Marty Gallagher: How often do you recommend that a person meditate? Should he meditate before he lifts and for how long?

Sri Chinmoy: Absolute beginners should not meditate at all; they should concentrate. For an absolute beginner, meditation is a difficult process. There are three rungs in the spiritual ladder. The first rung is concentration, the second rung is meditation and the third rung is contemplation.

In my case, I can do all three because I have been practising for many years. But a beginner has to first learn concentration. When he concentrates, his concentration must be on the tiniest part of the weight that he is trying to lift. Suppose I am trying to lift 200 pounds. On one side of the bar is 100 pounds and on the other side is 100 pounds. When I am concentrating, I will focus my attention on my wrist or on my hand, and try to feel the whole weight there. I will not think of the plates on either side. Everything has to be felt at the spot where I am concentrating. While I am concentrating, I have to feel that the weight is smaller than the smallest — no matter how big it is.

But when I am meditating, at that time I will have to see the whole picture — the plates, the bar, everything. Then, when I am contemplating, I have to establish my total oneness with everything — with the plates, with the bar, with the entire apparatus.