Is a Ghatika an ideal minimum meditation duration?

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Accepted answer

You find references in:

  1. Tsongkhapa's Middle-Length Lam Rim
  2. Kamalshila's Stages of Meditation
  3. The Abhidharma.

Je Tsongkhapa. Middle-Length Lam Rim:

Indicating the length of sessions

Is there an established length of meditation sessions, specified in terms of “The mind is tied to the object and placed for just this long?” The major texts such as Śrāvaka Levels do not seem to clearly uphold an established length. However, in Stages of Meditation III it says:

Like that, gradually, you should sit for twenty-four minutes, one and a half hours, three hours, or as long as you can.

Apparently this was set forth in the context of the established length of meditation sessions for special insight meditation after calm abiding has already been accomplished, but in the context of initially practicing calm abiding it is evidently similar.

In the Lam Rim bring ba, Philip Quarcoo's footnotes specify:

Twenty-four minutes is one chu tshod, a unit based on traditional Indian time measurement and used in the Abhidharma. It is equivalent to one out of 60 parts of a day

One and a half hours, in Tibetan thun phyed, literally “half a night watch.”

Three hours, in Tibetan thun gcig, literally “one night watch”—common measure for a full meditation session.

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Most teachers I have heard and read seems to think a Ghatika is ideal. Then a little break and back to it. At least unless you are advanced.

But it should also be noticed that AW says it's vitally important to stay fresh while meditating. And be inspired, so that you want to go back to the cushion again.

Here is a nice schedule based on Ghatikas.

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I don't think I would claim that 24-minute increments are 'ideal', but they've worked in my experience. Perhaps this is simply because I feel tremendous confidence and respect toward Alan Wallace, and am used to working with 24-minute increments in following his instructions.

I encourage you to experiment (perhaps taking the gathika as a working hypothesis) and find out what works for your mindstream in light of your aspirations and the specific forms of meditation you wish to pursue. There are many variables to explore!

Finally, here's some interesting food for thought, which I think highlights how the appropriate length of a meditation period corresponds to the condition of one's mind, and requires introspective assessment of one's own meditative experience. Padmasambhava has been quoted as saying:

It is better to persevere with meditation at short intervals, than to meditate for a long period of time without any results.

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche explains in the context of teaching shamatha:

When one meditates, do it for a short time; but do it again and again and again. The whole point is to develop a habit of meditation. If one meditates at first for too long, the mind just becomes more and more agitated and difficult to control. If one meditates for a short time and renews the session many times, then each time the mind will be fresh and clear and able to settle down more easily. So meditate again and again until the habit of meditation grows stronger.

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