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1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis. I've read about legendary artists who consi

1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis. I've read about legendary artists who considered meditation a key to their sanity, and they often couldn't do it for more than 15-20 minutes in a day. You are actually able to do proper meditation -- the removal of all focus on thoughts -- for 1.5 hours at a time? Or do you mean several times a day, a few minutes each time?

mrpetrick 11y ago
I posit that no one is really able to achieve, 'the removal of all focus on thoughts -- for 1.5 hours at a time' every day. Even serious gurus. This is not at all my own observation, this is what I've heard directly from longtime teachers from several different traditions.
westoncb 11y ago
I only mean that I sit and /attempt/ (i.e. /not/ attempt :P) for 1.5 hours/day.
- mrpetrick 11y ago
  Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. I certainly wasn't saying you're NOT meditating for 1.5 hours a day. Just was trying to convey that when most people meditate for 90 minutes, they're tend to spend some portion of that session utterly distracted by something, even if only briefly. Or so I've been led to believe. It's certainly true for me. I was more responding to hellofunk when they said "1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis." This make me think that meditation is viewed as something you can check a box for, or as a goal to be achieved, which isn't really quite right. Particularly the use of the word 'accomplishment'... If meditation is something to be accomplished, then if you thought about that noise your transition is making on steep hills for 60 seconds in the middle of a sit, you got distracted, and thus you did not successfully meditate today. I don't view it that way.

mrpetrick 11y ago

I posit that no one is really able to achieve, 'the removal of all focus on thoughts -- for 1.5 hours at a time' every day. Even serious gurus. This is not at all my own observation, this is what I've heard directly from longtime teachers from several different traditions.

westoncb 11y ago

I only mean that I sit and /attempt/ (i.e. /not/ attempt :P) for 1.5 hours/day.

mrpetrick 11y ago
Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. I certainly wasn't saying you're NOT meditating for 1.5 hours a day. Just was trying to convey that when most people meditate for 90 minutes, they're tend to spend some portion of that session utterly distracted by something, even if only briefly. Or so I've been led to believe. It's certainly true for me. I was more responding to hellofunk when they said "1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis." This make me think that meditation is viewed as something you can check a box for, or as a goal to be achieved, which isn't really quite right. Particularly the use of the word 'accomplishment'... If meditation is something to be accomplished, then if you thought about that noise your transition is making on steep hills for 60 seconds in the middle of a sit, you got distracted, and thus you did not successfully meditate today. I don't view it that way.