1989-04_13 Anapanasati_ Full Awareness of Breath Series - Tape 9 Q&A 2

Talk: 19890413-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_9-33812 Start_time: 00:19:01 Display_question: How long should I sit for a session of samadhi? Keyword_search: practice, samadhi, sitting, retreat, fear, time, period, breath, long, longer, pain, intuitive, fineness, calm, peaceful Question_content: Questioner: I've had that experience, but it's never been outside of retreat setting… <inaudible>. Outside of retreat, I haven't, there are times that I felt somewhere in that vicinity. And what I experienced when it happened on retreat was not here but was connected to a real sense of <inaudible> . Larry: Okay, fine. So, it wasn't a problem. Now, when you're doing it here. Now, in the samadhi practice, and it's very hard to do under the conditions that we have where groups, time, sittings. But truthfully, if you can, when you want to do some samadhi practice, it's much better than not have any schedule for the sitting. Just sit down and sit as long as you can. Long is good. Now, again, it's going to be relative to you, but if you have like forty-five minutes independent of where your breath is or where your attentiveness really is, every morning I sit for forty-five minutes. That's a good practice. But in samadhi work, it's very helpful if it's a little bit more open ended. Now, many of us can't do that. We don't have that kind of time. I understand. Break_line: So that it's still sure that's one of the values of the retreat is that those are the conditions to help develop a lot of qualities, one of which is concentration. But, even here, sometimes set aside an afternoon to do samadhi practice and let the sittings be intuitive. Let them go longer than… many people get addicted to certain time period. I've been sitting forty-five minutes for the last seven years. Why? What's important about that? Or if you're in TM, twenty minutes. There's no magic about twenty minutes, forty-five minutes, an hour and a half. These are somewhat arbitrary. They're kind of conventions that we use mainly because we're in groups, and it can have power too. There's nothing wrong with it. But for samadhi, it's very, very helpful if you have less disturbance because sometimes it will come, let's say, as you're starting to settle down, and then it's time to get up. And often that isn't just at forty-five minutes or an hour. And so you might want to begin to learn how to sit for longer periods of time. Break_line: Now here, there's a very close relationship between your ability to sit for longer periods of time and the fineness of the breath. As the breath becomes more fine, the body becomes more calm and peaceful, and it becomes much easier for the body to sit for long periods of time. As it becomes easier for the body to sit for long periods of time, of course you're going to sit longer, because you're not going to feel oppressed by physical pain. And then your samadhi has a better chance of developing. So, it's a bit circular. So, it's just one sense. But you didn't have fear, so that's all right. Did fear ever come? Fear came up? Questioner: <inaudible> Larry: Okay. That man is Andrew. Anyone else have anxiety or apprehension that they weren't breathing or that they were afraid? End_time: 00:22:17