I’ve written about meditation before.  The piece was about the minimal value of Mindful Meditation vs the ongoing value of learning Transcendental Meditation.  You can read that piece HERE.  I referred to a physician being paid by a local healthcare provider in my city who was being compensated for extolling the virtues of Mindful Meditation (which are limited).  I suggested he do what I did: instead of talking and writing about MM, invest the money and time to learn TM.

I am a practicing student of TM.  I recently realized there is another form of meditation that is more restful and tranquil than MM and somewhat close to TM.  That form of meditation is the painter Bob Ross.

Bob’s gentle delivery, his soothing voice, the tapping of his palette knife on the palette, the mixing of his colors, and the hypnotic scraping of the palette knife when he applies paint to create a mountain, a stream, a cloud, a tree, or a snow-covered fence puts me in a “meditation state of mind.”  

When I was in college and having trouble with my grades (my first semester at Duquesne University I pulled a 1.6 GPA) I would sometimes put Bob Ross’s PBS show on and close my eyes.  I needed a short nap to get the energy needed to study.  And guess what?  I have recently returned to that practice.

I don’t know what happened to that physician or if he is still being paid to tout MM.  If he is, he (and his patients) would be better off if he introduced them to Bob Ross.  Bob passed away on July 4, 1995 at the age of 52.  But thanks to YouTube and the internet, Bob will live forever.

Here is a short video providing a perfect example of what Bob Ross left us with: