We now have solid scientific research explaining how the biological changes triggered by stress undermine the immune system’s function. There is also recent scientific research which shows that meditation is an important safeguard against stress-related diseases and that it can produce effects equal to standard medications.

Without concentration, which helps interiorize the life-force, any time spent supposedly meditating is largely ineffective. In very deep meditation the prana becomes completely focused at the spiritual eye, and the body’s need for oxygen and breath ceases.

I had learned a valuable lesson. I realized that my worry habit reflected the mistaken notion that by thinking and fretting about the “critically important details” I had to juggle in my job, I would somehow make the situation better.

A lot of times instead of going up the mountain of God-realization, we’re going down and we can’t even remember where the peak is. We hit some of those walls of pain, confusion, or stress and we can’t maintain the same level of intensity in our spiritual practices.

It is important not only to draw what we can from nature, but also to give back to it, by praying to God through the devas, those subtle entities who create and sustain plant life, and by loving them and showing them gratitude.

Ages ago, Saint Bhrigu of India had a desire to find the most humble form God had ever taken. He wandered all over the Himalayan Mountains and other holy places in search of an incarnation of God he could accept as a guru.

Much of our daily life is spent in work or in other outward activities, and our minds often become engrossed in what we are doing at the expense of the thought of God. Some sort of exercise is needed to help us form the habit of feeling His presence in everything we do.