On Quieting the Mind

I've been using Transcendental Meditation (TM) as my meditation technique for over a decade. I still do some Mindfulness Meditation a la John Kabat-Zinn, but TM is what I do regularly.

There's been a fair amount of controversy, though less nowadays, regarding TM's founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (who passed away over a year ago), and his followers. But some people, and I'm among them, never got involved in the "movement" beyond learning how to meditate and doing it daily.

The aspect of TM that irked me most was always the "you get what you pay for" attitude. The fee for a mantra when I learned was $2500 and it is now $2000. You get a lot of education and coaching for that $2000, but you can learn mindfulness meditation or various Buddhist meditation techniques, free of charge, any day of the week from either your home via the Internet, or at a free class. There's more on learning how to do TM, including discounts on the process here.

This Friday, at noon, thanks to David Lynch's foundation (he's a long-time meditator), you can watch a conference with Lynch, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Russell Simmons (also long-time meditators, with Simmons being the newest) who are "coming together to teach one million at-risk youth to meditate." You have to register to watch the conference.

Here are the benefits to TM, in my experience.

• It has nothing to do with god or religion.
• You don't have to be a member of an organization or go to any meetings or pay any dues after the initial fee.
• It's better than a nap.
• It quiets my mind like nothing else.
• It gives me a break from myself.
• It relieves a headache if I have one.
• I can do it anywhere, any time (though there are definitely optimal conditions).
• I don't need anyone or anything to help me do it (again, optimal conditions, though).
• It helps me release or dissolve anger.

I could be a far more angry, annoyed person than I currently am, and meditation has helped my brain better deal with everything I bombard it with and everything it was born with.

Here's the rub: We'll never know whether the benefits I have experienced would exist if all I did was mindfulness meditation. I think that the quieting of the mind (without drugs), is the key. It's probably the most difficult thing I've ever learned to do, due to the wacky, ever-buzzing mind I am possessed by. But anything that helps me feel a little less overwhelmed by my own mind is worth it. Does everyone need to do TM? Do I? I don't know. I doubt it. I do know that it's likely that everyone can benefit from it. But everyone can benefit from learning how to quiet their minds, and if I have a message for today, that's it. Whether you do it by counting, attending to your breath, using "watermelon" as a mantra, or relaxing your body one inch at a time, giving your brain a break, and giving you a break from your brain, is important for dealing with stress and maintaining sanity in a world gone mad.