The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

General discussion of issues related to Theravada Meditation, e.g. meditation postures, developing a regular sitting practice, skillfully relating to difficulties and hindrances, etc.
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Guy
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by Guy »

BlackBird wrote:I've got the next two days off work, and I'm intend to do a semi-self retreat in my bedroom.
Wednesday - 6 hours meditation, 2 hours study.
Thursday - 5 hours meditation, 2 hours study + 45 minute group sit.

It's probably quite a lofty desire which looks good on paper. But if I can do 50% of the above goal, I'll be a happy chappy.
Cool, let us know how you go. :meditate:
Four types of letting go:

1) Giving; expecting nothing back in return
2) Throwing things away
3) Contentment; wanting to be here, not wanting to be anywhere else
4) "Teflon Mind"; having a mind which doesn't accumulate things

- Ajahn Brahm
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Vardali
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by Vardali »

Ben wrote:Good luck Vardali!
If it gets tough going, try and exert some adhitthana! (strong determination) It will be helpful in overcomng your hindrances.
metta

Ben
Thank you, Ben. I am trying :) With limited success, though; Saturday, my meditation stance was virtually non-existant (despite or in spite of actually looking forward to use the day), but Sunday went well.

Been lapsing yesterday though, due to too much workload in the office (had to pull an all-nighter), and I suspect I will be to tired for that reason to effectively meditate.

Still, off I go now and do my best for tonight :sage:

Wishing you all good progress and a peaceful mind :bow:

:buddha2:
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Khalil Bodhi
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

Hey Everyone,

Wishing you all well and may your meditation challenges bear great fruit. Metta! :hug:
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
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zavk
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by zavk »

Hi friends

I dawned upon me the other day that I have been quite complacent. I have never visited a Dhamma Centre regularly. For various logistical reasons, it simply wasn't convenient for me to do so. But in this past year, I have acquired the means to do so. There is a Dhamma Centre that is only about 15 minute drive from my home. It turns out that Ajahn Ariyasilo is staying at the centre till early next year. So I shall set myself a challenge by trying to attend the weekly group sits/Dhamma talks from now on.
With metta,
zavk
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mikenz66
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by mikenz66 »

Hi zavk,

Sound great. Is this where you mean?
http://www.bsv.net.au/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Metta
Mike
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zavk
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by zavk »

mikenz66 wrote:Hi zavk,

Sound great. Is this where you mean?
http://www.bsv.net.au/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Metta
Mike
Hi Mike

Yes this is the place I was telling you about. This was where I was introduced to the Mahasi style of meditation when I first started. A Sayadaw U Pandita (who coincidentally has the same name as the late U Pandita) leads a group sit every Thursday. Every so often they would invite teachers to take residence. Ajahn Ariyasilo is staying there now. There's an upcoming retreat with Ajahn Sucitto but unfortunately I won't be able to attend that. But I'm looking forward to Ajahn Sumedho's visit.
With metta,
zavk
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mikenz66
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by mikenz66 »

zavk wrote:A Sayadaw U Pandita (who coincidentally has the same name as the late U Pandita) leads a group sit every Thursday.
Hmm, I thought U Pandita was still alive... Mahasi Sayadaw died in 1982...

Metta
Mike
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zavk
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by zavk »

Yes my mistake.... I meant to say the 'elder U Pandita'.
With metta,
zavk
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BlackBird
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by BlackBird »

Good on ya Zavk :anjali:
Guy wrote: Cool, let us know how you go. :meditate:
Went pretty well, probably managed 4 hours on the first day and 5 hours on the second day. One of the things that would put an end to a sit was when it started to get physically uncomfortable.

Ajahn Jayasaro made a very good point in a talk I listened to recently - That this is the nature of our existence, if you're going to sit still for any length of time there will be an element of physical discomfort, that's just how it works. Our lives are so concerned with hunting pleasure and avoiding pain and stress that whenever discomfort arises we habitually try to get away from it. So we can never sit still...

This is quite interesting because I feel it may be just another element of Dukkha, our reaction to physical pain. It's 'unable to satisfy' and through all the dualities, we're just creating the very thing we're trying to get away from.

So we've always gotta be doing something else, it's never good enough and wouldn't it be great if things we're just a little different. Dukkha all over again.
Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, were to shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pains of two arrows; in the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental.
- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .html#shot" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I stubbed my toe last night, and I just sat there and became aware of it rather than hopping around swearing and wishing it wasn't so like usual, and to my utter suprise, it wasn't all that bad! It was quite endurable, I noticed that the wanting was perhaps the most painful part.

I've got another weekend coming up in 2 days time, and I think I'll do a repeat of last weekend.

How's everyone else getting on?

:group:
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
shjohnk
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by shjohnk »

Good to read other people's experiences: You provide excellent inspiration :anjali:
I'm not meeting my goal, but I'm close. Recently my mind has been full of trivia every time I sit, so I have tried to focus more on noticing these stray thoughts and using them as a source for insight meditation. I am also still bothered by my nose being habitually blocked, but that's a good lesson in the unsatisfactory nature of the body :D Off topic but I have been gaining a great deal from listening to talks on http://www.dharmaseed.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Thanks so much DW friends for suggesting this wonderful site :clap: Check it out if you haven't already!
I wish everyone success with their meditation in the coming week!!! Stay well.
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Guy
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by Guy »

Hello Jack and All,
BlackBird wrote: Ajahn Jayasaro made a very good point in a talk I listened to recently - That this is the nature of our existence, if you're going to sit still for any length of time there will be an element of physical discomfort, that's just how it works. Our lives are so concerned with hunting pleasure and avoiding pain and stress that whenever discomfort arises we habitually try to get away from it. So we can never sit still...

This is quite interesting because I feel it may be just another element of Dukkha, our reaction to physical pain. It's 'unable to satisfy' and through all the dualities, we're just creating the very thing we're trying to get away from.
Good point indeed! :sage:
I stubbed my toe last night, and I just sat there and became aware of it rather than hopping around swearing and wishing it wasn't so like usual, and to my utter suprise, it wasn't all that bad! It was quite endurable, I noticed that the wanting was perhaps the most painful part.
A very useful insight, keep it up!
How's everyone else getting on?
I practiced quite a lot of formal meditation, more that most months in the past, but didn't end up sticking to the 1 hour sitting/1 hour walking as intended. I think that I could have easily done so but I allowed laziness and excuses to prevent me from doing so. I naively believed thoughts such as "This is boring to be so regimented" or "If I keep doing it like this I will take all the enjoyment out of meditation" etc. instead of just noticing these thoughts for what they are: impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self. Also, like Jack, I have been discovering the difference between physical suffering and mental suffering and realized how much of the latter type I have been causing myself even while meditating.

So for the month of December I am going to be even more regimented to torture the defilements. :twisted:

This month I aim to wake up early every day, sit for 75 minutes and walk 45 minutes in the morning, sit for 45 minutes in the afternoon and 45 minutes at night. Also I will keep the 8 precepts on the 2nd and the 31st of December.

With Metta,

Guy
Four types of letting go:

1) Giving; expecting nothing back in return
2) Throwing things away
3) Contentment; wanting to be here, not wanting to be anywhere else
4) "Teflon Mind"; having a mind which doesn't accumulate things

- Ajahn Brahm
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cooran
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by cooran »

You chaps are Olympic athletes compared to me. :(

I would be happy if I could train myself to just sit each evening or morning in this cramped, noisy place.

So ... I don't have any time targets ~ my goal is to just begin a sit.
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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phil
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by phil »

Nice thread starter, Ben.

I do a 30 minute sitting every morning, but spend most of it falling in and out of sleep. Actually, it's not bad, because there's a good impulse to concentration and mindfulness every time I come back to it, and the mind seems to get brighter and brighter so that by the end of the meditation I feel quite lit up for the day. I don't know if it is proper meditation, but I think it conditions a kind of bright default mind state I can return to easily during the day when things are stressful. (So if there are any people like me for whom the sloth and torpor hindrance seems particularly powerful, don't despair, I think there is still value in sitting through all that nodding off and waking up again and again and again. And possibly the brightening of the mind that can be experienced every time you wake back up has something to do with the perception of light antidote for drowsiness recommended by the Buddha...possibly.)

I started commuting by bicycle recently, an hour ride into the heart of Tokyo, and for safety's sake have to pay very close attention to what is going on. Since I have been prone to cyclist road rage outbursts in the past, I have taken to wishing well ("be well") to everyone I see, and it has become a pretty constant habit when I'm walking around as well. I consider it my metta meditation for the day, very effective I think, and I'd recommend cyclists give it a try. I think of protecting the other drivers instead of myself, if they hit me, they'll have bad kamma etc...

Metta,

Phil
Kammalakkhano , bhikkhave, bālo, kammalakkhano pandito, apadānasobhanī paññāti
(The fool is characterized by his/her actions/the wise one is characterized by his/her actions/Wisdom shines forth in behaviour.)
(AN 3.2 Lakkhana Sutta)
Sanghamitta
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by Sanghamitta »

I have continued to sit about 30 minutes in the evening and 45 ish in the morning. The quality varies, by which I mean that my constant tendency is to find myself rushing and forcing, I then relax by focusing on the breath..I find "Buddho" an effective way to centre ...We have a corridor long enough to do walking practice and I want to do that, I have not done it at home before. I will wait until my sitting is more flowing before adding anything however, thats what an Ajahn suggested..I find that these things go in cycles, I have had periods of great peacefulness in practice and that too passed, as will my current relative restlessness.
The going for refuge is the door of entrance to the teachings of the Buddha.

Bhikku Bodhi.
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Dhammabodhi
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Meditation Challenge

Post by Dhammabodhi »

May I take this opportunity just to say that all you guys inspire me and therefore have a direct impact on changing my life.

With great reverence and humility, :bow:
Dhammabodhi
"Take rest, take rest."-S.N.Goenka
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