Most self-improvement habits that guarantee change require effort, and even then, you won’t notice much change in your day-to-day life.
For instance, affirmations help you in filling your mind with positive thoughts, however, they only target the conscious level of your mind, not the unconscious.
And if your affirmations are incongruent with a deeply held negative belief then most of the time, they result in inner struggle and uncertainty in the face of stress.
You can reach a point where the number of things you are doing for self-improvement exceeds far beyond the task you do daily to reach your goals. You are journaling, practicing affirmations, reading, exercising, doing yoga, and the list goes on.
However, you rarely make breakthroughs in your life or problems. Stress still exists, you are still impulsive, and negative patterns of behaviors still exist. And you may notice when you are in a tough spot all these self-improvement habits fall apart.
This is where transcendental mediation comes in.
Transcendental meditation is a mediation technique in which you repeat a mantra silently in your mind to calm the mind, to go deep within and saturate your conscious mind with inner happiness, with unlimited intelligence that dwells at the source of thought.
Any word can serve as a mantra, even a word devoid of meaning (The meaning of the word is not important, we don’t try to know the meaning in TM).
The aim of transcendental meditation is to achieve a state of perfect stillness and consciousness. If you have never heard of transcendental meditation, you may think it’s overrated due to how easy it is, however, it has the power to change your life.
If I remember correctly, I found transcendental meditation on youtube, and at first, I didn’t think much of it, however, then I kept on seeing people explaining how transcendental meditation changed their life which made me wonder, will TM meditation help me too.
I did it a couple of times, and I felt a difference. Several days went by and I could feel the difference in my thought process. I was no longer thinking pointless things. I felt calm and comfortable.
So, if you want to learn Transcendental mediation, In this article, you will learn how to do transcendental meditation (TM) at home; First, let’s go through the benefits of TM:
Benefits of Transcendental Meditation
All forms of meditation have these benefits including Transcendental Meditation:
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Improves focus and memory
- Improves productivity
- Help reduce the pattern of negative behaviors
- Improve self-esteem
- Improves awareness
- Improves quality of sleep
- Decreases the risk of developing certain diseases
- Improves Mental Health
However, studies have shown that TM meditation had a much greater effect in reducing anxiety when compared to other interventions like mindfulness meditation.
You may find this video on Transcendental Meditations by David Lynch useful:
4 Steps to Doing Transcendental Meditation
You don’t have to be spiritual to practice Transcendental meditation. You can look at it as a tool for perfecting your mind like exercise for the body. Here are 4 steps to doing Transcendental Meditation at home:
Step 1. Understanding the Working of Transcendental Meditation
According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
In transcendental meditation, the mind experiences the subtle state and arrives at the source of thought, this source of thought is the field of being, and experiencing this being, the mind gets in tune with the infinite source of energy and intelligence.
Mind comes out much fresher and much more intelligent, and much more dynamic.
In this meditation, we don’t pose any unnatural situation. The mind very calmly and quietly, and very positively experiences the subtle state of the thought, arriving at the discipline state of the thought, experiencing the source of thought.
Baby thought rises as an air bubble rises from the bottom of the sea, and as it comes up, it becomes bigger and is appreciated on the surface as a bubble.
Thought rises from the deepest level of the mind, and as the bubble of thought rises up, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger and then coming up on the conscious thinking level, it is appreciated as a thought.
In this practice of TM meditation, the mind experiences the subtler states of the thought and arrives at the source of the thought, and as the surface activity of the conscious mind contacts the deeper levels of the mind then, the thought wave becomes much more powerful.
The benefit: Full capacity of the mind begins to be used for every thought. A wave on the surface is so deep, and it has that much strength, if it makes connection with the deeper level of water, every wave becomes strong.
So the mind thinks, whatever he thinks is the level of his conscious mind, but if the conscious mind contacts the deeper levels of the mind, then every thought wave will become very powerful, and this is directly to enable a man to use his full mental potential.
This Transcendental Meditation is a way to enable a man in a very easy manner to begin to use his full mental potential. The whole personality becomes powerful at the same time more peaceful and happy.
Step 2. The Mantra
According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
In Transcendental Meditation, the practice involves thinking of a word, a word devoid of meaning. We don’t know or try to know the meaning. Since if the mind is on the meaning, there is no chance of refining the meaning as the meaning is static.
If the mind is not on the meaning, then there’s a chance of refining the sound. Then there is a chance of experiencing the sound in its finest values until the finest would be transcendental, and the awareness would reach inner wakefulness, devoid of any perception.
This will be transcendental consciousness.
So, if we take a thought and experience it and experiencing the thought the simple formula is that the thought functions as an impulse. Then the mind is pulsating.
If we don’t try to manipulate the thought in any sense, concentrate or hold it on or anything, then the thought will start to be refined, refined, refined. It will sink out.
And if the activity starts to die out, die out, die out.
So this is what we say normally, greater activity of the mind reaches its least value in a very very natural way. Any activity has a tendency to settle down and be quiet.
So this natural tendency of the mind to be quiet is all that we use in meditation and nothing else. So in a very innocent manner, we think of the thought, and every time we think, it becomes finer and finer and finer.
We experience its finest state, and then it dies out. The mind is left awake, by itself, without any sound to experience. That inner wakefulness is that unbounded awareness, no boundaries. This unbounded awareness where perception is no longer within boundaries, it is unbounded.
This is a silent state of the mind. It is so fulfilling that the physiology having tasted this kind of quietness of activity, it cherishes that.
To attain the state of transcendence, you need a mantra. A mantra can be any sound with no particular meaning. Here are a few mantras you can use (Your best bet would be to get a mantra from a certified TM meditation instructor):
- Aing Namah
- Shri Aing Namah
- Shri Shri Aing Aing Namah Namah
- Om Namah Shivay
The best thing you can do with this mantra is to use it. Don’t try to check if there is a better one, don’t try to search for the meaning of it.
According to Maharishi, the technique requires no effort except innocence & simplicity.
You must be devoid of intellectual play or emotional twists. You must surrender yourself to almighty nature. Then your mind goes in the direction of absolute bliss and finds increasing charm at every step of its march. You will evolve into a better and happier person.
The mantra alone is not enough. It is the “vehicle” for effortless, inward movement of the mind, but it is not a “magic bullet.” Using the mantra properly— effortlessly, without concentration or deliberate control of the mind— is as important as the sound itself.
Norman E. Rosenthal , M.D. (Transcendence)
Step 3. The Technique
Once you have chosen a mantra, follow these steps:
- Find a comfortable place to sit, turn off your phone, and make sure no one will interrupt you during meditation.
- Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to relax your body (Your eyes should be closed throughout the meditation session).
- Repeat the mantra in your mind silently. Don’t try to concentrate or control your mind.
- Keep repeating the mantra. Slowly, all the mental noise will quiet in on itself.
- Come out of a session gradually by giving yourself a few minutes to spend in silence before emerging fully (Avoid ending your meditation session abruptly).
Step 4. The Tips
These are simple tips I found useful in making each session of meditation enjoyable and relaxing (These tips are more like do and don’ts of meditation):
- You may feel that the sound of your mantra in your mind is too low or not correct, and it’s normal.
- You may find it difficult to repeat the mantra in your mind. It’s completely normal.
- Transcendental mediation is completely healthy. You don’t have to worry about overdoing it.
- You have to repeat the mantra. Don’t focus or concentrate on it. Just repeat it in your mind.
- Two sessions per day of 20 minutes are recommended. The best time for these sessions would be right after waking up and in the afternoon or evening (when you feel exhausted)
Conclusion
Please be aware that this article will not act as a substitute for a certified instructor.
To properly do transcendental meditation, one has to think of a thought effortlessly, and most of the time, a little verification from an instructor is needed. If you experience change but, you still have a lot of questions related to TM meditation, you should consider consulting a TM mediation expert (you can find one here).
Getting in touch with a certified instructor and reading books like Transcendence, etc can further deepen your understanding of Transcendental Meditation. Moreover, if you think TM meditation isn’t working for you. You can try other meditation techniques from here.
P.S Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article on Transcendental Meditation, feel free to share it. Moreover, leave a question below in the comment section if you have any.
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Rudra
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