The Vipassana Retreat

　　14. Continuing the Practice at Home

　　The time and effort a meditator puts in and the skills learnt in a Vipassana retreat will not be lost if one continues to practise regularly at home. Of course, the meditation cannot be done as intensively, and will have to be done discreetly, allowing for the situation one is in. The real challenge after a retreat is integrating the mindfulness practices established at the retreat into the daily routine.

　　It has to be acknowledged that incorporating meditation into a busy life is not easy. Therefore, meditators needs to set themselves up to do it, good intention is not enough, it has to be purposely set up and there has to be commitment. One has to consider one”s priorities, such as what will be of more benefit, hours sitting in front of the TV screen or time spent meditating

　　 The regular daily home sit, morning or evening, is the anchor for the practice, even if it is only amounts to mental hygiene that allows a discharge of the day”s busyness. It is really a ”must do”, as it will bring peace of mind and harmonise family and work relationships.

　　Most people will continue on with the sitting meditation after the retreat at home. A daily sit of an hour a day will just keep the practice going, a block of two hours a day will maintain the practice at the level one reached in the retreat. Three hours or more a day at home will allow the practice to develop, which might seem a lot considering many other commitments the meditator has. However, if one”s priorities are examined closely, you may be surprised by what is possible.

　　When meditating at home, it is a good strategy to combine Loving-kindness meditation with an awareness exercise, as these practices compliment each other and will keep the mind wholesome, uplifted and alert. It is important to maintain the daily meditation sit at home as a way of sustaining and stabilising your practice. It has to done regularly though, otherwise if it is done only occasionally or only when one feels like it, then one is likely to find some excuse to put if off for another day until it is forgotten. Studies have shown that for any activity to be habituated, one must persist with it for three to six months before it becomes part of one”s routine - by then the practice has become ingrained.

　　With a busy life, it is easy to convince oneself that there really isn”t the time anymore to maintain the regular sitting, or when feeling tired one will want to drop it. Naturally if one is stressed or overtired, there can be resistance in the mind to facing the stress by meditating, but usually it is only the initial resistance that has to be overcome before one gets back into the meditation routine.

　　What meditators are inclined to overlook when practising at home is the walking meditation. As many working people are stretched and stressed, it can be difficult to immediately get down to a static sitting practice whereas a walking meditation session of a half hour or so, before a sitting session, will help a busy mind and body to settle and relax.

　　When we are out and about in life, we can apply ourselves to what can be called ”situational mindfulness”, which is another way of saying, use the circumstances and situations one happens to find oneself in as the practice environment, whether this is the home, the workplace or any public place. It is somewhat analogous to the sport of orienteering, where the objective is to navigate one”s way through some terrain as efficiently as possible. With ”situational mindfulness,” the objective is to navigate a way through the business of the day with presence of mind.

　　A particular advantage of Vipassana meditation when applied to daily life is that it does not require any special place, equipment or posture. In…

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