Transcendental meditation: Encyclopedia II - Transcendental meditation - Procedures and theory

Transcendental meditation - Procedures and theory

TM is practiced for fifteen to twenty minutes twice daily while sitting comfortably with the eyes closed. In essence, the TM technique comprises the silent mental repetition of a simple sound known as a mantra, allowing the repetition to spontaneously become quieter and quieter, until it disappears and one is left conscious, but without thoughts. This is the goal of the inward stroke of meditation and is called pure consciousness (in Sanskrit: turiya or samadhi similar to Abraham Maslow's concept of peak experience). Alongside the settling down of mental activity, the body also settles to a state of deep rest, and this allows for the release of deep-seated stresses from the system. The release of stress is a bodily activity, and this increase in bodily activity results in corresponding activity on the level of the mind, i.e., thoughts return to the mind. This is the outward stroke of meditation. After the purification has finished, the inward stroke starts again. This whole cycle is repeated many times during each sitting of meditation.

The TM organization emphasizes in its teaching that the procedure for using the mantra is very important: it must be natural, easy and effortless, and can only be learned from a trained teacher of TM.

Transcendental meditation - Pure consciousness

According to the teaching of TM, the daily practice helps enliven in the meditator's life the field of "pure consciousness" or "pure intelligence", a field of "pure knowingness" that is expressed in the different objects of knowledge. In this world view, all thoughts and actions and the entire universe are expressions of the field of pure knowingness. Every experience that the individual has is an experience in this field, but usually not in its pure form. Transcendental meditation settles the mind so that the field of pure knowingness becomes a living reality for the individual. Since the field of pure consciousness is allegedly only progressive and supportive of the good, people enlivening this field in their life through regular practice of TM should spontaneously (without the need of any intuitive or non-intuitive intellectual understanding) more readily behave well. The TM theory is that the field of creative intellegence is life enhancing, and that by connecting to it, people spontatously act in harmony with it.

Transcendental meditation - Stress

In Hans Selye's definition, stress is a neutral concept, simply meaning "load". He distinguishes eustress and distress, roughly meaning "challenge" and "overload". According to Selye, the physical changes experienced during TM are the opposite of the body's reaction to stress. (In common usage, the word stress has taken on a meaning close to Selye's distress.)

In TM parlance, stress is defined as "structural or material impurities resulting from overload on the physiology", which includes both body and mind. The assumption is that it is possible to purify the physiology completely and that this should be the goal of human life, equal to gaining enlightenment. (Compare with psychologist Abraham Maslow's self-actualization.)

Transcendental meditation - Mantra

According to the TM organization the mantra is a meaningless sound specifically chosen and communicated to the meditator at the time of initiation, to have a soothing effect upon the individual's nervous system. The TM organization encourages practitioners to keep their mantra private and never to repeat it aloud, since it allegedly has the effect of moving the attention inward toward more 'refined' levels of the mind.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Procedures and theory", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki