driver in car with snow on window

MEDITATION MINIMUM: What amount of time makes a ‘true’ practice?

Recently, while browsing posts on a Facebook meditation group, I found a discussion underway about how much time is ‘enough’ for meditation. One comment stood out to me: “No less than one hour; anything else isn’t worth the time.”

It’s easy to lambaste the writer of said post for being insensitive and to remind him that any amount of time in any endeavour is worthy. That was my immediate response, admittedly, and there were many comments that included the same outrage.

But this did make me think, as someone who is new to Buddhism and meditation on a daily basis: How much time is right, when it comes to meditation? How many minutes make the practice significant? Is there a time-based border between the casual spiritual seeker and the devoted practitioner? 

Just a few minutes of meditation a day,” says one headline I found while researching this question. Richard Davidson, Ph.D. of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center (University of Wisconsin-Madison) told Mindful that “as little as 30 minutes per day training our minds to do something different can result in measurable changes that can be tracked in a brain scanner.”

That’s fascinating to read, but my first thought after reading this? There’s a huge difference between devoting a ‘few’ minutes to meditation and 30 uninterrupted minutes every day. 

Some version of silence


MEDITATION MINIMUM What amount of time makes a ‘true’ practice1

I think of people like me, with young children, when five minutes may well be the maximum amount of time I can devote to sitting in some version of silence, before the cat pokes me under the arm, work texts me asking for an immediate response, or the pile of laundry catches my eye every time I check the clock.

Ideally, my meditation consists of sitting cross-legged on a lotus-embroidered cushion, in front of candles and incense and statues of Buddha and Kuan Yin, for 30 minutes in a quiet house. That happens maybe once or twice a month. Maybe.

Most days, I am in a freezing three-season room with the space heater cranked up, wrapped in a Yoga blanket, while my kid eats some version of breakfast at the table as he watches videos on his iPad. That’s my time to meditate—10 minutes, maybe 15, before I have to wrangle my kid into clothes and out the door for school, and then head to work.

With all this in mind, it was tempting to lash out at this poster in this Facebook forum. Initially, I did, stating that he was being judgmental when there are so many people with packed, cramped lives who are just trying to make it through the day. 

But later, I approached this post with new eyes: What was the basis of the declaration of one hour or nothing? Likely, this poster has taken the time and opportunity to build his practice, one minute at a time. And through his dedication and cultivation, he has come to see the extraordinary benefits of spending one full hour in meditation, in both his physical and his spiritual life. Anything less than that, for this gentleman, is unsatisfying. In this light, I deeply admire his dedication.

I will do what I can when I can


MEDITATION MINIMUM What amount of time makes a ‘true’ practice

There will come a day, someday, when I will have more time than I know what to do with. Until that day comes, I will do what I can, when I can. I will sit in my car when I get to work early, close my eyes and recite the Heart Sutra with the windshield wipers on. I will remember to focus on my inhalation and exhalation, whether it’s on a meditation mat or while playing video games with my son.

Ten minutes is significant to so many who are struggling with their self-worth as a nervous Buddhist, who are trying to create new habits, and who feel ashamed because an hour is unthinkable at this moment in life. 

We can respect 10 minutes today and aspire to an hour or more in the future, showing respect and reverence for both. Let’s have compassion for both the ones with more time, and with less time; compassion for the courage to try, and to keep trying every day, whatever form that effort takes.

«RELATED READ» I FOUND MYSELF THROUGH MEDITATION: Taking time to be with my Inner Self has brought me closer to peace»


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