How to do transcendental meditation step by step
Step by Step guide to Transcendental Meditation
The Transcendental Meditation program is taught through a seven step course of Instruction offered through hundreds of Maharishi Vedic Universities and Schools throughout the United States and the world.
Transcendental Meditation program of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
is easy to learn and enjoyable to practice.
Transcendental Meditation is a simple, natural, effortless,
easily-learned mental technique practiced for 15 to 20 minutes twice daily, sitting
comfortably with the eyes closed.
Simple - Transcendental
Meditation is not difficult or complicated; it is a simple procedure.
Natural - there is no
manipulation or hypnosis.
Effortless - It is easy to practice and does not require
physical exercises, Special Posture or procedure.
Easily to learn - anyone can learn Transcendental Meditation
easily. There is no Restriction on age.
"Transcendental
Meditation opens the awareness to the infinite reservoir of energy, creativity,
and intelligence that lies deep within everyone."
Step 1 - An Introductory lecture on transcendental meditation Program
First Lecture provides vision of possibilities from practicing
the technique and includes description –
What Transcendental Meditation is and what it
is not.
Benefits- the
scientifically validated effects the technique has on improving mental potential, health, and social behavior, and on
promoting world peace.
How to start the
technique- an outline of the seven-step course of instruction to learn Transcendental Meditation.
Step 2- Preparatory Lecture
Second step provides an
explanation of the mechanics of Transcendental Meditation technique
- How Transcendental Meditation works.
- Why Transcendental Meditation is easy to learn and effortless to practice.
- How Transcendental Meditation is unique and different from all other techniques
- Of meditation or self-development.
- The origin of Transcendental Meditation.
Step 3- Preparatory Lecture
The third step, a
personal interview with a trained teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique,
provides an opportunity to ask any additional questions you might
still have and to make
an appointment for personal instruction.
The interview takes about 15 minutes.
Step 4 - Personal Instruction in Transcendental Meditation
The fourth step is the
actual instruction in the Transcendental Meditation technique,
Which is held on a
one-to-one basis with a qualified Transcendental Meditation teacher.
In this step you'll
actually learn to practice the technique mainly by repeating the mantras.
A mantra has different
sacred and profound meaning in the Buddhist and Hindu spiritual traditions but
here it is simply adopted as a phrase mostly to replace
the incessant thinking of thoughts.
You employ the mind by
giving it something to do, namely keep thinking over and over again of the one
phrase, this is something actually everyone is pretty good at doing naturally.
To go a bit deeper into
why this simple method works so well you have to understand what creates
emotional suffering, that is disturbing emotions like anger, jealousy, fear,
anxiety and even depression – all these disturbing emotions are cause by
thinking.
Thoughts come with their
own emotional charge that researchers have even discovered last about 90
seconds, (90 second secret here) the problem is we keep thinking over things
reigniting the emotional charge until we become sick and weak drained of all
our energy.
As Eckhart Tolle said:
“It is never the
situation that cause suffering it is your thoughts about it.”
Once you have repeated
the mantra long enough to stop all other compulsive and subtle thinking you can
slowly let the mantra quieten down to a whisper in your mind until it finally
stops all together.
You can start the mantra
again if thoughts intrude on your silence but eventually you can quieten all
thinking long enough so all that’s left is the peaceful and joyful emptiness of
awareness.
This is not dull or
passive but instead alive with creative potential, sensitivity to others and a
deep primordial wisdom which is as old as the universe itself.
For the training the
mind through sound we can take any word.
Even the word "mike
" can be taken.
By reducing the sound of
the word "mike" to its subtler and still subtler stages and allowing
the mind to go on experiencing all the stages one by one the mind can trained
to be sharp as to enter into the subtlest stage of the sound ‘mike’,
transcending which it will automatically get into the realm of sat-chidanandam
and experience it.
Thus any sound can serve
our purpose of training the mind to become sharp.
But we do not select the
sound at random.
We do not select any
sound like 'mike',flower,table,pen,wall etc because such ordinary sounds can do
nothing more than merely sharpening the mind; whereas there are some special
sounds which have additional efficacy of producing vibrations whose effects are
found to be congenial to our way of life.
This is the scientific
reason why mantra is not chosen at random.
Step 5 - First Day of Checking Seminar
The fifth step begins a
3-day series of 2-hour checking seminars following your personal instruction in
Transcendental Meditation.
This fifth step is held the day after personal
instruction.
It is to
review the mechanics of the technique and to verify and validate the
correctness of your
practice.
This seminar is attended by all the other people who
received personal
instruction the previous day.
Step 6 - Second Day of Checking Seminar
The sixth step is held
on the second day after your personal instruction.
In this session you get the answer to
any new questions you might have, verify the correctness of your
Transcendental
Meditation practice, and discuss the mechanics of stabilizing the benefits
of Transcendental
Meditation.
Step 7 - Third Day of Checking Seminar
The seventh step is held
on the third day after your personal instruction.
Its purpose is to answer any new questions
you might have, verify the correctness of your practice, and gain a vision of the
goal of the Transcendental Meditation program -- the development of full human potential in
higher states of consciousness.
