Pragito Dove is the author of Lunchtime Enlightenment and the president of Discover Meditation Training, Inc. She trained extensively as a meditation master and spiritual teacher at the Osho Multiversity in Pone, India. Dove defines meditation as "a quality of presence, clarity of mind, creativity. It means being 100 percent present. You can bring to any activity the quality of relaxed awareness." The meditations in this paperback are designed to help people let go of mental overload, emotional turmoil, and physical stress. Some of them require more time, others are four minutes, and quite a number of them can be done in any amount of time.

Dove begins with her most popular meditation, one which has to do with the expression of laughter. This capacity stimulates physical healing, is rejuvenating, opens the heart, and gives us a glimpse of freedom from the mind. The author alludes to Hotei, also known as the Laughing Buddha. He went around bringing joy into people's lives. Try the Laughter Meditation and experience the inner peace it can bring. In this same section, Dove covers play, celebrations, gratitude, and the Osho Mystic Rose Meditation. Here is one that we liked a lot: it's based on the movie Mary Poppins:

Snap! The Job's a Game
Step One
"Choose a job that you do around the house, for example, vacuuming, unloading the dishwasher, taking out the trash. Notice your attitude to this job. Do you see it as a drag, something to get through in a hurry? Do you give it your total presence? Bring compassion and nonjudgment to whatever you discover about your attitudes.

Step Two
"Snap your fingers. Now do the activity as if it were the most fun thing in the world. Sing, skip, whistle, dance — whatever it takes for you to turn this 'chore' into a fun activity. As you make a practice of this, you get the knack of it and can apply it to other areas of your life."

Dove moves on to a section on tears, which are the opposite expression of energy from laughter. She sees them as prayer, cleansing our spiritual vision. Whereas most of us connect tears to pain, disappointment, and loss; they also signal the deliverance of a benediction. In this section, Dove presents meditations on grief, jealousy, fear, forgiveness, and compassion.

It makes sense to follow material on laughter and tears with excursions into silence. One path is through nature and the other through meditation. Dove states: "Silence also brings us to that unshakable core of self-love, where we discover that the knight in shining armor is within us all the time." Among the most helpful meditations here are ones on A Cup of Silent Tea, Sit and Do Nothing, Looking Without Judging, Opening to Self-Love, and Emails. Pragito Dove succeeds admirably in this potpourri of expressive meditations that stir the mind, body, and soul.

Try a Spiritual Practice on Attention