Transcendental Meditation - What it is, how to do it and what the
benefits are.
What exactly is transcendental meditation, what are the benefits, and
why does one do it?
Transcendental Meditation is a technique for gaining deep relaxation, eliminating stress, promoting health, increasing creativity and intelligence, and attaining inner happiness and
fulfillment, according to the followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
It's claimed that transcendental meditation is practiced by 5 million people worldwide, is a simple, natural, effortless technique.
They also claim that the effectiveness of the Transcendental Meditation program has been validated by over 500 scientific studies at more than 200 independent research institutions in 30 countries.
In addition they say that transcendental meditation technique require no belief or lifestyle change, is non-religious, is not time-consuming, and can be learned by anyone regardless of age or level of education.
About 35 years or so ago while I was in college I took the
Transcendental Meditation course. I had a class called "Utopian
Life Styles", and the professor invited a couple of TM teachers to
give us a presentation. I was impressed and decided to try it.
I was married at the time, so my wife and I both took the course.
As I recall it took about 3 or 4 classes lasting about an hour or so
each. There was some ceremony and ritual involved but not too
much. I remember we were supposed to bring some fruit or flowers in
return for receiving our mantra or something like that. The TM
teachers seem to place a lot of importance on the mantra itself, warning
you to never reveal to anyone what your mantra is.
From what I understand, the mantra can be any phrase or word you
choose. It is probably best not to choose a word or phrase that has
meaning to you as it may cause you to think about it. The idea here
is that you are trying not to think of anything at all. You are trying to
"quiet" your mind.
Have you ever tried to not have any thoughts? It is not easy to not
think about anything. Try it sometime.
It's really pretty simple. You sit in a comfortable chair, with your
feet flat on the ground, hands in your lap, close your eyes and practice
relaxation techniques until you are completely relaxed. Once you are
relaxed you begin to repeat your mantra over and over for 20
minutes.
During your meditation you are not supposed to "concentrate"
on your mantra or anything else. You just quietly or silently repeat your
mantra to yourself over and over. After a while you realize that you
are thinking about something else and you are no longer repeating your
mantra. When you become aware of this you simply pick up your mantra and
continue repeating it. You are also advised not to synchronize your mantra
with your breathing. There are forms of meditation where you want to
synchronize your mantra with your breathing, but TM is not one of them.
You do this first thing in the morning and again in the
evening. It was recommended that you do your meditation before you
take any stimulates like your morning coffee.
It's a good idea to do your meditation in a quiet place where you will
not be interrupted or disturbed. You don't want to have a telephone nearby
or be where a dog could start barking. From personal experience I
can tell you that when you are deep into meditation a nearby ringing phone
or barking dog can cause quite a reaction. On the few occasions
where I experienced such an event, not only would it wreck my meditation,
but I would come out of it in a near panic state with my heart beating
like crazy. It really gets your attention!
I only practiced TM for less than a year. While I was actively
meditated I definitely noticed some effects. I was able for the
first time to stay awake in my early morning engineering class
"Network Analysis". Since there were only 13 students in
the class it was quite obvious when I dropped off, and a big relief to
stop falling asleep in class. That alone was worth the TM training as far
as I was concerned. My friends noticed that I smiled a lot more than
normal. Not sure what that means.
There are literally hundreds of studies that show that TM training has
a number of benefits such as lowering blood pressure. It's claimed your IQ
increases, your senses are enhanced etc.. If you do a little online
research you can find and read many of these studies.
I saw one study that showed that while meditating people used less oxygen
than while sleeping.
Hmmm...writing about TM is making me think I should start meditating
again....
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