The first time I heard about meditation, it sounded like a foreign concept to me. I could understand prayer — that was talking to God. It made sense. But people said meditation was important too. Someone told me, "That's when you're being quiet, so God can talk to you."
Over the years, I've been exposed to different kinds of meditation. There's walking meditation, reading out of a meditation book, and meditation where we sit on the floor with our legs crossed and eyes closed while chanting om.
I still feel intimidated when other people ask me about meditation. It's one of those things I don't feel I do enough, and when I do, I have a lingering sense that I'm not doing it right. But if you ask me whether I try to spend time quieting myself, getting centered, becoming relieved of my own tiresome, worrisome, obsessive thoughts each day, the answer is absolutely yes.
I started my meditation practice by reading daily out of a little black book called Twenty-Four Hours a Day. After spending several years with that, I switched to God Calling.
As time went on, I began to study different, more formalized practices. The martial art I study, aikido, is considered a walking and moving meditation. It's also considered a spiritual martial art. Meditation practice is part of training. As a result of that art, I learned to sit on the floor, with legs crossed and eyes shut, and be quiet for a while. In the beginning, five minutes was about my limit fro sitting still. After that, I'd start opening my eyes and peeking around the room to see what other people were doing.
Later on, I added yoga to my repertoire of meditative practices. It's a workout, but it's also spiritually-centering and includes meditation. I was intimidated for years about trying yoga. It was another one of those things I was certain I couldn't do well enough. I thought it was one of those things for other people, but not for me. Eventually I found myself in a class. I found people of all age groups stretching, trying to hold poses, doing the best they could.
I've sat in the pyramids of Egypt and meditated. I've sat next to the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee with eyes closed, trying to be quiet. I've sat next to the sacred Mount Kailesh in Tibet, cross-legged, eyes closed, holding the pose for almost an hour. Sometimes when I close my eyes. I pray. Sometimes I try to focus on a meditative thought. Usually I try to focus on breathing and being as still as I can.
I'm not sure that it matters where or how we meditate, or whether we cross our legs, chant om, or read an idea out of a book. The important idea with meditation is this: Be still so we can hear god
