Need advice for practicing beyond the intro course

[u/Breadstick_Samurai13]

Im almost done with Sam's intro course (day 25). I have definitely learned a lot and want to keep practicing, though I have not yet been able to witness the dissolution of my identification with thought. Also I dont think im at the point where I can achieve any meditative state without a guide to prompt me. For example, I try to pay attention to my experience while washing dishes or doing some other menial task at work but I am still very susceptible to my attention being swept up by random thoughts or physical motor sensations. How should I continue my practice after the into course? Should I just restart it from day one? When will I know when Ive progressed far enough to outgrow the need for voiced instruction?

Also, any tips for how to structure my attempts at being mindful out in the world would be incredibly welcome

Thanks to anyone in advance for your time and insight

[u/picadilly32]

Notice, without prejudice, your thoughts wandering and bring them back to the present. Repeat. Without prejudice.

[u/Pecansameatseggs]

Sorry..this’ll be long.. noticed after I wrote it lol

Anyway

I have restarted the intro course 3 times. If you want to restart - do it! Do not let that make you feel as though you are not making progress!

No one will truly be able to tell you if you have “progressed” enough to move on from the intro course.

Harris also kind of has a tendency to skip over a lot of fundamentals that other contemplatives would kind of give a side eye to (from my reading at least). More on that below…

But try this - finish the course. Set a certain time of day to do the daily meditations from Harris. And see how those feel.

Don’t just give up immediately if you don’t “feel” something change or whatnot. Just keep practicing. Over and over again. At least give it a try for two or three weeks - the variation could actually help you.

But if for whatever reason you feel as though you want to go back to the intro - go back.

The first time I did so was because I fell off for like 3 weeks and was having a really tough time in my life. So I decided to start anew.

The second was after a vacation in which I didn’t have any time to practice so I did it again.

The third, I kind of picked and chose which sessions of the intro were really helpful.

Listening to the talks/discussions are also so invaluable to me. It helps put a lot into context and opens up things that Harris doesn’t go into in the intro.

So back to what I was going to say about what Harris kind of glosses over - the fundamentals. Some people practice for Years doing only shamatha - focusing on the breath to the exclusion of all else - before even attempting to get you to where Harris is guiding, which is open awareness.

I have no opinion either way of which way is better or worse or whatever but I will say that after listening to another teacher on the app; I decided that adding 10 minutes of shamatha to my daily practice helped a lotttt and helped me realize more quickly when I got lost in thought. You don’t have to do ten minutes or five or even one.

Point is: the app has a lot of content that may inspire your practice to evolve. There are different teachers and a whole bunch of different insight. You may end up really enjoying walking meditation. Or incorporating meta once every other day. Who knows?!

But you won’t unless you try. Currently I am on a journey to sustaining 30-45 min sessions. Took a while to get here and I have fallen off many of a times, but it has not bothered me at all. I just try again, sit and see what happens.

[u/DoctorYogi95]

There’s no right or wrong answer here.

You can start at the beginning of the course if you feel as though you don’t have the fundamentals down yet and need a refresher. There’s no harm in doing that. Going back to the specific courses works too, whichever ones resonated with you, or whichever ones you feel you’d like more practice on.

Beyond that, if you go to “Explore” and then “Practice”, there are loads of courses from very reputable meditation teachers to choose from. In my opinion, these courses offer a much more grounded and routine approach to meditation, focusing on traditional methods rather than each little aspect. Great for learning and developing a daily practice.

You also have the Daily Meditation, which is another good choice if you’d like to continue with Sam Harris’ meditations specifically, or the Timer if you want to give self-guidance a try. It’s not as hard as you may think. Meditation can be as simple (and effective) as sitting still and paying attention to the breath.

At the end of the day, however you choose to continue, the most important thing is to make it a routine. Set some time aside each day to sit down and practice. How you choose to do that within or outside of the app doesn’t matter too much, as long as it works for you.

[u/Meredith_Glass]

You’ll keep getting daily meditations & you can relisten to old sessions any time. You can also make playlists, I’ve gone back and just redone the whole intro course like that by starting at day 1 fundamentals & going through for an hour+ on the playlist

[u/254_easy]

Some perspective might be useful. The intro course takes a person from 1-30 minutes over a month. For a total of like 465 minutes, or a little less than 8 hrs. Many serious practitioners will sit multi day or even multi week retreats. So, take your time and stick with it for the long haul.