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

[Positive Change]

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?

[hope rainbow]

On an "average day" in 2003, persons in the U.S. age 15 and over:
- slept about 8.6 hours,
- spent 5.1 hours doing leisure and sports activities,
- worked for 3.7 hours,
- and spent 1.8 hours doing household activities.
During the remaining 4.8 hours, americans ate, drank, went to school and shopped.

from: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/averageday.htm

I don't know how they manage to work only 3.7 hours, but I assume this an average throughout the country, regardless of age and gender.
So it must be the balance between those that work and those that do not work.
In the end the total leisure time/day of an average american is: 5.1 hours with most of it being TV watching.
If only half of that was given to spiritual practice, it would already be amazing how the american society would change.

PC, yeap... you are right, what do our actions bring about.
Are we benefiting others or are just "killing time", as if we had too much of it and had to find ways to somehow "kill it" like pest...
Mmmm...

[Rihanna]

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.

[Big Uncle]

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?

You forgot daily meditations/ sadhanas. All of us have more or less a similar schedule unless we are in retreat, we are a yogi or a monk. Since all these activities lead us no where at the time of death, why don't we invest in learning special instructions that will prepare us for death. Hence, we need to practice powerful practices that will be potent enough to help us.

What's really appealing about Vajrayogini Tantra is that it allows us to use our sleeping, waking and daily activities as a means to collect profound amount of merit. Unlike other Tantric practices like Yamantaka, Heruka and Guhyasamaja, Vajrayogini is a lot shorter and less complicated that these Tantras. Hence, Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche recommends Vajrayogini and he must have foreseen all these...

[DSFriend]

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.

Before I came to learn any dharma, i could safely say all my actions and thoughts were for no good (yikes)... in the sense that it brings no one any benefit and only waste away the precious human life. Well, at that time, I sure thought that i was "precious" thus spent everything on just my "precious self". How wrong my view was regarding life.

Where do we even start to share with our friends who are stuck in wrong views of their precious lives and are not interested in giving time to religious pursuits? I do appreciate your sharing about cultivating an attitude of loving kindness rather than one of exploitation...which i find people can connect with more readily.

[WoselTenzin]

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.

It's not so much the time allocated for each activity we do each day and what activities we engage in but the motivation behind it.  For eg If we are dining and entertaining just for the sake of dining and entertaining, it is most probably we are just going thru the motion of life and wasting time.  However, if you are dining with someone to counsel him/her out of depression or to help him/her make a sound decision at the turning point of his/her life, then the time spent can be considered well spent as it helps another person.

Every action of body, speech and mind if done with a good motivation would not be a waste of time because the causes are created for future good results.  Therefore, it is not what we do each day or the time spent on each activity but rather the motivation behind each activity whether positive, negative or nuetral that counts.   

[Positive Change]

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?

You forgot daily meditations/ sadhanas. All of us have more or less a similar schedule unless we are in retreat, we are a yogi or a monk. Since all these activities lead us no where at the time of death, why don't we invest in learning special instructions that will prepare us for death. Hence, we need to practice powerful practices that will be potent enough to help us.

What's really appealing about Vajrayogini Tantra is that it allows us to use our sleeping, waking and daily activities as a means to collect profound amount of merit. Unlike other Tantric practices like Yamantaka, Heruka and Guhyasamaja, Vajrayogini is a lot shorter and less complicated that these Tantras. Hence, Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche recommends Vajrayogini and he must have foreseen all these...

Thank you Big Uncle for pointing this out... This was what my post was leading too hence I used "typical"... We are so caught up with our lives that we forget that the most foundamental and well spent time is our practice. But having said that, as some of you have pointed out... its not how many hours of the day one spends in meditation or doing our sadhannas, etc, it is really how we incorporate the Dharma INTO our lives and as such making it a 24 hour Sadhanna.

The above was to illustrate how much time we actually do "waste" in our daily lives if we do not start to think about what is important and what it is that we can actually "take with us"

[dorjedakini]

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...

Motivation is the key words. While jogging in the park, we can visualize at the central of the park is huge Manjushri, and we are circumambulating him, and we pray that by doing this exercise we can have a healthy body to help others. Even doing exercise we can still create good merits. Same apply to our daily prayer, we can be reciting mantra, doing prostration if in our mind we think of how to take revenge on people, what to eat next meal, then even outwardly is a holy action, we create near to zero of good merit for ourselves or no merit at all.

Be mindful of what we are doing every moments is better than just spending 2 hours doing prayer and the rest of time we behave like a monster.

[ratanasutra]

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.

[Manjushri]

Time is there, as is, but I feel that we shouldn't let time restrict us. Time is another label that man has created, so that we are encassed within boundaries. Time is continuous, and that we lose time every second that we exists therefore we should make use of the time we have wisely to justify for the precious human life we have obtained. If we spend 2-3 hours a day meditating and praying, generating compassion, bodhicitta and kindness in our thoughts, but use the other 21hours of the day being a nasty person, scolding others, not doing more, being selfish and lazy, then what is the point.

Every minute, every second in the 24hours should be used to live thinking about others, generating compassion, self improvement, kindness, genorosity. There is no division between what you use time for - no matter what the activities are, you (your mind, actions, thoughts and behaviour) has to remain constant.

[shugdenpromoter]

I remember once there was an incident whereby I was driving on the road and there was a car behind me cutting in and out and honking away as he was very impatient.  He did not seem to be in a rush cause another car irritated him and he tailed him all the way, basically he was a road bully.  And as he drove pass I saw an Ambitabha sticker.

This is precisely why it is important to focus more on our 23 hours a day actions then the 1 hour of prayers we spend every day. Who will be impressed with Amitabha if you see how rude the guy was. Thus we need to be watchful of our action as every minute, we can accumulate negative karma. 

[Tenzin K]

I agree with Manjushri, spending 2 to 3 hours a day for spiritual practice and being the opposite for the remaining 21hrs doesn’t make a person spiritual.

The most important is the remaining hour. Let say we spend 2 hours for a dhrama class, we should set this 2 hrs as a motivation for us to put what we learned into practice for the remaining hours of the day. We should always keep
watching our action and remind ourselves to transform and apply what we learned in the earlier 2 hour class.

I thank to Big Uncle for letting us know that Vajrayogini Tantra allow us to us our daily activity to collect merits.
This is wonderful.
May more people have the merit to get the Vajrayogini initiation.

[pgdharma]

It is not so much the time we allocate for each activity we do each day but the motivation behind it. We may spend 2-3 hours in  meditation or chanting and trying to be holy and good during that period of time. But the moment we are out from the meditation mat or after chanting, anger, impatience, negative thoughts etc sets in.  So it is not how much time we spend on secular activities compared to the hours on the meditation mat. It is about how we incorporate dharma into our daily lives so that every moment time spent and every action of body, speech and mind become a positive and beneficial action.

[dondrup]

Many will agree that 24 hours in a day is never enough to accomplish anything.  A typical time schedule for most people is one third is spent on sleeping, another one third is spent working to earn a living and last one third is spent attending to miscellaneous activities like eating, traveling etc. 

In a modern society life is moving at so fast a pace, that people are constantly busy and distracted with something.  This applies to even spiritual practitioners like us.  Hence it is important to know the true meaning of our life and what do we do every moment to accomplish the purpose of our life or our spiritual goals. 

Realizing the preciousness of our human lives, we must utilize every single moment and put them to good use to accumulate merit, purify our negative karma and transform our mind.  There are so many methods Buddha had taught to help us accomplish these.  Now the question is how well and productive are we in attaining our spiritual goals?  Most find it hard to practise, let alone persevere in the journey to liberation and enlightenment!   Even the monastics will not have sufficient time to complete their training and transform their minds before their lives end in this lifetime.  What about the majority of lay practitioners who have even less time available compared to the Monastics due to their busy daily lives? 

So the point here is how well we use our time to attain our spiritual goals. 

Below are some thoughts to contemplate about efficient usage of our ‘limited’ time:

- Know clearly our spiritual goals and strive towards them as best as we can.

- Working fulltime in Dharma helps to ensure we spend our time wisely in attaining our spiritual goals.

- Mindfulness of the actions of our body, speech and mind moment to moment to ensure we do the right thing i.e. in accordance with the Law of Cause and Effect and not waste our time and effort to attain our spiritual goals.

- Having a correct motivation in all our spiritual activities is of utmost importance.  The best motivation to have is the bodhichitta motivation i.e. wanting to become enlightened for the benefit of others.  There is no other better way to accumulate vast amount of merits than with bodhichitta motivation.  There is no better method to transform our self-cherishing mind than with bodhichitta mind.  Similarly there is no better way to purify our negative karma than with the mind of bodhicitta.

- Holding and keeping our vows and commitments purely.  It is so easy to break our vows and commitments.  Without a strong discipline in keeping our vows and commitments, we will waste our time and effort in attaining our spiritual goals.  Breaking vows and commitments lead to severe consequences of accumulating negative karma.

- We must rely on The Three Jewels.  We must rely on the Guru, Yidam and Dharma Protector. If we practise alone, we will definitely waste a lot of time and effort and not being able to accomplish much in our spiritual goals.

- Meditate on death and impermanence constantly to put us on the right track and be focused on our spiritual goals.

- Maintaining a healthy body is important.   We need a healthy human body to function, to accomplish our spiritual goals.

- Time is just a concept.  Whether a day has 24 hours or 48 hours does not matter.  What matters is how we spend time wisely to accomplish our spiritual goals.

- Understanding the workings our mind is important.  Our mind has the potential to become Buddha.  It is very powerful and can accomplish anything if it is programmed to do so.  Hence we need to know how to program our mind to accomplish our spiritual goals.

The above are not exhaustive and are some of the thoughts that arise in my mind on the preciousness of our time.

Nike has a very good slogan - Just Do It!  I like this slogan because it put us on the right track as time is not on our side. 

[Dondrup Shugden]

It is interesting how we segregate our time slots daily to do this and then this and then another.  Time is without boundaries, and without slotting of "jobs" within.

Therefore is time related to what we do with it and how much we do with it.  In many ways, yes, especially if time is spent with others.  We need to match our timing to suit them, then we have to ask if such time spent with others would create benefit to the person we spend the time with, or create benefits with the person to benefit other causes. 
Otherwise, sorry to sound jaded, time spent with another person without purpose is time lost on frivolous idling.

Even sleeping is not time wasted, as we need to rest and recover for the next challenge of living with vigour to do things which are meaningful.

Is time wasted spent on leisure? Once again no, if the motivation is to rejuvenate for the next activity of the day.

I am by nature a regulated and discipline person on time, but on learning the Dharma, I have become more flexible   with time and would spend time with the motivation of benefiting others.  I sound so holy, but I do not mean to be but rather to ground myself that when I leave the notion of time limitation and discipline, I will embark of living with purpose of time spent to benefit others.  I struggle but I am willing to practise.