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September
1999
Describing
the TM Technique to Non-Meditators
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We’ve all had friends ask us questions about
the Transcendental Meditation technique. In the following talk from 1973,
Maharishi gives practical advice on how to answer some commonly asked
questions.
Question: What can we say to
people who claim they live on nervous energy, and are afraid that
meditation will relax them so that they won’t have this nervous energy
to work from?
Maharishi: We tell them it is
the stresses and strain that restrict the free flow of energy, and when
stresses are released, there is free flow of energy for effective action
and more rewarding results.
Question: What about people
who ask how meditation can be helpful if they feel that they’re
perfectly contented?
Maharishi: Tell them a story.
During the first world tour when I stopped in Hawaii, one lady asked,
"I have everything that I want. Have you something to offer to
me?" I said, yes, if you have everything that you want, and if it is
really so, then I’ll present the suffering of the world to you to
neutralize it with your happiness. That means, if you have everything, you
have the technique of fulfillment. I would invite you to come out into the
world and give that technique to all the people who are suffering.
But let us analyze whether you really have everything that you can
think of. I said, maybe you think your living room has everything that you
want, but would you exchange it for a living room which is equipped so
that you will get things by merely desiring? You desire and the thing is
there. Whatever you desire, it’s there. Would you like to have such a
living room?
She said, "Who would not like to have it, if there is some
possibility that a room could be there where anything could be gained by
desiring, naturally anybody would like it."
Then I said, this means your contentment is only due to the lack of
knowledge that there could be some-thing better. The moment you gained the
knowledge that there is something better, you are ready to trade. This
shows that the contentment is not real, it is not complete. And such a
contentment will be overthrown at any time you have better information for
a better possibility. And when contentment is not complete, it is obvious
that you don’t have bliss consciousness, complete happiness in a
permanent manner. And if you don’t have that, here is TM.
Question: What to say to
someone who is happy with his lifestyle and is afraid that his interests
will change because of the effects of meditation?
Maharishi: We tell him that it
will not change in a manner different from what it has been till now since
birth. There was interest in the toys; that changed. There came interest
in the books; that changed. There came interest in wealth, in this
property; that also must change. So we know the interest is not constantly
on the same thing all the time. It is changing, it is changing. It has
been changing. And it will not be a new change if the present also
changes. The interest changes with age, with experience. And therefore it
has to change.
Change is inevitable. So we tell him that you have been changing all
the time. Only if you change from suffering to happiness, it’s
worthwhile. Change has always been there. It will always be there. No one
could like the same thing all the time.
And then add to this—through change, we evolve. If we don’t change,
we don’t evolve. And no one can stop his evolution, because the force of
evolution is pushing everything on and on. No one can stop it.
Question: One classic
question that comes up at Introductory Lectures is why do you need to be
taught if it’s so natural?
Maharishi: It is very natural to
speak. Everyone is born with the ability to speak. But when without
training one speaks, one speaks at random: "ah, ah, ah, ah, ah."
Therefore even though speaking is natural, it has to be cultured. One has
to be cultured in speaking. So even though we are born with the ability to
speak, it’s through training, the alphabet—A, B, C, D—language, that
speech is channeled, is cultured.
Like that, we are born with that ability to go to a field of greater
happiness. Mind naturally goes, but even so, it must be cultured. So when
we don’t object to culturing of speech, we can’t object to culturing
the mind in a spontaneous manner in Transcendental Meditation. Even though
it is natural, we have to get trained in order to be usefully
natural.
Question: What do we say to
a person who says that he’d like to meditate, but he doesn’t have the
time to meditate?
Maharishi: We tell him, someone
doing business in the market must have time to go to the bank. If he says
he doesn’t have time to go to the bank, he’s only saying he doesn’t
have time to improve his business. Whatever the level of life, if one
wants to advance and grow, then one must have broadened awareness. One
must use more of his potential. Using more of his potential, he’ll be
more effective for what he wants to accomplish.
If a businessman evades going to the bank, it’s not a wise policy. If
he says "I have no time, I’m so busy that I didn’t get time to
take a bath," he’ll have a very pale, dull sort of a face in the
market. He was in a hurry to go to the market, but without dressing,
without taking a bath, he just presents himself. It’s not the way to
success.
Meditation is the bath of the mind, just as a water bath freshens the
body. With a fresh body, we have a better personality and better
presentation, better success in life. If one doesn’t take a mental bath,
then the mind is dull and lazy and it doesn’t shine in the field of
competition. The world is a playfield of life, a big competition.
There is a proverb: "First impression is the last
impression." How a man looks when you see him for the first time,
that is the first impression, and they say it’s lasting. Therefore,
appearance plays a great part. Bath helps. Mental bath helps.
Appearance of the intellect—what you say, how sweetly, how lovingly,
how effectively, how logically, how innocently and simply you speak—
that gives the address of the inner awareness. From where the words are
coming out? One word spoken, and that is the picture of one’s heart and
mind and level of evolution. One word spoken and there you are screened.
Speech is like an X-ray. The inside is shown very clearly.
Therefore we must take a mental bath so that the inner personality
which is expressed through speech and action is expressed in a neat
manner. Learning Transcendental Meditation is installing the cosmic bath
at home. If you build a home, there is a bathtub and nice, fine hot water.
Meditation room is for the cosmic bath of the mind based in pure
consciousness. It comes out purer, effective, blissful. With a fresh mind,
you do things more effectively, more efficiently. You do less and
accomplish more.
Those who are busy people, they know that after meditation they don’t
have to rush so much. In their easy pace, they accomplish more than
double. Therefore, it’s no excuse that you didn’t get time. First
meditation, then the second thing. Just as it’s no excuse that you
couldn’t take a bath. Only after bath, you come out. Finished. |
