From: mw@ki.fht-mannheim.de (Marc Wachowitz)
Subject: Re: Transcendental Meditation
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 08:06:15 GMT
Organization: Fachhochschule fuer Technik Mannheim
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Hank Cohen <hank@westford.ccur.com> wrote:
: Specifically TM is not very much like Zen meditation at all.
Zen has a variety of approaches, some similar to the mantra-meditation and
thought-following you described.

: There is a tremendous volume of physiological research that verifies that TM
: provides a profound state of rest and leads to more a more efficient and 
: healthy physiology and psychology
That isn't at all special to TM, but can be found in all meditation methods
I've heared of.

: culminating with the perfection of Enlightenment.
This term is often used for a variety of experiences, and what some schools may
present as the final goal may be still unfinished and deluded for others. I'd
be very cautious with such claims.

: These two points also serve to distinguish TM from virtually all other
: techniques of meditation that are being taught these days.
Sorry, but from all I've yet heard about TM, including your posting, the only
outstanding factor is the commercialisation and at the surface, nothing new
beyond that.

: 1. TM is not a technique of concentration.
That's also true for many other forms of meditation (including the Zen practice
of "just sitting" (shikantaza); one should note that here the attitude is more
important than the body-position - D.T.Suzuki once said "the mind is sitting").

: Personal opinion: Zen is a technique of concentration.  If your 
: concentration wavers someone will come along and hit you with a
: stick.
That's true in some variants (particularly in the Rinzai tradition); seeing the
stick just as a means to keep people from sleeping is a common misunderstanding.
When used properly, hitting the right point with the appropriate tension can
help to release muscle tension when sitting in Lotus-position. Another aspect is
that when someone is in extreme concentration, a sudden stimulation can cause
a letting-go of the ego and a "small satori".
(just some background information, I'm not advocating this)

: TM uses a sound called a mantra which I will discuss more later but 
: for now we should understand that the mantra is meaningless and it 
: is not an object of concentration.
So why all that worry about keeping it private?

Btw, from my perspective mantras and thought-following are still forms of
concentration, not non-exclusive awareness.

: So what is the technique?  I gave the outline of the technique two
: paragraphs back when I said that we reverse the outward flow of
: thought and follow a thought backward from the level of awareness down
: into the subconsciousness until we can transcend thought and arrive at
: the level of pure consciousness.
In Zen this is called pseudo-nirvana and blindness, not the goal.

[about concentration]
: It was the great gift of Guru Dev to realize that this tendency that some may
: call hedonistic is actually our greatest ally in seeking states of higher
: consciousness.
That recognition is very old.

: It is this natural
: tendency of the mind that we harness in TM.  We do this by providing
: the mind with a very special thought that has the property that it
: becomes more and more charming to the mind as the mind settles down
: into quieter and more settled states of consciousness.
Note that having in mind some word/sound/mantra/picture/whatever will indeed
calm it, but is still a produced silence.
A natural silence of the mind is something entirely different.

: I do not know any mantras besides my own and I am not going to tell anyone my
: mantra.  These things are taught in private and are kept in private.
Yes, it is told to do so, since many people would be surprised that there's
actually only a small number of words used. An excellent way of creating myth
around it.

: Learning to meditate is not the same thing as learning to teach meditation at
: all.
It can be seriously doubted that meditation cannot really be tought, but must
be found out, and all kinds of methods are just hindrances to that.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Wachowitz, mw@gandalf.ki.fht-mannheim.de, 75742@novell1.rz.fht-mannheim.de
  *  wonder everyday    *    nothing in particular    *    all is special  *