retreat

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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befriend
Posts: 2284
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:39 am

retreat

Post by befriend »

im starting a self retreat for a few days, my schedule is alternating between metta, and vipassana every 20 minutes.
walking metta, then sitting watching the rising and falling motions of the abdomen. is this a good way to practice?
i would like to incorporate metta into this but dont know if switching from conventional reality to ultamite reality
back and forth like that is recommended? whats the most effective way to do a metta/vipassana retreat for 4 hours a day
for 3 days?
Take care of mindfulness and mindfulness will take care of you.
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felipe
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Joined: Sat May 11, 2013 3:01 pm
Location: Costa Rica

Re: retreat

Post by felipe »

I recently heard that the Buddha established a program for meditation, like how to separate the night and the day and what types of meditation you would do and so on, I have not been able to find the source or more information (I would like to do something similar my self), for what I heard, what he recommend is to switch the meditation practice every few hours, so I guess it would be fine to be changing from time to time as you suggest, not so much as to the time intervals.

I will look for the information and if I find it I'll let you know :)

Best regards.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Spiny Norman
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Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:32 am
Location: Andromeda looks nice

Re: retreat

Post by Spiny Norman »

befriend wrote:im starting a self retreat for a few days, my schedule is alternating between metta, and vipassana every 20 minutes.
walking metta, then sitting watching the rising and falling motions of the abdomen. is this a good way to practice?
i would like to incorporate metta into this but dont know if switching from conventional reality to ultamite reality
back and forth like that is recommended? whats the most effective way to do a metta/vipassana retreat for 4 hours a day
for 3 days?
When I was in a Thich Naht Hahn group we did something called "sit-walk-sit" quite regularly, ie 2 periods of sitting meditation with walking meditation in between - it seemed to work quite well.
It's good to have some structure, but what's your "best" time of day? I'm a morning person, so if I was doing this I'd probably meditate in the mornings and do other things in the afternoon. Do allow yourself some free time, maybe go for walks, that time can be very valuable.
Buddha save me from new-agers!
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