Ajahn Achalo is back in Bodh Gaya doing a long intensive meditation at the Maha Bodhi Stupa. Two years ago I was blissfully unaware of his mega feat of clocking up over 3000 hours of meditation at the holy site of Buddha’s enlightenment!
The pandemic changed the normality of life and that led to me actually getting to know Ajahn through the very fortunate circumstance of online zoom Dhamma sessions. Yes and my graphic design skills and wonder of wonders I got the opportunity to design his book. This meant I got to read his entire journey! You can download it for free here . If you feel moved to support Anandagiri Monastery please visit their website and make an offering. Wow i was inspired and very respectful of this venerable monk who sat through so many hours. And I see in the example of his life how the effort of walking the eight fold path has led him to being the noble samana he is!
More than ever I am moved and convinced of the eightfold path. It is so clear…Buddha said follow the path it will lead you out of dukkha!
Therefore I made a resolve to sit more while he was doing this intensive. I would have liked to go to Bodh Gaya…but for now I am using this as motivation to clock up a few more hours.
I wanted to coordinate my sits at least a few, with his. Why…I think its the power of Sanga…alone I cannot sustain the practise. Having the thought here was my teacher sitting for for 7-8 hours in meditation everyday…and i was having trouble doing my meditation sits at a particular time? Got me out of bed and on the meditation seat!
So starting early 3:45am ish I decided to sit the whole 2.5 hours.Phew i don’t think I have attempted 2.5 hours before this…but thanks to some practical tips on how to manage long sits I decided to go for it. Here is Ajahn Achalo giving a talk on the skill and benefit of long sits!
I sat it through is all I can say. There were some moments of focus and bulk of distracted mind, nothing unusual. An image came to me while meditating which served to inspire me. This path is a bit like a trek. It’s a sunny bright day, enjoy the trek to the top…smiling, patiently consistently and lightly…if I try to race up the hill or force a faster pace by will, you will fail and fall off. Go steadily, lightly, with a sense of humour.
The afternoon sit was challenging. I managed the 4pm-5pm …but it was hard, lot of restless body sensations…so used the guided meditation by Thanissaro Bhikku. Then finally I listened to the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta chant with retreatants by Ajahn Achalo and that gave me a very quiet short sit…even Leo was snoring. I felt a very hot wave through my heart…some sort of releasing. Another two words came through patience and kindness. I must sit with patience…what is patience…there is an eternal patient kindness…different from patient endurance….maybe its the feminine way?
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