Sonnald wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 6:02 pm
Hi all!
For those who may be familiar with the Dzogchen tradition and its main open awareness meditation, I’ve become aware of different suggestions as to how long sittings should be. Some say that the sittings should be short (5-10 minutes) and more frequent so as to support the ease and effortlessness of the approach, and to dissolve egoic tendencies through ‘nonmeditation’. Others say that sittings should be longer (30-45 minutes) as habitual tendencies are ingrained over a number of years and so should be tackled with more sitting. I’m not too sure where I stand on this, and so would much appreciate any help or suggestions from those of you who are practiced in the Dzogchen tradition and could help to shed light on this particular aspect of the practice
All the best
Sonny
That really sounds like it's shamatha without an object, which is not a Dzogchen specific practice. From what I've seen It’s used in Dzogchen Semde presentations in particular ways, but it’s used lots of other places too, again, it’s simply a shamatha practice and shouldn’t be understood as something more, by my understanding.
In fact, if you are going to practice Dzogchen under a teachers instructions (which is required), it’s important-not- to have the perception that such practice is ‘practicing Dzogchen’ of and within itself. It isn’t, and the viewpoint that it is often seems to be considered a mistake or deviation, specifically noted here and there.
As far as time frames go, different teachers teach different stuff, that’s why it’s good to follow a source with some consistency. With any shamatha practice, it’s generally a good idea to not push oneself and learn to relax. However, sorry to sound cliche, but you should follow the advice of whoever your Dzogchen teacher is, because presentations are often pretty specific, depending on who is teaching them, where they are source from, etc.
One thing I do have some confidence in is that if you are "tackling habits" in a session or trying to somehow modify the contents of your mind, or alter habitual tendencies with your meditation practice..then that is probably not Dzogchen, and is either a preliminary practice, or simply a different approach. Again, more reason to follow a consistent presentation from a teacher with whom you connect. That isn't to say it's not a good practice necessarily, just that it might be useful to have some more clarity about what it is you are doing.
