all the major paths advise daily practice. And that certainly includes Christians. Devoted Catholics attend mass daily. And their recitation of the Rosary, with beads to count the repetitions, is extremely similar to japa / mantra practice.

Why is daily practice important?

Well, for one thing, we are exposed to constant temptation in the world. That temptation may be minor, or it may be major. We can be tempted to embezzle from our company and commit a serious felony, or we can be tempted to just ignore our child's plea for attention and warmth.

Meditation clears the road daily. It gives us clarity and strength. We can use that to fight off the temptations. And, it produces many other things..patience, peace, wisdom, gentleness, love and compassion.

God is our Source. We need to go to Him for his Light. This is done through daily spiritual practice.

Now, life can be difficult. And scheduling can be difficult. And we can be pulled in a million different directions. And that can make it hard to fit in daily practice.

However, God does exist. He really does exist as a conscious Being. And if we give Him real devotion He will clear the path to allow us to practice.

So, here's a simple way to "cheat the system."

How much should we meditate daily?

I would say a minimum of 15 - 30 minutes.

And that can be hard.

What can we do?

Well, when we sit down to meditate, we can just say to our mind..."ok, I will just meditate for two minutes. Just two minutes. Easily I can meditate for two minutes."

Then, what happens? Well, after we meditate for two minutes, we have broken the ice and the mind's resistance, and it is easier to just keep going. And if we have a particularly hard day...we can quit after just those two minutes.

If we quit, we can try again later in the day...or if it is a very bad day, we just take up the thread another day.

We can also include disciplines that are easier. If meditation is hard...we can also add in prayer. We can add in singing spiritual songs.

We can add in reading spiritual texts.

If we return to daily discipline, it will not disappoint us. Slowly, over time, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, we will progress towards God and remove the obstacles that make our lives unhappy.

We need to do enough, without doing too much and straining ourselves. We need to do enough, without doing too little and not feeding our soul properly.