A study in the American Journal of Cardiology has concluded that transcendental meditation extends life. Meditating is really powerful, very difficult, and amazing — when it works. You have to spend a lot of time fighting internal dialogue to get to the good parts, though. And perception of meditation practice is all wrapped up in Beatles, pot and squishy religious blather. It doesn’t help that the Ottawa Citizen reports today that meditating can help you “levitate.” When it works, it Feels like that, but you don’t leave the ground. Sorry.
Good meditation has nothing to do with religion. Meditate on that for a while.
I’d like to see a study that compares the amount of time you have to spend silently meditating with the extra time you get to live. Chances are, you may get an extra year or two for your year or two on your knees. But the thing is, meditating makes life right now much better — and living in the moment is really what the practice is all about.