By Taking a Single Step
Establishing Your First Contemplative Practice
If you are brand new to meditation, the Mystic’s Almanac program might feel intimidating, or even overwhelming. Take a deep breath and hang tight - this page contains the basics of training and a sample 12-week program to help you get started.
Learning How to Learn
One of the most important foundations of the Mystic’s Almanac is the concept of bodymind, or namarupa, a Buddhist idea that stresses the fundamental continuity of the intellect, the emotions and the physical body. In the West, we often automatically treat the body and the mind as two separate entities that are completely independent of each other - as though the mind were something free floating “in the head” and the body was isolated from the goings on of the mind. This is sometimes referred to as “Cartesian duality” or “the Cartesian wound”, after the philosopher Rene Descartes, who initially posited the separation.
Most mystical traditions consider the mind, the emotions and the body to be inseparably connected. Although the West is catching up, via advances in neuroscience and cognitive theory, many of us have not fully integrated the new way of thinking, and persist in a belief that the mind and the body are somehow isolated from one another. The reason it’s important to understand and internalize the concept of the bodymind is because you need to train your body if you want to train your mind.
The nervous system functions by transmitting incredibly complex patterns of electrical signals across its network of neurons. When your bodymind practices a particular motion repetitively, the nervous system responds by producing something called a myelin sheath around the activated neurons. This sheath “insulates” the electrical signal, making future transmission more efficient. The more a bodymind repeats an activity, the thicker the sheath becomes, until it reaches its maximum efficiency. This process is called myelination - you probably know it as “muscle memory.”
Every single time you do something - every yawn, every blink, every wiggle of your toes, every gentle return of attention to the breath - you are sending information to your neurons, which myelinate in response. Your nervous system is constantly training and adapting, responding to your decisions and patterns by making your most common actions as effortless as possible. Once you have trained something so deeply that you can do it without thinking, you have arrived at mastery - or in the parlance of Western psychologists, you have achieved “unconscious effortlessness.” The experience of this is “like riding a bike” or when you’ve become so good at something, “you could do it in your sleep.”
In martial arts, the rule of thumb is that to master a given technique, you have to practice it 1,000 times. Neuroscience studies suggest that the most efficient way to full myelination is to practice 20 minutes per day, six days per week, for 12 weeks. The rest day is important.
Bearing the above in mind, I’ve designed each of the following integration programs to take place over sixteen weeks - four to slowly ramp up, and twelve to achieve mastery.
Beginner’s Mind
Whether you do not currently have a regular meditation practice, or you are approaching the Almanac with a desire to start fresh, I suggest using the Beginner’s Mind program:
Week 1
To begin, choose the practice from the Encyclopedia that you would like to master. Traditionally, mysticism instruction begins with basic mastery of a Recollecting practice, and most people experience quick progress by focusing here. However, if Recollecting is not possible or tolerable for you, it’s okay to select a gentler practice from either Developing or Being for the duration of this Beginner’s Mind program. You can circle back around to Recollecting later.
Each day this week, perform this practice for five minutes at Lauds or Vespers. Do not worry about trying to sit for longer - it’s most important to be consistent for the first week, and to pay attention to really getting the sit right. Attend to set and setting, ensure that your posture is comfortable, and focus on making the practice sustainable.
Week 2
Each day this week, perform the same practice for ten minutes, and set aside one meal per day to bless and to eat mindfully. Continue to attend to consistency and sustainability - showing up each day is more important than lengthening your session.
Week 3
Each day this week, perform the same practice for fifteen minutes, and perform one of the day’s Little Hours practices for five. For most people, this will look like a fifteen minute meditation in the morning, and a short five minute prayer or meditation session at their lunch break. Continue to set aside one meal for blessing and mindful eating. If you want to experiment with different positions and props (cushions, stools, chairs, etc.), this is a good time to try different configurations and see what feels good.
Week 4
Each day this week, perform either the Lauds or Vespers practice for twenty minutes, one of the Little Hours practices for ten minutes, and one blessed and mindful meal. Continue to attend to sustainability and consistency.
Weeks 5-16
Continue performing the practice you’ve selected for twenty minutes per day, six days per week, at either Lauds or Vespers. Continue performing short practices from the Little Hours published each day, and blessing and mindfully eating one meal. This is a good time to begin taking light notes about your meditation sessions about any questions or points of interest that came up during your practice. Keep these light - just a few bullet points or sentences after each sit - and review them every week.
Analyzing Resistance
One of the most important and effective tools you have for long-term habit formation is known as resistance analysis, and it’s almost a Reflecting practice unto itself. This is how it works: Anytime you miss a scheduled practice, or cut it short, or are late, or otherwise don’t make it, journal about why. In particular, try to get as clear as you can about the feelings of resistance and the thoughts associated with them. No need to judge these thoughts - simply write them down, as factually as possible. The mere act of bringing resistance out of the unconscious, giving it definition, developing it and understanding it is enough. It will yield wisdom about your unique problems with practice and the individual ways in which you’ll need to negotiate with yourself to overcome them.
Keep It Simple
Finally, while you’re at the beginning, don’t worry about expanding the practice beyond what the program recommends. You might feel like you are capable of sitting for longer or adding extra sessions, but I recommend against it. Prioritizing sustainability at the outset of your practice will pay dividends down the road.
Tithing your time is something one builds up to over years. The most important thing for your growth now is to keep meditation light, sustainable and consistent, until you have completely mastered your chosen practice.
Bear in mind that two of the biggest obstacles to establishing a regular individual contemplative practice are frustration and tedium - don’t coerce yourself into excesses of these experiences, or you will start to generate subconscious friction toward the idea of practice.
Just wondering, in the write-up on myelination, it’s noted that a rest day is important. In the beginner’s mind program, would you recommend a “rest day” each week where we don’t practice? Or should we try for every day? Thank you for this awesome program!