The following talk is from “A Promise for the Family of Man”—a lecture given by Maharishi at Jones Hall, Houston, Texas, in 1972.





Bliss consciousness is the goal of all activity

“The nature of the mind is to go to a field of greater happiness. All the streams of the mind are in the direction of greater happiness, greater happiness. Deep within, the source of thought is that unbounded awareness, unbounded consciousness. Its nature is bliss.

“This bliss consciousness is the goal of all the streams of activity—the goal of all the channels of activity. Wherever one goes, whatever one does, it is in the direction of greater happiness, always. Progress is in the direction of more and more, in the direction of greater happiness. And deep at the source of thought is the unbounded bliss consciousness. And therefore the mind takes that direction spontaneously, not through practice.”

The nature of the mind moves in direction of greater happiness

“I am emphasizing the effortless nature of Transcendental Meditation. It is not the practice of taking that direction that succeeds. It is not the practice. But the very nature of the mind to move in the direction of greater happiness takes the mind spontaneously, completely effortlessly, and gives it that status of unbounded awareness. This is because the very nature of life is progressive in the direction of more and more; and this unboundedness is more than the most. The simple technique of naturally bringing the awareness to that unbounded field of life succeeds in maintaining that unboundedness—for this the practice is needed.”

The alternation of meditation and activity establishes unbounded awareness

“The practice is not needed to reach the goal. The practice is needed to drag the goal out of the transcendental area to the area of activity. And that is why we meditate morning and evening, and then put ourselves to activity, and again repeat the experience morning and evening, and again we repeat the experience of activity. So activity and meditation, alternated—this practice establishes a permanent state of unbounded awareness, no matter what one is doing then. And this is the state of life that everyone has to lead now with this knowledge.”

Unbounded awareness spontaneously comprehends harmony in all the various aspects of living

“Successful people—take the example of an architect. When he sits on the table, his mind has to incorporate so many different items. What materials are available in the market; what is the site—the structure has to suit the background of the hills or the plains; what is the wind pressure here; and if there are earthquakes, what shocks, what strength? Innumerable aspects he has to take into account, and then considering all that, when he comprehends so many different values, delightfully he says this should be the structure, this way, this way.

“A calm, collected, and therefore comprehensive state of mind can take in all together so many various aspects and produce a harmony of all these aspects—all these various aspects bring out together, combined in a beautiful project. But if his mind is not able to comprehend the whole thing, he will be making something beautiful and losing something beautiful somewhere, here or there.”

Awareness becomes cultivated to be at home with everything—enriching all phases of life

“Life is a composite of innumerable diversities. Every man has so many phases of his activity—so many points of love, so many areas of happiness, relations are innumerable—and every aspect has to be first class. It can’t be done on the basis of thinking and planning for every area—no. That awareness has to be cultivated which is at home with everything. And that is that unbounded awareness, which knows no restrictions and which promotes the ability of focusing very penetratingly on any point one attends.

“This is the knowledge that has been lacking. It is the knowledge of the fundamental value of life—how we can handle something, which is within us, and something which is at the basis of all our activities of thought and action. That something is hidden from our view. Through a natural procedure, we open our awareness to that and thereby enrich all our aspirations, all our activities. It’s worthwhile spending 15–20 minutes on this morning and evening.”

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© Copyright 2012 Maharishi Foundation USA, a non-profit educational organization

According to a recent report by America’s Promise Alliance, only about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation’s largest cities receive diplomas. Seventeen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent. Nationally, about 1.2 million students drop out annually–one every 26 seconds, 7,000 every school day.

“When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe,” says former Secretary of State Colin Powell, the founding chairman of the Alliance.

New Village Charter High School in Los Angeles is among a growing number of inner city schools that has found a solution to this problem in the “Quiet Time/Transcendental Meditation program.”

Javier Guzman, the school’s principal, spoke at the December 2011 “Change Begins Within” national summit in Los Angeles sponsored by the David Lynch Foundation.

Javier Guzman, principal of New Village Charter High School:

“This work of teaching Transcendental Meditation isn’t only about releasing stress. For my students and the thousands like them it’s about combating the problem of poverty and the poison of low expectations that clearly has been institutionalized and reinforced in our educational system. This work is about breaking destructive cycles of behavior. It’s about being given the tools to truly reach ones full potential. And as one of my students stated it’s about opening a door to someone I never knew I could be.”

In the video below you can hear the students and teachers of New Village talk about their experiences with the TM program. The school implemented the Quiet Time Program one year ago to give the students a tool to combat their traumatic stress.

The David Lynch Foundation brings stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation to underserved, high-stress populations, such as veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress, children in inner-city schools, those recovering from homelessness, and Native Americans.

Excerpts from an opinion piece written by Dr. Norman Rosenthal and published by Fox News.

Mental health professionals have emphasized the need to diagnose and treat PTSD wherever it arises. In this piece, I would like to draw attention to yet another group suffering from PTSD – child victims of prostitution who, against all odds, are trying to go straight and choose a different path in life.

Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D.

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Watch the full video:

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The story of the young prostitute usually starts with early sexual abuse by a trusted care-giver, creating a trauma that continues to fester in the developing mind and brain of the young person, often resulting in emotional and behavioral difficulties. The young person runs away – or drifts away – from home and, vulnerable to entrusting his or her safety to untrustworthy adults, goes on to be re-abused by those who pretend to offer love and shelter.

Dr. Lois Lee, Founder and President of Children of the Night

Consider one of these young people, “Annie,” an 18-year-old graduate of the Children of the Night. When she first came to the program, Annie experienced many symptoms of PTSD. Triggered by all sorts of fears and memories, Annie would scream and throw things. One flashback would lead to another until her system was boiling over with intolerable panic and rage.

All the children in the program receive psychotherapy, but Annie did not find it particularly useful. One thing that has made a big difference for her is Transcendental Meditation (TM), a technique that Lee has incorporated into her program in the last few years, with excellent results.

According to Annie, TM has reduced the impact of her flashbacks, has made her less angry, and less likely to her take out her distress on others. As she puts it, “TM helps me calm down and center myself throughout the day, and focus on my schoolwork and tasks. It has also helped me trace back my emotions to when I was really young. I realize that I couldn’t cry or tell people they had hurt my feelings. I chose anger instead of hurt.”

Dr. Norman Rosenthal's latest book, “Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation”

Of Dr. Lee and Children of the Night, Annie says, “The program has done everything for me. If not for the program, I would have died on the streets.”

Annie’s words are all the more poignant as there are so many other children who have not had the good fortune to stumble across Lee and her program. Keep your eye out for them and spare a thought for how we as a society can prevent the horrible problem of child prostitution and take care of those who have already fallen prey to it.

Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School and author of “Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation” (Tarcher-Penguin, 2011).

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/08/transcending-different-type-ptsd-helping-children-night/print#ixzz1aNlAuBab

In Oprah Winfrey’s most recent “What I Know for Sure” column in the February 2012 issue of O Magazine, she talks about her experiences with the Transcendental Meditation program and her visit to Fairfield, Iowa, the home of Maharishi University of Management.

During her visit to the University, Oprah meditated with more than a 1,000 people in the University’s Golden Domes. She described her TM experience this way:

“It was a powerfully energizing yet calming experience. I didn’t want it to end.
“When it did, I walked away feeling fuller than when I’d come in. Full of hope, a sense of contentment, and deep joy. Knowing for sure that even in the daily craziness that bombards us from every direction, there is—still—the constancy of stillness.
“Only from that space can you create your best work and your best life.”

Oprah’s visit to Fairfield (which she called “TM Town”) will be featured later this spring on Oprah’s Next Chapter program (Sunday nights on OWN – the Oprah Winfrey Network).

Meditating celebrities, leaders of veteran service organizations, and top scientists and educators gathered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on December 3rd for the David Lynch Foundation‘s third annual “Change Begins Within” benefit gala.

The event celebrated the success of the David Lynch Foundation’s national and global initiatives aimed at helping children and adults overcome the crippling influence of traumatic stress and transform their lives from within.

The David Lynch Foundation was established in 2005 to provide financial support and program implementation so that inner-city students, veterans with PTSD and their families, and incarcerated juveniles and adults can begin the Transcendental Meditation technique. To date, the Foundation has helped more than 200,000 people learn to meditate.

Television talk show host, comedian, and bestselling author Ellen DeGeneres opened the evening:

“I’ve been doing TM for about a year now. I tried to meditate before—the breathing and all the other stuff—and I was always opening my eyes about a minute later thinking, ‘How am I gonna do this!? This is just impossible.’

“So when I heard about TM, I was very impressed by the people who were doing it. And I thought there must be something to it and I’ll try it even though I am not good at meditating.

“There’s something about TM. It’s the only time I have that stillness. It’s the only way I’ve ever been able to sit long enough. I open my eyes and I’m sad that it’s 20 minutes later. It gives me this peaceful feeling—I just love it so much and I talk about it as much as I can on my show without sounding like I’m preaching about it. I can’t say enough good things about it.

“You achieve all the benefits from just sitting still and going within. It really is a beautiful experience. I’m happy to be a part of this community and I hope to continue doing this.”

In the following video, British comedian and actor Russell Brand and Dr. John Hagelin, renowned quantum physicist and president of the David Lynch Foundation, have a lively and witty discussion about the science behind the Transcendental Meditation technique.

Pictures from the event:
(Hover mouse over picture to see caption)

You can watch a replay of the entire evening at:
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/featured-past-events.html#video=ralXpMsoG-k

References:

www.davidlynchfoundation.org

A wonderful article by Pico Iyer in the New York Times—“The Joy of Quiet”—speaks to the importance and enjoyment of ‘quiet time’, a time apart from the frenetic world, including the Internet. Taking time out for rest or recreation is nothing new. Yet, recently more and more of us have become enamored with finding our own quiet time.



When Maharishi Mahesh Yogi first brought the Transcendental Meditation technique to the west over fifty years ago, he proclaimed to a group of eager listeners that ‘rest is the basis of activity’. There were many quizzical looks. Of course, we all knew about the importance of rest and a good night’s sleep, but we didn’t quite grasp how activity could have its basis in rest. Then he explained that for rest to be truly rejuvenating it must be the type of rest that allows the physiology to settle to its ‘ground state’, a state characterized by profound physiologic rest and at the same time a new style of brain activity, coherent cerebral activity involving left and right hemispheres, from the frontal to the occipital regions.

This new type of rest epitomizes the true ‘joy of quiet’. That same taste of bliss and contentment that we hope to savor briefly as we retire from our usual busy lives to enjoy a quiet time, perhaps a vacation away from work in a wonderful natural setting, is ours whenever we close our eyes and start the TM technique. This is because the special rest characterized by TM is experienced by us as ever-increasing waves of bliss, the most profound contentment – an experience of expansion, and unboundedness.

The real ‘joy of quiet’ has two aspects: the objective aspect of ‘quiet’ – a profound rest for the physiology, and the subjective aspect of ‘joy’ – at its most profound, a state of bliss. But, TM goes beyond giving us the ‘joy of quiet’ during meditation. It brings us the ‘joy of quiet’ in our activity outside of meditation. As we culture the habit of diving deep within on a daily basis, the subjective and objective aspects of the ground state of the physiology begin to permeate our waking state of consciousness. We begin to live the ‘joy of quiet’ while in the midst of the most dynamic activity. This is a life worthy of living. As Maharishi would say: “It’s such a joy.”

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Dr. Gary Kaplan

For over 50 years, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi marked January 12th as a traditional day of celebration for his worldwide Transcendental Meditation organization. Achievements of the previous year were reviewed with a look forward to the coming new year as a renewed opportunity to more boldly advance his meditation-based, consciousness-based programs to bring enlightenment to every individual and peace to the whole world family.

This year, in Maharishi Invincibility Centers (TM centers) worldwide, the tradition continued with great celebrations. For very good reasons.

Maharishi’s message in 1958 when he left India to embark on his first global tour to bring Transcendental Meditation to the world was the same as it is today: Every human being is born with infinite potential—and realizing that potential is the birthright of everyone, so that everyone can rise above suffering and enjoy the truth of the ancient maxim: “Life is bliss.” Maharishi offered his Transcendental Meditation technique as a simple, natural way to live the fullness of life.

Now, 54 years later, Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation is mainstream: practiced by more than 6 million people of all ages, nationalities, and religions, and offered in businesses, schools, military bases, hospitals and prisons. And, as Maharishi foresaw, the benefits of the technique extend to all areas of life, including education, healthcare, business, rehabilitation and the military. Here is a brief review some of those benefits:

Health

During the past 40 years, more than 600 scientific studies have been conducted on the TM program at over 200 independent universities and medical institutes, and have been published in leading scientific journals.

For example, neuroscientists have found that the Transcendental Meditation program promotes the full potential of the brain—the basis of increased IQ, creativity, memory, academic performance and emotional maturity.

Tens of thousands of medical doctors throughout the world now recommend the Transcendental Meditation program to help aleviate the deleterious effects of stress, and eliminate the cause of psychosomatic illnesses. In addition, thousands of medical doctors have incorporated into their practice Maharishi’s Vedic Approach to Health to prevent disease and promote total health.

Education

Thousands of schools, colleges and universities throughout the world have incorporated the Transcendental Meditation program in order to help reduce student stress and improve student brain development. Research shows that the effect of adding the “Quiet Time/TM Program” to the school day improves students’ academic performance and their behavior.

Peace

Maharishi’s programs to create world peace have resulted in the establishment of large groups of people practicing the TM & TM-Sidhi program in all parts of the world. The largest groups are in India and the United States.












“Contentment, power, wisdom, and the ability to support all things—these qualities, and many more besides, are found in the nature of the person who, while living in the world, has gained equanimity of mind. That stable state of evenness of mind belongs to the field of pure consciousness, pure creative intelligence, which is the very source of life-energy, the reservoir of wisdom, the origin or all power in nature, and the fountainhead of all success in the world.”

–Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

References:

http://www.tm.org/maharishi

www.permanentpeace.org

www.davidlynchfoundation.org

Three twentysomething entrepreneurs in Fairfield, Iowa, home of Maharishi University of Management, have recently purchased iPhone Life magazine from owner and publisher Hal Goldstein.

The magazine, begun in 2008, covers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and has an international readership of over 500,000. Mr. Goldstein had been wanting to retire, and when he could see that several of his most recent young employees were exceptionally capable and talented, he decided to make his move. He broached the idea, and they were excited to take over. He called them his “young guns.”

Alex Cequea and David Averbach

“They are exceptionally skilled and clear in their thinking and they work well together,” said Mr. Goldstein about the new owners. “They exceeded my expectations. They have a tremendous opportunity to make their mark and bring a younger perspective. They’ve already taken the magazine to a new level.”

Of course, running a magazine takes a lot of energy and focus. David says that Transcendental Meditation helps. “When I’m burnt out after a long day at the office, TM helps me relax and recharge.”

The team moved quickly and made a lot of changes. They added video to the digital edition of the magazine and came up with a new design for iPhoneLife.com that doubled the traffic — and helped spur subscriptions. They approached ad sales in a more systematic fashion, leading to record sales for the first issue under their direction. They began a popular weekly webcast. And they created an app that will enable them to sell a digital version of the magazine via Apple’s Newsstand.

They networked with other young entrepreneurs in Fairfield to optimize the website so it would bring the most search engine traffic. And they hired fellow twentysomething and long-time acquaintance Jaime Thatcher to take over as designer, also putting their stamp on the appearance of the print magazine. The October 2011 issue was the first one to come out under the new management with an updated design and structure.

Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa

1830-1886 • UNITED STATES

Her grandfather founded Amherst College. Her father was a multi-term state legislator and US Congressman. But Emily Dickinson lived a rather less worldly life. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, she traveled outside her home village only a few times, outside of Massachusetts but once.

After the age of 42, she rarely left her house and yard. She never married. She deliberately chose a life of Thoreau-like simplicity — her vocation was poetry.

Of the 1,775 poems she wrote, fewer than a dozen were published during her lifetime, all anonymously and usually reworked by editors to conform to contemporary standards. Only in 1955 was a complete and unmodified collection of her poems published. Dickinson forged a brilliantly original style, full of power, and is acclaimed today as one of America’s greatest poets.

In a number of her poems she appears to describe experiences in which the mind settles inward, moving beyond perception, beyond thought itself. Here is an example:

The Soul’s Superior instants
Occur to Her — alone —
When friend — and Earth’s occasion
Have infinite withdrawn —
Or She — Herself — ascended
To too remote a Height
For lower Recognition
Than Her Omnipotent —
.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
Eternity’s disclosure
To favorites — a few —
Of the Colossal substance
Of Immortality [1]

As in all her work, Dickinson’s language here is highly compact, telegraphic. But her meaning seems clear. She is describing what she regards as her most exalted inner experiences, “the soul’s superior instants.” These occur when the soul is alone and all ordinary experience is “infinite withdrawn.” She feels her soul has “ascended” to “too remote a Height” for lower sense perceptions to reach. The soul can experience only its abstract yet omnipotent self. In this state, she says, the soul opens to “Eternity,” to “the Colossal substance / Of Immortality.” This experience, she tells us, is given to only a fortunate few.

What is she describing?

Emily Dickinson at about age 10. From the Dickinson Room at Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Scientific research studies have determined that this state represents a fourth major state of consciousness, distinct from waking, dreaming, and sleeping. In this state the mind is fully awake and alert, yet deeply settled; the body is also deeply settled, and one experiences a state of deep rest. Brain functioning shifts from a more or less random style of functioning to a highly integrated state, suggesting that all parts of the brain are functioning in concert and the brain is accessing its full potential. Maharishi calls this fourth state of consciousness Transcendental Consciousness.

We find experiences of this state in the writings of great men and women throughout time and around the world. It is a universal experience, and highly prized — but, as Dickinson intimates, normally exceedingly rare and fleeting.

Maharishi’s gift is a technique for transcending, the Transcendental Meditation technique, so that this extraordinary yet natural experience need not be left to chance — it can be available at will (twenty minutes twice each day).

The benefits are also extraordinary — ranging from increased creativity and intelligence to improved learning ability, from reduced stress and anxiety to improved health and increased longevity, from improved relationships to increased productivity — even increased peace and harmony in society as a whole.

Dickinson hints in a number of poems that she had spontaneous experiences of Transcendental Consciousness. Here is another example:

There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself —
Finite infinity. [2]

There are many forms of solitude, Dickinson observes in the first three lines. But these are all “society” next to the far more profound solitude one gains when the soul is “admitted to itself” — when consciousness turns within to become aware of itself alone. This is a state of “finite infinity” — the experience of unboundedness within the boundaries of individual existence.

With the technique for transcending Maharishi has given to us, coupled with the thorough understanding of the nature of this experience he has provided, we can look back on the literature of the past with a new light. We find people like Emily Dickinson telling us about “The Soul’s Superior instants,” the experience of “a soul admitted to itself” — the direct experience that deep within each of us is a field that is transcendental, infinite, eternal.

This is what Maharishi calls the Self. It is your Self, my Self, the Self of everyone, the Self of the universe — and now this exalted experience, venerated through the ages, is available to everyone.

REFERENCES

[1] Emily Dickinson, Untitled poem, “306,” The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson, first edition (Boston: Little, Brown, copyrights 1890 to 1960), 144.

[2] Dickinson, Untitled poem, “1695,” The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, 691.

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Dr. Craig Pearson is Executive Vice-President of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. He has served the University in a variety of roles over the past 33 years, including Dean of Faculty, Dean of Students, Director of Maharishi University of Management Press, Director of Freshman Composition, and Professor of Professional Writing.

He holds a PhD in Maharishi Vedic Science from MUM and is the author of two books on the development of full human potential, The Complete Book of Yogic Flying and The Supreme Awakening: Developing the Infinite Potential Within (forthcoming). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment.

A Sunday feature story in The Independent, one of Ireland’s leading newspapers ran with the title, “The answer to happiness lies within us.” Irish newspaper suggests it might. Columnist Barry Egan writes that as times gets tougher, “many people are searching for a more meaningful existence, and Transcendental Meditation (TM) is providing the answer for some; myself included.”

“It’s obvious that many people in Ireland have become very disillusioned with life,” Noel O’Neill, one of Ireland’s leading TM teachers, told Egan. “The material dream that had been held up to them has been pulled out from under their feet and many are left with nothing but debts and a life-long mortgage. Even the people who are not financially crippled are facing ever-increasing levels of stress. TM is becoming increasingly recognized as a means of dealing with these stressful situations. When we practice TM we become aware of an inner aspect of our lives, a silent level of our minds which is untouched by the chaos going on around us. We discover a sense of happiness which is dependent on nothing else but ourselves, we become more self-reliant and don’t let our situation overwhelm us,” Noel says, adding that the new site — www.tm-ireland.org — contains endorsements of TM by the likes of David Lynch, Paul McCartney, Clint Eastwood, Jerry Seinfeld and a whole host of Irish TM luminaries like Dr Donn Brennan.

The new TM-Ireland website contains a wonderful video of the Belfast Peaceline project going on in Northern Ireland. You can view it by clicking here:

Web references:
http://www.tm-ireland.org/

www.belfastpeacelineproject.org