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HOW TO MEDITATE

Do you want to increase your intuition? First you must quiet the mind. Grow still. One way to do this is to practice meditation. Meditation brings three things:

First it brings peace and calm. Second it brings laser-sharp concentration and intuition. You know things. Third, if you wish it, it leads to the direct experience of God. There are many forms of meditation: Weeding the garden can be a form of meditation; knitting, running, rowing—any quiet, repetitive, mind-calming activity can be considered meditation.

Everything in our culture, however, is designed to keep you in a rushed and churning state of mind: cell phones, iPods, blogs, e-mails, children, the stress and pressure of work, faxes, phones, bills, banking, red tape . . . How hard it is to find a moment’s peace! In the beginning you should practice meditating for only five or ten minutes at a time. That will be hard enough.

Sit comfortably in a chair. (You don’t have to be cross-legged on the floor.) Your back is straight, your head parallel to the ceiling, your chin neither tucked tight nor lifted up in such a way that you put pressure on the back of your neck. You feel easy, floating on your sit bones.

Take a breath. Scan your body, and wherever you feel discomfort, breath out with awareness into that place.

Now put a smile on your face.

Focus your attention gently on your nostrils and watch your breath: in . . . out ... you count. In . . . out . . . Instantly your mind will leap off to a thought, a doubt. It can’t stand to be trapped, chained, restrained. Gently bring your attention back to your breath: in . . . out . . . Remember to smile. This is beautiful.

All you are doing is witnessing yourself, observing. You take two breaths. Your mind runs off, and it may take you a few moments to realize you’re lost in planning or daydreaming or making lists or remembering something that happened yesterday. Don’t be upset. Planning—you name the action of your mind, or it may be dreaming, judging, remembering, analyzing. Or perhaps it’s an emotion that carried you away. Notice and name it: fear, worry, anxiety, jealousy, anger, resentment, compassion, joy, happiness, criticizing, boredom, desire for a cup of tea. Always, go back to your breath. If it is a physical sensation that captured your attention, you name that, too—pain, pressure, prickling, tickling, itching, soreness—and once more, without judgment or dismay, return your awareness to this present moment. For the breath is the only thing we know to be true, this moment, this one breath.

At the end of five or ten minutes, stop.

Give thanks, get up, and go about your day, refreshed.

Gradually, as your mind learns to slow down, become alert and aware, you will increase the period to twenty minutes once a day and then, if you wish, to two sessions, morning and evening, and you’ll look forward to these periods of relief.

Don’t worry. Be at peace. What you are doing is mind training, and, like training a puppy, it takes time. Within a week, you may build up enough strength to remain in meditation for ten or twelve minutes, but there’s no hurry. Soon your jumpy, frantic mind will come to love this period of rest and will settle instantly into peace. At this point you may want to remain in meditation for longer periods—an hour, two. But you don’t need to meditate for more than twenty minutes at a time. Soon—quickly—your intuition will sharpen. You know how to do things that previously baffled you. You solve problems during meditation: how to speak to your children, what question to ask the accountant, when and how to present an idea to your boss.

Meditation opens the gateway to your inner wisdom.

Be grateful.

Be easy.

Be at peace.