Thanks Don (Don #2, that is:>))

I remember the first time I learned that the whole purpose of Patanjali's yoga sutras was to teach us how to prepare for meditation, which is the SEVENTH step of 8 steps.

And it doesn't begin during sitting. The first two steps begin with ethical, kind, compassionate, loving, behavior - honesty, contentment, truthfulness, non-violence, balancing your energy (meaning getting your act together with sleep, exercise, time, money, food, relationships, work, play, etc).

THEN you do

THREE: Asana (which means not a zillion poses but just learning to sit still and enjoy it

FOUR: Pranayama (nothing fancy, no counting, holding the breath; learning to enjoy sitting still with the breath flowing naturally

FIVE: "Pratyahara" -- which means withdrawing attention from the senses. This is what we do spontaneously when we go to sleep at night. In meditation we just learn to do it consciously. Letting go of awareness of sights, sounds, external sensations, letting go of awareness of the body, letting go of awareness of feelings, emotions and thoughts.

Even before you reach step 5, your life is balanced, you're able to sit still, breathing naturally for long periods of time, so it's relatively easy to withdraw your attention from sensory, emotional and cognitive stimuli at this point.

SIX: DHARANA: often translated "concentration" - which we usually do in a very effortful strained manner, but in this case, having already balanced and harmonized so much of your life, you have learned to effortlessly stabilize your attention to one point - say, for example the flow of breath

SEVEN: DHYANA: this is basically the same as Dharana, only the flow and effortlessness now is complete

EIGHT: SAMADHI: complete unified consciousness. You'll know it when you get there - though really, there is no "there" there because it is already here!