Setting Up a Daily Practice

Ven. Thubten Chodron shares ways we can encourage ourselves to get to the meditation cushion every day. This talk has been recorded in a live environment.

Transcript

Let me talk a little bit about setting up a daily practice,

Because this is a very important thing because so easily,

You know,

We'll remember,

Oh yeah,

I want to sit and meditate,

But oh,

I'm so tired,

You know,

Or I'm too busy.

What I think is really helpful is to set aside a certain time of the day,

Preferably early in the morning before you go to work,

And do your meditation practice then.

And what I advise for people,

Because sometimes we think,

Oh,

I get too busy and then I can't do it,

In your appointment book,

Okay,

You write in a time slot that you have an appointment with Shakyamuni Buddha.

Yeah?

And just how you are,

You know,

Very reliable with all your business appointments,

Aren't you?

You don't want to stand up the Buddha and tell him that you're going to see him and then,

You know,

Ditch.

Yeah,

That's not very nice.

And it's very helpful for our mind if you just have your calendar,

You know,

Whatever time it is,

Because people get up and go to work at different times.

But if,

Like for example,

You say,

You know,

Seven to seven fifteen every morning or seven to seven thirty,

Whatever you decide,

You know,

I have an appointment with the Buddha and then if somebody asks you to do something then you say,

I'm sorry,

I'm busy.

You know,

Just the way,

I mean,

If you had an appointment,

Let's say with me or with somebody else in the room at seven o'clock and somebody asked you to do something then you would say,

I'm sorry,

I'm busy,

Wouldn't you?

Yeah?

You wouldn't call me or your friend up and say,

Well,

Somebody else wants me to go with them,

So bye.

Yeah?

And you would say,

I'm sorry,

I'm busy and then keep our initial appointment.

So same way,

You know,

Especially if you think you have an appointment with the Buddha.

Yeah,

I mean,

Buddha's big time,

You know,

Buddha's important.

You don't stand up your appointment with the Buddha.

Okay?

And it's really very,

Very helpful.

And also,

Like I said,

When you tell people you're busy,

You're not lying,

You know,

Because you are busy and it's a very important appointment that you have.

And I think that us taking the time every day to be able to sit quietly and do the breathing meditation or do some meditation on kindness,

Which I'll talk about in a little bit,

This is a way also of cherishing ourselves in a positive way and of taking care of ourselves in a positive way.

You know,

Lots of people say now we have to love ourselves and we have to take care of ourselves and that's true,

But we have to know how to do it in a really constructive,

Beneficial way.

Because taking care of ourselves doesn't mean,

You know,

I go to the beauty parlor every week and I go buy new clothes every week and I go on a holiday every week,

You know,

Because from a dharmic point of view,

That can create,

You know,

Some kind of a karma out of attachment.

But really taking care of ourselves and really respecting ourselves involves recognizing that we have spiritual abilities and that is an important aspect of our life and we respect that quality in ourselves,

We cherish that quality in ourselves,

We want to see it grow because we know that in this life,

At the time of death and in our future lives,

It's this spiritual quality that's going to bring peace and happiness to our lives.

And so we know that we want to develop it,

We respect ourselves so we take the time out every day to do that.

It's not being selfish.

In fact,

It's very cute,

I've heard from numerous parents that if they let their meditation practice lapse,

Their children start to complain because they can see that their parents are more short tempered.

Really,

Seriously,

One mother told me that she had been practicing very regularly,

Then,

You know,

Usual things,

She got too busy,

She stopped practicing.

So one day she was scolding her child and her child looked up at her and said,

Mom,

You really need to start meditating again.

And you know,

It really helps the entire family when you do this.

I had another woman in our group in Seattle and she's been,

You know,

Only practicing Dharma,

Practicing meditation,

Maybe six months or a year,

You know,

Not so long.

And she's in her 50s and her son is in his 20s.

And so one day,

You know,

She just kind of asked him,

Well,

You know,

Have you seen any change since I've gotten into Buddhism?

And he said,

Mom,

You are way less neurotic.

You know,

Which in America is a really big compliment.

So what I'm getting at is it's not being selfish to take time every day to sit alone and meditate or to take time every day to sit and read a Dharma book and contemplate it because it actually helps you be calmer and then that helps your entire family.

And it helps how you deal with the people in your office and the people,

You know,

Your neighbors and everybody.

So it really has an immediate positive effect,

An accumulative positive effect over time.

So I encourage you,

You know,

To do this.

So it's very good,

You know,

In the morning to generate our motivation.

And as soon as you get up,

Do some sitting because you haven't been involved in the day's activities so your mind isn't so busy.

It's clear in the morning and you can meditate for a little bit.

You just choose an amount of time that is suitable for you.

Don't make it so long that you don't want to do it again.

But,

You know,

Don't make it so short that you can't really get into the meditation.

You can determine yourself how long to make it.

You know,

It's good to start with like 15 minutes and then see how things go from there.

You can lengthen it afterwards.

Then throughout the day,

Use things that happen regularly to bring you back to your intention of non-harmfulness and benefit and enlightenment.

Okay?

So every time,

You know,

If you're riding the MRT,

Every time your train stops at a station you use that as a clue.

Okay,

I don't want to harm anybody and I want to be of benefit today.

Every time you stop at a red light,

I don't want to harm and I want to be of benefit.

So you use something that happens regularly to remind yourself.

If you work at a job where the telephone rings a lot,

Every time the telephone rings,

That's your bell.

I don't want to harm,

I want to benefit.

And especially if you generate that kind of motivation before you take your business call,

You know,

Your relationship with your customers and,

You know,

People like that is going to be much better because you're going to have a good motivation and that's going to come out in how you talk to them.

So it's quite important.

Then in the evening,

Take a little bit of time to review the day and to think about what happened.

And you know,

Think,

Okay,

Well how well was I able to keep my intention?

Was there time when I kind of slipped up and I got angry at somebody or I said something insulting to somebody or maybe I cheated somebody or,

You know,

Lied,

Fudged on the truth a little bit?

So we take the time to just look over the day and see how well we did.

And if we notice that,

You know,

We kind of were negligent in one area,

We try and understand why.

We make a determination to do better the next day.

And we try and,

You know,

Work with our mind to make our mind more peaceful.

So for example,

We don't go to bed angry because we all know,

I mean,

What happened when you go to bed angry,

What happened?

Yeah.

Do you sleep well?

No.

When you wake up,

Are you in a good mood?

Yeah.

We're not in a good mood when we wake up if we go to bed angry.

So it's real good,

You know,

Before going to sleep,

You know,

To try and let the anger go so you can learn all about anger.

Oh,

Now I have to do a commercial.

I didn't intend this,

But,

You know,

Now that it's here,

There's worth the book,

Working with anger.

But,

You know,

But it really,

It's very important,

Yeah.

And especially,

I think,

With your family members,

You know,

Don't go to bed angry.

Work with your own mind.

You know,

Even you can't necessarily talk to somebody before you go to bed.

At least in your own mind,

Try and let go of the anger and forgive so that in the morning when you greet them,

You know,

You at least try and start out in a good way.

As we all know,

When we start out in a bad way,

It continues that way,

Doesn't it?

Yeah.

Okay.

And then in the evening also,

When you check up,

Then you can see how well you were able to keep your intention and you kind of pat yourself on the back.

And you say,

Oh,

Good,

I'm getting better,

You know.

I really felt like saying some nasty remark to that person at the office and I didn't.

Good for me.

I think rejoicing when we do positive actions or when we avoid negative ones is good.

You know,

We should acknowledge that.

Again,

That's not being arrogant or selfish.

It's just,

You know,

Acknowledging that.

You know,

Or if we were generous,

Yeah,

Or,

You know,

We did something kind,

Just,

You know,

Not get puffed up,

Oh,

I'm so wonderful,

But,

You know,

Oh,

Good,

I was able to keep my motivation.

This is good,

Yeah.

And so we encourage ourselves that way.

So this makes for a very nice rounded practice.

I think this is a very good way to keep your Dharma practice in the context of,

You know,

Having a family life and a work life and,

You know,

Doing all the different things that you do.

Okay?

Reviews

Brilliant! "I have an appointment with the Buddha at 7 AM!" "I don't want to harm anybody, and I want to be of benefit today."
💗🪷💗

Good examples of how to put meditation into our day.

Amazing! I facilitate a group of people who are trying to cope with addiction and this brief instruction is very helpful. Thubten Chodron is my favorite teacher aside from my Geshe.

Excellent talk. Very practical and realistic suggestions made in a positive way. Really recommend a listen!

Thank you that was extremely helpful!

Yes, yes, yes. I love the part about scheduling a time with the Buddha and not standing him up.

Awesome 😉. Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge 🙏

Great talk with good advice. Very encouraging! Thank you.

A nice little pep talk on establishing a regular sitting practice with tips on continuing the practice off the cushion.

Lovely, I can’t wait to meditate this morning 🙏🏻

The reason for a daily practice is put in a very straightforward and understandable way 🙏

Informative, thanks 🙏🏻

As someone who is just starting out with meditation and mindfulness practices, I found this very helpful. Easy, practical tips to apply each day. Thank you!

It's good to give a way for who wants to start

Some great advice on the importance and organisation of Spiritual Daily Routines. Thank you Venerable Thubten Chodron ❤️

Thank you so much. 💜

Its very useful ideas to for daily practice 😊_()_

Delightful! "You don't wanna stand up the Buddha!"

Helpful and full of love - thanks

A lovely encouragement, realistic and compassionate