Attend the Wednesday evening Orientation (offered weekly) or Sunday morning orientation (offered once per month) You will receive basic instruction and an orientation manual.
Attend a weekly sitting.

Look over the Reading List in the Orientation Manual and also resources on RMI website. Read and study to supplement your understanding and practice of the Path.

Take an Introduction class, followed by a Four Noble Truths class.
Intro classes tend to be offered three or four times a year. Four Noble Truths classes tend to be offered twice a year.

Establish a daily practice of meditation. Organize your life around your meditation.

Begin with a 20 minute sitting period, focusing on ana pana sati. Mindfulness of breathing. (If you are already sitting longer, stick with that). You may choose to do a bit of yoga, stretching, movement, or walking meditation (either quickly or slowly) prior to sitting. This helps to create and build energy to sustain your sitting. Listening to music is not appropriate for this type of meditation. Stick with silence.

Experiment with finding your prime times for meditation. If first thing in the a.m. is best you may need to insure this time by choosing to go to bed a half hour earlier.

Create an inviting space in which to meditate. You may choose to light a candle and or a stick of incense to set the tone, and as an invitation to your meditation. Creating a “sacred” place in your environment is supportive to helping you sustain a daily meditation practice, but is not “required.”

After two or three months, shift to meditating for 30 minutes once or twice per day. Add Sweeping Meditation to your practice. (See Dharma store for Sweeping Meditation) At six months (if not before) shift to a 45 minute sitting practice.

Attend a weekly sitting. This is one of the best ways to establish your regular practice. There is a palpable support that comes with sitting in a group.

Make a commitment and stick with it. Schedule your meditation in your day planner, on the calendar.

Look at your schedule and see if you can find just 15 to 20 minutes to start with. It can mean getting up just a little earlier if you are a morning person. It can be during a work break or in the evening at least an hour after supper when things quiet down. Whenever you choose, commit to starting with a short period and then gradually increase it. Consider sitting longer on the weekends when your schedule is more relaxed.

Begin by anchoring your awareness in your breath either at the diaphragm area or the tip of your nose. Remain here, gently bringing your mind back to the breath when it wanders. When thoughts and emotions either tap you on the shoulder or yank at you, label them “thinking” or “bored” or “restless” or “irritated” or “sad”. You may note that they are related to the past or future, and you can label this too. Then tell them you will give them attention after your meditation, letting them fall to the background of your awareness. Bring your awareness back to your breath, sensing its coming and going, just like your thoughts and emotions.

It is not uncommon to experience some physical pain while sitting, especially in the beginning, but further along as well. Eventually physical pain is no longer the primary focus of your meditation (unless you have a chronic physically painful illness) and you develop the skills listed below, to address it when it does arise. The skills listed below are useful for chronic pain as well.

1. Check your posture. Relax into your posture, even as you maintain it. If sitting cross-legged on a cushion, experiment with the height of the cushion. Make sure your weight is centered over your sitting bones. (This holds true if you are sitting in a chair, feet flat on the ground, spine free from the back of the chair.) Make sure head is balanced on your neck and shoulders, underside of chin parallele to the floor.)

Imagine a string at the crown of your head and give a little tug upward toward the ceiling, on that string. This elongates your spinal column. Whatever your hand position, drop your weight into your elbows. This releases tension in the shoulders. Notice if you are holding tension in the backs of your thighs and let it release. Notice if you are holding tension in your face. Specifically take note of your jaws, your eyeballs, your forehead and temples. Wherever you find tension, allow it to dissolve.

2. Do your best to remain still. If you need to move in order to adjust your posture, do so with awareness. Hold the movement in the light of your attention, as you make the adjustment. In this way you maintain mindfulness, sustaining your attention. This, in contrast to moving without awareness, results in feeding restlessness, of the body and the mind, as you attempt to move away from the discomfort.

3. Shift your attention to the location of the pain. Without forcing your breath, focus on the outbreath. Imagine exhaling out through the exact locale of the painful sensation.

4. Pick the strongest location of where you are experiencing the pain. (You may have competing areas of the body). Allow your attention to reside there. Relate to the pain as sensation. Familiarize yourself with the exact nature of the sensation. What is its size? Shape? If it could hold water, how much water would it hold? What is the qualitity of the sensation? Is it dull, sharp, throbbing, intermittent? And do nothing else.

Notice what you notice. Be with your experience exactly as it is. Match your awareness exactly with the sensation itself. What happens as a result? No two things can occupy the same space. Simply notice, and continue.

5. Cultivate and master the practice of Sweeping Meditation. (put a link to In This Very Body).

Work with the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, in successive order, i.e. starting with the First Foundation. It may take you a year to work through the Four Foundations on a practice level, as there are a number of components in the First Foundation, Contemplation of the Body, and a number of components in the Fourth Foundation.

Maintain a meditation journal if you are so inclined. Journal your experiences. Note insights, small medium and large.

Schedule monthly interviews with an RMI teacher. These interviews are offered on a donation basis. Share your meditation experiences. Get your questions answered. Come away with specific guidance tailored especially for you which not only addresses where you are in your practice, but also provides next steps to take, to guide you in your development. (You may also schedule interviews prior to this to help you establish your practice!)

Attend further classes offered by RMI. Four Divine Abidings is a great class to attend as well as the Four Divine Abiding Friday noon bimonthly guided meditation.

Attend weekend and ten day Vipassana, as well as Vipassana and Jhana retreats.
Further study.
Consistent practice.
Continued interviews with teacher.