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Transcendental Meditation is a very simple, natural and efficient mental technique. It functions based on our mind’s nature, and this makes it effortless. You don’t have to push a car down a slope, right?

However, what happens when we practice, and why do so many benefits come from this practice?

Well, most people are identified with their own mind. We, teachers of Transcendental Meditation call it the relative mind, in order to differentiate it from the absolute aspect of our consciousness. In English, this Everything is often called Being or Existence.

Transcendental Meditation helps you experience this Being, this infinite Existence from within yourself. When this happens, the identification with the mind (I’ll just call it mind, not relative mind) stops for a few moments. The length of this separation varies from person to person, on the state of physical and mental health and on the type of interior strains accumulated in time.

The mind stops

In this state of Existence, of Being our mind is turned off. This thing is perfectly possible because we are much more than our mind. In that state we know, we always know what is happening because this state of Being, of Existence is self consciousness in its purest form.

When this state stops, and our mind restarts, we notice, at first, that inner time is different than outer time. Something happened, at that time, the mind was like a computer which you turned off. When it restarts, its inner clock shows a different time from the objective one. This thing happens often in the beginning. Because when we stop being Existence, we completely re-identify with our mind, and it somehow realises that there is a pause which it can’t explain. “Was I asleep? There is a moment where I don’t know what happened.”, this is what people who start meditating are saying.

Infinite silence

Even so, when we transcended, when we experienced this Being, that Existence, something happened. The infinite silence, the infinite energy, the unbounded intelligence of that state have permeated our human existence, even on the physical level. The results are that state of well being, of happiness, of mental clarity and increased energy, which people who begin to practice Transcendental Meditation say they experience.

Moreover, the direct experience of the state of Existence, of Being, has the effect of mental and physical purification for our body. Our inner tensions, mental and physical are spontaneously eased and we begin to function better. We gradually become happier.

Maharishi says to alternate rest and activity, meaning the practice of Transcendental Meditation, which makes us experience Existence, that Being with our daily activity. Why is that?

Because this is an exercise. Our identification with our mind is extremely powerful. While practicing, gently and delicately we begin to loosen this identification. Gradually, those who noticed that different inner time, begin to say that they experienced a moment of pause, without any thoughts, without anything during the practice of Transcendental Meditation. This means that the identification has weakened, and the mind begins to accept this experience. The mark left behind by its lack of functioning is being integrated and remembered. These moments occur spontaneously and naturally, because of the efficiency of this technique.

How does Transcendental Meditation work?

So, when we begin to practice Transcendental Meditation we either have an identification with the mind, which is 100%, or the state of pure (self) consciousness, of Existence, of Being. During practice, we swing between these two. As time passes, the identification with the mind is weakened, it’s not 100% anymore, and that state of Existence, of Being is penetrating in our day to day life in a natural way. This means that all the benefits of experiencing Existence, Being are present more and more in our day to day life.

Long term, we come to the situation where that Being, that Existence is experienced in an effortless manner 24 hours a day with 100% intensity, and in the same time our mind continues to function. We don’t swing from one side to another anymore, we have integrated both aspects of our reality in our life: the (relative) mind and Existence, that absolute Being.

When this thing happens and it’s stable we are dealing with a high state of consciousness. This is Nirvana, which Buddha talked about, the state of Yoga, or the chinese Tao. This is the state of enlightenment, in fact its first level, that where you have gained infinite freedom. Then, along the continuous experience of Existence, of Being, the mind is also there, spontaneously disciplined and completely at your disposal – it starts and shuts down as you need it. Moreover, from now on, your mind is completely free from worries, inner tensions or mental conflicts. An efficient instrument at our disposal.

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The original post in Romanian can be found here. The English translation by Alexandru Manea.