Some Suggestions on Practice

Dont begin a sitting period without considering why you meditate. Know your intention. Know that there is "nowhere to go, nothing to achieve." Be aware of ambitious thoughts.

Check your posture. No matter how you sit, the body should be erect (but not stiff), balanced, and at ease. The sitting place should be neat and pleasant. (But we can sit anywhere and in any positioneven lying down if ill or exhausted.)

Sit every day. Try not to miss more than one day in a week. If resistance arises (it is a normal art of practice), be aware that it consists of thinking; like all thought, it need not dominate you. Just observe it. Feel it in the body. And do not bully yourself, ever.

Once a week, sit 10-15 minutes longer than you want to sit.

Dont become obsessed by sitting. In no case should ones work or family responsibilities be neglected in order to sit.

When upset, dont avoid sitting. Hard as it may be, it is crucial to sit when difficulties arise.

Know that sitting is simply maintaining awareness of body and mind. Be aware of any desire to turn sitting into an escape from life by entering peaceful, trance-like states; such states can be seductive but they are of no use.

Be aware that "achieving something" in sitting (such as special clarity, insight, calmness of mind) is not the point. These may occur but the point is your awareness of whatever is happening, including confusion, discouragement or anxiety.

Keep your practice to yourself. Dont attempt to teach others; do not proselytize. Leave your friends and family alone. There is an old saying, "Let them ask three times" What you can give others is how you live.

Dont spend your sitting time in planning. Nothing is wrong with planning per se, but set up another time for it. If you hear planning thoughts when you sit, label them.

In daily life, be acutely aware of the desire to gossip or complain, to judge others or yourself, to feel superior or inferior.

All practice can be summed up as: