Basics of 9 sec Practice

• Flexibility -- the notion of 9 seconds is a guide line and  not a strict instruction.

from: 2008.09.04 01:00 - PaB T-Shirt or Tattoo?

Pema Pera: Rowan, what is your sense, have you enjoyed playing with it too?
Rowan Masala: I’ve had some trouble feeling like I’m able to really let go that quickly, so I’ve been using more extended pauses, but I’m trying to shorten them now, to get to the point at which I can do it in a few seconds
Fael Illyar: When I started, I did the pause for as long a I felt necessary. It naturally got faster as I did it more.
Rowan Masala: that’s good to hear, encouraging
Pema Pera: and there is no need to strive for perfection
Pema Pera: just letting go a little bit is good enough!
Fael Illyar: no point looking at the clock for exactly how long it takes :)
Fael Illyar: that’s not a true pause if you do that :)

• From the log "Lab Journal Notes", 2008, May 17,

Pema Pera: ...I’m happy to talk more about this 9-sec practice, very briefly,after learning to meditate, the most difficult thing is then to integrate what you learned into daily life. We put things here in the other order. We start by integrating (almost nothing) and then take it from there.
Integration is by paying a 1 % time tax:every fifteen minutes (900 seconds) we spend 9 seconds dropping what we have in order to see what we are. That’s all.
Pema Pera: basically, I want to let everybody free to do what they want. The frequency is more important than the actual content of the practice
Pema Pera: but if people ask me for advice, for suggestions,I can come up with many ideas, like taking a breath, looking around, dropping what you were preoccupied with, and seeing whether you can open up in a natural way, or you can chant a brief mantra, if that is your practice, or anything else.
Jack Milgrom: So its mainly shifting your perception away from what occupies most of our time?
Pema Pera: yes, Jack, sort of like shooting holes in the cover we have all put over reality, letting the light of a wider perspective shine in.

• Maxine's excerpt from "Simplity", April 14, Monday

Pema Pera: While 9 seconds is very short, seemingly laughably short compared to usual contemplation techniques, it does have the advantage of already being integrated with daily life
... the very fact that you come back to it every fifteen minutes does not give you a chance to drift away and forget about it altogether
... and when you keep doing it, you will find that the practice colors the remaining 891 seconds of the quarter of an hour as well

• from: 2008.08.20 13:00 - Gathering of the great and good

Pema Pera: have you ever tried to jot down some brief notes, while doing the 9 sec practice?
Quilty Bookmite: No.
Pema Pera: it may be fun to do. I know it sounds almost silly, to "meditate" for nine seconds, and then to even write down something about that . . . .
Pema Pera: . . . but still, until you try, you won't know!
Pema Pera: The idea is not to think about it
Pema Pera: but more spontaneously just to express yourself
Pema Pera: a word, a few words, anything brief
Quilty Bookmite: I can certainly try. It does seem a short time for anything to come up, especially when I am used to meditating for longer periods.
Pema Pera: That's the delight of it -- it almost shouldn't work, and yet it does!    

• From the log "Space", April 9
  

Pema Pera: to let reality speak for itself
Pema Pera: the Universe, Being
Pema Pera: whatever term you like to use as a pointer

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Caledonia Heron: acceptance and observance of that allows for an open space to operate from
Caledonia Heron: perhaps where space is alive :)
Pema Pera: yes indeed!
Pema Pera: to let go of our own intentions and goals and plans is so important  

•  From the log "Why Write?", April 12

Pema Pera: here goes: we are poking holes in our habitually limited view of the world
Pema Pera: with those 9-sec tricks 

• From the log "Simplicity, April 15

Pema Pera: seeing is simple, integration in daily life can take infinite shades and colors
Pema Pera: Here is a suggestion, for the time in between the 9 seconds windows: how about simply trying to stay more with what is, rather than with what you have — do you think that idea is compact and portable enough to carry along with you during the remaining almost-15 min-interval?
Maxine Walden: please say a bit more,
Pema Pera: the first step in the 9-sec practice is simply to remember to do it — to stop and do anything at all
Maxine Walden: yes, that is clear
Pema Pera: the second step is to become comfortable with it, with taking a breath, relaxing, dropping the momentum of what you were doing, and taking a short note
Maxine Walden: dropping the momentum…that seems important and I will try to look to it
Pema Pera: but then third step, which we haven’t really talked about yet, is the question of how to let these source of inspiration inundate the plains of the remaining 891 seconds ^^