The Power of Meditation

In his book, "Mass Dreams of the Future," Chet B. Snow, Ph.D. tells how in 1978 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gathered meditators at different Tehran hotels during the height of the Iranian revolutionary street fighting. The purpose was to raise the spiritual vibrations of peace and positive
social change.

"For three months, totally unknown to anyone outside the T.M. organization, groups ranging from 30 to 200 meditators met together in various spots around the city. Day after day during this time it was conclusively demonstrated that there was less fighting and fewer casualties in the immediate vicinity around where the groups meditated than either before or after."

There is power in meditation. The Dalai Lama meditates four hours a day. Even Mother Teresa insisted that her Missionaries of Charity found time for meditation every day. She said she could not have done her difficult work without daily meditation.

In her book, "The Ecstatic Journey," Sophy Burnham tells the following story:

Ram Dass was once giving a talk about his experiences in India. An old lady in the first row kept nodding and smiling in assent, the wooden cherries on her hat bobbing up and down. His vanity was pricked. How did she know about the esoteric things he's spent years studying? At the end of the lecture, she went up to him.

"I enjoyed your talk."

"How do you know so much about meditation?" he asked.

"Oh," she confided, "I crochet."

Meditation doesn't have to be formal. You mentally disappear into something as quietly involving as crocheting. I disappear into slow walking along the beach at low tide.

But if you prefer a more formal approach, Burnham tells of Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who teaches crowds of disciples at Plum Village in France, to repeat an entire sentence to yourself.

Breathing in, I calm my body.
Breathing out I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment,
I know this is a wonderful moment.