Daily Meditation – Rhythm in Time and Place

Timing

It is recommended that we choose in advance:
– a set of meditation practices
– what time of day we will do our practices
– for how long we will do the practices each day
– for how many days we will do these practices
and then to abide by the decision we have made for the chosen time.

For many, first thing in the morning is the ideal time, although this is not the case for everyone.

About 20 minutes each day is a good length of time to begin with.

We could decide to do the practices for, say, 14 or 21 days. After that, we can review our timings, make adjustments if necessary, and choose a new set of practices for another period.

(This might sound like a rather strict discipline, but in fact, if we just abide by it each day, rather than thinking ‘Shall I, shan’t I today?’, we actually save ourselves a lot of stress and mental effort!)

Place

When possible, it is good to do our meditations each day in a particular place, which should be quiet and with helpful associations.

Posture

Also significant is the posture for meditation. It is said that the floor is better than a chair because one day we might find ourselves without chairs, but the absence of a floor is very unlikely.

That said, a firm chair is perfectly acceptable; the main thing is that the body should be upright and self-supporting, and most important, that we should be able to forget the body for the period of meditation. It is not helpful to try to meditate in bed or an armchair.

For more on getting established in meditation, see this extract from Stages in Meditation.