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Greetings everyone. I am wondering if its recommended to change up the length of time that you sit regularly. I have been sitting for 30 minutes daily for about two weeks. If this has been asked before I apologize. I did a search and came up with nothing.
It is good that you are sitting, but no need to sit longer then 30mins at a time. If you are, time to get up and take the benefits of Shikintaza off the cushion and out into the world. =)
You can always sit more then once through out your day. Some folks will sit both in the morning and evening or just a different times of the day. Also, sometimes it is the quality of your zazen then the quantity ... just my two cents. =)
It's really good to know that about 30 min. is okay--CSC_0045.jpgfor Shikantaza is about right--sometimes I've thought upwards of an hour was better, and I appreciate the comment about taking it out into the world--this is the beginning of photography season, time for one of my passions
I'm not sure what happened, but I posted an agreement about 30 min. for sitting, downloaded a new photo, and everything was lost--I agree about 30 min, sometimes day and or evening. But what happened to my photo?
My apology--still learning--hope you like my photo.
A couple friends of mine have come back from a Goenka Vipassana course.
They recommend 2 one hour sits, one in the morning and one at night.
They are both bleary eyed and get frustrated when they can't meet the expectations.
I tell them- get into Zazen, only 30 minutes once a day.
then practice life for the rest of the day.
Zazen is not a matter of long or short. One must sit dropping all measure, tasting in one's bones that every single instant of Zazen is all time (and all timeless too)! One must sit throwing the clock away!
And yet ... and yet ... (Zen guys often speak out of both sides of their no sided mouth, with seemingly contradictory yet simultaneously true ways to measure things) ... and yet ...
We recommend the following (from our "We're All Always Beginners" series, please give that a watch), at least 15 minutes a day ... but that's not all ...
The most important point is to be consistent about doing all of the above each day.
Also, although sitting is not about "attaining" or "measure" ... it is sometimes important to head to Retreat/Sesshin (if physically able) to wrestle long and hard seeking to attain that "nonattaining"! I just posted about that here:
I think 30 minutes is a pretty nice time. If you have only been sitting for a couple of weeks, I think you should first make zazen part of your daily habits.
Why don't you stick with 30 minutes until Ango, in September. Then you'll be pretty comfortable with that time and you'll be able to rise your time limit along with us all.
I don’t know where exactly I picked it up but over the years I heard/read different sources claiming 20 minutes as being the time needed for certain changes to happen in the brain - I think thats about calming, quieting, lowering anxiety levels and the like which I realize is not what we seek/non-seek in shikantaza, but well, sought after or not it seems there are actual neurological changes in that length of sitting time.
These days I sit mornings and evenings 30mins, more that that just becomes torture due to painfully stiffening muscles.
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One must sit throwing the clock away! 
I just posted about that here:
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