How do you rate your own progress?

[Aloka]

Dear friends,

How do you rate your own Dharma/Dhamma study and practice? Is there anything more you'd like to do, or improve on?


With metta,

Aloka

[KathyLauren]

I started out pretty keen, in my 20s. I read everything I could get my hands on, and started doing basic meditation, going on weekend retreats, etc. But life gets in the way. I am a lazy practitioner. I do a short meditation every day, as part of my morning routine, but that is about all I do. I like to think that I have kept my Buddhist values intact over the years, and that they influence my daily activities.

I would like to get back to reading Dharma books. I have quite a collection from my younger days. I wonder if my brain still has the chops to get through one and absorb meaning from it. I suppose a good way to get back to it is to re-read some old favourites and see if they still ring right, before cracking open the ones I have not yet read.

Om mani padme hum
Kathy

[woodscooter]

Great post, KathyLauren.

It sounds like you have settled down to a really manageable routine. Keep it going!

Woodscooter

[lisehull]

I've completely fallen away frommy practice, due to a variety of reasons ranging from disillusionment with TB after all of the neverending scandals, to souring on my own teachers who followed the Shangpa tradition and their questionable adherence to the first Kalu Rinpoche and others, to just not knowing what to practice or think. I was doing pretty well for about a decqde and now I'm nowhere.

[Esho]

I'm happy practicing the Dharma of peace and joy... Zazen. I have had enough reading of Zen texts. Keep a book as my main guide for Zazen and practice as much as I can arranging my life in order to make of Zazen the centre of my life. I just want to improve the time I dedicate to sit in a single session.

[philg]

Communicating the Dharma in everyday English. I suspect it is impossible, but it's a work in progress and I'll keep at it.

[dwlemen]

For meditation...
I have found that if I tried to do between 15 and 30 minutes every evening I can generally work it into my routine. I always do my regrouping before dinner and after showering and whatnot when I'm clean and refreshed I will sit and do my meditation.

That said I have also struggled with adding things into the time period to "make better use of my time." So I found myself not only meditating, but trying to work in a stretch or pose to combat a sore muscle, using my TENS unit to alleviate some bad joints, and even trying to also listen to some Buddhist podcast. All of which seems to undermine the idea of meditating! I have recently gone back to just sitting on my cushion with nothing to see if I can get back to basics.

Study...
As for studying, I have never been sure where to even start. Reading the texts from access-to-insight is daunting and difficult. I have a few books here and there but I feel like I need to focus on the practical side versus the philosophical side.