As anyone who has tried it knows, holding the mind upon a single point of focus is extremely difficult to maintain for any length of time. Indeed, most beginners in meditation tend to get frustrated by their apparent inability to concentrate. What they forget is that it is the nature of the mind to wander. Like a naughty puppy, the mind requires to be trained - and meditation is the lead that you place around its neck, gently guiding the puppy back whenever it wanders away. By this process, the puppy soon learns to spend more time where you want it to be until eventually it will remain 'at heel' to command. As in all forms of human endeavour, persistence and systematic practice are necessary. This is obvious when applied to the likes of gymnasts and pianists who are training their bodies to perform a specific function, but training the mind requires the same self-disciplined approach. Nor can it be achieved by strain and physical effort, which serve only to create tensions. The power to meditate comes from the will and this power strengthens greatly within us as meditation develops. But as with the gymnast and the pianist, it is not just the end product that is important: there is enormous joy and love to be experienced in the progressive expansion of consciousness that is the hallmark of yogic development. Once we have been able to make contact with our deeper spiritual levels, we can start to tap the fountain of bliss that is our birthright. From then on, meditation is no longer a discipline but an intense joy and becomes as fundamental to our daily needs as eating and sleeping.

For the beginner, what is most important is to hold tight to the underlying principle of mental stillness, because this is all we actually ever need to develop. As the Bhagavad Gita says so poignantly "In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the Self reveals itself ", a direct parallel to the Biblical "Be still and know that I am God". We do not need to intellectualize spiritual growth, which blossoms naturally from within. But it is only when we learn to calm the emotions and quieten the constant chatter of the mind that our inner Divine guidance can be heard and our higher faculties emerge.