A Stone is a stone is a stone...

14 April 2010 the one I was then was visiting a nunnery in India and shared some of my meditation experience with the nuns and laypeople there. Everyone was welcome - the only instruction before hand was: Bring a stone.

Heres some excerpts and lightly edited material from an article that later was published about this meditation event.

"- The first meditation will be a meditation on the stone that you brought. This practice is used in many different traditions. I initially learned it in the yogic tradition, as a means to practice one pointedness, concentration, called tatrak (meaning focusing in Sanskrit). This is a very good start for any meditation that you are practicing - to gather the mind

that many times are all over the place.

Keep your gaze on the stone in front of you...and as you watch the stone you might observe thoughts coming and going..just let them pass by like clouds in the sky. You keep your focus on the stone. And whenever you get hijacked by a thought just notice that that has happened, and then come back to focusing on the stone. Theres no particular WOW or interest in the different patterns, colors or shapes of the stone, or in any kind of mental fabrications such as light appearing, or what ever the mind is up to. Just come back to focusing on the stone, let everything else fall. What ever thoughts or feelings is there right now, tell your mind that right now the stone in front of you is all there is.
What ever comes up, just notice it and LET GO".