Today, many friends are very inspired and they want to practice meditation to achieve temporal relief from daily stress and painful situations in their lives. The commitment to practice of meditation is easier to say than to do. The practice of meditation involves commitments, countless hours of practice, and a determination to continue to practice no matter how hard our journey to realization becomes. There are a few tips from highly realized Gurus which I would like to share with those of you who are considering the serious practice of meditation:
Sustaining your meditation through renunciation
It is said that disgust is like the feet of meditation practice: it is through understanding that the sense pleasures, fame, and wealth do not bring genuine happiness, but that through understanding their impermanent nature and developing renunciation, that we will then have a foundation for making practice an essential part of our lives.
Sustaining your meditation through devotion
It is said that devotion is like the head of meditation practice: due to the great blessings of the lineage lamas, devotion provides a medium for enhancing our meditation practice. We should have devotion to our teacher who personally and directly shares with us the treasury of profound instructions for meditation practice.
Sustaining your meditation through non-distraction
It is said that non-distraction, or mindfulness, is the body or heart of meditation practice: it is important to strengthen our meditation practice through limiting distractions by engaging in retreat in secluded places. We should at all times—wherever we might be and whatever situations we find ourselves in—keep our practice alive with stability in view and conduct informed by compassion and bodhichitta.
Sustaining your meditation through love and compassion
It is said that we should make compassion the activity of our meditation practice. Through loving kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta we should offer others protection. We should dedicate our practice to the benefit all beings so that they come under the protection of the Buddha, dharma, and sangha.
Sustaining your meditation through shame and consideration
It is said that shame and consideration is the armor of your meditation practice. Shame is when we avoid negativities for own sense of self-respect. Consideration is when we avoid negativities in order to avoid the disapproval of others.