Is longer meditation better, if it is consistently done every day?

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Ground

Maybe it is better to go back one step because I did not make clear what caused my remark.
you said:

which made me wonder what you are suggesting with 'understand the struggles they tend to enter into' in the context of meditation. And I interpreted this to mean that you are suggesting a kind of insight to be made through meditation. But if that is what you are suggesting then I have to wonder 'why insight?' and I thought that actually you suggested a change through insight and thus a change through meditation and such kind of change is what I am denying in the context of meditation ... or to put it more clearly: at least a permanent change is what I am denying not a temporary change during the meditation session which I likened to vacation.

In a nutshell, insight is a learning which is transformative, which is different kind of learning to the acquirement of knowledge.

[Ground]

Originally Posted by sky123

You don't have to remain in the Class Room to benefit from the teachings.

Considering that to which this is your reply the meaning is 'you don't have to permanently stay in meditation to benefit from it.'
yes, if you are fixated on the ordinary way of experiencing and take that for 'reality' and if then you experience some 'new' mode of experiencing through applying special meditation techniques then you may benefit through learning that the mode of experiencing is relative and should not be confused with reality.

[Ground]

Originally Posted by Gem

In a nutshell, insight is a learning which is transformative, which is different kind of learning to the acquirement of knowledge.

But that alleged insight is something that happens during meditation and thus depends on the mode of experiencing in meditation. So it is relative and not valid for the mode of experiencing outside of meditation session.

I do not have the issue with the word 'knowledge' that you seem to have.

[markings]

Originally Posted by TristanSynth

I think of it like music practice. If two different musicians practice at the same quality, every day, but the 2nd musician practices longer than the 1st, the 2nd musician will learn more.

This is not true. It comes from the belief that things happen in practice only.
However, stuff still happens in the rest periods, some people say the most important stuff happens in the off-period.
This has been recognized in athletics where interval training has become the most common used method of training.

I am sure that everyone has had experiences where practicing just doesn't bring anything. So we stop, but when they come back to it next day something magical seems to have happened and everything falls into place.
This is because things continue to happen even after we stop practising.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Ground

But that alleged insight is something that happens during meditation and thus depends on the mode of experiencing in meditation. So it is relative and not valid for the mode of experiencing outside of meditation session.

I do not have the issue with the word 'knowledge' that you seem to have.

Yes. Insight is likely to occur during meditation if a person is paying attention to what's happening in themselves. I find this isn't considered meditation because it seems to me that people want meditation to other than 'this'.

[TristanSynth]

Originally Posted by markings

This is not true. It comes from the belief that things happen in practice only.
However, stuff still happens in the rest periods, some people say the most important stuff happens in the off-period.
This has been recognized in athletics where interval training has become the most common used method of training.

I am sure that everyone has had experiences where practicing just doesn't bring anything. So we stop, but when they come back to it next day something magical seems to have happened and everything falls into place.
This is because things continue to happen even after we stop practicing.

But you've overlooked one important factor. You're resting the entire time you're not practicing. So if a musician practices for 30 min a day, he's resting for 23 and a half hours. If a musician practices for 4 hours a day, he's still resting for 20 hours that day. Do you believe the musician who practices for 30 minutes a day will learn more than the musician who practices for 4 hours a day because he rested more? Practice and rest are both very important, but you don't need to rest until you have actually done some work. Matter of fact, I would go so far as to say resting is useless until you've put in some form of work. The more work the better, as long as you get your required rest.

[Ground]

Originally Posted by Gem

Yes. Insight is likely to occur during meditation if a person is paying attention to what's happening in themselves. I find this isn't considered meditation because it seems to me that people want meditation to other than 'this'.

So this insight it is just an event occuring in the mode of meditation like you are seeing different landcapes when being abroad in vacation. When vacation is over and you're back home nothing has changed besides that you know that there are different landscapes abroad.
Confusion occurs when one takes that insight as truth because it is not true but only a relative event.

[markings]

Originally Posted by TristanSynth

But you've overlooked one important factor. You're resting the entire time you're not practicing. So if a musician practices for 30 min a day, he's resting for 23 and a half hours. If a musician practices for 4 hours a day, he's still resting for 20 hours that day. Do you believe the musician who practices for 30 minutes a day will learn more than the musician who practices for 4 hours a day because he rested more? Practice and rest are both very important, but you don't need to rest until you have actually done some work. Matter of fact, I would go so far as to say resting is useless until you've put in some form of work. The more work the better, as long as you get your required rest.

Practicing for an hour may be more beneficial than half an hour but as with anything there is the principle of diminishing returns and more practice can even become counter productive.
The principle if interval training is not (illustrative times in brackets) one of activity (60min), then stop or rest (23h) and repeat the next day.
It is activity (2 min), then rest (1 min), then activity (2 min), then rest (1 min), then activity (2 min), then rest (1 min), and so on for a specific period, let's say an hour or two. Then one repeats this the next day.
The idea is that 30 min of this interval training activity brings greater benefits than let's say 2 hours of normal training.

[TristanSynth]

Originally Posted by markings

Practicing for an hour may be more beneficial than half an hour but as with anything there is the principle of diminishing returns and more practice can even become counter productive.
The principle if interval training is not (illustrative times in brackets) one of activity (60min), then stop or rest (23h) and repeat the next day.
It is activity (2 min), then rest (1 min), then activity (2 min), then rest (1 min), then activity (2 min), then rest (1 min), and so on for a specific period, let's say an hour or two. Then one repeats this the next day.
The idea is that 30 min of this interval training activity brings greater benefits than let's say 2 hours of normal training.

Then naturally, 1 hour of interval training is more productive than 30 minutes of interval training. Even the figure of interval training displays the significance of activity vs. rest. High Intensity Interval Training is more productive than Basic Interval Training, because you work longer and harder than you rest. I understand interval training well enough, as I use it as a method of music practice. It's how I know that more work, balanced with rest, is always more productive than less work. Whatever the case, it is imperative that you work for a certain amount of time, and rest for a certain amount of time in proportion to how much you worked. Overworking is counterproductive and over resting is unproductive.

But the person who does 1 set of 100 pushups a day, and the person who does 10 sets of 10 pushups a day, will still be strong than the person who does 1 set of 10 pushups a day. As for diminishing returns; You won't have any returns in the first place if you're not doing any of the work because you're "resting" all day.

[TristanSynth]

Markings, thank you for the dialogue, as it has helped me sort out an answer to the OP. It looks like I've been thinking of meditation the wrong way. I've been thinking of meditation as work, when I'm supposed to be thinking of meditation as rest. But thanks to our conversation, I was able to develop a discernment between the two. The point of meditation is still an overactive mind, quiet down a noisy conscience, and rest an overworked spirit. Since the mind is working all day every day, it's important that it gets it's rest.

Thanks everyone for sharing!