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Scientific studies have show that with the regular experience of nothingness, the state of Transcendental Consciousness, everything in life gets better.
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by Global Good News staff writer
3 November 2009
My ninth grade English teacher challenged my creativity with a unit on ‘familiar essays’. He had us writing on everything from ‘dates’ (whether it be the fruit, the calendar variety, or the social kind) to ‘brooms’. I managed to produce reasonably good papers until the last assignment. When he asked us to write on ‘nothing,’ I was stumped. What could one say? Perhaps I could have turned in a blank piece of paper, but I probably did not think of that. Instead, as I recall, I wrote a page of jibberish.
But now, older and wiser, I would like to offer a rewrite of what I feel was actually a very profound assignment indeed. So please allow me to invite you to enjoy my new essay entitled:
‘Nothing is everything’
It was my great good fortune in college to learn how to experience ‘nothing’. I say that this was fortunate because enjoying an uncluttered, quiet, peaceful mind, empty and pure, was a great relief in light of my normally unsettled mind at that time. What added greatness to my good fortune was that the ‘nothingness’ which I came to experience turned out to be not just peaceful, but a full, luscious, nourishing and wonderfully refreshing field. I was settled and yet awake inside, enjoying a state of restful alertness which I truly found to be enriching to every aspect of my life.
What was the key to this good fortune? I learned Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation Technique. It was that simple.
A brief look at the Transcendental Meditation Programme
The Transcendental Meditation Technique is simple. It is a natural, effortless, easily learned mental technique practised 15-20 minutes twice a day. During the practice, the mind experiences finer and finer states of the thinking process until it goes beyond, transcends, thought. The consciousness of the practitioner is no longer bound by thought or any object of perception. His consciousness is unrestricted, unbounded, pure. The experience is that of pure abstraction. There is nothing. Yet the mind is fully awake and alert in a state of pure potentiality, the lively basis of everything.
Nothingness and Totality
Let’s take a look at ‘nothing’. Nothingness, we know, is symbolized by zero: ‘0’. Funnily enough, wholeness, or Totality, can be represented in the same way. The circle, ‘0’, which means zero, also illustrates the ‘whole pie,’ so to speak. Wholeness and emptiness co-exist, at least symbolically.
Physics confirms this seeming paradox even beyond the level of symbolism. In Maharishi’s Absolute Theory of Defence, Maharishi, who possessed a degree in Physics, describes the vacuum (least excited) state of quantum fields in just the same way the experience beyond the finest thought, pure consciousness, is described by those practising the Transcendental Meditation Technique. 'Infinity and unboundedness are the simple properties of the vacuum state of the quantum fields,'
Maharishi writes, adding that the unbounded quality reflects that the field is not localized as particles (just as the unbounded mind is not localized in thoughts). Maharishi also describes the vacuum state as 'completely pure' and as a level of 'pure knowledge' possessing the 'inherent knowledge and organizing power to bring forth all the excited states,' from particles to congregations of particles assembled as all the material forms of creation.
Maharishi likens the vacuum state to an empty blackboard—it has nothing on it but is a field of all possibilities. Totality, though unexpressed, is inherent within the nothingness.
Like that, Totality, and all possibilities, is lively within the field of ‘nothingness’ of our own pure consciousness, our own deepest, most intimate Self. Maharishi is fond of likening the experience of pure consciousness, gained during the Transcendental Meditation Technique, to the hollowness of a seed. Out of that emptiness, the whole tree emerges. Though as yet in an unmanifest form, the tree, with all its branches and leaves, fruits and flowers, lies within the emptiness of the hollow seed.
How does the experience of pure consciousness translate into practical life?
Over 600 scientific studies performed in 250 research institutions in 33 countries verify that every aspect of life improves through the practice of the Transcendental Meditation Technique. The brain becomes more coherent, creativity increases, intelligence increases; health improves (e.g. blood pressure and cholesterol levels go down) resulting in decreased doctor visits and hospitalization; behaviour improves resulting in better relationships; self-concept improves and self-actualization increases. On the level of society, the effects of the Transcendental Meditation Programme include decreased crime rate, reduced international conflict, and improved quality of life. These studies have been published in over 100 leading scientific journals worldwide.
Truly, all possibilities are enlivened through the Transcendental Meditation Programme, even the simultaneous display of opposite values as seen in a study showing both broader comprehension and improved ability to focus in meditators. In short, with the experience of ‘nothing’, the pure, abstract field of Transcendental Consciousness, ‘everything’ gets better.
Allowing ‘nothing’ to fulfill your desires
One more look at the paradox of the coexistence of opposites, whether it be broad comprehension and focus or Totality and nothingness. I like to understand it by looking at a number line. It extends to infinity in both directions, negative numbers to the left and positive numbers to the right of zero. Everything is there. Yet, as the opposite values perfectly balance each other, nothing is left, it all reduces back to nothingness, 0. Totality of numbers is there, all possible numbers are there, and nothing is there.
Again, like that, in the experience of nothingness, pure abstraction, the field of pure consciousness, where the mind is restfully alert, awake within itself, gained during the Transcendental Meditation Technique, Totality and all possibilities are there. Wonderfully, with the Totality of Nature’s intelligence awake, the individual enjoys support of nature in daily life. His desires are easily fulfilled.
One happy meditator says: 'All desires seem to be supported. Nature takes care of everything. I couldn’t begin to compete with her in seeing to it that every small detail goes perfectly.' And he adds, 'Whenever nature does not appear to be supporting a desire in the way that I had planned, it almost always means that something better than planned is unfolding.'
Have a taste of ‘nothing’
The conclusion: It is abundantly worthwhile to know ‘nothing’—your own most settled state, your own pure consciousness, your own Self. All areas of life improve. All desires are easily fulfilled.
Only one thing: You can never truly know ‘nothing’ by hearing or reading about it. You can only know ‘nothing’ by experiencing it just as you can only know the taste of a strawberry by eating it.
So if you want everything, have a taste of ‘nothing’, your Self, your pure consciousness, through the systematic and simple technique of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation.
© Copyright 2009 Global Good News®
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