The Power of One Hour
How one hour of knowledge sharing and meditation reveals the Seven Layers of Manifestation, unfolds the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress, and reminds us that true change begins at the center
Recently, during my morning meditation, a memory surfaced: reading Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One as an undergraduate. The novel’s theme is simple, almost deceptively so—that one person, anchored in conviction, can move the proverbial needle of society for the greater good.
From there, my thoughts drifted to 1 October at 1:00 PM ET, the chosen date and time for the International Meditation Hour. One day. One hour. One collective breath of humanity.
I then remembered the words of Benjamin Elijah Mays, past President of Morehouse College in Atlanta, who wrote: “The circumference of life cannot be rightly drawn until the center is set.” Mays did not say it could not be drawn—he was precise in saying it could not be rightly drawn. That single word makes all the difference.
Rightly suggests an alignment with Universal and Natural Laws that govern the growth of planets, stars, and galaxies—not to mention the various species of flora and fauna, as well as the one species—humankind. These same laws allow humans to come to the fore via processes few fully understand. Nevertheless, these Laws are evident and all-encompassing to those who opt to emerge from Plato’s allegorical Cave to directly experience the source of their own self—Pure Consciousness.
The Center and the Circumference
We live in a time when the circumference of life—our economies, our politics, our societies—is being redrawn almost daily. Boundaries shift, alliances fracture, new technologies emerge, and old certainties dissolve. The drawing never stops.
But is it drawn rightly?
Mays reminds us that without a set center, our lines wobble, distort, and fail to encircle what matters most. In our age of economic precarity, social dysfunction, and political misalignment, this feels more true than ever. Humanity is tracing and retracing circles without first pausing to locate and establish its center.
Meditation, in its most elemental form, is that pause. It is the act of returning to center, not to escape the circumference but to draw it anew—with steadier hands, clearer minds, and hearts aligned with truth reminiscent of the Vedic teaching of सत्यमेव जयते—“Satyam Eva Jayate” (Truth Alone Triumphs) as written within मुण्डक उपनिषद्, Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, III.1.6. In so doing, as I have posited during my talks, we go from stimulus and reaction to that of stimulus and response. Reacting, science informs us, comes from our primitive brain; whereas responding comes from the CEO of our brain—the pre-frontal cortex—the region governing higher reasoning functions.
The Seven Layers of Manifestation remind us that every outcome is but the outermost circumference of consciousness. Unless the center—Pure Consciousness—is rightly set in one’s awareness, the surrounding layers of law, society, and human conduct distort. And at times devastatingly so. Meditation allows us to reset that center, and thereby redraw the layers more faithfully.
One Hour as Catalyst
The International Meditation Hour is not a utopian promise to heal all ills in sixty minutes. It is something quieter, subtler, and perhaps more meaningful: a seed-planting.
In one hour, an individual may glimpse an inner stillness deeper than fear.
In one hour, a community may rediscover its shared humanity through the exchange of ideas.
In one hour, the scattered circumference of life may be redrawn with greater symmetry, integrity, and—dare I say—beauty.
The hour itself is not the fruit but the seed. Seeds germinate unseen, sprout when conditions allow, and eventually produce fruit capable of nourishing not just the one who planted but many, many more.
So too with meditation: one person centered becomes a stabilising presence for family, friends, colleagues, and community. One community centered becomes a force of resilience in a world unmoored.
In this way, one hour of knowledge exchange and meditation is like a miniature journey through the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress (MPGP): beginning with the stillness of the Knower, moving through seeking, study, compassion, and necessary action, until it culminates in a redefined sense of purpose. Even a single hour can enact this cycle in seed form, charting a trajectory toward higher calling.
The Power of One
When I read The Power of One all those years ago, I did not know that my life’s work would revolve around teaching Transcendental Meditation, actively discussing and writing on consciousness and human potential, or that I would one day develop frameworks like the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress. I only knew, dimly, that one life could make a difference.
Now, decades later, the vision of the International Meditation Hour feels like the flowering of that early seed. The “one” in this case is not only the individual but the hour itself. One hour, facilitated and offered to the world, can realign lives and perhaps even redirect societies. One hour can serve as a catalyst for connecting with that which is fundamental i.e., true—Pure Consciousness.
The Seven Layers of Manifestation (SLM) makes clear that what begins in Pure Consciousness inevitably radiates outward through Universal and Natural Law, the Phenomenal World, Human Consciousness, the Human-Derived World, and Constructs, before finally shaping Outcomes (Non-Local Influence). Just as a single vibration can ripple across all layers, one person aligned with the Seven Layers can magnify coherence across communities and nations.
Here, the analogy of the Meissner Effect is apt: in superconductivity, once a critical state is reached, electrons align spontaneously, expelling disorder. So too can one individual, aligned with Pure Consciousness and resonating through the Seven Layers, catalyse coherence for the many.
The MPGP complements this by mapping the inner steps of unfoldment—Knower, Seeker, Compassion, Action, Execution, Higher Purpose—through which such alignment becomes sustainable. The frameworks together show us that the “power of one” is not metaphor but method: a systematic process for personal and collective renewal.
Rightly Drawn
What would it mean for our political conversations, our economic systems, and our social bonds to be “rightly” drawn?
It would not mean perfection. It would not mean absence of disagreement or pain. But it would mean our lines of action radiate from a deeper stability, a deeper truth.
Together, the Seven Layers of Manifestation and the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress provide a compass: the first reminding us that all layers of human life are expressions of Pure Consciousness, the second guiding us through the steps of personal unfoldment. Both converge on the truth that circles are only rightly drawn when the center is set.
The International Meditation Hour is, at heart, an experiment in right drawing. Not to erase our differences, but to remind us that all true circles share a common center. Without it, the circumference will always distort. With it, life gains symmetry.
An Invitation
As I sat in meditation on that particular morning that gave rise to the thought that now serves as the impetus for this essay, the thoughts felt less like ideas and more like instructions. The world is asking us to remember that the power of one is not only the power of one person, but also the power of one hour.
On 1 October, I invite you to step into that hour with me and with hundreds around the globe. Step into stillness not as withdrawal but as renewal. Step into silence not as emptiness but as fullness. Step into the center, so that the circumference of life—for yourself, your family, your friends, and our world—may be drawn more rightly.
One person. One day. One hour. One world.
What have we to lose?
Suggested Practices: Preparing for the Power of One Hour
Journal Prompts
The Center and the Circumference: Where in your life do you feel the “circumference” is wobbling—relationships, work, health, community? How might returning to center help redraw it more rightly?
The Power of One: Recall a time when a single decision, action, or hour changed your trajectory. What shifted, and what seeds were planted in that moment?
A Shared Circle: If thousands around the world paused together for one hour, what ripple effects might unfold in your own community?
Reflection Exercises
One-Hour Reset: Choose one hour this week to step away from distraction. Sit in silence, breathe, and notice what recenters you. Write one sentence afterward about what you rediscovered.
Seed of Intention: Before 1 October, write down one quality you wish to strengthen (peace, clarity, resilience, compassion). Bring this intention with you into the International Meditation Hour and plant it in silence.
Circle Drawing: On a blank page, draw a circle beginning from its center point. As you expand outward, reflect: what might life look like if all your actions radiated from your truest center?
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Dr. Baruti KMT-Sisouvong is a consciousness scholar, executive coach, and Certified Teacher of Transcendental Meditation® based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work—spanning the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress and the Seven Layers of Manifestation framework—explores how Pure Consciousness, neuroscience, and social systems transformation intersect in the evolution of both the individual and society. Alongside his wife, Mina, he co-directs the Cambridge and Metropolitan Boston TM Program, where they have taught thousands the art and science of meditation.
Extending this mission globally, he is the founder of International Meditation Hour (IMH), a quarterly worldwide gathering dedicated to experiencing the unifying power of silence in a time of division, precarity, and technological upheaval. An author of several forthcoming works on the future of consciousness in an age shaped by technology, he writes and teaches from the conviction that the most important race is not between nations or machines, but between the conditioned mind and the awakening soul. They are the proud parents of four children. To learn more about him, visit: https://www.barutikmtsisouvong.com/.