Practice, Practice, "Practice."

So, Coach Tom has challenged me, in an indirect way, to increase my meditation practice, by spending 2,000 hours "on the cushion." Well, I've done the math:

At a rate of 30 minutes a day EVERY DAY (which is more than twice my current routine), it will take me five and a half YEARS to complete this task. And that's if I don't skip a day here and there.

Well, I'm going for it. I've been sitting more and really enjoying it. Reading about and experimenting with various meditation techniques, from the "practical and secular" to the "spiritual and metaphysical" has been… fun, interesting, relaxing, often difficult, and (I think) "beneficial" in some way.

At the end of karate training this past Saturday morning, I invited my students to sit with me in meditation for about 10 minutes, and a few of them took me up on my invitation. There was no instruction, no ceremony, and no one really leading the group. (I kept time.) It was just a few of us sitting together in silence.

I was surprised to find that having others there to keep me honest was actually very useful, once I was able to let go of being self-conscious and concerned about "doing it right." (I usually meditate alone in private.) So now I'm toying with the idea of starting an informal meditation group at the dojo so that I can continue to practice with and learn from others. (Jeez, who ever thought that sitting around doing nothing with others could be called a "practice?")