1 00:00:01,432 --> 00:00:04,636 Can you make progress and have insights if you practice one hour a day? 2 00:00:04,676 --> 00:00:08,521 Or do you need a retreat to progress and have insights? 3 00:00:09,702 --> 00:00:14,829 Of course it takes longer, but maybe after one or two years of one hour a day. 4 00:00:19,275 --> 00:00:22,559 Can you make progress and have insights if you practice one hour a day? 5 00:00:22,579 --> 00:00:28,046 Well, I think one person had an insight or enlightenment after just hearing the Buddha speak. 6 00:00:28,066 --> 00:00:28,266 Very true. 7 00:00:29,613 --> 00:00:31,775 possible, I guess. 8 00:00:34,178 --> 00:00:37,701 So it very much depends who you are because for some of us that doesn't work. 9 00:00:40,564 --> 00:00:41,125 One hour a day. 10 00:00:41,185 --> 00:00:47,891 So if you're meditating for one hour a day, I would assume you'd want to keep your practice going throughout the day. 11 00:00:47,911 --> 00:00:53,357 Not just leave it on the cushion, so to speak. 12 00:00:53,377 --> 00:00:53,697 For sure. 13 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:58,422 But you're only meditating for one hour a day. 14 00:01:01,321 --> 00:01:06,808 I think at the beginning, that is a long time. 15 00:01:06,828 --> 00:01:10,953 I know when I first started, I didn't think I could meditate for five minutes. 16 00:01:12,155 --> 00:01:16,059 And meditation is something that gets easier and easier. 17 00:01:16,460 --> 00:01:19,904 And at the beginning, I used to time myself. 18 00:01:20,785 --> 00:01:27,233 And then you get to the point where you're worried about meditating too long. 19 00:01:27,814 --> 00:01:30,197 So that's... 20 00:01:30,447 --> 00:01:35,755 One thing, you know, and for me at the beginning, one hour in a day would have been a lot of meditating. 21 00:01:36,456 --> 00:01:42,244 It's just something that just got easier and easier for me. 22 00:01:43,385 --> 00:01:49,995 And so for a beginner, I think if they take small steps, they're more likely to stick with it. 23 00:01:50,616 --> 00:02:00,049 And also if they know ahead of time that, hey, it starts off tough, and I think it's probably tough for most people at the beginning. 24 00:02:02,847 --> 00:02:12,430 I can only say that hours are not so much important as moments when you are meditating. 25 00:02:12,450 --> 00:02:16,660 You can sit for hours and sit and sit and don't make progress. 26 00:02:17,903 --> 00:02:18,544 For sure. 27 00:02:19,891 --> 00:02:24,183 And that's sort of how I wanted to approach this. 28 00:02:24,945 --> 00:02:34,913 For sure, what Alfred said is a perfectly good answer, and your answer as well. 29 00:02:34,893 --> 00:02:53,038 One thing that can reassure us about such situations where you're only able to do X number of minutes or hours per day is that at every moment that you're mindful, you've done something good for yourself. 30 00:02:53,418 --> 00:02:57,103 You've created what we call a wholesome karma. 31 00:02:57,083 --> 00:03:02,710 One moment of acknowledging, one time of saying to yourself, rising or saying to yourself, falling. 32 00:03:02,730 --> 00:03:08,076 One moment of recognizing something for what it is and fixing your mind on it as it is. 33 00:03:08,777 --> 00:03:14,704 You're changing something about yourself and about your future in a positive way. 34 00:03:15,625 --> 00:03:26,938 So if you do that lots of times during the day, even an hour's worth, of course you can't do a full hour's worth, but if within an hour you're able to do that many times, 35 00:03:27,762 --> 00:03:31,509 then that's many, many instances of wholesome karma. 36 00:03:32,370 --> 00:03:35,015 It's purified some aspect of your existence. 37 00:03:35,075 --> 00:03:44,632 So the question, as Bill said, some people can become enlightened just listening to a teaching. 38 00:03:44,672 --> 00:03:49,500 And so as I replied, it very much depends on who you are. 39 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:57,492 There's no guarantee that if you do intensive meditation for a year or two years that you'll become enlightened. 40 00:03:57,512 --> 00:04:03,621 I mean, it's much more likely, but it's not a guarantee. 41 00:04:03,741 --> 00:04:11,893 It totally depends on who you are, of course, who your teacher is and what center you're staying at and all of these things. 42 00:04:11,873 --> 00:04:13,656 what your past karma is. 43 00:04:13,716 --> 00:04:16,900 Sometimes your past karma is such that it gets in your way. 44 00:04:18,683 --> 00:04:21,908 You get sick or somehow you're not able to practice. 45 00:04:21,948 --> 00:04:26,154 Some people even go crazy because of intense bad past karma. 46 00:04:26,174 --> 00:04:26,835 It can happen. 47 00:04:28,517 --> 00:04:30,701 So there's many aspects. 48 00:04:30,721 --> 00:04:31,722 You should never... 49 00:04:33,406 --> 00:04:46,281 be set on a time limit, that I want to become enlightened in X number of days, we should try to go as quickly as we can, or to the best of our ability, to train ourselves. 50 00:04:46,361 --> 00:04:51,326 But you have to be realistic that you might take lifetimes to become enlightened. 51 00:04:51,347 --> 00:05:02,299 Some people, even in the Buddha's time, didn't become enlightened, but made a determination to become enlightened in the time of Maitreya Buddha. 52 00:05:03,713 --> 00:05:08,085 And so they are angels up in heaven right now or wherever they are. 53 00:05:08,947 --> 00:05:19,495 And because of their determination and their intentions, they're going to be born sometime in the far, far future as disciples of Maitreya Buddha, supposedly, or possibly. 54 00:05:21,652 --> 00:05:39,504 So moments of mindfulness are in and of themselves beneficial, let alone a daily practice of one hour or two hours a day, which is a great thing if, as Paulina said, you're actually mindful every moment of that. 55 00:05:40,405 --> 00:05:44,773 Or even if you're mindful for many moments, it's a great thing. 56 00:05:44,753 --> 00:06:01,615 But I'll tell you what people say when they come here, especially now that I'm teaching on the internet, that they are shocked at the difference between doing one hour, even one hour a day. 57 00:06:01,595 --> 00:06:20,903 and coming here and dedicating their waking hours to it that in and of itself has been an obstacle for people coming here now because of their expectations of how easy it is or you know of course it's difficult to do an hour a day but 58 00:06:20,883 --> 00:06:23,709 They say, okay, well that kind of difficulty I can handle. 59 00:06:23,769 --> 00:06:27,937 So they now come here expecting it to be that difficult or a little more difficult. 60 00:06:28,699 --> 00:06:30,703 It's an order of magnitude more difficult. 61 00:06:31,524 --> 00:06:34,230 And I would say it is an order of magnitude more beneficial. 62 00:06:34,270 --> 00:06:41,524 You can't compare one hour or two hours a day of meditation to... 63 00:06:43,006 --> 00:06:58,045 8, 10, 12 hours but moreover just an utter dedication to the meditation practice with no interruptions and the knowledge that when you wake up in the morning that's what you're going to start doing until you fall asleep at night 64 00:06:58,025 --> 00:07:02,509 That's where very quick changes occur. 65 00:07:04,711 --> 00:07:15,981 So the question of whether after a year or two one can expect progress and insights, I guess the question one might be asking is, or is it futile? 66 00:07:17,282 --> 00:07:19,264 And I would say, no, of course it's not futile. 67 00:07:19,304 --> 00:07:24,469 If we don't do good deeds, the alternative is only to do bad deeds. 68 00:07:25,069 --> 00:07:25,990 And 69 00:07:26,105 --> 00:07:29,969 that leads us definitely to a bad state. 70 00:07:30,930 --> 00:07:41,541 If we inject into our lives of good and badness, if we inject more goodness and purity, it can't help but lead us in a good way. 71 00:07:41,641 --> 00:07:44,403 So it will lead us closer to Buddhism, closer to meditation. 72 00:07:45,124 --> 00:07:46,466 It will make it easier to meditate. 73 00:07:46,486 --> 00:07:53,833 I mean, without question, people who have started practicing in this tradition, based on the teachings in the internet I put up, 74 00:07:53,813 --> 00:07:57,137 Without question, it is actually easier for them when they arrive. 75 00:07:57,197 --> 00:08:04,587 They can already do half hour walking, half hour sitting, which in my day we started at 10 minutes walking, 10 minutes sitting. 76 00:08:05,488 --> 00:08:10,816 So to have already started is a great thing. 77 00:08:11,977 --> 00:08:14,961 It can only lead you closer to enlightenment. 78 00:08:14,941 --> 00:08:24,269 If the question is whether you can become a Sotapanna in that way, I would say it's quite difficult in a couple of years. 79 00:08:24,690 --> 00:08:39,023 Now it might happen in a couple of lifetimes, but if you're looking for something quicker than a couple of lifetimes, you really are advised to at some point take up intensive practice. 80 00:08:39,043 --> 00:08:44,948 So an example we have is of people doing one or two hours a day, two hours I think minimum a day, 81 00:08:44,928 --> 00:08:53,616 and then spending a weekend of intensive practice where they put it all together. 82 00:08:53,636 --> 00:09:06,087 And, you know, I've never done this, but I've heard of good results from people who have led their students through it. 83 00:09:06,127 --> 00:09:09,730 Now, you know, they say it's good results, you have to trust them, and how do they really know? 84 00:09:10,651 --> 00:09:14,074 Because, of course, the Dhamma is to be realized for oneself, but... 85 00:09:14,054 --> 00:09:43,723 I think the best we can say with certainty is that it's certainly beneficial and it's absolutely worth doing and it will change you it will bring you closer to the Dhamma it will change many things about your life and it will help you prepare for eventual intensive practice if you do decide on it and it may even lead you to profound insights and even enlightenment depending on your qualities and perfection and your dedication to it 86 00:09:45,205 --> 00:09:47,032 Depends how you're living your life, as Bill said. 87 00:09:47,092 --> 00:09:57,409 If you're mindful throughout the day, it's better than some people who come to meditation centers and just sit around or fall asleep on their sitting mat.