TSM is taught in a standardized manner and can be learned in just a few sessions. The first step in learning TSM is to attend a free introductory presentation. Without obligation find out how meditation could help you enjoy a better quality of life. Not a religion or cult, affordable and adaptable to one’s busy lifestyle.
TSM is a mental technique. The technique involves allowing the mind to be aware but un-involved on the level of meaning. Each student is given a particular sound, chosen for him or her, which does not have a meaning. This special sound has a harmonizing, life-supporting effect at all the more subtle levels of the mind as it settles into the transcendent. Not being engaged in meaning, which would keep the mind on the surface, the mind is free to take its natural direction - straight toward bliss, or what is commonly known as the source of thought. Even if one does not believe it will work, it still works. Belief is not necessary.
Certified instructors teach each student how to use that sound. The instruction is easily learned and is taught in just the right sequence. The knowledge of how to choose, give and use the sound comes from a living tradition of Vedic knowledge, unbroken for thousands of years. So there is a right way and a wrong way to meditate. The teacher coaches the student to meditate in the most effortless manner. Once learned one realizes that the easiest way is the best way.
Correct meditation is easy to learn and practice. There is no need to empty the mind of thoughts. Staring at a candle gets boring after a while. Most give up - thinking: ''I just couldn’t concentrate hard enough." At the first free lecture teachers will explain, "It’s easy, anyone can do it." Given previous failures at meditation, most people are naturally skeptical. But when you give it a try, it’s not long before you notice how simple and effective it is. A little coaching goes a long way.
Most people think that meditation is something else that people do, like jogging and playing solitaire, listening to music and petting their cats. But doing things involves the active mind. If the active mind is like waves on the surface of the ocean, then the Transcendental Stress Management technique is like diving to the silent depths of the ocean.
You can’t move a huge boulder with your bare hands no matter how hard you try, but with the technique of a lever you can move that same boulder with one finger. A technique is a better way to do something that is based on deeper understanding of the laws of nature. What we offer is an effortless technique to transcend thoughts and go beyond the active mind.
It is practiced for 20 minutes twice a day, sitting comfortably with the eyes closed, as a preparation for effective activity. The familiar boundaries of day-to-day thinking effortlessly expand and you naturally experience deep silence while remaining awake inside. Anyone can do it. You don’t have to be well educated, vegetarian, religious or able to sit still in a chair. You don’t have to understand what you've just read or even believe that it works. If you are human and awake you can learn how to transcend.
What do you notice about your mind? That it has a great deal of thoughts? That it’s always moving around? Precisely. Observation Number One: The mind is constantly moving. Most people stop there and give up, complaining that it would be too difficult to train the mind to stand still. They are right. Forcing the mind to stay on one object of perception goes against the nature of the mind.
It seems that the mind is always looking for something more: more knowledge, more fun, more power, more joy - just more. Observation Number Two: The mind is always moving in the direction of greater satisfaction.
Meditation is the most effective form of relaxation. It not only relaxes the body and mind but also feeds them with vital energy, peace and happiness.
- meditation teachings of a modern rishi
The ancient seers point out that the mind will find fulfillment only when it moves beyond objects into the infinite field of awareness itself, called restful alertness. This style of functioning of mind and body is characterized by extremely deep metabolic rest coupled with an unprecedented orderliness in mental functioning - a wakeful state which is not found in sleep or other forms of relaxation. We think it is unique.
The Sanskrit word ananda describes the bliss of consciousness. Bliss attracts the mind like no-thing could. And we don’t have to go anywhere to find it. This pure state of consciousness is just the simplest form of our own awareness, located at the source of thought. We learn how to get in touch with those finer impressions within.
So: An infinite field of pure bliss lies at the basis of our busy minds; and our minds always move in the direction of greater happiness.
When the mind takes the right angle and lets go, then its own nature automatically draws it toward bliss. If this is true, then why do we have to learn a technique? Human abilities to walk, talk, eat and read are all learned. Transcending is no different. We have the innate ability but we have to learn the technique of taking the correct angle. In every time and place people have transcended spontaneously, without any technique. But they could not duplicate it later by trying or teach others how to do it.
This meditation technique is not concentration - forcing the mind to remain fixed on one object. It is not contemplation - thinking about the meaning of something. It is also not contriving an emotion or a mood of calmness, peace or happiness. Full understanding of this meditation comes from direct experience.
On instruction day each instructor begins a new course by acknowledging the tradition while the student looks on without participating. This way the teaching remains the same. It is our belief that the process of transcending is too important to be left to inexpert guesswork or just keeping the mind active.
The experience of restful alertness, having a direct effect on the nervous system, reducing natural breathing and cardiac output often twice as deep as deep sleep (published research of Herbert Benson, M.D. on mantra-based meditation). Daily practice gives rise to innumerable health benefits which in turn lowers the cost of health care by an average 50% in 5 years.
According to a 1991 study reported in the British Medical Journal, only 15 percent of modern Western medical practices have been verified as effective by scientific research. Think about this! Insurance companies will reimburse for a heart transplant but they totally ignore any meditation technique that has been repeatedly verified by personal experience to nourish the heart at a deep level.
We know there is a tendency in some circles to yawn that meditation is old-fashioned. Maybe a technique that has withstood both the test of time and is open to scientific scrutiny is worth reconsidering.
Stress is believed to be the major factor in the occurrence of psychosomatic illness. As the system accumulates stress, it functions less and less efficiently, and resistance to disease diminishes. This process needs to be reversed as much as possible. All TSM approaches - Meditation, Yoga and Ayurveda help lower stress and improve aging. Since this meditation does not require any change in lifestyle, one simply sits comfortably, closes the eyes and follows the instructions he has received from his teacher.
During the practice of the meditation, the mind systematically experiences more refined or subtler mental activity, and because mental activity and physiological activity are inseparable, the body naturally settles down as the mind enjoys this quieter activity. There is no effort to relax. Relaxation occurs spontaneously. As the mind and body experience this unique state of rest, the body follows its natural tendency to heal itself, and eliminates accumulated stress in an easy and natural way.