What a noble question You’ve posed! By choosing to ask it, You have taken a courageous step along the path of healing, peace, and transformation—a step, not only for yourself, but for that of the world around You. By your willingness to continue your spiritual journey in such a way, You have opened the door that leads to liberation and true happiness. You have my gratitude.

When your world is more at peace, everyone’s world is more at peace—my own included. How beautiful that we can so easily gift one another such happiness! What’s more, these gifts are available to us right now. In fact, that’s the only time they’re available to us—right here, right now. Meditation helps us cultivate the necessary mindfulness, concentration, and insight to be truly present and alive. It allows us to deeply touch the wondrous, healing, and refreshing elements inside us, and around us, and offers us peace in the present moment, here and now, while our lives are happening.

To paraphrase the Buddha, we must “learn the art of stopping.” When we slow down enough to meet ourselves, when we show up for our appointment with life, then, and only then are we truly alive. And where else are we able to find ourselves but where we are—right here, right now?

For a moment, pause to realize that You’re breathing. Let your awareness move away from these words for a moment and recognize your own breath. You might even like to put your hand against your abdomen or chest and feel your breath physically. Close your eyes if You wish, and just be in touch with that for a moment. What a miracle it is that we are breathing! And what a miracle it is that You may have just meditated for the first time.

Many teachers over thousands of years, including the Buddha, have endeavored to describe the practice and purpose of meditation, each one in their own way. They have done so addressing different audiences in different languages all over the world, in diverse cultures, with unique customs, governments, and concepts of Buddhism, all at different stages in their own spiritual journeys. Centuries of teachings have been offered, and with this explanation, i am continuing to do the same. i am addressing a culture, lifestyle, audience, country, government, and century far different than that of the Buddha’s. Yet, in many ways, completely alike. In our hearts, minds, and spirits, you and i experience the same suffering the Buddhas students experienced 2600 years ago. It means the same to be human now as it did then. This commonality of suffering and an impelling aspiration to alleviate and transform that suffering in yourself and others is undoubtedly the reason why You’ve come to ask the question, “What is meditation, and how do i do it?”

i will do my best to answer. First, however, i want to invite You to come practice with us. There is nothing so powerful as to practice with others, and no better way to learn. It is my experience that meditation is not something “learnable,” rather, it is something that is only “experienceable.” Your presence is a gift, one by which, we too, would be nourished and enriched.

i’m going to offer You a meditation that can be done in ten breaths. Once You begin, You may find that You wish to take many more than ten, i just want You to know that it can be done in as few as ten. If You’re anything like i was when i started, You might be questioning whether You can even sit still long enough to meditate at all. That’s why i’m offering it to You this way. Ten breaths is doable, and it’s doable for everyone.

This exercise helps us to simply be wherever we are. We’re really only asked to do three things: still our body, breathe in and out, and silently say these few sentences to ourself—no pass or fail, no good or bad, no better than or worse than, only the noble practice of being present. In fact, that is one way i might, in our new culture, with its different customs, languages, and concepts of Buddhism, describe meditation—the noble practice of being present.

Skip Ewing,

True Lotus Door