With bodhichitta...
Chodron's perspective is clearly addressing how we don't make enough time for formal meditation practice, and it can even be said that when we do there is great danger that our turbulent habit of keeping busy prevents us from making time during formal meditation to actual absorb in concentration i.e. "placement meditation". It is not sufficient to remain with analytical meditation. We've either been talking in our head all day long as it is, even if that talk is virtuous contemplation. I would like to share a couple point that you might find helpful for increasing the vibration of your virtuous experiences.
It is really important to learn how to stop making strong distinctions between mundane life/spiritual life, worldly activity/spiritual activity, formal meditation/meditation break. Our sadhana, though the term generally refers to the prayers we recite or the booklet, it specifically means 'a method of transformation' and refers to transforming our entire experience 24/7 into sadhana. Our entire life needs to become spiritual training through being methodical, mindful, and considering how everything has spiritual value for us.
Now I don't want to hear again from dsiluvu about how everyone isn't at that level...of course that is the case, but through a methodical application of techniques we can increase our mindfulness and deepen our familiarity so that such things become habitual. Which brings me to the first point:
Being methodical
At the beginning of the day, or the night before, we should decide our main emphasis for the day, our main practice, and even consider what we will be doing throughout the day and how this main practice might be remembered or incorporated into what we're doing.
It is also helpful to make a list of our daily commitments and perform the majority of them together in the same sequence. For example, yoga of rising, yoga of experiencing nectar, yoga of washing, mantra purifying speech of the day, virtue multiplying mantra, mantra multiplying effects of mantra, our mantra commitments, lamrim with sadhana and so forth up to concluding mantra purifying the speech of the day, dedication, the yoga of sleeping, dream yogas etc.
Signs
Geshe Chekawa said to 'Train in every activity by words'. This means we need to come up with thought forms that become a mantra for us like 'my life is almost over', and to also place note reminders around like on the computer, in the car, by the stove. Having certain jewelry is helpful for this too.
6 session yoga
When we receive initiation we have a commitment to do what is called 6 Session Guru Yoga, breaking the day into 6 parts, such as 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 11pm, 3am. These 6 times, which we can set an alarm for or put signs up to remind us, are like main pivot points or rest stops to gather ourself and rejuvenate our mindfulness. By breaking the day up like this, our mind will not be far from virtue. Here's what happens in practice - we set the alarms and put up signs. Then, we begin to find ourself checking to see if its time yet. As you know, NOW is always the time, so at that moment you checked you do the 6 session yoga or recall whatever it is you meant to recall. You will begin to find yourself checking a bunch of times to see if its time yet and now is always the time so you are generating mindfulness much more frequently than 6 times. Pretty soon the signs aren't needed and your whole life becomes a constant stream of mindfulness of virtuous realities. Methodical leads to Familiarity.
Feeling vs. Thinking
It is important to learn to feel our virtuous minds and practices; embody them. Constantly thinking becomes an obstacle. For example, thinking 'this person is my mother; these people are my mothers' needs to elicit a feeling that is a conviction. Initially, you are making a conceptual association between the appearance of others and the conviction they are your mothers. Gradually though, you need to learn to rest your thoughts and mantra chatter into the conviction beyond conceptual thought, just feeling that they are your mothers.
This applies to many things. When we train in the first bringing of deity yoga for example, we need to eventually just know the 4 points without having to think them or constantly talk to ourself listing them off. When we meditate on the nature of mind by first contemplating the definition and analogies of mind such as a pond and bubbles or waves and an ocean, we may think these things and even see them in our visualization, but we need to settle into the actual experience these things are pointing at. These things aren't difficult and don't necessarily have to take a long time. We just need to remember that the thoughts and phrases and pointing out instructions are meant to elicit a feeling, conviction, or experience that we need to rest in without further thinking or recitation.
Conclusion
I have shared these blessings from my Gurus because I know alot of people waste their time. I know from speaking with people, but mainly because I have wasted so much of my life being distracted and not being methodical. The years fly by so quickly until finally it really is too late and we're on to the next life full of constant suffering. Please be careful with the precious opportunity you've been given by the Guru and your past self; the opportunity to achieve permanent liberation from suffering. As Heruka Pabonkhapa Rinpoche says in Heart Spoon: "it's not only time, it's almost too late".
I dedicate my merit of giving to the temporary and permanent happiness of all.
