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The experience of pure bliss consciousness in the Transcendental Meditation Technique actually wakes up the whole brain and brings a whole range of benefits.
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by Global Good News staff writer
18 May 2010
Dr Robert Roth is Vice President of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace and one of the National Directors of the Transcendental Meditation organization in the United States.
In a recent series of video presentations, Dr Roth answered questions people may have about Transcendental Meditation, which he explains is a very simple, natural technique—and ‘natural means there's no suggestion, no manipulation, no concentration,’—that is practised for twenty minutes sitting comfortably in a chair with eyes closed.
During that twenty minutes 'your every day active thinking mind has an opportunity to settle down and experience quieter and quieter levels of thought and then experience the deepest most settled level of the mind,’ he said. ‘This is called pure consciousness or Transcendental Consciousness or the source of thought; in physics they call it the Unified Field.’
Dr Roth explained that as the mind settles down to experience this, the body gains a very profound state of rest and that deep rest eliminates deeply rooted stresses. ‘That experience of pure consciousness, the source of thought within, wakes up the whole brain,’ he continued, and ‘it enlivens the whole brain, so that after our [twice daily] twenty minute period of Transcendental Meditation when we return back to our activity, we have more energy, more creativity, more intelligence. We're more ourselves.
‘People practise Transcendental Meditation not as an end in itself but as a preparation for daily life.’
Dr Roth explained that brain researchers tell us that every single, distinct experience we have changes the brain. If we are learning to play the violin, it changes one part of the brain. If we're listening to music passively, it changes another part of the brain. If we're studying math, another part of the brain; if we're doing some sport, another part of the brain.
‘Transcendental Meditation and the experience of transcending, experiencing pure consciousness, doesn’t change any one part of the brain, but actually wakes up the whole brain. It creates a coherence and an integration between the two hemispheres of the brain, and between the front and back of the brain, so that the whole brain is now integrated and talking, you could say, to different parts.’
From this we can see how the experience of transcending distinguishes itself from a meditation technique that might involve concentration or control of the mind. We gain a better understanding from science of what takes place during meditation.
‘The key word,’ Dr Roth said, ‘in understanding how Transcendental Meditation is different from other forms of meditation is the word effortless, because when we think of meditation, we think of something that involves control of the mind or concentration, some manipulation. Transcendental Meditation involves no concentration, no effort.’
He explained that the reason is that the natural tendency of the human mind is to be drawn towards something more satisfying.
‘You're sitting in a room and you're listening to some music, which is not very good. In the other room some really good music comes on, something you love—what happens? The attention shifts. Effortlessly it's drawn to something more satisfying.
‘The source of thought, this inner reservoir of energy, creativity, and intelligence which lies within each of us is a very satisfying field. In Transcendental Meditation we learn how to give the attention of the mind an inward direction and effortlessly it is drawn within.
‘If we use any concentration or control of the mind, we stay on the surface. So it's the effortless transcending that distinguishes Transcendental Meditation from other forms of meditation and is really responsible for the whole range of benefits—as shown by 40 years of scientific research on the technique—that we find from the technique.’
© Copyright 2010, Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation
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