General practice advice

I've heard that it is ideal to sit really early in the morning, like 5 a.m. However that seems really early, and it would mean I have to change my habits to go to bed much earlier, and get stuff usually done in the evenings in the morning instead after the sit.

May I know what your daily practice is like, especially for those who have a full working day?

One tip I've learnt from Kenneth is to try inject moments of mindfulness during the day, and that gives more momentum during the formal sits. Any other good tips?

I think a really fundamental one is balancing effort and concentration, or balancing a sense of active "doing" with a sense of passive "letting things happen". Applying yourself to the meditation gently but firmly and consistently, neither languid nor overbearing. It's a tricky balance that changes depending on the circumstances. Generally there seems to be a kind of momentum to practice that takes relatively more effort to create and relatively less effort to sustain.

I've found it useful in the past to visualize a circle whose diameter represent the current balance between effort and concentration. When it is too small there's too much effort, and when it's too wide there's not enough. When it's in the middle the balance is just right. It might seem silly or superfluous but for some reason, evaluating the balance between effort and concentration by taking a quick glance at this mental circle feels a lot easier and more accurate for me than trying to sense it out directly.

"I've heard that it is ideal to sit really early in the morning, like 5 a.m. However that seems really early, and it would mean I have to change my habits to go to bed much earlier, and get stuff usually done in the evenings in the morning instead after the sit.

May I know what your daily practice is like, especially for those who have a full working day?

One tip I've learnt from Kenneth is to try inject moments of mindfulness during the day, and that gives more momentum during the formal sits. Any other good tips?"

A few things.

1. Always use a timer.

2. Develop concentration!!! Vipassana is going to much more beneficial if you are able to move through the strata of the mind with concentration practices and then use mindfulness to deconstruct the current level you are at. I find counting breaths to be an excellent practice before I start noting.

3. Physical activity - Noting while walking or other activity helps you get in touch with a lot of the sensations that are going on and it seems really helpful if my mind is racing

Brianm2: yes I agree that finding the right balance between doing and letting go is important but tricky. I've had several sits
when I "let things happen" so as not to "manipulate the experience" and end up dozing off! I like the analogy of the tuning the string not too tense and not too loose so that it plays in tune, maybe because I play the guitar myself. Kenneth's advice of consistent noting is also useful because once I realize there was no notes for a while I know I am slacking off.

mumuwu: Good point, I've mainly been focusing on noting practice all this while so I think I should try out some concentration practices. I count breaths before I start noting too, but it's just as an aid to noting.

Thanks folks for the tips!

One practice that I just invented, which I've found really helpful, is like breath counting in that it includes an automatic feedback mechanism. However, since I have ADHD and find right concentration extremely difficult to achieve, this method puts the feedback mechanism right in my face.

The method is to mindfully concentrate on the rising and falling (or in and out, if using the tip of the nose or mouth instead of abdomen) with inner silence, then in the pause between the out breath and the next in breath, simply notice how concentrated you are. I have about 4 notes that I use for this: "weak" for when the mind seems like it's ready to wander away at any moment, "okay" for when the mind isn't about to wander away but the meditation object isn't clear, "good" for proper balance between effort and concentration, and "excessive" for when there's too much effort and the mind has gripped the meditation object forcefully. Then you just move to the next breath.

It's said that you have to find that balance through trial and error. So while this method won't actually let you get to a jhana, just like breath counting, it's not designed to do that. It's designed to maximize the amount of learning you get from the trials and errors by maximizing feedback. It's important to be compassionate with oneself during this exercise to prevent frustration from ruining the meditation -- there will be a lot of "okays" and "weaks" in the beginning! So, like with the breath counting, this exercise allows you to find the balance for access concentration. Then you can move on to vipassana and/or shamatha.

If anybody has any feedback or questions about the exercise, I would love to hear about it. It's a lot of fun to come up with new meditation exercises, and I hope that this one can be helpful to people aside from just myself.