The Art of Living Centre (TTDI)

What is Transcendental Meditation? Transcendental Meditation (TM) is the most practiced (6 million practitioners), most widely researched (600 studies), and, according to the research, the most relaxation technique in the world. Activate your own inner healing power Our body has far more power to heal itself than we know. The experience of transcending creates the ideal condition to activate the body's innate healing power. Fortunately this is a lot easier than previously thought, as confirmed by 600 scientific research studies, 6 million people practicing TM worldwide. It only requires the right technique and proper training. True meditation is easy. Anyone can learn it, it’s enjoyable, natural and very effective. Most people think that meditation involves some kind of mind control, forcing the mind to be quiet through some kind of concentration (on the breath, a sound, or “being in the now”). Concentration goes against the nature of the mind, and is hardly enjoyable. TM however is extremely easy and pleasant. How did Maharishi discover TM? The generally accepted wisdom about meditation was that it was a way for the mind to come to inner silence, and that this was achieved by forcing the mind to rest, usually through a form of concentration on a word, a sound, or a visual point, or through visualisation techniques. The mind soon gets bored with this and will want to go somewhere else, but we will tell it: “no, stay here, stay focused”. At some point the mind will grow so tired from all the effort from that concentration, that it will check out. At that point one may (possibly) find deeper experiences, although usually the mind is so tired that the experiences will hardly ever be very clear. This process requires a lot of effort and discipline, and the general wisdom therefore is that only monks that can afford to spend many hours each day on meditation, could ever hope to get such “higher” experiences.