10,000 Hours to Meditation Master

[PaulGar]

I know that there can be no real exact figure put on the amount of time that it would take somebody to become proficient at meditation; after all people will progress at different rates. I also realise that just clocking up the hours isn't the best way to approach meditation (a bit unBuddhist), but... I do feel that somebody who has meditated for 10,000 hours will be at least somewhat more advanced in meditation and have the concentration levels to move further along the path. If you meditated for two hours a day it would take about 14 years of practice.

I think the idea of 10,000 hours to becoming an expert came from Malcolm Gladwell. These numbers also seem important to scientists who like to conduct experiments on experienced meditation practitioners who have practiced for thousands of hours.

I don’t take the goal too seriously, but it is a target I’d like to accomplish; not that I expect to hear trumpets or anything when that goal is reached. I suppose it is possible to put 10,000 hours into going in the wrong direction. What do other people think of a 10,000 hour meditation goal for laypeople?

[bodom]

If you meditated for two hours a day it would take about 14 years of practice.

If you practice mindfulness meditation during all your waking hours you will get there much sooner.

[PaulGar]

If you meditated for two hours a day it would take about 14 years of practice.

If you practice mindfulness meditation during all your waking hours you will get there much sooner.

If I also did a bit of lucid dream meditation then maybe I could become an Arahant before the New Year
You make a very good point at mindfulness though. I've found that there seems to be too types of mindfulness; a natural mindfulness that comes when I meditate a lot and another type of mindfulness that I try to force - if that makes sense. I'm not sure if one is better than the other.

[salmon]

2 mins of mindfulness is better than 2 hours of meditation without mindfulness.

My meditation teacher has a habit of breaking us out of our "urge" to sit long hours. When we settle onto our cushions ready for a long sit, he will come along and make us feed the fishes, or something. Reason? To keep us (and our mindfulness) on our toes.

[PaulGar]

2 mins of mindfulness is better than 2 hours of meditation without mindfulness.

My meditation teacher has a habit of breaking us out of our "urge" to sit long hours. When we settle onto our cushions ready for a long sit, he will come along and make us feed the fishes, or something. Reason? To keep us (and our mindfulness) on our toes.

That makes a lot of sense. It is sometimes hard to decide the best way to practice. Some days meditation comes easy and I don't have to worry about how long I sit or having goals, but there are other periods in my life when things become a lot harder, (this can last for weeks) and having some type of goal seems to help me through these times. In the past I've stopped meditating during the tough periods, but I'm not sure that this was the best choice. I agree that we can become obsessed in our desire to sit for long periods, but I just wonder is it really so bad.

[bazzaman]

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[salmon]

I recall reading a National Geographic article about 10 years ago. It was the cover article... (photo of a Tibetan lama wired up to a EEG on the cover). It was an account of some brain-science experiment on the effects of meditation.
The subjects were monks who were selected by H.H. the Dalai Lama. To the best of my recollection, the article stated that they all had done between 10,000 and 50,000 hours of meditation.

But were they enlightened?