I have been practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) since April of 2020. It was a requirement for my grad program, in fact any student attending one of Maharishi’s universities is required to learn and encouraged to practice TM. Learning wasn’t my first foray into meditation, I had already tried Shamanic drum meditation, which I loved as well as mindful meditation, which I didn’t. Transcendental Meditation is unique, it is easy to learn, and the aftereffects last a lot longer and become permanent after a period of time.
According to Maharishi, a lot of it has to do with selecting the right thought, a mantra that creates a vibrational frequency in our mind that aligns with the Creative Intelligence. Now TM claims to have 500 sounds, or thoughts as they call them, and I can attest that the one I paid to get works better than the ones that Deepak Chopra has (he was a student of Maharishi) and better than even Om or Hum but the others do work to some extent. The proper thought and the preferred technique of TM is what encourages the experience of the subtler states of that thought which is both experienced and transcended beyond the subtlest quality of that thought to the transcendental state of Being (Maharishi, Science of Being, 1963, p. 30). Being of course being the essential constituent of all creation.
Transcending is a feeling as much as an experience. It is different for everyone and for me there are hallmarks. It starts in my mind as much as in the physical body; a sense of deeply felt relaxation, as though my body is laying on a cloud, floating around in the universe, which I can see and feel even though my eyes are closed, and I am sitting upright. It is a feeling in my mind as though everything is lifted off of my consciousness at once, all the drama and feelings of inadequacy, all the directions I am being pulled, literally everything and there is emptiness, though I am conscious of it, it’s almost as though I am observing the silence while also experiencing it.
Other times I see things. I’ve had past life visions, recalled experiences in the womb, I saw a snowplow once which apparently Maharishi made some sort of reference to in one of his talks. I don’t remember that particular lecture but there are many I haven’t seen yet. Other times still it is empty peace. Maharishi calls it restful alertness, I think.
I sometimes saw things when I did drum meditation, and I have seen my chakras during a different meditation but it’s really the long-term effects that make it worthwhile. When I am regular in my meditation my mind is quieter, the drama of my job (teaching middle school) rolls off my back like water on a duck and I make better choices, speak more thoughtfully and sleep better. Life in general is more peaceful; moments of bliss are frequent and communication with the higher realms is clearer.
It is the epitome of self-care. Being is such a thing, I remember when I first learned about it, I was really confused. Even now when I reread things I think it comes across as more complicated than it actually is. Being is the cornerstone of everything in existence. To me, it is the essence of creation, something that exists in everything and it is our purpose to exist in alignment with that essence so we can achieve whatever it is we are meant to through the interaction with that energy. Maharishi and all the professors at MIU say it with much more clarity but as a practitioner, it feels like flow when I am in alignment with Being, it’s the universe working with me instead of against me. That alone is a reason to find Being.
