if that’s difficult, reciting metta for all the people the bus passes by, or just reciting a mantra.

    But at the end of the day it is difficult to maintain a practice alone. Personally I find my practice slips a lot if I don’t have a group meditation session I can regularly attend to give it a bit of a boost.

    So thank you to LittleBang for making available to us all more chances to atend sits and draw on the energy of collective practice.

    Namu Amitabul,

    Marcus

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