June 2000

Adding a New Cycle of Rest

Transcript of an interview with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi tells us that rest is the basis of activity. We sleep at night in order to have a more successful day. When we learned the Transcendental Meditation technique, we added a new cycle to our daily routine, a deeper level of rest twice a day for greater success in life. Residence Courses provide another opportunity to gain even more profound rest, to deepen our experience in meditation and broaden our understanding of Maharishi’s knowledge.

In 1974, Maharishi was asked about the benefits of attending Residence Courses. In the following interview, Maharishi refers to "rounding" during a Residence Course. Rounding is a comfortable cycle of additional meditations that includes gentle Yoga postures and a simple breathing exercise. Maharishi begins by noting the importance of regular cycles of rest and activity—maintaining a natural rhythm in life

Maharishi: Regularity is very important, because in this meditation the physiology is involved—it’s culturing the physiology. That means culturing all the flesh and the bones and the cells. And when the bones and blood are involved in culturing, better it is done regularly. It’s good for health.

Everyone knows ordinarily that in those who sleep in time and wake up in time and go to work in time—this gives the nervous system a rhythm. And then the nature of physiology starts to require that value of rest in time, that value of activity in time. And this is a procedure to make full use of the potential that is there in the physiology.

Question: How does a Residence Course fit into this pattern or cycle of rest and activity?

Maharishi: When one has been exposing oneself to activity so many days a week, then there is also a weekly cycle of rest and activity. Two days of rest, five days of activity. It’s a bigger cycle than the cycle of daily routine.

So there are cycles in smaller areas of life, there are cycles in the bigger areas of life. There are daily cycles—morning and night, it’s one cycle. There are monthly cycles. Something happens to the moon, something happens to the whole influence of the heavenly world, the starry world, with the earth. So there are monthly cycles. There are yearly cycles, something happens every year.

There are cycles—you heard when the comet came—the cycles of comets, after so many thousands of years a comet comes. So there are smaller cycles and bigger cycles. But the fundamental principle in all these cycles is the same.

So when we take two days rest after 5 days activity, it’s a cycle. It’s a time of rest. If in that time we add some additional quantities of rest, it’s not out of the rhythm. It’s necessary.

Question: What is the reason for the procedure of rounding?

Maharishi: The reason for the procedure of rounding is the need for release of stress— as much as possible as soon as possible. There’s a need to not have the foreign material in the body, not have foreign matter of stress in the body, so that the physiology is more refined in order to produce a more precious quality of awareness. It’s the physiology, the quality of the body, which is responsible for the quality of awareness.

So if the body is restricted for its full functioning due to stresses, we do everything to get them out as soon as possible. For that, these procedures—the very well balanced procedure of rounding, and weekend courses or week courses—have been designed. They are for the sake of fulfilling this requirement of life to get the stresses out as soon as possible, and as much as possible.

Question: Does the physical activity of the Yoga asanas [postures] facilitate that release of stress?

Maharishi: Because the stresses are on the physical level, and because they are intimately connected with this psychological level, with the level of consciousness, so Transcendental Meditation redresses the system from the mental side—we do something to the mind, mental activity.

And if something can be done from the physical side as well, it might add one more engine to it. The train, when it goes up the hill, one more engine is added to it.

So when we want a quicker pace of redressing the system and getting the obstacles, the stresses out, then we do something from the physical side and we do something from the mental side.

Question: People sometimes ask if the procedure of rounding is appropriate outside of a Residence Course situation.

Maharishi: Better not, because what happens, as we have just discussed, is that the quality of thought depends upon the quality of the stress that is being released. And procedure of rounding is a procedure to eliminate stresses quickly.

One would not know what kind of stress is to come out at what hour of rounding. And any kind of stress that will be released, that will be the kind of awareness that one would have at that time. And when one is all by himself, then whatever one’s awareness, one can act on one’s own level.

And when the stresses are being released, all kinds of stresses are being released. So if some negative stress is being released, that kind of unpleasant thought occupies the whole awareness. And in that kind of rough awareness, some unusual act. And this will not be very healthy.

We want to release these stresses more quickly and in greater quantities, but for that, we put ourself under the guidance of an experienced teacher.