On May 25, 2010 I started a 100 day practice vow with the encouragement of my teacher, Hokai Sobol. It’s a pretty straightforward challenge:
- 100 days of practice. In a row. (that last part is key)
- Practice every single day, no matter what, no matter how long.
- Do the same practice every single day.
(For those of you less skilled in math and the Gregorian calendar, I’m on day 8. It’s cool. I have to use a Mac application to remind me what friggin’ day it is).
Of course, for anyone undertaking a contemplative path, discipline and regular practice is crucial, whatever form that takes, but for me it’s particularly relevant. I have my strengths on the spiritual path. I’m good at going all-or-nothing, like doing a solitary retreat, but the discipline in daily life is a bit more challenging, so this practice vow will be immensely helpful. Over the last year I have had some breakthroughs and have felt on the verge of another, but I have only been cycling back and forth. There has been real value in the way I have approached practice in the last year, in a more spontaneous manner, but it is time for a different approach, one that bears fruit only discipline can give.
But why do this? Intention has become incredibly important to me in practice, and connecting to these living intentions over and over is what keeps me on the cushion. So, why am I doing this? I’m serious about waking up. It is both through the practice itself, by itself, and the resulting insights that I am of benefit to others in some way spiritually.
More specifically, there is something beautiful about consistent practice, perhaps even a little paradoxical, and I’ll let Rilke speak this truth as he so elegantly and powerfully does in this passage from Letters to a Young Poet:
…all progress…must come from deep within and cannot be forced or hastened. Everything is gestation and then birthing. To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion, entirely in itself, in the dark, in the unsayable, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own understanding, and with deep humility and patience to wait for the hour when a new clarity is born: this alone is what it means to live as an artist: in understanding as in creating.
In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means: not numbering and consuming, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stand confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it only comes to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything.
I cannot know when fruition will come, but it is through consistent practice that it will arise and it’s arrival will not be announced. Even though I will practice for 100 days, that number means nothing. It is only important that I do it. And so I practice in these 100 days hopefully with such patience.
I’ll be writing about my practice and experiences here. If you’re doing something similar, please share along in the comments.
you? are beautiful 🙂
I’ve been thinking about committing to a 100 day practice myself. I feel like I’ve come a long way since we spoke about it in November but I’m having a similar issue of volleying back and forth. Good luck dude!!
Delicious! Having started on April 1st, I’m on day 66:)
@Courtney thanks:P
@Ashe do it!!! Just doing the practice seems to take care of everything else. A real commitment and a sincere vow has made getting to the cushion easy (not necessarily the practice though;)
@Hokai awesome!!! Didn’t realize you were that far in:) I want to here more about these all-night sits….
Hello Ryan,
This post has inspired me and my Buddhist partner/brother to enter a 100-day. Today would be our first.
Normally we don’t go public with this kind of personal spiritual resolve, but it wouldn’t be fair if you don’t hear about it. Much thanks to you, a 100-day does sound bearable; my partner would not have consented to this commitment had I said something like “sit everyday”. =)
So let’s hope we can keep up! And to you, too.
Hey SP – awesome!! I’m so happy that sharing my process has inspired you both to do 100 days!:) I totally agree – saying “sit everyday” doesn’t really help too much, at least not for me:P But, as soon as I made a vow to do this, with my teacher, my friends, and then went public about it, no way I won’t do it! 🙂
I’ll be writing more, but one thing I’ve found is that this commitment has taken a lot of pressure of and it’s been pretty easy to just sit. With that out of the way, I have more space for deepening my practice when I sit.
Rock! So please share about your process here if you feel up for it:) It would be great for me and anyone else doing this to have a little community support 🙂
-ryan
Hi Ryan!
I recently decided to commit to daily meditation practice myself. Not for 100, but “from now on”. I feel the same way, I am getting very serious about waking up. I have been reading D. Ingram’s book, and got inspired and passionate about the truth that I CAN DO THIS, if I do the work that is. So I’m doing it!
Congrats on your Practice Vow, I’m right there along with you! Also, a more time specific goal for me is adding 5 mins a week till I am up to meditating daily for an hour (even if I have to break it up some days. Started at 10, at 25 mins now! 🙂 Should be there by early Sept.
Go for it my friend! And as always, thanks so much for the inspiration you offer. From the early days of you V and G starting B.Geeks you have kept me interested and made the path to awaking something accessible. Thank you!
“@Kittydew” Kerstin
Hey Kerstin! Your goals sound great 🙂 For me, it seems the most important thing is setting a firm resolve, whether it’s 100 days, or reaching an hour/day in practice. Thanks for sharing your inspiration here! Truly, it gives me even more juice for the cushion every morning hearing about your practice and everyone else rockin the samadhi:)
More posts will be coming in the next week!
-ryan
Hi again Ryan,
I’m on day 38. My buddy has sat for 29 days before he decided it was too difficult to keep up. This was due to his very busy life and also lost of faith in teachers, teachings, etc. Thus I carry on alone.
I sit 40 minutes each day. One difficulty is that sitting is the LAST thing I do before bed. Though I don’t hesitate to get to the chair–I just do it–it would take me a few minutes before the rebellious desire to go to bed wanes out. Every day I kept saying, I should have managed my time better, and I didn’t. Today I really should. I want the sitting to be more “productive”.
Another difficulty is discursive thoughts. I’ve been taking a screenwriting class, and naturally the ideas keep proliferating. All day, all night, running its course. Sitting at the end of the day probably doesn’t help.
So that’s all for now..
Hey SP! Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond. I was preparing for a move at the time.
Yeah, I definitely relate to what you’re saying. I’m going to have a post that I think relates to this, especially some tips Hokai gave me that impact my mindset when I sit. In the mornings, my mind can be in a hurry and off to the races to get the day going. At night my mind likes to day dream about ideas, dreams, etc. Really, I think this is the trick of the mind to think that there is some better time to sit, and/or to think we should be able to just snap the mind in shape. The key for me is dig into something deeper than all of it and see it’s connection to all others. But, no doubt I struggle with this too!
Thanks for inspiring another post:) Should be coming this week or next.
-ryan