A lot of folks ask me what to do to start meditating, and complain about having difficulty doing so. I'd like to describe an exercise here that is easy and can be used both by someone who has never done anything like this before as well as someone who is quite accomplished at it.

Here are a few observations that I think are important to mention with all of this. You will find your mind wandering here and there, telling you all sorts of things, distracting you with such and such and so and so. That's the nature of your mind, and that's okay. Simply acknowledge it and GENTLY direct your attention back to the exercise you are doing. You may hear noises outside, in other parts of the house, traffic on the street, telephone ringing, television or radio from the next door neighbors clambering for attention. That's okay. Simply acknowledge it's existence and GENTLY direct your attention back to the exercise you are doing. If things get too complex, simply go back to the most basic and simple part of the exercise and do that. After a while you won't find these things to be distracting any more.

There is no success or failure in these exercises. It's simply experience. There is no goal other than to just do it. Your object is not to go into a trance, although it's not wrong if you do so, and it's not wrong if you go into a trance before you start the exercise. Simply experience!

I'll try to make this really easy.

1. Select a time of day to do this exercise and try to stick to doing it at that time. Please don't worry about it if you miss the time, and don't decide to do it twice as long the next day to make up. That will simply cause you to have an overload, decide not to do it at all, and quit. Instead say to yourself "Ok, I missed my time. Big Deal. I'll do it (on my lunch break, after I get home from work, when I wake up from this nap, when this TV show is over, when the kids go to bed," etc.)

2. Sit in a comfortable straight backed chair (sorry to disappoint those who want to get out of it by saying they can't sit in a Full Lotus position ), with your back against the back of the chair and your feet flat on the floor, your right palm laying flat on your right thigh and your left palm laying flat on your left thigh. Keep your spine and neck in a straight line. One way to do this is to imagine a line going from the center of the earth straight up, through your spine and neck and straight out into space.

3. Use a timer, like a kitchen timer, and set it for a few minutes. I'd suggest five minutes to start. Later as you feel more comfortable with it add longer times. I like to advance by five minutes each time I add time. There is no rush on extending the time. Think of it like jogging. If you start jogging you probably will give up if you try to run 10 miles right off the bat. Instead run until you know you need to stop, without over extending yourself. You'll gradually go further and further.

There is a special way of breathing that I've found to be extremely helpful in all of these exercises. It's called "pursed lip breathing." The way it is done is to breathe in through your nose, then out through your mouth pursing your lips just a little like you are starting to blow out a candle. Breathe out through your mouth roughly twice as long as you breathe in. It is important not to strain yourself when either inhaling or exhaling. Do Not fill your lungs as much as possible, and Do Not breathe all of the air out of your lungs. Just take normal breaths except for the exhalation. Among other things this increases the oxygen supply in your blood stream and will help your mind to focus and be more efficient.

4. In the beginning just relax yourself. Be aware of your breathing, but don't pay attention to it other than to acknowledge that you are breathing. Instead be aware of your body. Notice how your feet feel against the floor, Notice how your lower garments feel against your body (if you are wearing any), then your upper garments, and so forth. That's all. Easy. Not a big thing.

5. When that's comfortable for you to do, see if you can "feel" what the inside of your body feels like. Notice the way the blood feels pumping through your body, the way your muscles feel, and so forth. Start with your toes, one at a time. Then work up the inside of your foot, ankle, calf, knee, thigh, butt, then to the other leg following the same pattern. Then do the same with your genitals, your anus, your trunk, from inside. Feel your intestines, your liver, the glands, your stomach, solar plexus, lungs, heart, and so forth. Do the same with your fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, upper arms, shoulders, neck, head and all of it's parts, eyes, tongue, mouth, nose, ears, cheeks, forehead, skull, brain, and so forth.

That may seem difficult to do at first, but it's not really. The only time it's really difficult is when we try to force it to happen. Simply relax and enjoy it. Let your mind wander through your body experiencing each part from the inside. You may not be able to do it all in one sitting when you first start. That's all right. Stop when your set time is up. As you continue practicing you'll find that you can feel that way much faster, and as your practice time extends you will have more time to do it. Soon you'll be able to experience thought and feeling from the inside every part of your body. This is important for a couple of reasons. First it shows you that your consciousness can actually work from any part of your body, not just your head. And second it will give you the ability to work with your entire body.

6. After you are fairly comfortable doing that there are some variations you can do that I've found quite helpful.

The first variation is to simply become aware of your breath, your inhaling and exhaling. Nothing more. To help you with this, simply count your breaths. You could just count one, one, one, one, over and over again if you wanted to. Instead I suggest counting ten breaths and starting over from one. If you loose count, don't worry about it, simply start over with one again. The counting isn't important, it's just an aid to help you keep your attention focused on your breath. Remember the exercise above where you were getting into contact with your body parts? Well here is where you can use it, by getting in contact with your nose, your throat, your lungs, and their functions. So, as you breathe in feel as much as possible the breath entering your nose, following the channel down into your lungs, the oxygen being absorbed and the waste products being removed, and feel as much as possible the air leaving your lungs, up through the channel, and out through your mouth.

After you are comfortable with that one you might want to vary it with a little daydreaming. Pretend there is a big balloon (you choose a color that you are comfortable with) out there in front of you that leads to your nose. That balloon is filled with positive energy, health, "prana", "mana" whatever you want to call it, and all good things. Then imagine that there is a sludge pit far off from you, and from it a connection to your mouth with a one way valve on it only allowing stuff to go from you to the sludge pit and not back. As you inhale through your nose imagine that all of that good positive energy is coming into your body and filling it from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. (See how that body exercise above comes into play?) As you exhale imagine that all the negativity, sickness, bad feelings, and such are flowing out of your mouth, through the tube or hose to the sludge pond to be decomposed and recycled. This one also works beautifully.

I practice one or the other of these exercises every day. I have found that 20 minutes of doing them is as refreshing as a two hour nap. (I've also found that it is helping my lungs too.) Some people tell me that these are excessively simple and don't want to practice them because they think they should be doing something much more advanced. Well, I've been doing them for over 35 years and still find them to be quite valuable. Of course I do other things too, when circumstances are appropriate. But these are my staples, and are prepatory to all of the other things that I do do. I do them in Every "meditation" not just alone.

I hope you find these useful. If you have any questions at all about them, or any comments, or see anything that needs clarification, or are confused about any part of this article please write and say so, and be as specific as you can. I can't make it better unless I know what I've overlooked.