How we view time and what we do with our 24hour day

[bambi]

I used to sleep 12 hours minimum a day! How pathetic my life was. Partying till 3 or 4am. Wake up in the afternoon and have my lunch, then shopping and then partying again! Wasnt that life?
Then I realized I can sleep forever when I die and leave this carcass behind! And I will definitely end up in hell the moment I open my eyes. I try my very best to sleep less, less partying (only when I am invited for 1) and do more virtuous deeds. I do more charity and help people the best I can with my knowledge of Dharma.

[Q]

8 hours spent working (computers, etc)
8 hours spent sleeping
2 hours spent driving
2 hours spent eating/dining
2 hours spent on the phone
2 hours spent "chillin" - free time?

Haha! Basically that was how I used to spend most of my time... perhaps minus the 2 hours of phone calls and replaced with watching re-runs of Star Trek Enterprise. Then every weekend I would spend an hour visiting a random Dharma centre... Taoist, Tibetan Buddhism etc... make offerings, then feel holy for the whole week. And the cycle repeats itself

Now, although nothing much has changed, I believe that it is not a matter of how much time one spends on Dharma, but the quality and effort placed during the time spent for Dharma.

We can't measure Dharma and time spent on Dharma activities... it is just something that goes beyond any number can quantify. If we try to measure, and take it for example 16 waking hours, 8 hours of me time and 8 hours of Dharma time... It just can't be done, and cannot be measured. If Dharma can be measure by hours spent... then we should place a black pebble for every demerit and a white pebble for every good deed.

I still work 8 hours a day... but I do it so that I will be able to continuously donate to my local Dharma centre...
I still drive 2 hours a day (sometimes 4... traffic can be unpredictable) but I drive while listening to Dharma audios or mantras... this way I get to learn Dharma in a situation where I am unable to do anything else haha!
etc etc...

So, ultimately, we still spend our time as usual, only the change of motivation in carrying out such activities can make such a huge difference in life.

[Jessie Fong]

It is so common to hear comments nowadays, like I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day; I wish time would stand still.

If your wishes were to come true, what would you want to do with the extra few hours that you could not have done during the 24 hours?   No matter how many hours there are in a day and how many more that you could have if your wishes came true, if you do not make full and proper use of the time no matter how many more hours there are, these are just numbers.

I believe in quality time, not quantity.

[vajraD]

Time to me is never enough. I’m sure this applies to most of us. Most of us spend our time having samsaric pleasure but on the other side there are people whom uses their 24 hours to just do and concentrate on good causes or practicing dharma.

We can practice the dharma, meditating, talking and doing dharma but does that me that we are actually applying/practicing the dharma. I have once heard from a monk “you may be a spiritual/dharma practiceioner but that does not mean that you are actually practicing it”. Well we can pray 2 to 3 hours a day but what happenes to the balance of the hour. In the balance of those hours is we are supposed to apply what we have learnt. Is easier to be said then done but a little step at a time make a lot of difference.

[Aurore]

We have 24 hours in a day and on average this is what a typical day looks like for most of us:

8 hours spent working (computers, etc)
8 hours spent sleeping
2 hours spent driving
2 hours spent eating/dining
2 hours spent on the phone
2 hours spent "chillin" - free time?

Does this look appealing to you? It seems like a whole lot of time spent on "stuff" that WILL end. Shame isn't it? Share your breakdowns and perhaps we can discuss our perceptions and priorities?

Wow ... that is 24 hours wasting our precious human life away. When you put it this way, it's so easy to see how much time we spend on things that isn't going to help us in anyway this life and future lives. Thanks for opening my eyes which is still half open as at the same time, I don't quite know how and where I can cut down and use my time wisely? It look pretty filled up and logical already. Hmmm ... How about this?

12 hours - working (secular work takes up too much time. The only solution is dharma work)
6 hours - sleeping (rest is needed to recuperate and stay healthy to be able to use our body to benefit others)
1 hour - driving (stay closer to work)
2 hours - eating/dining (Make eating and dining a purposely event, can nurture people into dharma)
2 hours - Sadhana and Meditation. Can use this time to do reading and learning about dharma also.
1 hour - Getting ready for work, laundry, housekeeping, chores, etc.

I think I can work with this. What do you think? Some feedbacks would be good

[jessicajameson]

Then I realized I can sleep forever when I die and leave this carcass behind!

A lot of people say that, but it's completely the opposite. The moment our consciousness leaves our body, the next destination is unknown (for most of us anyways!). If like you say, you are reborn in a hell.... I really don't think that 12 hours of sleep is an option!

Positive Change's typical day:

8 hours spent working (computers, etc)
8 hours spent sleeping
2 hours spent driving
2 hours spent eating/dining
2 hours spent on the phone
2 hours spent "chillin" - free time?

That doesn't sound too bad! I don't think that this day would be that bad if the "8 hours spent working" is "8 hours spent doing Dharma work" or "8 hours at a charity home".

I like Aurore's day planner, and to be honest it sounds exactly like my day! I don't spend 2 hours eating and 2 hours doing my sadhana and meditation though... that time is instead allocated to working.

12 hours - working (secular work takes up too much time. The only solution is dharma work)
6 hours - sleeping (rest is needed to recuperate and stay healthy to be able to use our body to benefit others)
1 hour - driving (stay closer to work)
2 hours - eating/dining (Make eating and dining a purposely event, can nurture people into dharma)
2 hours - Sadhana and Meditation. Can use this time to do reading and learning about dharma also.
1 hour - Getting ready for work, laundry, housekeeping, chores, etc.

[Positive Change]

It is interesting to note how we "plan" our so called hours when we do not even know we have those hours to begin with? I think the mindset is where our focus is... what our priorities are, where our priorities lie... that is the fundamental point I was trying to get at by "throwing" this post to the wind to see what it catches...

It matters not what we do with our time so long as it is done to benefit others. There are many ways and not just ONE way... And with the motivation everything we do comes naturally and that is the beauty of it! for me, sincerity towards ourselves and our motivation is a good place to start...

[rossoneri]

24 hours a day might be too long for certain individual or it could be the opposite for another. Most of us wish for the lead our life according to the 'Perfect' schedule: 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of leisure and 8 hours for work. But do think its applicable for everyone? My point is time is very subjective, how do we spend it is the key. Since that is the case we must make an extra effort instill some beneficial activities into our daily life by doing more to benefit others not only focusing solely to ourselves and families. And it is not so easy as i put it. But at least contribute. I believed we were born for a purpose.

[DS Star]

yes, most of people simply forgot to put time for sadana/daily prayer in our share time in one day as we only focus on samsara activities and think spirituality can be as and when we have free time.
It sad to realize that we spent so much time to have fun and enjoy ourself without spend time for other (not even talk about spirituality).

Thank you for the breakdown time which help me to realize that most of time we spent just for eat, sleep and work which eventually it can be change ie add spiritual activity in daily.

Yep most of the time we spend for eating, sleeping and talking nonsense...

How our minds are sneaky: we keep giving ourselves excuses so that we don't need to do more... then others will have do our parts... very selfish and only attach to samsaric pleasures and deluded short-term happiness... while wasting precious time to do things that will benefit ourselves and especially others...

While we are reviewing our 24-hour day, our time is tickling away... death can come anytime, any moment... so no time to wait...

When More is less, Less is more... When doing more samsaric things, we have Less time for Dharma but when we do less samsaric activities, we have MORE time for Dharma.

Reviewing my time now... eat less, sleep less, complain less, do more, help more, contemplate more... No more excuses!

[Barzin]

i wonder.  If we know the causes that we created in this very life will result in our next life regardless what we are next life.  So I wonder by doing secular activities, do we come back doing and chasing the same thing?  I think most likely we will.  Why?  because for example, if you spend half of your life chasing money and girls, you would habitually do the same when you return... 

What we do this very moment also will carry forward, it's all imprint... Because it becomes our habit and it all sounds too familiar...  If we have the fortune in this very life to practice dharma, we'll have more dharma imprint hence the merits.  If we are fortunate enough to be reborn as a human again, when we come across dharma, we will feel familiarized with the surrounding and things because that was what you used to do, hence you continue to do your dharma practice.

It is almost like the Tulku system, I don't think it only happen on the high lamas, I think it happen on us too, that is why Buddha said we can be Buddha too.  It is just different level that we are talking about...

[brian]

I think that how one spends a day is subjective and immaterial. With some, outwardly it may seem that it is for secular purposes but it is hard to read one's motivation. Some could be meditating for afew hours every morning and feeling all so pure and goody good shoes but the other few hours at work he could be feeling jealous of his colleague's success, or feeling angry at the bar tender who served him the wrong beer or verbally abusing his wife because she burnt the steak. I read somewhere that sustained conscious awareness of our physical, verbal and mental actions from the moment of waking to the moment of falling asleep is more profound and penetrating. What it means is that we must always be watchful of our actions and cultivating an attitude of loving kindness rather than one of exploitation.

Yes definitely agreed in such. I feel the dicispline motivation part is far more important. Well sometimes people will be more hardworking or holds bigger post in a company. Say for example if a business owner spends most of his time in a day going to work and meet his clients but with a pure motivation of making more money to his family and let his family do charity or he himself have more money to donate to the dharmma institution, I think he has spent his day very well in this sense. Of course situation depends. So if one would heavily indulged on his own selfish activities, then we will call it a wasted life.