Reading of the week.

How long does it take to reach the state of perfection in meditation? Theoretically speaking, the time involved is not long and is measurable.

As explained earlier, the traditions of Yoga and Vedanta maintain that if the mind can be made to flow uninterruptedly toward the same object for twelve seconds, that will make one unit of concentration.

If the mind can continue in that concentration for twelve times twelve seconds (or two minutes and twenty-four seconds), that will be considered one unit of meditation.

If the mind can continue in that meditation for twelve times two minutes and twenty-four seconds (or twenty-eight minutes and forty-eight seconds), that will be the first stage of samadhi.

If this samadhi can be maintained for twelve times that period (five hours, forty-five minutes, and thirty-six seconds), it will lead to the highest absorption of nirvikalpa samadhi.

But in practical terms, the situation is different for each individual aspirant.

- http://www.ramakrishna.org/activities/message/weekly_message53.htm

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"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies".

~Shaw Shank Redemption.