How to do Trancendental Meditation??

[TalkingHead]

I've been meditation for a few years using a variety of techniques from focusing on my breath to staring at point on the wall. I always assumed for some reason that focusing on my breath was transcendental meditation. Now that I started looking into it; it appears you have to go to a 4 day class to learn it; and I cannot find instruction anywhere on the internet.

I find that a bit ridiculous. Can anyone point me to a link or book that gives actual instruction in this. Or is it a simple practice that you can describe?

Thanks!

[CFTraveler]

Years ago I looked into it as it had become 'in' to do TM. When I looked in the internet I found that the only place that actually describes what it is is in Wikipedia- the 'owners' of TM basically charge to learn about it.
I had a link to the only info available about it in the AD pedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation
Here is some more information that may be helpful- it certainly is informative.
http://www.suggestibility.org/whatIsTmShort.php

[Tom]

The short version is that you pay hundreds of dollars to be prescribed a mantra which you must not tell anyone, even family and friends and other students. The idea they give you is that a "wrong" mantra can cause more harm than good for you while the "right" mantra will be "perfect" for you so you get faster progress with it than with any other mantra. My first reiki teacher was into TM for 15 years. He doesn't like to talk about it.

[Korpo]

Basically it's just repeating a mantra in your mind. I don't think that breath comes into it.

I remember that as a teenager I once read a TM book because I wanted to know what the Beatles wanted to learn from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It prescribed a simple mantra repeating technique, and I guess it was OM, or something equally simple. I did not follow it through, I did not know what to expect, etc. I found it disconcerting and would have welcomed some guidance.

Funnily, reminiscing now about it, my inner vision took up a different color back then when I did it, but I did attribute it to a change in the room's lighting (which I found out years later was not the case when this happened). Missed chance, I guess. A head start in meditation...

Oliver

[Korpo]

PS - while mantras are a time-proven technique, I am skeptical about the TM organisation. They claim they can teach you how to fly.

They surely know how to take your money.

The Yoga Sutras were source material for TM and might be the more direct access to meditation inspiration.

Oliver

[Tom]

Osho wrote in one of his books that what the TM people really experience is the feeling of dropping the bopdy and floating. Then they open their eyes and see they haven't moved. The levitation thing sells better.

[Korpo]

You say!

Oliver

[Neil Templar]

i just read a book by film-maker David Lynch.
he describes his use of TM as a means to enabling the creative flow.
no-where in it does he describe what to do..

[CFTraveler]

Repeat a mantra (any mantra, preferably one that means nothing to you) over and over. But before you do tell yourself (using affirmations) that the more you say it the more ____________ you'll be. (Happy, healthy, aware, or whatever you want). Then do it. Twenty minutes a day, every day.
That's it.
That's CFUM (CF's untranscendental Meditation.)

[Nostic]

Focus on your breath.
If you focus deeply enough, you will notice a very short breath "underneath" or "preceding" the normal breath.
Normal breath is trapped by matter. And if it is your primary source of consciousness, you will remain trapped by your body.
You need to focus on a breath so subtle that it penetrates matter.
As you do this, you become much more conscious of your energy body, and you will experience a sense of levitation.

And btw I know of no official definition of Transcendental Meditation. What I wrote above is just based on my experiences.

You can also focus on your "subtle pulse/heartbeat"- the wave of energy that your heart sends out that is unbound by matter.