Q: What can I do to maintain a daily meditation schedule, when there aren’t enough waking hours in the day?

M: You can’t wake up? Me, either. No one likes to wake up when we’re snug in bed, but we have to try. Suppose you have a job and you have to get up to go to work, then you must. For something like two thousand dollars per month, you wake up every morning at five o’clock. But for God, you don’t wake up! So what am I to do? You make your own priorities. We can wake up a little earlier than usual and then get used to it.

For example, say it’s too early to get up at three o’clock; then don’t wake up three o’clock. If you normally wake up for work at five o’clock, then wake up at twenty to five the first day, or ten to five, or even five to five, and the next day or next week, at ten to five. Get yourself used to the idea and reward yourself abundantly. Tell yourself, “If you wake up early today, I’m going to give you a double bagel or one more cup of cafe latte.” Whatever your mind loves to have, reward yourself with it.

You must also love yourself because let’s face it, we have only this one physical body, and we’re very tired sometimes. We work hard for eight or ten hours a day, just to keep this machine running. And then we sometimes have to attend to other work such as family: a wife, children, parents, friends, neighbors, relatives, and so on. We really make very hard demands on this physical body.

So of course, if you can’t wake up in the morning for meditation, forgive yourself. Don’t be too hard on yourself, but train yourself slowly. Watch less TV, go to sleep a little early so you can get up better. Whatever activities you used to do too much before to pass the time when you were bored, use that time for knowing God. It’s a matter of organization. I’m also pretty busy. You don’t believe it; I sit here and look pretty, but I’m very busy, too. And it’s also hard for me to get up early sometimes. But you have to put on the alarm clock. Sometimes it’s like that.

In the old Indian tradition, there was a saint who could wake up all night, but he slept sitting instead of lying down, so it was just the same. (Laughter) Our people are the same. When they go to our retreats, they sit there and look very good, but they sit in any fashion. (Master humorously drops Her head to one side to show someone “nodding off.”) So never mind. Try your best; that’s what counts. The saint in India had long hair like me, and he tied his hair to the ceiling. I’m not kidding! And then he became a Master, because he tried so hard. He tied his hair to the ceiling, so whenever he nodded off: “Oh! OK! Ow!” (Laughter)

I’m not saying that you should grow your hair long or do that. But find your own way. Like you can wake up early; for example, in the beginning I had to put a flask of ice water next to me. And then when the alarm rang, I would reach for the ice and throw it on my face: Oh! The ice comes through your clothes and everything, and you just have to jump out of bed.

You don’t have to do that; you’ll have your own way. But when you want to do something, you can. Believe that you can because you’re God. There’s nothing impossible with God. Just remember that you have God inside you and no one else there. Don’t listen to the mind and the brain; it’s just a computer. The mind tells us, “Oh, sleep. Sleep is good for you.” But that’s not God’s voice. God’s is behind that.

You know, sometimes even when I meditate, I think of a problem, too. It was at hand, and sometimes pressing, sometimes very difficult to get rid of. So what I do is, I write down the problem, before I meditate — this I will have to solve. Have a notebook beside you, or in your pocket — a small one, so it’s not heavy, and a pen. This is more practical, concerning your job; because once you write it down, the mind feels better. “Okay. He is going to take care of it.” It has already lessened the intensity and the pressure. You tell your mind, it eases off. If you know the solution to your problem, write that down, too. That’s even better for the mind to calm down. But during meditation, sometimes you have better ideas about how to solve that problem, have some clearer idea about what to do. Then you write it down immediately, because that may be the Master answering you, giving you the solution. So write it down before you forget. Also once you write it down, you are peaceful. Then you can continue to meditate; and later when you finish your meditation, you can take care of it. So don’t hesitate.

While walking, sleeping, talking, sitting and lying down, always try to concentrate on the wisdom center. In that way you progress rapidly and you’ll feel it. And the more you progress, the more encouraged you’ll feel and the more you’ll practice. It's a pity that we already have the Method and we don't use it.

You may think that you’re already very clean and pure, but I tell you, be careful. Don't think that because we’re vegetarian, because we keep the precepts, we’re clean and pure. Not yet; it’s not so easy. Watch yourself next time. Watch every moment for just one day. Spend one day watching yourself and see how you react in different situations. Watch carefully and then you'll know what I mean.

There are many things that we ourselves don’t notice, very trivial matters, very deep rooted, subtle habits that we don't know we have. And many other things like love, compassion and sensitivity to the suffering of others we don't have either.

These are the very subtle habits and subtle hardness that we’ve accumulated over many lifetimes and we don't even realize it. So make sure that you check out any undesired, deep rooted habits that you don't want to carry around with you. If we’re truly honest with ourselves and want to improve and train our sensitivity to the suffering and happiness of others as well as to our own purity and well being, we must always be vigilant. Always, always pay attention. Otherwise, it’s easy to just pass the day, pass two days, pass three days, pass your whole life in self indulgence, bad habits, and not get into a higher level of consciousness, not be able to understand the deeper meaning of spiritual life. And then we blame others, blame God, blame the Method and blame the Master, blame everything but that doesn't help us at all. It doesn't help us to get better. The best approach is to be honest with ourselves and always be watchful of our deep rooted habits and the very undesirable affects that they have on us. Always be careful.