Adventures in Transcendental Meditation - Part I
It was the year of the Partridge Family, eight cent postage stamps and James Taylor singing "You Got a Friend".
That was 1971 and I was an under achieving senior in a middle American High School when one day I saw a funny looking poster on the wall as I walked to my American History class.
It had a large black and white picture of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on it and a lecture on Transcendental Meditation* was announced for the next day in the school auditorium.
I was intrigued and showed up the next day to hear all about it.
The speaker was a young man in a suit who spoke serenely of the silence deep within us.
I don't remember much of what he said but I remember very clearly what he was.
I was very impressed with his calm demeanor and he seemed to embody the principles of which he spoke.
Over the next few weeks I mowed lawns and ran errands to earn the money for my TM instruction course fee.
I attended the seven step course and never looked back.
Right away my life began to change.
Not because of anything I was told but because of the beautiful experience of deep inner silence that I experienced twice a day as I practiced my Transcendental Meditation in the privacy of my bedroom.
Suddenly my life seemed hopeful and I was full of enthusiasm for it.
Immediately my grades improved and I was accepted to college.
After a few months I quit smoking.
I made the Deans List and met a beautiful young girl whose passion was oil painting and Italian food.
She also learned TM and we meditated together every chance we got.
If we had owned any horses we would have rode off into the sunset but instead we stayed home, got straight A's and went on to graduate with honors.
*Transcendental Meditation is a simple mental technique that is practiced sitting comfortably for 20 minutes twice a day.
It is unique and different from other types of meditation in that does not involve any concentration and contemplation.
For this reason it is easy and enjoyable instead of difficult and tedious like many other forms of meditation.
It must be learned from a certified TM teacher through a standardized one week course.
There is a substantial fee for the course but low interest financing and scholarships are available through the TM movement which is a non-profit charitable organization.
Hundreds of scientific studies validate the benefits of the technique and it's easy to learn.
That was 1971 and I was an under achieving senior in a middle American High School when one day I saw a funny looking poster on the wall as I walked to my American History class.
It had a large black and white picture of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on it and a lecture on Transcendental Meditation* was announced for the next day in the school auditorium.
I was intrigued and showed up the next day to hear all about it.
The speaker was a young man in a suit who spoke serenely of the silence deep within us.
I don't remember much of what he said but I remember very clearly what he was.
I was very impressed with his calm demeanor and he seemed to embody the principles of which he spoke.
Over the next few weeks I mowed lawns and ran errands to earn the money for my TM instruction course fee.
I attended the seven step course and never looked back.
Right away my life began to change.
Not because of anything I was told but because of the beautiful experience of deep inner silence that I experienced twice a day as I practiced my Transcendental Meditation in the privacy of my bedroom.
Suddenly my life seemed hopeful and I was full of enthusiasm for it.
Immediately my grades improved and I was accepted to college.
After a few months I quit smoking.
I made the Deans List and met a beautiful young girl whose passion was oil painting and Italian food.
She also learned TM and we meditated together every chance we got.
If we had owned any horses we would have rode off into the sunset but instead we stayed home, got straight A's and went on to graduate with honors.
*Transcendental Meditation is a simple mental technique that is practiced sitting comfortably for 20 minutes twice a day.
It is unique and different from other types of meditation in that does not involve any concentration and contemplation.
For this reason it is easy and enjoyable instead of difficult and tedious like many other forms of meditation.
It must be learned from a certified TM teacher through a standardized one week course.
There is a substantial fee for the course but low interest financing and scholarships are available through the TM movement which is a non-profit charitable organization.
Hundreds of scientific studies validate the benefits of the technique and it's easy to learn.
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