learn transcendental meditation

Course booked!

November 19th – 23rd! Cant wait. Have alot of hope pinned on this

So I have booked onto an introductory talk and provisionally booked a course…. but not until November. I might try and look around but at least I have got something in the pipeline….
Looking forward to it, I have heard so many great things about TM

Hi all. Everyone in my family started TM about 37 years ago. I became a teacher when I was 20. Been meditating and teaching it all my life. Needless to say, I recommend it. It did wonders for my whole family, parents (and grandparents) included. I think the best TM website right now is www.tmbusiness.org, which addresses the program for business people, or askthedoctors.com, by an organization of doctors and researchers who felt it important to tell people about TM’s health benefits and how it’s different from other practices. The Q&A section there is really great.

My own experience is that every single TM session is life-changing in the most positive way. Transcending thought, feeling, and all concepts everyday to experience the source of thought and sit in pure, unbounded Being, what a gift. It makes life blissful. To be able to tap into the inner source everyday is something I’d never want to live without.

I know there are many other good practices of meditation and spiritual development, many venerated traditions, and I respect them all. But I see TM as a revival of something very fundamental in the field of mediation, something rediscovered that was lost: effortlessness, innocence, and total naturalness. This sounds simple, and it is, but it’s not simplistic——it makes all the difference in the world. The effortless of the practice is what allows for transcending to so readily take place during TM, which is why the technique is so effective.

The TM course is not so expensive if you consider what you get: the 7 step course is about 10-12 hours total, then the follow-up consists of one-on-one personal sessions as needed, whether once a week or more, for the rest of your life. (It’s not just a four-day course.) There’s also weekly continuing advanced classes available to every meditator for the rest for your life, in any TM center in the world. These classes offer a wealth of knowledge about enlightenment and the Vedic understanding of consciousness. The follow-up comes with the TM course. So if you consider all this support, it’s the best deal possible. But most importantly, TM works.

It’s a non-profit organzation in the truest sense: no one has ever gotten rich off TM. (Except maybe Deepak Chapra.) All the money from the course fees goes to support the educational organization, and pays for TM courses in places like Brazil, India, Thailand, where schoolchildren can learn for free. It’s an international, grassroots Movement to improve the world’s educational system by offering a program that develops the students’ consciousness, intelligence and creativity, as opposed to just teaching the students more “facts.”

There are a few anti-meditation websites put up by activists who claim that TM is cultish, overpriced, etc etc. But weigh this against, say, the fact that over 5 million people have learned TM over the past 50 years. Out of 5 million people, there are naturally going to be some dissenters, no matter how good TM is. That’s human nature. It’s amazing that there are only 4-5 anti-TM activists in the world who felt compelled enough to put up websites devoted entirely to expressing their negative opinions about meditation. That really speaks to TM’s effectiveness. This small handful of people have given the impression, on the internet, that TM is controversial. But these 4-5 people (some of them maintain 3-4 anti-TM websites) are viewing TM from outside the experience, judging it based on their own level of understanding. A couple of these people were once meditators or even TM teachers, but it’s obvious, reading their material, that they never understood what it was they were teaching.

I also suggest considering the scientific research on TM, which shows a wide range of benefits for mind and body. All of the well-controlled, peer-reviewed studies that have ever been done on TM show all-positive results from meditating. Contrary to what the critical websites say, the research supporting TM is of the highest quality, published in leading peer-reviewed journals, and done at independent institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Yale Medical School, and hundreds of other places. The fact that the National Institutes of Health has awarded over $24 million for TM research (and is continuing to award funds for this research) is testimony to a track record of solid empirical evidence in support of the practice.

But the best way to know the value is to learn it yourself and experience it for yourself. No one can tell you the value of TM. Most people get it right away, after a few days of meditating, and they notice benefits immediately. Others, it may take a few weeks before they notice what’s happening. Some people don’t give it a chance and quit before they’ve had enough experience to appreciate that anything much is happening. My experience teaching for 30 years is that it always works, and I’ve taught well over a thousand people. I’ve never had one person tell me that they regretted learning.

Hope this helps.

I have found a weekend course about 20 miles away from where we live and have decided to book myself in with or without A. This is another goal that has been hanging around on my list for far too long!

There is a residential course that I would love to do at some point. I’ve been mulling it over for ages, but can’t get A to sign up.

I have started reading her book and it’s a life-enhancing experience. It actually makes me think that I might be able to meditate on my own and not get hung up about doing it incorrectly. She makes the concepts in Buddhism so much more accessible and meaningful. A real gift and almost free. Possibly life-changing.

I’ve learned it, I practice and it’s great.
when you find out how much there is to it you see that its an investment for life…

After discussing with Matt, and reading his extensive summary, I’ve decided that TM is bogus, and that the meditation I already do is a lot more down to earth, ... and free.

Transcendental meditation is an expensive cult.

Lame.

$2,500 for three days? HUH?

Totally, completely unacceptable. That’s no way to save the world.