A friend said:

Meditation is important. Very important. More important than working.

Then he added:

More important than eating.

More important than eating? Perhaps not .... But perhaps just as important.

When we meditate, we step for a brief moment from the world that is made up of our hopes, fears, memories, regrets into the world as it really is -- the world we encounter at this moment. If we meditate, say, half an hour a day, that means that we are still spending twenty-three and a half hours in the world of our imagination -- a world that does not really exist.

Under these circumstances, the time we spend meditating becomes precious indeed. We come to see that meditation is not some optional part of the program. If we are ever to escape ourselves and live to an increasing extent in the world as it really is, daily meditation does indeed become as important as eating.