First Sitting: A Practical Guide to Beginning Devotional Meditation
There is a question I receive, in one form or another, from nearly everyone who finds their way to this space: How do I actually begin?
They have read about devotional meditation. They have felt the pull of something quieter than their ordinary mind. They have perhaps even sat down, closed their eyes, and waited — only to find the waiting filled immediately with grocery lists, half-finished arguments, and the ambient noise of a world that does not stop.
So they conclude, wrongly, that they cannot meditate.
What they have actually encountered is simply the first layer — the outermost room of a very large house. And the door is not locked. It only requires that you know how to knock.
What I am offering here is not a technique borrowed from a textbook. It is the living script of my own First Sitting — the entry point I return to daily, the threshold I cross each time I choose, deliberately, to be in the Presence of The Father. I share it exactly as I practice it, in the hope that it becomes an inspirational beginning for you.
Before You Begin
Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Sit upright — in a chair, on the floor, however your body is most comfortable while remaining alert. Rest your hands open in your lap, palms facing upward, as a gesture of receptivity.
You do not need candles, music, crystals, or ceremony, though none of these are forbidden. What you need is only the sincere desire to meet The Father where He already is: at the center of your own being.
Close your eyes gently. Let your jaw release. Let your shoulders drop.
You have arrived.
The Script of First Sitting
Part One — The Three Cleansing Breaths
We begin by clearing the vessel. The body carries the weight of the day, the residue of thought, the tension of simply existing in a physical world. These three breaths are not decorative — they are the active release of what is no longer needed, so that what is Eternal may be received.
First Cleansing Breath:
Inhale slowly and deeply through the nose. As the breath fills you, tighten every muscle in the body simultaneously — the fists, the arms, the abdomen, the thighs, the feet. Hold this contraction for a moment at the top of the breath, feeling the full gathered tension of your physical form.
Then exhale completely through the mouth — and as you do, release everything. Let every muscle go slack. Feel the wave of relaxation move from the crown of your head downward, through your face, your shoulders, your chest, your belly, your legs, your feet, until it dissolves into the floor beneath you.
You have released the first layer.
Second Cleansing Breath:
Inhale again, slowly and deeply. Tighten the muscles once more — but this time, bring your awareness to any place in the body where you carry habitual tension. The jaw. The lower back. The space between the shoulder blades. Consciously invite those places into the contraction. Hold.
Exhale fully — and release. This time, as the breath leaves you, silently offer it upward. You are not simply emptying the lungs. You are surrendering what the body has been holding on behalf of the mind.
You have released the second layer.
Third Cleansing Breath:
Inhale one final time, deeply and without hurry. Tighten the entire body as before — but now bring your awareness inward, to whatever thought, worry, or preoccupation arrived with you into this space. Name it silently, without judgment. This too I release. Tighten. Hold.
Exhale — long, slow, complete. Let the thought go with the breath. Watch it leave. It will be there when you return if it truly matters. For now, it has no claim on you.
You have released the third layer.
Breathe naturally now. Simply notice the breath at the nostrils, moving in and out, without directing it. You are already quieter than you were three breaths ago.
Part Two — Greeting The Father
Before moving deeper, we pause here — at the threshold — to acknowledge Who we are approaching.
This is not a formality. It is the most important moment of the entire sitting.
In your own words, silently or aloud, greet The Father with sincerity. I offer my own greeting below as a guide, but I encourage you to find the words that are truest for you:
"Father — I am here. I come before You with an open heart and a quieted mind. I release all that I am carrying. I ask nothing in this moment but Your Presence. Receive me as I am."
Sit with this greeting. Do not rush past it into technique. Let it land.
You may feel, at this point, a subtle shift — a softening in the chest, a sense of being received. This is not imagination. This is the beginning of contact.
Part Three — Quieting the Mind's Conversations
The mind will speak. This is not failure; it is simply the nature of the mind, doing what it was built to do. You are not here to silence it by force. You are here to gently, repeatedly, lovingly withdraw your attention from it — the way you might set down something you have been carrying for so long you forgot it was in your hands.
When a thought arises — and it will — do not engage it, argue with it, or scold yourself for having it. Simply notice: a thought. And return.
Return to what? To the breath. To the felt sense of your own chest rising and falling. To the interior stillness that exists beneath the thoughts, the way a lake exists beneath its own surface chop.
Each time you return, you are not failing and starting over. You are practicing the most fundamental spiritual act available to a human being: choosing the Presence over the noise.
Do this as many times as necessary. There is no count. There is no grade.
Part Four — Moving Toward the Presence
As the mind's conversations begin to fall away — and they will, in their own time — you may notice something beneath them. A quality of interior light. A sense of expansion, as though the space behind your closed eyes is larger than it should be. A warmth in the chest, or at the center of the forehead — what I call the Spiritual Eye.
Do not grasp at this. Let it deepen on its own.
If it helps, you may use a simple affirmation as a thread to follow inward:
"I am open to the Presence of God. I am held. I am received. I am here."
Repeat it slowly, in rhythm with the breath, until the words themselves begin to dissolve into the silence they are pointing toward.
You are no longer waiting for something to happen. You are already in the happening.
Part Five — Resting in the Presence
At some point in this process, the effortfulness of meditation tends to ease. The breathing slows. The body becomes still in a way that is different from ordinary stillness — not tense or rigid, but settled, as though gravity itself has loosened its insistence.
This is the threshold of what I can only call Presence.
Here, I do not carry any other human being before Him. I only point — creatively, lovingly, humbly — through the concentrated attention of my own soul toward That Light which is beyond belief.
Rest here for as long as feels natural. There is no destination to reach within this space. You have already arrived.
Part Six — Returning
When you are ready to return to ordinary waking awareness, do not rush.
Take a slow, natural breath. Begin to become aware of your physical surroundings — the weight of your body in the chair, the sounds of the room, the sensation of your feet on the floor.
Offer a closing word of gratitude:
"Thank You, Father. I carry this Presence with me as I return."
Open your eyes slowly. Sit quietly for a moment before reaching for your phone, your coffee, or the day's demands. This transition is sacred too.
A Few Gentle Notes
On time: A First Sitting need not be lengthy. Five minutes of genuine interior contact is more nourishing than an hour of restless performance. As your practice deepens, the duration will naturally extend.
On consistency: Daily practice is the key that opens the spiritual door more readily each time. The soul learns its own threshold. What takes ten minutes of preparation today may require only a single breath, a year from now.
On expectation: Come without agenda. Come without the need for visions, voices, or dramatic spiritual experience. Come only with the desire to be Present before The Father. This alone is enough. This, in fact, is everything.
On the Three Breaths: I return to these not only at the opening of meditation, but whenever the day becomes loud — standing in a grocery line, before a difficult conversation, in any moment that calls for immediate interior grounding. They are portable. They belong to you now.
The door is not locked.
It never was.
Come, sit, and First-Sit daily — just saying.
~ Pranam ~ OM ~ aMEn ~
6/30/26, 2;56 p.m.
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