Coogee Buddhist Group

When and Where do you Meditate?

On Tue, 8 April, 2014 - 02:46
Dhammalata's picture
Dhammalata
Where and When do you Meditate?

I co-lead an introductory meditation retreat this weekend just past. We did our two foundation practices; The Mindfulness of Breathing and The Metta Bhavana and had quite a bit of time to discuss them.

One of the things I came away from it with was an added impetus to support people to establish and ground their private meditation practice. It is wonderful to meditate in a group but also important to do it regularly (daily even) and for most of us that will mean finding a time and place to do it on your own.

Here were a few tips suggested by various people on the retreat:

  • Find the time of day that suits you best
  • Don’t put meditation after all the other things you need to do (likely it won’t happen)
  • Establish a place in your room or dwelling and make it aesthetically appealing
  • Set yourself up with the right equipment (cushions, chair, meditation stool etcetera)
  • Don’t be overly ambitious time-wise – build it up organically
  • Look for the pleasure – a quiet, sensual appreciation of yourself and what’s important to you

Our Thursday nights are a fantastic encouragement and support for my own practice and I hope they can be for you too.


Hope we might see you Thursday night at 7 pm for the Metta Bhavana practice.

If you stick around for the post meditation discussion the above will be our focus this week – sharing our experience of establishing private practice …

Much metta

Dharmalata and Padmadakini

NB: If you are interested in coming along to learn to play Croquet you are warmly invited to come along at 10.30 am on Sunday when menbers of the Coogee Croquet Club are going to teach us how to play. Can you RSVP to confirm you are coming as they’d like to know approximate numbers. If you have already said you’re coming can you just let me know again as it has been some time since some of you told me you were planning to attend

NNB: Please put the weekend of June 21 – 22 into your diaries as it is our very first Coogee Meditation Centre Retreat (last one was shared with Sydney Buddhist Centre). It will be held at our beautiful retreat centre on the banks of the Georges River and we’d love you to be with us!

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