Meditation: You Say Transcendental, I Say Vedic

[suchandra]

Meditation: You Say Transcendental, I Say Vedic

 

DAILYMANTRA.COM - WHERE THE ENLIGHTENED FIND ENLIGHTENMENT

 

posted 31 May 2008

 

by Marisa

 

Most of us have heard of Transcendental Meditation. Maybe you vaguely remember some phase The Beatles went through, or have caught wind of the David Lynch Foundation's funding of TM programs in schools. Perhaps you follow Deepak Chopra, who expounds regularly on the myriad health benefits, or have simply heard there's a meditation practice that charges $2500 to learn one word. All true. But I'd like you to hear just a little more.

 

While I can't vouch for the copy-righted Transcendental Meditation program since, well, I can't afford it, I can vouch for the technique. It's also known as Vedic meditation, and increasingly, it's everywhere.

 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi mainstreamed Vedic meditation under the name Transcendental Meditation in 1955, roughly 5,000 years after the practice's actual origin. Drawn from the Veda, an ancient Indian body of knowledge predating Hinduism and responsible for yoga and ayurvedic medicine, Vedic meditation was and remains a "house-holder's" meditation. You don't need to recluse yourself from society or forfeit the material world to practice. The training program takes all of a handful of hours over a couple days, after which you're on your own, sitting comfortably with your assigned mantra, eyes closed, for 20 minutes, twice daily. Simple, right? Portable, and easily integrated into the busy American life.

 

 

So if your curiosity is piqued but the $2,500 TM price-tag proves too large a hurdle, consider a free introductory talk with any number of independent Vedic teachers. Same practice, but on a more manageable sliding scale, and once you've completed the course, you can repeat it as often as you like with any Vedic teacher, at no additional charge. After all, a meditation designed to be accessible for the masses, should be financially accessible as well.

[Bishadi]

so basically the thread suggest 'why pay for the songs'?

 

Perhaps allow knowledge to remove the requisite of rituals.

 

That if each were aware that they are not the center of the universe or literally an 'i' to isolate themselves from existence as a whole, then maybe the humility of compassion can be realized in each moment versus submission to chanting, meditation and selfless submission based on not being literally aware in true knowledge.

 

Be certain the children are learning all over the globe, the key is to realize that humility of maintaining old knowledge is isolating in itself, rather than honor ALL knowledge.

 

As ALL of it comes from existence (god) itself.

[AncientMariner]

I first got into this kind of stuff when trying to use visualization to make my golf game better as a teenager. I started reading books about meditation etc. Needless to say once you read one of Prabhupada's books it makes pretty much everything else about meditation seem to be pretty silly and the Prabhupada books I have I got for pennys on the dollar.

[laughingcrow]

Marisa is incorrect when she says "Vedic meditation" is the same as the Transcendental Meditation technique, and that "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi mainstreamed Vedic meditation under the name Transcendental Meditation."

 

It seems these misunderstandings are being advanced so that a few people can promote their own forms of meditation and use the scientific studies on TM to support the meditation they are teaching — saying, 'It's all the same meditation." Sorry, Marisa, but it's not all the same, not according to hundreds of published, peer-reviewed scientific research studies.

 

"Vedic meditation" is quite different from Maharishi's TM program. TM is taught by only by professionally trained, recertified teachers. These TM instructors maintain the tested and proven, tried and true system of teaching developed by Maharishi, which insures that the person learning receives the practice in its purity. "In its purity" means in its original effectiveness, with nothing tampered with, nothing changed, the same as taught by the great Vedic meditation teachers of thousands of years ago. This insures maximum benefit for everyone learning today and for future generations.

 

What Marisa and others promoting "Vedic meditation" fail to mention is that this ancient form of meditation, known today as TM, was lost to the world for thousands of years, and that Maharishi not only revived it but established its practical benefit on the objective ground of modern science. Before Maharishi developed the TM program, this simple, natural technique for 'transcending' was unknown even to Vedic scholars in India, the land of the Veda. Before Maharishi came along with his rediscovery of TM, common misunderstandings about meditation were the norm: meditation is difficult, it requires concentration or mind control, it takes many years to get good at, and rare is the case of anyone succeeding at it and producing demonstrable results, even among yogis who committed their lives to meditation. This was the background against which Maharishi introduced the TM technique. The claim that Maharishi merely mainstreamed a meditation practice that had been around for thousands of years and had been commonly practiced is simply preposterous.

 

Even today, in India and elsewhere, the books being written about meditation and the online courses offer many different forms of practice involving concentration or contemplation, but none give clear, comprehensive instruction in how to effortlessly transcend — how to naturally and systematically allow the mind to settle inward to the source of thought and experience pure consciousness, the state of restful alertness documented by hundreds of research studies on TM. People may succeed at transcending in many ways, if they are lucky. But the only meditation instructors who are teaching this original form of meditation in it's purity and simplicity — the technique specifically designed for effortless transcending — are those trained by Maharishi. Where else would anyone have found it in our day and time? If you don't believe me, go to India and ask around. Or go to your local New Age bookstore. There are many varieties of meditation, but no one else is teaching anything close to the TM technique, including the "Vedic meditation" teachers.

 

When you learn the TM technique, there is a thorough followup of personal instruction sessions and knowledge meetings, offered by well-trained TM teachers. This support system is absolutely necessary to ensure correct practice and maximum benefit and is available for the rest of your life at no further charge after you have paid the TM course fee. Learning TM is essentially a semester-long course, but the knowledge and guidance continues to be available indefinitely. This is the TM program. "Vedic meditation" does not offer the same kind of support and expert guidance. I'm sure that's one reason why they can teach their meditation practice for less money — it costs less to make it available, because much less is being offered.

 

Why is TM trademarked? There's an important and profound reason. The TM technique is unique. There's no other practice that works the same way or produces the same results. Many scientific research studies conducted at independent research institutions and medical schools worldwide have investigated and compared the effects of TM to various other types of meditation practices — such as mindfulness, Zen, mantra meditation, and various relaxation techniques — and found that no other meditation practice produces the wide range of benefits that result from the TM technique. The only way to legally distinguish the TM technique from other types of meditation is to maintain the registered trademark. This way, when someone learns the TM technique, they can rest assured they are learning the real thing, because only highly trained and certified TM teachers can teach this technique or legally use the name ‘TM’. The registered trademark is another way of maintaining the purity of Maharishi’s programs — helping ensure that even future generations will benefit.

 

Although the people teaching "Vedic meditation" have modeled their courses after the TM course, although they use Maharishi's terminology, although they claim to be teaching the same thing, it is clearly not the same.

 

Perhaps the most honest statement Marisa's article makes is that she cannot vouch for the TM technique. That's OK, Marisa, because there are millions of people who can, and hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies to vouch for TM. But if you can't vouch for it, should you believe that you can copy it?

 

Maharishi structured the non-profit TM educational organization for the sole purpose of maintaining the purity of the practice, so people will benefit for generations to come. What is at stake is the effectiveness and future endurance of a technique that brings freedom from suffering. That's why I offered this long clarification, to counter the misinformation that is proffered on the various websites that Marisa's article is promoting. These "Vedic meditation" teachers may personally enrich themselves and make money on their activities, they may believe they are doing good, but they are disseminating confusion about Transcendental Meditation, and that is a disservice to readers and to everyone seeking to get maximum benefit from meditation.

[bhaktajan]

laughingcrow says:

. . . That's why I offered this long clarification . . .

 

How pedestrian!

 

A yogi teaches traditional classic "SILENT MANTRA MEDITATION" --and some people think that it is some unique patent-able invention of genius.

 

The "hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies to vouch for TM"--are the standard results of "meditation".

 

"Meditation" is a product produced from the science of self-realization from the Vedas.

 

If you want to learn "meditation" from a TM teacher that's OK.

 

If you want enlightenment you must approach a real teacher of the Bhagavad-gita who is in the disciplic line from Krishna.

 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi-ji is as his name states: A scholar--in the Line on Sri Shakaracarya Matha.

 

The good news about TM is that it works as a bonefide silent meditation "as done everywhere through-out Asia since time immemorial".

 

Laughingcrow, did Maharishi Mahesh Yogi-ji conclude his translation of the Gita past the 6th Chapter. If he did then Krishna's words will be beloved by you.

 

Personally I think silent meditaion is the gate-way path for all people aspiring for authentic spiritual life.

 

No lose or diminuation occurs on the path of TM --except the likely unlimited repeated births for the rest of eternity [but what else is new?] --TM is better then not meditating.

 

Bhaja Govinda,

Bhaktajan

 

PS: Laughingcrow, you do Know who admonished everyone, at his death, to Chant "Bhaja Govinda"?