When I started seeking meditation and joined a yoga and meditation class, my teacher encouraged me to read books on meditation. It is in one of the books by Deepak Chopra I learned about transcendental meditation. Reading more about meditation, I came to know that this is most popular method of meditations. I naturally wanted to practice this. When I met the qualified and official teacher of this meditation, I came to know that I need to pay for learning it. Not having money I could not learn transcendental at that time but I continued my interest in it and started reading more about it. To my surprise, there is no book which actually teaches the steps of that kind of meditation. What I was looking for was to learn free transcendental meditation and there was no free course anywhere, If at all I wanted to learn then I had to pay thousands of dollars.
I continued to search for a way to learn the transcendental meditation freely as I did not like the teacher whom I met years back. He has not looked like a person who meditates daily. During my search, I came to know that transcendental meditation is just mantra meditation which many people in India practice without knowing that it is called Transcendental Meditation in the West. Mantra is just a sound. Mantra meditation technique involves chanting a mantra. The official transcendental meditation people claims it to be scientific, but for me meditation should be more of spiritual and mental.
Fortunately enough I visited a website on meditation where I could download meditation CDs and came to know that the type of meditation taught in that CDs are very similar to transcendental meditation. The lessons also gives you the mantra. Only thing you have to do is try all the mantras to see which takes you to a state of concentration fast and stick to it. Yes the effect of mantra is indeed different to different people. Oh yes, you can download the meditation course and try a free transcendental meditation type of course from (url removed on Oct 12, 2008 by Soham).
Update
I have removed the url (which someone thinks a link) to the website which offers course of meditation to be downloaded freely. Meditating always benefits you. If you cannot afford official transcendental meditation,
go for any type of meditation taught freely. My personal opinion is meditation should be free of cost. I am an Indian and meditation is spiritual for me and I never paid for learning either meditation or yoga. Fee structure for both meditation and yoga is a "Western concept." I will write about the meditation which you can freely download in some other post where I will leave a link to the website.
I continued to search for a way to learn the transcendental meditation freely as I did not like the teacher whom I met years back. He has not looked like a person who meditates daily. During my search, I came to know that transcendental meditation is just mantra meditation which many people in India practice without knowing that it is called Transcendental Meditation in the West. Mantra is just a sound. Mantra meditation technique involves chanting a mantra. The official transcendental meditation people claims it to be scientific, but for me meditation should be more of spiritual and mental.
Fortunately enough I visited a website on meditation where I could download meditation CDs and came to know that the type of meditation taught in that CDs are very similar to transcendental meditation. The lessons also gives you the mantra. Only thing you have to do is try all the mantras to see which takes you to a state of concentration fast and stick to it. Yes the effect of mantra is indeed different to different people. Oh yes, you can download the meditation course and try a free transcendental meditation type of course from (url removed on Oct 12, 2008 by Soham).
Update
I have removed the url (which someone thinks a link) to the website which offers course of meditation to be downloaded freely. Meditating always benefits you. If you cannot afford official transcendental meditation,
go for any type of meditation taught freely. My personal opinion is meditation should be free of cost. I am an Indian and meditation is spiritual for me and I never paid for learning either meditation or yoga. Fee structure for both meditation and yoga is a "Western concept." I will write about the meditation which you can freely download in some other post where I will leave a link to the website.
Posts
35 comments:
This post about meditation is a squeaky, thinly-veiled marketing ploy to promote "project meditation" CDs. Such PR tactics show no respect for meditation, or for the great breakthroughs that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi inspired as a teacher — establishing the benefits of meditation as a scientific reality.
Learning meditation requires proper instruction and guidance. The TM program is taught only by the non-profit, educational TM organization, which provides thorough instruction and ongoing lifetime followup and support as needed — for all TM meditators free of charge after you've taken the TM course. Such careful instruction and lifelong followup ensures correct practice and maximum benefit from meditation. Effective, effortless meditation is not something that can be learned from a slickly marketed "project meditation' CD.
The TM program is a form of meditation that allows 'transcending,' going beyond thought to experience the limitless reservoir of creativity and intelligence within you. Daily practice spontaneously unfolds higher states of consciousness and leads to a wide array of benefits for mind, body, and emotions, benefits verified by hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific research studies on TM. Check out the AsktheDoctors site to hear scientists, doctors and other highly credentialed experts lay out the facts about meditation.
Although this article disingenuously (and illegally) claims that it offers TM for free, what "project meditation" offers is not Transcendental Meditation. I've been practicing TM for years, enjoying many benefits, and I downloaded the "project meditation" thing to see what it's about. Believe me, it's nothing compared to the TM program. You get what you pay for, as the saying goes.
Laughing Crow thank you for the comment. You were wrong, I have nothing to do with Product Meditation, otherwise I would have given a link to that website.
Almost 15 years back I went to an official TM teacher. After giving me the information about TM, the first thing he asked me was about my caste. He also with a lot of pride told me that he belongs to the same caste to which the Chief Minister of that state of India belongs to.
From then on I was looking for CDs of TM not a teacher. I don't believe someone like that (he was a lecturer in one of Maharshi's business schools) can teach me meditation.
As for my post is concerned, I was just experimenting my knowledge in SEO and I am doing good with the CDs from "Product Meditation."
I have been enjoying Transcendental Meditation for over 20 years. It has been a wonderful 20 years, full of exponential personal growth, spiritual adventure, profound friendship and open-heartedness among my meditating friends (most of whom do TM, some do other practices), and a transformative exposure to the knowledge of Maharishi. I have traveled in India extensively and met many brahman priests and pandits, and I've read many, many books about yoga and vedic knowledge, and I can tell you this: TM is not just the simple "mantra meditation" that is commonly practiced in India. Nowhere but in the TM course do you find this technique of effortless transcending. The original commenter has misjudged, it seems. TM is, as Maharishi has explained it from the beginning of his teaching in 1957, a revival of correct practice of effortless meditation for transcending to the Self—Atma. It's as different from everything else practiced in India and advocated by the status quo as night and day.
Read Swami Vivekananda Mr. Joe. Profound knowledge has nothing to do with being brahman.
To learn about transcendental state of mind basic thing needed is Guru. If anyone explains about perfume of Rose flower you can't experience it. Only Guru can show you difference between Mango and Banana though both are sweet.
In TM course instructors can't teach transcendental state of mind.
Spending money there is not worth.
In India you can number of Saints in other cast who were not bramhins. Most of the Bramhins are knowledgable wise but can't be experienced that is required to be a Guru.
Anonymous, Mr. Joe said nothing about any need to be brahman for profound knowledge. I think he already knows it's not necessary, since he practices TM as I do and I suspect he knows that Maharishi was not brahman, but kshatriya or warrior caste.
The mantras have little power if you don't know how to employ them. The great gift of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to the world was his ingenious engineering of teaching techniques that fostered practice spontaneously organized by nature, the natural tendency of the mind to seek fulfillment, so it became effortless with no need whatsoever for concentration. He taught that concentration was a not an expansion of consciousness, but a constriction of it, and that it is therefore impossible to experience the transcendent by concentrating. Concentration is by definition an act of limited, localized attention that binds us to the usual small-minded illusion of who or what we actually are and cannot therefore bring anything remotely related to enlightenment.
And Soham, I respect your idealism that spiritual practices should not involve financial costs, but it is indeed idealistic, especially in western society. Please bear in mind that traditionally in India this kind of knowledge was granted after many long years of dedicated service to a guru.
Although I am not a TM teacher, I know that at one time at least, TM teachers were allowed to teach members of their immediate family free of any charge. I have personally witnessed a number of cases in which such family members consequently placed no value on the practice and in fact did not practice it. The financial cost to learn TM in western society is a tremendous bargain compared to sweeping floors for a guru for a couple of decades. Yet, the people who are willing to pay this relatively small but still significant cost are naturally those who value TM highly and take it very seriously.
Just a note to add to the comments already given. I agree that TM is really something very special. I had the privilege to learn many years ago and have inspired many friends and family members to also learn despite the cost. TM has 500 scientific studies and is practiced by 5 million people around the world. To bring happiness and renewed health to that many people requires a top notch organization and that requires funds in this day and age. In an ideal world it would be offered for free through schools and doctors offices but until that day comes the fee is necessary. At the same time it’s comforting to know that TM is a non-profit organization and they have scholarships for students, families etc. They are really very sincere about creating a better world and nobody in the organization is getting rich. I am very impressed with the quality of the people in TM. Enjoy everyone!
Just a note to add to the comments already given. I agree that TM is really something very special. I had the privilege to learn many years ago and have inspired many friends and family members to also learn despite the cost. TM has 500 scientific studies and is practiced by 5 million people around the world. To bring happiness and renewed health to that many people requires a top notch organization and that requires funds in this day and age. In an ideal world it would be offered for free through schools and doctors offices but until that day comes the fee is necessary. At the same time it’s comforting to know that TM is a non-profit organization and they have scholarships for students, families etc. They are really very sincere about creating a better world and nobody in the organization is getting rich. I am very impressed with the quality of the people in TM. Enjoy Everyone!
I have heard some, from time to time, argue that Transcendental Meditation should be free, but I don’t really understand this reasoning. TM is a wonderful technique, which has given countless people great results. It is easy to do, even a child can do it, and yet it allows anyone to reach his or her deepest potential, to tap into the unused resources of the brain, developing creativity, intelligence, emotional stability, happiness, etc. I can’t think of anything that is more worth paying for! I learned TM a few years ago and I can’t even calculate the value of what I got out of it; but it certainly exceeded, many times over (and over, and over) the cost of learning..
Ok so, as as far as I understand, NO MONEY-NO TM. This is objectively an elite posture that is suposed to do a 'better' world? Nobody is saying that is not worth paying for it, but if this is so easy, ,why this secretism? It's supposed to be a non sectary organization, but is certaninly elitist and obviusly sectary because not everybody has access to it.All the practitioners say the same (even friends of mine), but nobody is answering WHY IT CAN'T BE FREE. Does anyone has the answer. Thanks a lot, peace and respect.
Anything can be learned from a book and this can be published for free. If an instructor adds value, then sure, let someone pay for an instructor. But why not release the basic texts for free online? What harm would that do if a teacher really is so beneficial? And I disagree with "laughing", learning meditation does not require a teacher, it just requires good instruction.
TM is just a rebranded form of ancient Meditation so it could be Patented around the world then charge wealthy westerners thousands of dollars to make large amounts of money. A Eastern model goes right wing capitalist (opportunistic).
If you truly seek to make a better world. How can you say that if you can't afford to pay the price then you miss out. It is only for the wealthy elite. Sounds like the middle ages Catholic Church.
Mmmm. Fundamental flaws in the proposed theory and PR rhetoric.
Hi! I've been searching for a while about how to learn transcendental meditation. It sounds amazing and I'm really interested in learning it. I live in New York. You would think there would be cheaper options to learn this method of meditation in such a big city. I'm sadly realizing there aren't any options.It's great how some of you guys keep going on and on about what a great experience it is and how it changed your lives. So what is a person to do if they simply can't pay the $2500 fee for this meditation course? Is this method only for the rich who are able to pay this kind of money? I think this organization undermines its own philosophy by charging such an high price for this practice. I feel like the guilt also lies on some of you guys who pay this kind of money and make it ok for this organization to charge such amounts.I'm sure the value anybody gets out of this practice if it is so amazing is worth thousands of dollars but it is very suspicious and unacceptable that this method is only available to those who can pay for it. The price is not $500 but $2500 - This organization surely is interested in making a profit and serving not humanity but a wealthy elite. I think the fee they charge is in direct conflict with their teachings.
i used to practise tm & spent 3 months in fairfield,ia. the rationale for the extravagant fees has never been explained to me & i have spoken to many meditators. virtually all tm teachers defend the high prices. i learned that many meditators are from wealthy families &/or have high incomes. the solution is to work on staff in fairfield as i should do!
I just learned TM and i have to say that i am completely satisfied with what i learned in the course. It has helped tremendously. I was glad that i received a scholarship, so half of the fee was waived. At first i was skeptical. The guided meditations that i was doing helped but it didn't seem to be enough, so i saved up the money and am now glad that i did.
Nothing is really free in the world. If you born rich is due to your good past life karma. If you happened to learn some great technique free because you deserved it. May be you already meditating in your last life. And the merits continues to be. In distance past such technique only gave to very sincere seekers of enlightenment and normally learnt through a Satsuru. Like the earlier comments, only after many years of serving and testing by the guru will you be given such a technique. Now time has changed, First came Swami Viveknanda who introduced yoga to the west, then came Yoganada, he introduced Kriya yoga, and soon came Maharishi and TM. So Nature progressively brought Indian Spiritual knowledge step by step to the West and the world. India has all along preserved this precious knowledge and had kept this to herself. Now this is the time this knowledge come and benefits whole world family. Anyone, who pay a fee can learn TM the right way. If you don't have money to learn but you are very sincere and keen, nature will support you and eventually you will learn it. You can't learn TM from CD or books. Just like you can't create original dish just from the recipe without guidance from a chef. Especially this dish you never tasted before.
I agree with Soham, think everything concerned with spiritual growing and unfolding your soul, should be for free... Even Reiki, Enregy healing and many other things.. But the human being in not just ready yet for that... when are we going to be ready I wonder?
I am on disability due to complex ptsd and other issues. I am in pain most of the time, can't sleep and am in great stress due to trauma most of the time. I cannot work or function to have any kind of social life. I have started yoga, changed diet, emdr therapy and I still don't feel better. For my very survival, I have to get my cortisol down, it's been too high for too long. I cannot afford the fees for TM. Now, if someone needs to learn a technique for their very survival, why can't the TM people teach me for free or for a small fee, under $100. I do not want to learn this for enlightenment. I want to be able to sleep, feel sane and leave the house and work. I assure you, I will take it very seriously.
Meditation is not a secret that anyone can teach you. The simple fact that one even asks to know it shows the level of spirituallity reached. The levels of conciousness one wants to achieve do not require to pay money. It is present in all of us and can easily be obtained. Take a few minutes a day and try to be completely silent. Allow the brain to be quiet and your inner self will give you all that you need. Take a few more minutes and try to get to know yourself and love all that you are. Every day strive to be the very best you can be and realize that your words and your thoughts create what your reality will be. If we all did this daily the world would be a much better place.
$2500.00 to learn a word? Egads! I can show up at a Zen center and learn Zazen for as little as a donation (usually $10.00).
It seems to me that the the ones defending TM sound very defensive and brainwashed. You drank the Kool aid... Maharishi Mahesh's teachers are not the only people capable of teaching this form of meditation, it has existed for hundreds of years. His organization reminds me a bit of Bikrams Yoga.
Yes, I feel peace (which is my spirit) with Liliana :"Take a few minutes a day and try to be completely silent. Allow the brain to be quiet and your inner self will give you all that you need. Take a few more minutes and try to get to know yourself and love all that you are. Every day strive to be the very best you can be and realize that your words and your thoughts create what your reality will be."
I realize that learning TM does not teach people how to be given, open,and compassionate of others. The ones that go on and on telling how wonderful it was for them and how much they have improved their lives because of it, should at least share this "secret" with others so we can all be and experience greatness in our lives. We are all interconnected, whatever happens in "here" will affect simultaneously over "there"
There are many people who would like to learn this technique but their money is not enough as there is rent to pay, food and bills ... the cost for this TM is too high; it would be a kind gesture, for example, if someone can teach the homeless how to do it (free of charge), perhaps this technique would help them alleviate their missery in life. I'm glad for the ones who were able to afford to pay for this technique and I hope you use it twice a day as recommended. People strive to get and get the most they can for themselves and never quite feel satisfied. Happiness in our lives can only come when we act with an open HEART ... by sharing and helping everyone around us we can trully accept ourselves and feel at peace.
Searching the net,reading all the forums I think TM is nothing but fad.Those who are saying that nothing can be free now a days probably have not heard about BRAHMAKUMARI.It is a spiritual org. and they teach it for free.and so are bharat sebashram sangha and many other organisation.They are helping the humanity and not the TM which is only for the rich.meditation technique should be free for all so that all people who want can reap its benefit.
Here in the West, what ever they get their hands on the overly charge entirely too much for yoga for meditation, etc.....
If you are sincerely about helping humanity, you help without a high cost,even if you have to charge a
fee.
Along with the above statement, I have seen people pushing meditation that look like and act like they are not doing it or getting out of it what I would want to expect for my self.
It better to go to India and find a Guru and pay to learn it 100% correct if taught that in India.
Sorry, but this is just another method of seperating a fool and his/her money. Meditation doesn't require anyone pay 1500 for inner peace.
The TM people say that anyone can afford it because they will work with the individual through grants, scholarships, loans, etc. The truth is that they might reduce the rate but you still have to pay. My sister went to a teacher and even though she cannot pay her regular living expenses they were only willing to break the total cost up into monthly payments of $300.00 for 7 months. Because she couldn't afford the payments they turned her away. I think anyone teaching in the organization should be ashamed for gouging people. I get that you have people willing to pay the huge fee and that those people feel it was worth it...but you should offer low cost or no cost programs to the people who can't afford it. You can't help the world and greedily rape it at the same time.
As a certified meditation instructor in various forms of meditation I think meditation needs to be a reasonable cost or free. It doesn't hurt the practice. But to have to go through 5 steps to learn a practice then pay upwards of $2500 to finally be instructed makes in cost prohibitive to those who need it most. Also as a Reiki Master Teacher, I make my sessions and practitioner training affordable. There was a teacher after Dr. Usui who brought Reiki out of obscurity, who tried to make it astronomical to learn and she didn't teach many masters to teach when all was said and done. The Universe has no price and bringing the healing of the Universe to the world need not be cost prohibitive. I went to an informational meeting last night and after all the great things that is does for you were discussed and how it works in the brain and how TM is better than ANY kind of meditation, I left. It was a huge selling ploy for a really expensive way to learn a meditation technique. it was held at an expensive hotel so that should have been my first indicator. I am familiar with TM but the friend who invited me was not. She saw right through it and said I could just teach her as I am certified in many very useful, helpful, healing forms of meditation. Just because some famous and wealthy people like Oprah, Dr. Oz, Russell Simmons, Sir Paul McCartney, Ellen Degeneres and many, many others advocate it just indicates that it most likely is a costly endeavor. Mantra is remarkable and saying it aloud in chants or to yourself is remarkable. As is guided meditation, Buddhist no mind and many others. If you want to study TM formally then do it. Just make sure you have deep pockets. A secret meditation to me is exclusionary, when this world needs more inclusion. Kundalini yoga also came to the US as a "forbidden and secret" form of Yoga and Yogi Bhajan refused to allow it to be so as it was something that needed to be available to the world. You can take one class and immediately feel the effects. And a secret mantra or some sort of secret initiation into it is not necessary. Just an open and willing mind. You can take as many or as few classes as you desire, it is up to you. Yes, find educated instructors but when you are sworn to secrecy and can only learn the technique behind closed doors, be wary! Thank you for the article!
i am 16 and in dire want to be centered i have heard much about tm and feel that it will help considerably where will i get 2500$ or rather how will i explain to my parents that i need 2500$ for 2 hours with a guru. although this method would be most affective i just have no way to learn
The argument that says you need to pay to appreciate it goes directly against the truth that the best things in life are free. Saying that if you have the money you have good karma and deserve it says that poor people don't deserve help in their spirituality/well being, that is a pretty sad statement.
I don't have $2500 nor do I expect to have that much money to spare in the foreseeable future. So, I guess I'm just out of luck. But no real loss, after all, I'm just some worthless "poor" person. Best I can hope for is listening to those who are "better off" talk about how wonderful it is. Kind of like sitting with a bunch of starving people, while you enjoy a feast and telling them how delicious everything is. Makes me wonder if it's the meditation that makes you feel good or is it simply that you have something others don't?
thank goodness I clicked on this sight. I have only scratched the surface with meditation so far.. I have 2 unfinished brahma kumara meditation courses under my belt.I only live a ten minute walk away (no excuse)," I wasn't ready". I havereally enjoyed meditation in the community yoga class and I do a bloody lot of dishes which is meditation on the go:)Now due to circumstances involving a cow and my car. Holy cow: I am back at stage 1. new career and some pain relief (please). So I stumble upon TM. I start researching. Just what Im looking for. I send out a search to learn in my area. I had already searched one site but couldn't believe the price and thought there must be cheaper.. Before I checked my email ,the teacher at the website I had looked at, rang me. She has offered me a FREE induction, SORRy introduction, and will call me when she returns from India in 8 days or so..... So I am doing my homework.. I suppose when we live in a country that has valued economics over real humanity , it makes sense subconsciously that we believe because its expensive it works. Im Sure it does work. People who learn TM are probably in the correct frame of mind to learn . We all need different levels of support. As for myself I have happily decided to keep practicing my yoga videos. Cheap as chips in the op shops. Gary Bromley is a fantastic instructor for beginners and people with injuries.. and as the saying goes...things come in threes.. Back to the Brahma Kumari. Be Well.
i feel that charging that kind of money to teach a spiritual practice is completely unspiritual. I think I'm going to charge people $1000.00 to learn the lords prayer because I have a special sound I make when I say it. Surely that is worth it, and if your poor, well to bad. I guess if you would go out and make some real cash you could join our secret spitual club.
You should be ashamed! If you are really worried about the great things your practices do for people you would make the teaching free and people who are helped by them could donate money when they were able.
I do not have anything against TM at all, it just makes me sad that a large group of people that could really be helped are left out because of money. Welcome to "Spiritual Capitalisam"
I am all for people charging for their time - whether it be for Reiki or to teach TM Meditation or any other meditation, but to make it so unaffordable $2500!!!??? - takes away the credibility of it. Compassion is obviously not a by-product of this meditation practice. Whatever happened to reaching out to help those less fortunate? Obviously it is only for the elite and the celebrities to whom the cost is but a drop in the ocean. Besides, I have looked online for a teacher and cannot find one in my region. What is with this Secret Society? I think I'll stick to the meditation that I know.
It all depends on your priority where you want to spend money . In USA, spending $1000 to learn A technique which can improve your quality of life is not a big deal. I am not rich and does not make lot of money, but have decided to learn TM . For those people who are saying they can't afford to bear the cost , You can always start putting aside 100 dollars every month and join next year if you are really keen. I have seen people financing expensive cars and paying in installments even though they don't make great money.
Meditation is always free , but individuals time is precious . You should consider about the time involved of the instructors. Good luck to everyone .
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