Length of Meditation Session
May 7th, 2008 | Meditation Techniques |Many people new to meditation often ask how long they should meditate per day or session. Ideally, you want to meditate in my opinion about three or four hours per day if possible. I believe this to be a good timeframe. Anything longer and I think you reach the law of diminishing returns you see.Sometimes people will ask if many smaller periods of meditation are as effective as a very long one. I think the answer depends on how fast you can reach a deep period of concentration. Some people are blessed and can fall into a deep meditative state quite quickly. For them, they may be able to combine many periods during the day. 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there, an hour later. For them, this can work well. I have cultivated this skill through practice and use this method most often. After you have been doing meditation for some time, usually one will find the time to settle the mind will gradually decrease and you can begin doing ‘on the fly’ meditations as one student called it.
For a good amount of people, it takes ten minutes or so just to calm the mind and get to the point where they can start experiencing a deep period. So for them, I recommend trying to sit longer periods. You see you do not want to just begin to become settled and then have to get up to do something else.
How short is too short you ask? Sit at least ten minutes. You may find time at lunch or on a break to get in a short period of meditation. Ten minutes is better than no minutes. People often say they do not have time to meditate, yet when they begin they find the benefits most appealing. Before long, they have ‘found’ time to meditate for a longer time. They begin to fit their day around meditation rather than fitting meditation into their day.
So I hope you see that more meditation is better than a little, but a little is better than none at all. The important thing is to practice regularly and you will see your skills increase and the benefits and joy of meditation realized.
from a talk 05-02-08 Gainesville, Florida
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