Preparation-Meditation

[terence129]

A suggestion:
After fifty years of two half hours per day, it has occurred to me ,that a fresh appraoch to the half hour could be of value ?
this is in no way to propose any change to the actual practice of the half hour but to approach the half hour, some how ' out of habit '
In some ways for myself this has become, at times something of a holy exercise, then at other times it is taken over by habit.

Cleansing the body, music,a reading from Good Company, at random, posture, breathing, opening the attention to the sounds around, feeling the place that we are in.

It feels that we have such a precious gift...we have been given a precious gift.

[Dots]

Terence129 asked about preparation for Meditation:

The Shankaracharya said there is no need for any preparation as the Meditation is a preparation in itself but he also said that if someone found something useful/helpful (like music) in the minutes before one's half hour, then that was acceptable. It may be that different things may work at different times - someone found it very helpful to wash his face and clean his teeth before meditating, another used a few simple physical excercises if they were rather tired in order to stimulate the bloodflow, so avoiding going to sleep. You seem to have found various ways of avoiding the 'habitual' and have the right attitude. Approaching anything with gratitude is a good attitude to have.