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Phra Pawithal Vajiravijjo (Shaljarernwana) is a Thai Buddhist monk who has a background of scientific and socio-cultural study.

We know the Nobel Peace Prize has existed for more than 100 years but there are still so many wars across our planet. Not many people we see in our daily life tell us that they are peaceful.

It's also important to observe precepts, or basic moral guidelines. In Buddhism, we consider that a reasonable human being will not kill, not steal, not commit adultery and not lie to others.

It's also good to have friends who love to meditate who live nearby. You can organize together an agreeable session each week to meditate together.

If you are able to enjoy long holidays, it's a good opportunity to join a meditation retreat. At the retreat you will be part of a group under the supervision of a teaching monk.

1. Happiness 2. Wisdom

To have a good personal development with meditation, we suggest that individuals be neutral. It means learning to be calm in every moment regardless of how good or bad it may seem. When we are always neutral inside, it can also be very peaceful because neutrality comes with calmness.

Many people insist that they are too busy and have no time to meditate. Talking like this, it seems like this person will be too busy for their whole life. How we can be free from busy situations when we can't offer a few minutes for our mind to have a break?.

One important factor for good development is being regular. Meditating everyday but briefly is better than waiting a long time to do it on a special day.

If each day you can meditate for an hour, it would be excellent! If you can do it only half an hour, it is still helpful. You can split your meditation. Half an hour in the morning plus another half an hour in the evening gives you an hour of meditation for that day.

Once your mind becomes more and more still, experiences will gradually and naturally develop. A mental crystal ball, bright sphere, sun or moon can become suddenly clearer and brighter. If anything arises by itself, let it be. Just observe and continue. An experience is a good sign to show that your mind is starting to be still.

Most people in our modern time have been trained to be managers. We learn to manage everything in our life. When you meditate, be careful not to be a good manager. Rather, you have to be a good observer.

Experiences and pictures are no one mije dve meditation practice. What is important is your mind development. All experience is just natural consequences of your practice. Without expectation your mind can be stilled easier.

If you fall asleep, don't be concerned. it can be a good sign since it shows that you are relaxing well, though perhaps just a bit too well.

In the case where you focus on your center but the wandering mind still persists, you will start to lose your comfortable feeling. The last solution is to open your eyes. It's the same when your computer does not co-operate; the last solution is to restart it. After opening your eyes, take a few seconds or minutes to look the environment around you.

If the wandering mind' turns up, please don't pay any attention. Treat it as an uninvited quest. When you don't pay it any attention, it will leave you. In this way you can keep continue focusing to picture, feeling or mantra at your center.

Thinking processes are necessary to cope with the environment. In our life from the moment we wake up each morning, we start to interact with our surroundings. In almost every moment there are signals coming from our five sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin.

If you remember using a microscope or telescope in science class, you will realize how importance of patience needed to tune lenses to obtain a clear picture. It's similar to when we tune a radio or used to tune televisions to receive a channels. We are used to being careful to tune devices to get a precise result.

According to our practice, the mind has several bases, or resting places, in the body.

You need to choose at least one option for your mind: Observing an inner image, listening to your inner voice or sensing an inner feeling. It can be any composition of the three, with a maximum of all three.

When you close your eyes, you will bring your mind to your center of gravity. We know that we can't simply grasp or catch our mind to achieve this. People don't even know where their mind is during each moment.