Taken from Karl's Talk on 28th April 2006

Start by sitting up straight in a comfortable chair or sofa. Your feet should both be flat on the floor in front of you with your hands in your lap. Close your eyes. Take three or four deep breaths in through your nose. As you inhale, you may find it helpful to picture a white light coming in with the air and filling your entire body. Then exhale through your mouth. As you exhale, picture all of your tensions and stresses flowing out with the exhaled air. Feel the tensions and stresses flowing out. Just let them go.

Now let your mind becomes quiet and still. If a thought enters your head, don't try to suppress it, or stop and examine it, just let it drift on through. You may find some unusual thoughts passing through your head. You may also find yourself seeing pictures or visions. Or you may find yourself feeling things, unusual feelings or emotions. I have even heard bird songs and smelled flowers or perfume during a quiet meditation. Don't worry about it, just let them pass through. There will be plenty of time to think about it all and examine it later. When you feel that you have been in a meditative state long enough, start coming back to the physical reality slowly. Take a few deep breaths and direct your attention toward your physical body. It may surprise you to discover that during the meditative state, you may have become completely unaware of your physical body. Don't worry about it, that doesn't always happen, but it is not at all unusual. When you feel that you are back in the here and now, open your eyes. If you happened to notice what time it was when you started your meditation, you may be in for another surprise when you open your eyes again.

Time doesn't seem to move at the same speed during meditation as it does normally. I sometimes meditate for what seems to be five minutes only to find that actually a half hour to an hour has passed. At other times I may meditate for what seems to be twenty minutes or a half hour and find that only five minutes has passed. You may want to set a timer if you feel that you want to meditate for a certain period of time. If you do use a timer, use a gentle one, any raucous or loud noise can be quite a shock when you are in a meditative state. For this reason, you may also want to turn off the ringer on the telephone during meditation. I have had the telephone ring when I was meditating and it was almost like someone had hit me.

After you are back in the here and now, you may want to examine the thoughts, sights and feelings that you experienced during your meditation. They can often be a source of insight into yourself.