longer 'sits'

[Zoe Girl]

I have a 4 day weekend and one thing I am working on is longer meditation periods, or sits. I did one hour this morning. At 45 minutes I started checking the clock, got a little antsy and started to have some restless leg. At 50 minutes one timer goes off and I do a metta exercise. The last 4 1/2 minutes I watched the clock. Whew, gonna try 2 times a day for the days off and see what happens.

[Gardenarian]

That's a really long meditation! The most I do is twenty minutes.
Do you find it very beneficial to meditate longer?

[Zoe Girl]

I was listening to a dharma talk by Noah Levine (check out Against the Stream for his talks if interested) and he said that 20 minutes got him relaxed and did a good job but that when he started to stretch it out then he was able to focus on other things and get a deeper concentration. I sent a message to someone I read, Brad Warner, and he said in his tradition they really don't go over 30 minutes and he doesn't see the need to. So I think this is an experiment however I am really liking the longer time these days. I went on a longer hike today instead of a meditation and that was awesome.

[rodeosweetheart]

My brother does really, really long sits at their center in Boston--it goes on for hours, I think, but they only do them once or twice a year.