How To Meditate

Training the mind to rest in silence is one of the most important foundations of inner work. The mind is accustomed to movement — analysing, rehearsing, commenting, predicting — and stillness does not come naturally at first. But when the mind learns how to settle into quiet awareness, a different quality of consciousness becomes available: open, steady, spacious, and undisturbed. One of the simplest ways to cultivate this ability is passive meditation using a timed bell.

A helpful way to understand this practice is to imagine that every time the bell rings, someone gently steps into the room and says, “Just checking in — if you’ve started thinking, please stop and return to silence. If you’re already resting as pure awareness, perfect. Please continue.” That is all passive meditation is: a periodic reminder to notice where your attention has gone, and to come back to the stillness within you. You are not forcing the mind to be quiet, nor judging yourself for drifting. You are simply checking in when the bell sounds and returning when needed. Over time, the mind learns to remain quiet for longer stretches, just as any habit strengthens through gentle repetition.

You can use any bell timer for this practice. Here are a few simple ones:
1-minute bell timer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzStdsMlIbA
2-minute bell timer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-luYcJTQQ
3-minute bell timer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kc8zbMXWek&t=1292s
And here is a guided meditation I created, which works similarly to a bell timer but uses a series of gentle pointers rather than a chime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd1xoWrn4Po. Each line invites the mind to soften its focus, withdraw from thinking, and return to presence. Eventually, you may find you no longer need the spoken prompts and can return to using only the bell.

Start with a shorter interval, such as one or two minutes. Sit comfortably and let the bell guide your check-ins. When it rings, simply notice whether you’ve been resting as awareness or wandering through thought. If you’ve drifted, gently return. When you feel more stable, you can extend the interval between bells. There is nothing to achieve and nothing to perfect — only a gradual familiarisation with silence.

There is also a simple visualisation that can help you understand what “letting go of thought” means in practice, especially if the instruction feels vague or abstract. Imagine your mind as a clear home screen and each thought as a pop-up window. When a thought appears, you don’t need to explore it or analyse it. You simply “click the cross” to close the window. The pop-up disappears, and you return to the clear screen — the natural stillness of awareness. This little image can make the process of releasing thought feel more intuitive and concrete, and you can use it if it resonates with you.

With consistent practice, silence becomes familiar, then natural, and eventually the quiet foundation beneath your day. The bell timer is only a temporary support, but the ability it develops is lasting. After a few minutes of gently quieting the mind, you will find you can rest as awareness with increasing ease. Awareness itself is always here — open, spacious, and undisturbed — and passive meditation is simply the practice of remembering how to return to it.