John Lennon was responsible for putting me off this idea. This is something I was well able to live with until recently, when I noticed that certain slebs whom I respected or at least liked were fans, notably Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey and Will Smith.
Despite that, I still have a large degree of scepticism – my own, amplified by Lennon’s barbs and Harrison’s “you’re telling all those lies, about the good things that we can have if we close our eyes…”
But if anyone could change my mind it would be that comedian most grounded in the minutiae of life – Jerry Seinfeld.
Any thoughts on TM and/or Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi most welcome…
It has a registered trade mark, and requires people to pay for 1:1 tuition. It claims massive benefits, but at a cash price.
I smell cobblers of the load of old variety.
yep. My thoughts too. I guess it’s like heroin addiction – no major problem if you’re a multi-millionaire who can afford the purest stuff. With TM, whatever they’re charging will be loose change to the Pauls and Ringos of this world.
I attended a David Lynch TM benefit ca 2008 at Radio City Music Hall, cast included Seinfeld, McCartney, Ringo, Donovan et al. Macca did about an hour set and was joined by his old team mate for a couple which was nice. Others did 2 or 3 songs or stand up routines/speeches inc such luminaries as Howard Stern. There were also information films about TM, it seemed to be an idea of Lynch’s to get it into schools to “stop the violence”. A noble if hopeless cause.
I’ve never gone the TM path, but have meditated on a few occasions. It is something I want to look further into as an alternative to being addicted to stuff that destroys your body. Paying thousands of dollars for a mantra and/or specific tuitions from a guru is a nonsense, but I believe meditation can be fruitful and beneficial, one needs to be disciplined and find the time (ca 30 mins a day) to really give it a chance.
Re finding the time. The Dalai Lama has said that he meditates for an hour Andy, and is he has an exceptionally busy day he will meditate for two hours. (Not a meditator myself, but interested in and sympathetic to the idea.)
Andy? Who the hell is Andy? That’s a day. Damn iPad autocorrect.
It has a registered trademark? So…. that makes it TM™. Like it.
I’ve been practicing it since I was 19.
That means, not a day has passed since where I didn’t find time to do 20 minutes of relaxing and getting calm in the morning and in the evening. (Yes, you can do it on the tube, too…)
You just learn the technique once, and that’s it. You don’t have to join a cult, or pay for regular seminars, and you are not required to believe everything some celebrity says.
As for the “Lennon argument” – did you all give up driving a car when Bono got his drivers license?
Thanks for the info Fatima. Lennon, of course, wrote Sexy Sadie about the Maharishi, not TM in general and these days I wouldn’t do or not do something based on John’s often contradictory pronouncements, much as I love him.
Re: meditation, I’m interested in the concept of mindfulness which, although Buddhist in origin, seems also to be wholly compatible with a secular worldview.
Your post is interesting though, as it seems it is possible to learn TM without the cultish aspect, which undoubtedly would put me off.
Genuinely interested Fatima- did you sign up to anything or just read about it & took it from there?
I had read about it, and when I arrived in Berlin to study there were ads from the local T.M. center. I went to an “information evening” – which was very hands down, it was mostly about meditation in general, and the whole TransMed organization and their talk of “learning to fly” and reaching a higher level at their own universities in Switzerland (of course) was only mentioned in passing.
I then paid around 50 marks (apps. 20 euros today) for a two-hour personal introduction. There was a bit of ritual (I was asked to bring flowers), but mostly it was training and practical tips on how to do it in everyday life.
Never had any contact with them since – I went to lectures with David Lynch and Donovan a few years back, but that was mostly because of Twin Peaks and “Sunshine Superman”, not TM.
William Hague’s been doing it since he was 16. Apparently if he’s in his office he goes into the cupboard and does it. He says it’s refreshing; like having a short, deep sleep.
Interesting. If only somebody had nailed the cupboard shut.
I’d imagine Hague or his staff would have intervened before they’d managed to nail it shut so on the whole, nothing of much consequence would have occurred.
I have meditated on and off for many years (more off than on) and recently got into the ‘mindfulness’ branch of meditation.
But I have such a terribly scattered mind that I just can’t focus. And therefore I am the kind of person who needs meditation the most. And there is the paradox.
I know they say you can’t ‘fail’ at meditation and there’s no right way to do it, but, pfffft, I dunno. And those thoughts stop me from beginning again. (Just start, I know, I know.) 🙂
But thanks for the posts. I will try again, and try and be more consistent. It works best for me if it’s a guided meditation, such as at the end of a yoga class. A friend of mine is trying to get me to go to a Buddhist meditation class but I think the group thing might distract me even more.
I’m also an on and off meditator. Never had anything to do with TM, which seems a bit like paying for bottled water when the same stuff is available free from the tap.
I go to a Buddhist monastery occasionally and, while I generally prefer to meditate alone, it’s a remarkable experience to be in a room of 100+ silent meditators.
Went to a meditation class at uni once – fell asleep.
I have it on good authority that this guy’s personal mantra is “don’t fuck with the formula”…
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/camplimp/pimp1_zpstubj7qk1.jpg
Beat me to it, Diamond barker, anything with Mike Love as it’s leading component tends to put me off. Bit like Tom Cruise and scientology.
No guru, no method, no teacher. And most certainly no religion.
Meditation’s been very useful at times of high work stress – as DougieJ and Ruby mention above, “mindfulness” is a makes-all-sorts-of-sense-to-me method of coping when it all gets stressful and a bit much for our caveman minds. I should do it more, but a little’s better than nothing.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the name to search for: here he is doing his thing in front of a gaggle of Googlers.
At the risk of sounding like a click bait headline, Meditation and mindfulness changed/saved my life around 10 years ago. It’s a daily practise.
Re the dodgy guru theme: on sunday mornings I regularly take part in Dynamic Meditation, a sequence of breathing, catharsis, shaking and dance, done (thankfully) in the dark, and whilst I have no truck with the founder of this concept, Osho (formerly the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, him with the 93 Rolls Royces), the practise itself is hugely beneficial. Dismissing entire practises because of some questionable history seems to me to be a throwing out the baby with the bathwater scenario. This clearly doesn’t extend to scientology, the nazis and the tory party.
I’ve been practicing mantra meditation for over a decade now. TM is mantra meditation, and the only difference is that it’s an organisation that charges you a fairly hefty sum for and wraps it up in mystique eg. guru initiations, secret mantras etc which is total bollox. Mantra is free, and is thousands of years old. It can be used for all manner of purposes, is safe, and is beneficial to health and is efficiacious whether or not one chooses to go deeper into the more esoteric/spirtua side of things, which is entirely optional and not at all a prerequisite. I can highly recommend this book as the best available for self teaching and as an excellent guide to the subject in general ( see also ‘Shakti Mantras’). The author, a Westerner, was a highly respected expert and teacher, and a very good friend of mine studied with him and runs her own mantra courses:
As for John Lennon, he was sadly rather too immature in his fads and outlook in general, be it politics or meditation etc. Anyway, if you don’t want to buy any books, there’s plenty of online resources that are free. A bit of diligence and research, and if you go with it. stick to a regular practice and give it time. You may very well be surprised at the benefits 🙂
Thanks Rob. I spent a good while researching this last night as, like Dougie, I’ve been very interested in this for a long time & found a shed load of brilliant stuff from people who practice this without any affiliations to TM or anything else. You simply don’t need it & I’m going to start meditating today! Wish me luck!
That’s great! Seriously, the books above are ideal, and if you want to get more of the philosophy behind yoga, because mantra is a form of yoga, Patanjali’s ‘Yoga Sutras’ are the classic text. Easily available in many editions, and I personally would suggest this one (don’t be put off by the rather misleading preachy title. It’s an excellent translation with commentary and not hard to intellectually digest:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Know-God-Aphorisms-Patanjali/dp/0874810418).
It’s ancient knowledge, free, an can change your life in all manner of ways.
All the very best 🙂 _/\_ Namaste