Daily life vs Contemplative life

Hi everybody

It has been a week since I moved here to Sylt ( an island in Germany). Basically, it is a tourism place and I am working here at a restaurant. I will be here for 2 month. Before when I lived in sweden, I lived in a quite place near a forest and I had lot of time for meditation. That was one of the reason I attained 1st and 2nd path quickly. 2nd path was attained 2 weeks ago. But right now there is almost no time for meditation. Because I work 8 hours per day and after that there is alot of fun (I call that wordly fun) to do. You cant help but drinking beer (typical german) , go to the beachs, bars etc.
Actually, today was the first day I sat after waking up and noticed that I went up to the formless states and something beyond that in half hour.

So, that is how it is for me now.
What do you think, those who live in a big city life and also those who already have attained the 3rd path.

much metta

Sugato

I'm not sure I understand what it is you want us to comment on. Are you asking how those of us who have busy lives and live in urban areas find the time to practice? In my case, living in and near a large city and having a busy career and a family has caused me to find practice time at the ends of the day, in the early morning or late in the evening or, even better, both! And you know that at this point by having reached first path, then second, your first gear practice will just keep going with or without your conscious cooperation, right? Kenneth taught me that at that point I should be doing concentration practices and a lot of second and third gear practices in order to progress faster through first gear. He was right.

Yeah, that was exactly what I meant ..
So you are saying that I should skip over 1st gear and do concentration and 2nd, 3rd gear practice in order to attain 3rd and 4th path??

No. I'm saying that you can't skip first gear even if you wanted to. You're going to do first gear no matter what now. You're on a treadmill. It's involuntary. You'll probably keep progressing through the stages even if you stop practicing altogether. But if you practice concentration, second and third gear you'll probably progress faster.

"
No. I'm saying that you can't skip first gear even if you wanted to. You're going to do first gear no matter what now. You're on a treadmill. It's involuntary. You'll probably keep progressing through the stages even if you stop practicing altogether. But if you practice concentration, second and third gear you'll probably progress faster.

"

What I meant by skipping 1st gear was litreally skipping Noting.

If that is the case, then I understand what you mean.

Thanks alot Chris 4 taking your time and commenting/answering my thread.