In the movie There's Something About Mary, there's a scene where Ben Stiller's character picks up a hitchhiker who tries to pitch him on a business idea.

There's a popular exercise video called Eight Minute Abs, but the hitchhiker is going to capture market share by making a video called Seven Minute Abs.

He explains, "If you walk into the video store and you see Eight Minute Abs and Seven Minute Abs, which one are you going to take? Seven minutes, of course.

But he gets stumped by the question, "What if somebody else comes out with Six Minute Abs?"

I thought of that scene when I got pitched for a new book called Three Minutes a Day: A Fourteen-Week Course to Learn Meditation and Transform Your Life, by Richard Dixey.

I thought, boy, have we really dumbed down the tradition of meditation from its origins.

Starting with Buddha sitting under the tree for days or weeks at a time until enlightenment descended upon him, to the practices of of monks and nuns of the monastic orders in Europe who would sit and pray for several hours a day.

And now, just like everything else in the West, we've turned it into something that you can package and microwave and sell to the masses who just want a quick fix.

Then I took a look at the book and completely changed my mind.

And in fact, the conversation you're about to hear with Richard Dixey, the author, is actually one of the deepest explorations of spirituality I have ever had. It's changed how I think about my own spiritual practice. And it's been a couple of weeks now of going through the exercises in the book, and my spiritual practice has transformed for the better.

I understand if you're skeptical. So have a listen, and let me know what you think.

• A Mantis Carol, by Laurens van der Post
• A Story Like the Wind, by Laurens van der Post
• Three Minutes a Day: A Fourteen-Week Course to Learn Meditation and Transform Your Life, by Richard Dixey
• Yet Being Someone Other, by Laurens van der Post
• Dharma College
• RichardDixey.com