What you're really talking about here is scale, as far as I can tell: your advice is that one should plan for the period defined as ango but any more is "more than enough." What is enough? What is more? Did/do you approach precept study and commitments in the same way? What about sitting? Is 20 minutes enough? 45 too much? :?
All this concern about planning and commitment is curious to me. I mean, I get it: Zen is about the this here & now. But everyone plans, like it or not; as Jundo is often saying, life forces planning upon us and we are forever finding the middle path through these seeming contradictions -- it's the stuff of Zen.
And, let's face it, all of us are doing it to some extent -- or else we wouldn't be in some more or less arbitrary time period called "ango"!
The debate about how much or little is enough reminds me of
an old Winston Churchill joke:
Quote:
At a dinner party Churchill says to his dinner companion, "Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?"
The woman responds, "My goodness, Mr. Churchill. I suppose I would."
Churchill replies, "Would you sleep with me for five pounds?"
She answers, "Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?"
Churchill answers, "Madam, we've already established that. Now we are haggling about the price."
Too much planning, too little planning; one person's commitment is another person's speculation; what's enough, what's more than enough: it seems to me that we're haggling about the price.
Me? I'm grateful for this ango, my commitment to which has required me to confront some resistances (that meal gatha!) and embrace new routines that are ennobling my practice. Not giving anyone else advice, mind you, but that's a level of commitment I'm glad to extend. Yes, into the unknowable future!
Gassho for this interesting discussion, which I hadn't planned for! :D