Postcript: About Transcendental Meditation

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Just about everyone has heard of “Transcendental Meditation”.

Transcendental meditation is simply mantra recitation, although the mantras are typically much shorter than those you have been introduced to here. TM is loosely based on the Hindu religion and was brought to the West in 1959 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who was a devotee of Swami Brahmanand Saraswati Maharij, a well-known and highly respected Indian guru.

In the 1960’s the Maharishi gained substantial publicity by attracting some famous followers, most notably Mia Farrow and the Beatles. TM has now grown into a substantial movement that makes some rather grandiose claims about the effects of their practice, including the claim that TM can help you to levitate. They now have a political party — the Natural Law Party — which seeks to establish world peace through the spread of TM.

The organization now has its own University and its own town — Maharishi Vedic City in Iowa.

The TM organization is rumored to be worth between $2 and $3 billion.

The TM movement claims that its secret mantras are chosen specifically for the individual, who must not reveal his or her mantra to anyone else, or even discuss their meditation practice. However, there are web sites revealing all the TM mantras, which appear to be allotted by means of a simple formula based on the age and sex of the student.

Initially, (in the early 1960’s) there were only two TM mantras, “Ram” for males, and “Shiriram” for females. There are now around 16 of them, as well as some “advanced” mantras, such as “shri shri aing namah namah.” These mantras invoke the names of Hindu deities.

A complete list of the “secret” TM mantras can be found here.

The Transcendental Meditation movement has often generated controversy. In 1977, Transcendental Meditation was ruled a religion by the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, in the case of Malnak v. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and that its teaching in schools was unconstitutional in that state. Recently the TM movement had to withdraw a grant from a Californian high school after complaints from parents.

Many scientific studies that have examined the effects of meditation have used TM, partly because TM is a commonly-known form of meditation and possibly because the TM movement naturally sees scientific studies as bolstering its credibility. Many studies have shown TM to be beneficial, although some tests have reportedly shown negative or neutral results.

The mantras in our site are from the Buddhist tradition rather than the Hindu tradition, and are not related in any way to TM.

Comments

Comment from Arpad Joo
Time: December 15, 2007, 11:30 am

The origin of the TM Bija mantras (seed sounds) are to be found in the so called “Hoda Chakra” which is printed and reprinted in virtually all the published astrological almanachs in India. The Hoda Chakra lists 108 seed sounds, each one allotted to the 4 padas of the 27 star constellations (Nakshatras).All this is well known in India. Mostly it is used in the selection of Names,based on the Moon’s position in a particular Nakshatra Pada. In an advanced version of the TM, this astrological information (position of the Moon at birth) is used also for selecting the seed sounds.Actually, what is known and practiced as the TM is part of the a large and complex system. Perhaps less than 1% of this has filtered through the contemporary TM movement.