Keep motivation to stick on one meditation practice :Ven. Mahasi Saydaw

Question

Practice : Ven .Mahasi Sayadaw

I have been practicing meditation " in daily life " for a week . I felt more relaxed and also noticed having a thought of "intention" before most of my actions of body .

But now I feel that I'm losing the interest of doing mediation practice but to go back again on reading or listing to Dhamma talks .( mostly due to having the thought of finding a "better practice" )

And now I'm feeling the same delusion I had before and stress .

I would like to to know how could I get my motivation back to stick with one method of meditation practice ?

Answer 1

There are the 5 five hindrances that stand in the way as obstacles for developing in ones practice and for reaching Nibbana.

In brief the five hindrances are:

1. Sensual Desire (kámacchanda)
2. Aversion or Ill-will (vyápáda)
3. Sleepiness – sloth (thina), torpor (middha), sluggishness
4. Restlessness – worry about the future, regret of the past, anxiety (uddhacca-kukkucca)
5. Doubt (skeptical doubt) (vicikicchá)

It could be no. 4, 5: worries or doubt about the practice that you are experiencing. If you practice under the Mahasi Sayadaw Tradition then the way to deal with such hindrances is to turn them into an object of observation, i.e. a meditation object and thereby making them a foundation for realizing insights. So when worry arises one can simply note it as "worried, worried" and if doubt arises one can note it as "doubting, doubting".

If one takes them as meditation objects then one will come to see that they also are subject to the 3 signs of existence; anicca, dukkha and anatta. One will come to see that all conditioned phenomena follows a standard formula which is: Arising, Presence, Dissolution. So when taken as meditation objects one will see that the worry or doubt arises, is present and then disappears. It might come again multiple times but the same procedure should be used every time, i.e. to observe and note them.

Here you can read more about The Five Hindrances and Their Conquest.

Also here is a great audio dhamma talk on the five hindrances by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. Here is part 1 and part 2. This talk is highly recommended and i think it might be able to give you some answers. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi talks in depth about the hindrances and gives tools that can be used to overcome them.

Here is a great dhamma talk by Ven. Yuttadhammo that might just address your question. Its called Generating Motivation (Monk Radio). Here its talked about how one can generate motivation to practice.

Lanka

Answer 2

Some advice by Ajaan Fuang here:

§ Many were the times when people would tell Ajaan Fuang that — with all the work and responsibilities in their lives — they had no time to meditate. And many were the times he'd respond, "And you think you'll have time after you're dead?"

§ "If you're single-minded about whatever you think of doing, you're sure to succeed."

§ "You can't plan the way your practice is going to go. The mind has its own steps and stages, and you have to let the practice follow in line with them. That's the only way you'll get genuine results. Otherwise you'll turn into a half-baked arahant."

§ "Don't make a journal of your meditation experiences. If you do, you'll start meditating in order to have this or that thing happen, so that you can write it down in your journal. And as a result, you'll end up with nothing but the things you've fabricated."

§ "When the meditation goes well, don't get excited. When it doesn't go well, don't get depressed. Simply be observant to see why it's good, why it's bad. If you can be observant like this, it won't be long before your meditation becomes a skill."

§ A student came to complain to Ajaan Fuang that she had been meditating for years, and still hadn't gotten anything out of it. His immediate response: "You don't meditate to 'get' anything. You meditate to let go."

§ The seamstress, after practicing meditation with Ajaan Fuang for several months, told him that her mind seemed more of a mess than it was before she began meditating. "Of course it does," he told her. "It's like your house. If you polish the floor every day, you won't be able to stand the least little bit of dust on it. The cleaner the house, the more easily you'll see the dirt. If you don't keep polishing the mind, you can let it go out and sleep in the mud without any qualms at all. But once you get it to sleep on a polished floor, then if there's even a speck of dust, you'll have to sweep it away. You won't be able to stand the mess."

Answer 3

When meditation is not forced, meditation comes spontaneously. When meditation comes spontaneously, awakening comes quickly. When awakening comes quickly, your meditation practice becomes the best practice.

Any meditation practice, if not forced, becomes the best practice. There is no one practice better than the other. Choose one, don't force it (or yourself), do it spontaneously and you'll be on your way.