My meditation Stats
Above is a screenshot from my iPhone meditation App - Insight Timer - which I've been using for just under 2 years.
Although I've done over 300 sessions, when I tell people my average meditation time is 12 minutes, lots react in a sort of dismissive way that its not very long at all. The weird thing I've noticed is that the people that react like this are the ones that dont meditate, whereas the people that have actually meditated for a while are always very congratulatory...
Anyways, I've said it before and I'll say it again: In our increasingly distracted and disembodied world, meditation is more critical than ever. The usual excuse: "don't have enough time". SERIOUSLY?? You dont have 12 minutes a day? You can do it right away and right where you are. Quite honestly you dont even need a sitting cushion or to take your shoes off. (With respect to the traditionalists, I often think the Buddha would look at all these modern people meditating and say "But why barefoot and on the floor? The only reason we did that 2000 years ago is that we had no shoes or chairs" :)
I recently watched the excellent BBC series "Andrew Marr's history of the world" and it mentioned Buddha's time of meditation under the Bodhi tree which was a little longer than 12 mins before receiving enlightenment! I know if I spent time sitting under a tree it would only lead to one thing, sleep!
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