Transcendental Meditation

[Ribenapigeon]

Im thinking of giving it a go despite the cost. Has anyone here got into TM? or meditaion practices in general?

[Tracey Suntan-King]

I know from personal.experience that he "mantra" you are given and told not to tell anyone what it is, ever, is the same for everyone in the group
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[Pigeon]

I do 15 minutes meditation a day. It's brilliant as a stress reliever.
Have used it to alleviate mild physical pain (head + back) and negative emotions (which can otherwise go on a bit).
You can also use it to change thoughts / behaviours that seem hard wired. In short, you can alter your unconscious mind without having to go via the hard learning route (eg you don't have to burn your hand to learn that flames hurt). But essentially its about acceptance of what is and observing it. Through observation things are reduced.

After a few months, I found I became calmer and far less bothered about the small things in life. My internal voice that used to go at 100mph 19/7 largely shut up. I think it realised that it would be called upon when needed, rather than the other way round.

The goal of meditation is to increase consciousness, the available power to both peripheral awareness and attention, via brain exercise to sustain attention at same time as maintaining peripheral awareness. To reduce the dominance of the conscious mind over the unconscious.

Then I stopped meditation and after a month, really noticed it. But decided to take up drinking instead of returning to meditation, because drinking is more fun. Not overly smart.

Anyway. Meditation. Remarkably effective for something so simple. Wish I'd started it years ago. But then, I wouldn't have been receptive to it. And that's the funny thing, relatively very few people (in Western world) are. Nobody I knew felt they'd benefit or believed it would do anything.
It could be the fear that, if a persons true state is happiness (over simplifying), regardless of life situation, material possessions, position in their "troop". Then what's the point of it all.
I doubt its that. It's probably just people shun things which don't fit their understanding of what the world is because their aversion systems are activated.

Meditation is simple, but also tricky. Because it's difficult to know what "should" happen. It's not like learning a lot of skills, in that you can visually see what someone else is doing. ie learning to drive a car.
In the end, you can read up, look on youtube and get your "practice" going. Then at some point you'll get the Eureka moment. Mine was after 3 months being paralysed by joy for 45 minutes while under the influence of nothing but staring at the back of my eyelids listening to a fan in a beige room for 15 minutes.

Don't know anything about TM specifically though.


EDIT:

Should have said. I started with the Headspace app (free sessions). Then read a bunch of books. I found these three to be most useful and very different to each other:
Meditation for Beginners - Yesena Chavan

Mindfulness - Mark Williams

Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

But Headspace app is very good start. It's free and guides you through it. Worth starting there before shelling out £

[Ribenapigeon]

When i was younger i did meditate but by following what I had read in books. Mostly mindfulness practice really and I had some interesting experiences. Im thinking about investing in being properly guided into it though and TM seems to be the big player in the field with a long and established history.

I am tight though

[Ribenapigeon]

[-]

Have a wank.

Much cheaper.
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[Hetzer]

A few puffs of DMT, that'll light up your chakras like a fucking xmas tree without needing to sit around on a lotus-leaf for half an hour, sounding like a bent harmonica.
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[Pigeon]

[MarJay]

There are meditative practices within Kung Fu, Chi Gung exercises and similar. I've done it for a while, but never for long periods (only a few minutes at a time).

I've read a fair bit about TM and there is quite a bit of negative out there surrounding it. Also mindfulness seems to be the current buzzword of choice so I'm somewhat wary of that too.

The idea of settling my subconscious to aid sleep and so on is useful to me, and if I can use it to help me relax then that is great, but it's one of those subjects where it can veer well into the 'woo' territory very quickly when you google it.
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[chickenstrip]

[pig hog]

I've heard of TM but don't know much about it--a woman recommended it to me after spotting my copy of Thich Nhat Hanh's Miracle of Mindfulness. I looked it up but it didn't really catch my interest and I don't think that meditation should necessarily be an expensive practice. I think it's good to find a teacher who can guide you but, essentially, all you really need is a quiet space.

I also started with Headspace, which I used for about 10 months before I began to focus on the Soto style of zen practice and that's just what clicks with me.

Headspace is a great place to start with meditation in a general sense and I'd recommend it to anyone.

I think my style of meditation and Pigeon's differ quite a lot but there are many different methods and traditions, so just find what works best for you.

If you want a more zen-centred reading list, I read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and also Not Always So, both by Shunryu Suzuki; The Miracle of Mindfulness, as above; then I bought a copy of Dogen's Shobogenzo (the Kazuaki Tanahashi version) but that's somewhat more serious.
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[MarJay]

[chickenstrip]

Actually, I was given some useful tips when I learned TM, things that help you to keep it on track. There was a bit more to learning it than just, "here's your mantra, off you go", although no, it's not complex at all.

I have no idea how much it cost, as I learned it from my aunt, at my own request. My mother told me about it - she had learned it when she was fighting a lymphoma, and she swore by the benefits she got from it; and she was a pretty down-to-earth woman - and perhaps she paid for me to learn it, I don't know. My aunt was in to it big time. Unfortunately, she was thought within the family to be a little, er, eccentric, and she got into all the political lobbying side and was a blind fan of the Maharishi. Whenever her name was mentioned in later years, the reaction tended to be lol.

But you don't have to take all that from it. There was no pressure to get any further involved in other stuff when I learned it. The technique itself is sound, although due to various things (mostly known as 'life' ), I haven't done it in a while. I really ought to get back to it...so I keep saying to myself 20mins, twice a day is the recommended amount.

The thing about having the mantra given you is that you don't need to think of something yourself. If you do, it may have 'meaning' attached, and the idea is that it is a sound, not a word, repeated in your mind (not out loud) that has no meaning - meaning would be a distraction to your thoughts, which you are supposed to be 'damping down', for want of a better phrase.

There has been some evidence to show that it can improve some medical conditions as well as the traditional benefits you might think would come from meditation. I don't think it's a cure-all, but once upon a time I did do it enough to feel a real difference in general wellbeing.

If they're charging a lot these days, I wouldn't pay to learn it myself though, I don't think. Hard to say when I already know it

Edited to add:

I also learned a relaxation technique at school, and a breathing exercise when I did Lau Gar, both of which have also been useful to me. All have their benefits.

Another edit to add:

You have to shut pets out of the room when you're doing it, or they tend to just constantly pester you
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[chickenstrip]

[MarJay]

[chickenstrip]

[Pigeon]

[struan80]

I'm missing out on so much in life.

[chickenstrip]

[WD Forte]

[Ribenapigeon]

[Pigeon]

[Ribenapigeon]

Ive been using the 1Giant mind app. Its ok nicely guided intros to meditation sessions and theyre going well. The wierd thing is, years ago when i was experimenting with medititive staes before i allwed a Mantra to form in my mind of its own accord. Its difficult to explain how i did this but i did. The 1giant mind app gives you a Mantra and its spookyly simirler to the one i had conjoured up for myself.

[MarJay]

There is definitely a meditative element to motorcycling. Similar to Tai Chi or Kung Fu to be honest...
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