The numbers, and the endgame
Here are his figures, unsoftened. At least twenty minutes, twice a day, for three months before evaluating anything. Thirty minutes twice a day if you are including the review of your choices — and he adds that much more than that is not necessary. Roughly three to nine months to become a competent meditator. Three to nineteen years to clear out the fear, beliefs and ego that limit your awareness.
His analogy for the effort involved is a musical instrument: it takes serious steady effort before you should expect music rather than screeching. And progress arrives as an accumulation of tiny, unnoticeable successes, which is a slower and less interesting story than anyone wants.
He also gives a troubleshooting ladder, worth keeping. If you keep ending up frustrated rather than expanded: let go, back off, take a break. Try a different mantra. Perhaps you are trying too hard. Perhaps the technique does not suit you. Perhaps you are not ready right now. Everything works out in its own time.
And then the part that reframes the whole thing. Asked whether he still meditates, Campbell says not in any formal sense — that he lives in a meditation state, that he has not deliberately sat down to meditate in about thirty years, and that it is unnecessary. Not because he stopped, but because the destination was never the sitting. When your mind is settled and working with your intent, he says, you do not have to go to point consciousness first. You are already there.
So the course ends here, and the practice does not. Twenty minutes, twice a day, and the review afterwards. Trace one fear when something stings. That is the whole of it, and it is meant to become unremarkable.