Essential Documents, and Open Thread

I've made a few changes here on the TM-Free blog, and one of them is the links in the right-hand column. You'll have to scroll down to see them - or click the index link under where it says "Scroll down for these links" - in a new section titled "Essential Documents." Many of these are rather old files - some go back almost two decades - but they constitute some of the most interesting and revealing disclosures about the innards of the organizations that teach TM that have ever been made. Most links are to John Knapp's trancenet.net website, which also dates back to the mid-1990's. All these files, though dated, are still relevant as they document the inner teachings of the TM movement which were taught to devotees and TM teachers. These individuals, who today are still working to promote the TM program worldwide, very likely still hold these teachings to be true today.

The Transcendental Meditation™ and TM-Sidhi™ Techniques

This is the original list of mantras and other innards of the techniques, originally placed on the 'net back in 1994. Please note the disclaimer; these details are disclosed there to show just how trivial the techniques are, not for the purpose of meditation instruction.

 

TM Mantra Meanings

Subtitled, "When Is a Meaningless Sound Not Meaningless? When It's a Tantric Name of a Hindu God." Meanings of the mantras used in TM, with an associated commentary on bija mantras by a Tantric scholar, who appears to have identified the source of confusion over whether or not such mantras convey meaning:

Bijas have no meaning according to the ordinary use of language and for this reason they have formed the subject of ridicule to those ignorant of the Mantra-sastra. The initiated however know that their meaning is the own form (Svarupa) of the particular Devatas whose mantra they are, and that they are a form of the Subtle Power as creative Dhvani which makes all letters sound and which exists in all that we say or hear.

 

TM Initiation and Checking

Documentation of the unique methods and rituals that any TM meditator will encounter when they engage a TM teacher to learn Transcendental Meditation. Initiation is the process of instruction in the meditation practice, and "checking" is a mechanical ritual by which the practice of TM is reinforced through trance induction and the repetition of various suggestions.

 

TM Children's Initiation

The process of learning Transcendental Meditation when it is taught to children, of particular relevance with the continuing efforts of the David Lynch Foundation to introduce TM into schools. Note the requirement - apparently since discarded - that at least one parent first begin the practice before a child may learn TM.  

 

TM "Holy Tradition" - Initiation Ceremony

From the original description of this file:

... the entire text of The Holy Tradition, a secret book given only to new TM teachers. The Holy Tradition was once the primary textbook on TM Teacher Training Phase III, containing the Sanskrit text and a sanitized English translation of the puja or "initiation ceremony," discussion of the performance and meaning of the puja, and a brief, probably mythical history of Indian religious figures said by the Maharishi to be "the Holy Tradition" who kept the knowledge of TM alive for thousands of years. Beginning in 1977, The Holy Tradition was banned on TM Teacher Training courses, reportedly out of fear of more Federal court cases like Malnak v. Yogi, which found TM to be religious and barred the teaching of TM and SCI in New Jersey public schools. Despite judgments by Federal courts and the ensuing disbelief of the media and public, TM organizations have insisted for nearly 25 years that they are not a religion or religious.

 

TM Initiation Ceremony - True Meaning

Titled "Whose Puja Is It, Anyway?" this essay lays out how "it appears the Maharishi cobbled together scraps of Sanskrit poetry to create a "Hindoo ceremony" to wow the Western crowd."

 

TM-Sidhi "yogic flying" program

From the description:

Here...is a full discussion of the TM-Sidhi program: the full 18 sutra "citizen's" program... the even more secret Governor's sutras for invisibility and more, the original marketing and research materials that promised enlightenment and levitation, an indepth analysis of the TM-Sidhis and hyperventilation, and finally a warning from the mainstream Indian tradition to avoid their practice as dangerous and a waste of time.

Also included are a number of newspaper advertisements from 1977 featuring "supernormal" powers of "levitation" and "invisibility."

 

Wikileaks "Transcendental Meditation" category

These are a number of files from the 2004-2008 time period which primarily relate to activities of the TM movement's "Governors" in the United States. Most interesting is the "Governor Recertification Course Overview of Policies and Procedures," a 2005 document apparently written by "Raja" Kingsley Brooks and his wife Leslie. This document contains this choice quote, completely negating any claim the movement makes that its programs are scientifically or medically respectable:

We are not going to take help from medical Drs. as medical professionals give poison. So don't engage any medical Drs. for anything - absolutely whatever it is - even if they are in our Movement family... Hold onto the fact that we are the supreme authorities on health - we know how to create perfect health - we are challenging all governments in world.

 

Roark Letter

Dennis Roark wrote about his experiences as Chairman of the Physics Department of the then- Maharishi International University (now MUM). From the Spring 1992 TM-EX Newsletter.

 

DeNaro Affidavit

In the mid-1980's, Robert Kropinski sued the TM movement (then formally called the "World Plan Executive Council") and MIU, alleging financial, physical, and psychological harm. From that case - later settled for a six-figure undisclosed sum - a number of interesting court documents have been obtained. This is the affidavit of Anthony DeNaro, who was a professor of law and economics at Maharishi International University (MIU, now MUM) for about a year, starting in 1975. DeNaro alleged "a very serious and deliberate pattern of fraud, designed ... to misrepresent the TM movement as a science (not as a cult), and fraudulently claim and obtain tax exempt status with the IRS." He also wrote about the on-campus environment:

A disturbing denial or avoidance syndrome, and even outright lies and deception, are used to cover-up or sanitize the dangerous reality on campus of very serious nervous breakdowns, episodes of dangerous and bizarre behavior, suicidal and homicidal ideation, threats and attempts, psychotic episodes, crime, depression and manic behavior that often accompanied roundings (intensive group meditations with brainwashing techniques).

 

Kropinski's Answer to Interrogatory No. 40

This is a list of casualties of TM practice that were known to Robert Kropinski at the time of his lawsuit against WPEC and MIU.

 

Kropinski trial testimony "Soma and the Gods"

From the trial transcript, a glimpse at the bizarre theology at the heart of the TM movement, which somehow involves Vedic gods eating a substance (Soma) from the stomachs of people who practice TM. This almost ranks right up there with the inner doctrine of the Church of Scientology, which has something to do with clams.

 

Kropinski appelate decision 1998, before out-of-court settlement

 

Malnak v. Yogi decision 1977

This is the Federal court case which enjoined the Federal government and the State of New Jersey from promoting the teaching or practicing of TM, and prohibited the teaching of TM in New Jersey public schools.

The TM-Free News Brief is on hiatus this week.

TM in the news : Transcendental Meditation as military defense - and Paul McCartney's son at Maharishi University

TM Movement publicity updates:

From The Seoul Times, November 17, 2009 (in Seoul it's our tomorrow) Taking "The Men Who Stare at Goats" Seriously. The newspaper article is written by a TM echelon photographed in his mandated tan business suit. He is associated with the TM site www.StrongMilitary.org. The article discusses TM's magical thinking of harnessing power of the mind to control outside forces, to the point of training military to use TM's mental prowess to achieve victory over one's enemy at will.

From Radio Iowa, November 13, 2009 Son of Paul McCartney to make US debut in Iowa. TM and Scientology market celebrity appeal. It has always been fun to have easy celebrity access amongst TM's minions, great networking opportunities!
Probably likewise with Scientology gatherings.

Enjoy!

Book Review. The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson M.D. with Miriam Z. Klipper

(NOTE TO READERS:

I originally published this book review on TMFree on October 15, 2008, but for some reason it has disappeared. So here it is again. - Laurie)


Published 1976 by William Morrow & Co., 181 pages.

Commentors and contributors have been recommending books on TM-Free Blog for some time now. I have recently read a few of those books, and thought you might enjoy some book reviews. This is my second review in a series.

First, a little background information about this book, (from my memory, so a few facts may be off). About 1970, Herbert Benson M.D. (not a TMer) and Robert Keith Wallace (a TMer), then either a new M.D. or a post-graduate student writing his thesis, collaborated on research on the effects of TM. Theirs was the first scientific study on TM, and a long line of scientific studies on TM by them and others were to follow, now officially touted by the TM organizations as "over 600 scientific research studies, published in peer-reviewed journals, showing the benefits of the Transcendental Meditation program in all fields of life." (Skeptical and alternate TM websites have pointed out the inaccuracy of many of these studies.)

Benson's and Wallace's research focused on physiological changes in the subjects during the practice of TM itself, in areas such as blood pressure and oxygen consumption. All indices pointed to a state of reduced physical activation, or relaxation, yet wakefulness, a state they called "restful alertness." If my memory serves me, this first research project of Benson and Wallace was published in approximately 1970 in The Lancet, a respected British medical journal.

These early experiments gave scientific standing to the heretofore esoteric practice of Transcendental Meditation. I remember that in the TM introductory lectures I attended in 1971, I and my friends were much impressed and influenced by this scientific validation.

As my friends and I got deeper into the TM world, Benson and Wallace were our secular "heroes" for the legitimacy they had given TM. The first crack I recall in this "love affair" was Benson's wistful comment that he now had so much evidence on the benefits of TM that he would love to do it himself, however he felt that if he learned TM his impartiality as a researcher would be compromised.

Some time after this, Benson made the leap to the theory that the state of "restful alertness" must be a physiologically imbedded state, and therefore be attainable through ways other than Transcendental Meditation. He then went on to theorize, study and research, and out of that came his book The Relaxation Response.

Benson studied many meditation, contemplation and prayer techniques from around the world and from many centuries, techniques developed by mystics, saints, nuns, monks, and so on from different spiritual traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) and discovered that other teachings appeared to use similar techniques to TM and appeared to produce
similar results to TM.

When I was on my TM Teacher Training course back in 1974, I was taught contempt and condescension for all other techniques, which, Maharishi taught, were all completely different from - and inferior to - his Transcendental Meditation. (Please see my TM-Free Blog post, published 10/13/2008, "Book Review. The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who Brought Transcendental Meditation to the World by Paul Mason," where I describe how Maharishi isolated himself from all other traditions.) So, in reading The Relaxation Response in 2008, I was struck, humbled and shamed to see the obvious similarities between TM and techniques handed down by myriad traditions. One example, "dhikr," from the mystic Islamic tradition known as Sufism, will suffice to show the similarities. The instructional language is poetic with its emphasis on divine love and religious devotion, but the underlying technique is strikingly similar.

"Let [the practitioner] sit alone in some corner....Let him not cease saying continuously with his tongue 'Allah, Allah,' [God, God,] keeping his thoughts on it. At last he will reach a state when the motion of his tongue will cease, and it will seem as though the word flowed from it. Let him persevere in this until all trace of motion is removed from his tongue, and he finds his heart persevering in the thought. Let him still persevere until the form of the word - its letters and shape - is removed from his heart, and there remains the idea alone, as though clinging to his heart, inseparable from it....If he follows the above course, he may be sure that the light of the Real will shine out of his heart."

I was struck by how much these instructions resemble the instructions I memorized on TM Teacher Training in 1974, on how to instruct someone in TM. Following the puja (ceremony), the TM teacher says, "Aem, aem, aem, aem," (or some other mantra, all of which are the names of gods). Teacher gestures to student to repeat the mantra. When the student is doing so, teacher gestures to the student to sit and continue repeating. When student does so, teacher says, "Close the eyes and continue....More quietly....More quietly....More quietly....Now, mentally, without moving tongue and lips....Slowly open the eyes. It's easy? Mental repetition is not a clear pronunciation. It's just a faint idea. Now close the eyes and continue...."

Benson determined that all these different techniques - including TM - had four elements in common: (1) a quiet environment, (2) a mental device such as a word, phrase, object to be gazed at, etc., to be repeated in a specific fashion, (3) a passive attitude, in which ideation drifts into the mind, and one does not concentrate or be concerned with how well one is doing it, and (4) a comfortable position, but not a lying down one which might induce sleep.

After reviewing the similarity of various techniques. Benson studied subjects doing six different techniques that followed these four rules in order to see if they did indeed produce the same physiological results as TM. Benson tested subjects during the practice of TM, Zen and yoga, autogenic training, progressive relaxation, hypnosis with suggested deep relaxation, and sentic cycles for changes in oxygen consumption, respiratory rate, heart rate, alpha waves, blood pressure and muscle tension. The results were almost indistinguishable.

I can imagine the horror, disbelief and denial I would have experienced if I had read this book in 1974, after I became a TM teacher. I repeat the heresy: The results of the six techniques were almost indistinguishable from each other and from TM.

I do remember Benson's name fading from TM lectures after the the publication of this book. I remember what contempt and pity we TM teachers had for Benson for "betraying the movement." I remember never bothering to read his book until 2008. I remember hearing with triumph (and relief) that people who took up Benson's "relaxation response" technique were soon bored and gave it up, but we TMers found our experience fulfilling and kept at it. I remember one TM teachers saying dismissively, "Well, you get what you pay for."

This short, easy-to-read, down-to-earth book is food for thought, a "how-to" book on how to achieve the relaxation response, and also a useful tool for people wanting to take the next step in deprogramming themselves from the TM mindset.

TM Checking and Hypnosis, Part I

The longer I spend with the Checking Notes, the more I'm convinced it's all in there.
--Anonymous TM Teacher

Year after year, the interest in the Movement is growing due to the success of Checking.
--Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, TTC III Videotape

INTRODUCTION
In this series of articles, I compare Transcendental Meditation's Checking procedure to trance induction or hypnotism. I also develop the ramifications for TM practitioners of undergoing frequent trance induction -- and being subject to the subsequent suggestions made by the Checker.

"Checking" is a procedure conducted by a TM Teacher or Associate TM Teacher on a TM meditator. When an individual is first "initiated" into TM, the Teacher suggests that the new TM meditator undergo Checking once a week for the first month of meditation and once a month thereafter. The Teacher and the Checking Notes themselves state that the purpose of checking is to ensure that meditators begin meditation in the correct, "effortless" way. "The purpose of checking is to give the experience of right meditation.... Whatever is the complaint against meditation, whatever is the difficulty take the man through the necessary steps for checking, and he will feel better."¹

Any meditator who does not practice meditation regularly or experiences various problems such as headaches or gross physical movements, to name only two, is told that regular Checking will make the meditation enjoyable again.

The Checking Notes, consisting of 30 points and pages of General Points, are memorized by prospective TM initiators during Phase I of the TM Teacher Training Course. Course participants (CPs) are tested by course leaders for absolute, verbatim knowledge of this procedure, its wording, and the precise time intervals as quoted in the Notes. CPs must pass such a test three times without mistakes or even hesitations. Completing Phase I, graduates are termed Associate TM Teachers. To become full-fledged TM Teachers, they must again pass the Checking test three times on Phase III.

Despite their importance, evidenced by the rigorous testing procedure, according to the restrictions imposed by TTC course leaders, they may only be "inscribed in consciousness" -- that is, memorized from dictation -- in order to preserve the "purity of the teaching." The dictated text is represented by course leaders as being a direct quote from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi -- including idiosyncratic grammar and phrasing -- and is said to be the only process by which his Transcendental Meditation may be corrected successfully.

The group and individual checking procedures, as well as the steps of initiation, are unique to TM, to my knowledge. Although many if not most meditative traditions practice group meditation, no other that I am aware of employs an "opening and closing the eyes" trance induction to begin. (One correspondent suggested that there were similar procedures used in Swami Sivananda's practice, but I have been unable to confirm this. No such procedure is mentioned in his treatise, Japa Yoga.)

Some naive TMers believe that these procedures are somehow derived from Vedic literature. This is not the case. In fact, the Maharishi did not introduce the Checking procedure until he had been teaching meditation for over 13 years, according to my sources. TM Teacher Janet Luise stated in communication with me on the Yahoo Group, Fairfield Life:

"In August 1968 during the First Squaw Valley course, Maharishi gave the first rough checking notes to everyone there (about 300 people I think)[.] It was ["]Close the eyes, open the eyes["] etc but no pages of
memorized what to do if.....

I know he gave all the European teachers checking in Livinio Italy. I THINK that was right before the 2nd Squaw Valley in 1969 but maybe not....

I was on the 1st Mallorca course[,] Dec 1969- Jan 1970[.] [W]e DID have lots of checking pages to learn[,] so I imagine the Estes Park course directly before also go them.

Prior to this, the Maharishi trained what he called "Meditation Guides," who were supposed to ensure right practice for TM meditators through advice similar to the General Points. From 1956, when the Maharishi began what would become the Transcendental Meditation movement, until 1968 the Checking Notes simply did not exist.

According to one anonymous critic, the Checking Notes were not the sole product of the Maharishi, but were created in conjunction with TM initiators, although the Maharishi approved their final form. Some of the General Points were proposed by TTC CPs while video cameras were rolling. Viewing these tapes on TTC III gave me an insight into how the Maharishi emended and added to the General Points. Simply, a future initiator would propose a common sense procedure, such as how to lift one's head without strain if it tilted forward, as in General Point "P." The Maharishi would consider the addition, and then either give or withhold his approval. Thus it appears that much of the Checking procedure was not created by the Maharishi himself.

In fact, as I develop in future installments of this series, I believe the heart of the Checking procedure -- as well as the group meditation procedure -- may have been suggested by individuals not only familiar with flowcharting, certainly not a skill the Maharishi would have known from his background, but also familiar with traditional and Ericksonian hypnosis.

NOTES

1. "The Checking Notes," Revised by Maharishi December 74, introduction.

---

OUTLINE OF COMING INSTALLMENTS

Why the TM Checking Notes Are Important

Overview of Checking Procedure

A Word about Secrecy

What is Trance Induction?

Symptoms of Trance Induction

Who Can Be Hypnotized

Comparing Checking to Formal Trance Induction

Comparing Checking to Naturalistic Trance Induction

Defining Embedded Commands or Post-Hypnotic Suggestions

Symptoms of Post-Hypnotic Suggestions

Suggestions Presented during the TM Checking Procedure

Implications of TM Checking as Trance Induction

Questions for Further Research -- and A Few Caveats

Special Techniques again....

People I taught also reported positive experiences using these techniques. It's hard to know how much of it was real and how much was placebo. Maybe it doesn't matter. If you thought you benefited, you benefited, simple as that.

By the time I was giving those techniques out I was very much aware of the experience/reward system so much in place at all levels of the TMO. In Seelisberg I recall people practically tripping over each other trying to out do each other with their sidhi experiences. Whatever was going on, no one flew, no one became invisible, but there were a lot of "just abouts" and "almosts".

Yep, any day now.....

Governors' Secret Supernatural Powers Program

And the hits just keep comin'!

Below is a recent submission by a former TM Governor. The TM-Sidhi Program is based on the third book of Patanjali's Yoga Darshan, the major source for all knowledge and techniques in the Yoga tradition.

Beginning in the mid-70s, the Maharishi began teaching techniques he claimed would develop supernormal powers in suitably advanced Transcendental Meditation practitioners. But he divided his followers into two groups.

"Governors" were TM teachers who took long meditation courses on which they learned nearly 30 techniques. "Citizens" were non-teaching practitioners who took the Sidhi course in their local centers and learned 18 techniques, without the long meditation program (known as "rounding").

Turns out, as most TMers suspected, the Governors got a little more special sauce than the lowly Citizens. To our knowledge this remains the case. Until today. Below is the full Governor-Only Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Program:

---

To: jmknapp53@gmail.com

I have a lot of notes, but this should cover all of them.

Original T[ranscendental]M[editation]S[idhi]P[rogram], later watered down and for Citizen Sidha version:

Friendliness	To develop friendliness
Compassion	To develop compassion
Happiness	To develop happiness
The Strength of an Elephant	To develop superhuman strength
The Bronchial Tube	To develop calmness
The Trachea	To develop control of hunger and thirst
The Navel	To develop knowledge of the body
On Soma so that Soma Flows Everywhere	To develop the flow of soma
The Coronal Light	To see sidhas
Inner Light	To develop knowledge of things hidden from view
The Sun	to develop knowledge of cosmic visions (lokas)
The Moon	To develop knowledge of arrangement of stars
The Pole Star	To develop knowledge of motion of stars
The Three-fold Parinamas (or Changes)	To develop knowledge of past and future
The Heart	To develop knowledge of the mind
The Appearance of the Body	To develop invisiibility
Word...Object Implied...the Idea Thereof Overlapping	To develop knowledge of language of animals and all beings
The Conquering of the Vital Force Samana	To develop effulgence
The Distinction Between Buddhi & Purusha	To develop discriminative enlightenment
Purusha & Intuition	To develop prescience
Purusha....Divine Hearing	To develop clairaudience
Purusha....Divine Touch	To develop divine touch
Purusha....Divine Sight	To develop divine sight
Purusha....Divine Taste	To develop divine taste
Purusha....Divine Smell	To develop divine smell
On Relationship of Body and Akasha....Lightness of Cotton Fiber	To develop levitation
Soma, Soma, Soma	To develop soma and smooth "unstressing"

Rest in Shavasana 15 min or longer

---

If you have information on this or other programs of the Transcendental Meditation Orgs, please contact jmknapp53@gmail.com. Your confidentiality is assured.

UPDATE: In the comment sections below, Barry Wright raises an objection to this post. It may be worth our readers' time to review it. He states that he received his TM-Sidhi Program in 1977 and that there was no difference between his Governor's program and the Citizen program at that time. Everyone benefits from criticism and feedback. I'm certainly no exception. In thinking about Barry's post, two things come to my mind. One of the disadvantages of dealing with an organization that trades in secrets in the way the TM Org does is that you have to trust your sources, but you can never know for certain if you have the whole truth. Our source learned the sidhis in the 1980s. So it seems that some Governors, at least, received different programs from Citizens after the time Barry received them. In the future, I will try to include qualifications of the sort: "according to our source(s)." I hope that addresses Barry's main concern. -- J.

Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How! (and bring your fruit, flowers, handkerchief and money!)

“Special Techniques Teacher”. Yep, I wanted to be one of those. Another arrow in my spiritual quiver. You never knew how that might come in handy and put you one more notch above the rank and file in the spiritual pecking order.

In 1975 I took a course, actually took it twice, in Switzerland,to become a teacher of the fabled “special techniques”. These were techniques, allegedly ancient and Vedic, to help that pudgy meditator lose weight, stop unstressing or, god forbid, stop smoking or drinking.

The course was two weeks tagged on to the end of yet another 6-month course for those who wanted to attend. Basically it all boiled down to this:

For oral fixations such as eating, smoking and drinking the instruction was to place one’s attention on the “space within the throat”.

For unstressing and general freak out the instruction was to place one’s attention on the tops of the palms.

This was to be done after finishing your regular meditation, or, in the case of the eating technique, while looking at your full plate of food. (Bon Apetite!)

That’s it.

If you needed a smoking technique AND an eating technique we were told to do two pujas and charge double the amount of money. I actually did this once but felt so terrible about it I never did it again. (“Hey, just do the same thing I told you to do before.”)

Yes, friends, the secret may now be revealed. Watch those pounds melt away!

Midnight Mantra Madness

Two old-time governors contribute more on mantras for your edification.

For your discussion on mantras:

A number of traditional sources clearly verify that the TM mantras, technically known as bija-aksharas ("indestructible seed-sounds"), are not meaningless but actually have well-defined meanings. In fact there are entire dictionaries of bija mantras like the bija dictionary of Bhairava rishi.

The Brihad-gandharva-tantra (chapter 5) clearly explains:

"The bijas have a meaning. They indicate the Artha or Devata that they are from. What that Devata is, is [supposed to be] taught to the Sadhaka (student), just as the child learns that 'rose' means a certain type of flower, and that rice and milk are the names for a certain type of food and drink he can have."

In any event, here are the meanings of some TM mantras according to the Varada-Tantra to demonstrate:

Aing

[The letter] "Ai" [in the mantra] means Sarasvati. Bindu [the "g" at the end of the mantra] means "dispeller of sorrow". This is the bija of Sarasvati. With it Vani or Sarasvati should be worshipped.

Shring

"Sa" means Mahalakshmi. "Ra" is said to mean "wealth". "I" means "satifaction". Nada is Apara (Ishvara). Bindu means "dispeller of sorrow". This is the bija of Devi Lakshmi. With it this Devi should be worshipped.

Hring

"Ha" means Shiva. "Ra" is said to be Prakriti. "I" means Mahamaya. Nada is said to be Mother of the Universe. Bindu means "dispeller of sorrow". With that Bhuvaneshvari should be worshipped.

etc...

And the second revelation to come in was the fifth and sixth advanced techniques, in response to the earlier post of the first four:

Wow, you only had two to go: shri shri aing aing namah namah and then the same thing in rhythm with the pulsing of the heart.

Enjoy! Don't let your head explode!

Eenie, Meenie, Mo' Mantras

Well, as long as we're talking mantras, readers may be interested in yet more versions -- as well the mantra meanings. I recommend starting with Mike Doughney's discussion on minet.org. The meanings -- and more! -- are discussed at trancenet.net. Then consider this version contributed this evening by another old-time TM Governor/Teacher:

Ing 3-10
Em 10-12
Inga 12-14
Ema 16-18
Aing 18-20
Aim 20-22
Ainga 22-24
Aima 24-26
Shiring 26-30
Shirim 30-35
Hiring 35-40
Hirim 40-45
Kiring 45-50
Kirim 50-55
Shiam 55-60
Shiama 60+

My mantra was Aing. First advanced tech was Aing-namah. Second advanced technique was Shri Aing-namah. Third was Shri Aing-Namah Namhah. Fourth was Shri Shri Aing-Namah Namah.

Have fun readers! Just don't let your head explode from reading forbidden knowledge!

Mantras

This is the revised four-part Mantras post in one continuous piece.

Mantras - when I was instructed, my teacher had recently returned from her course at which the fab four had been briefly involved. She gave me the mantra "I'm" (that's what it sounded like but I visualized it as an eye with an m after it, at least for a while). [11 May 2007: I have edited all 4 part together here. This is the beginning of part one]

When I became a TM teacher (30 months after learning TM) I was given two lists, one for men, one for women. I immediately pointed out to Mahesh that my own mantra was "wrong" according to the piece of paper he had just handed me. I instantly asked if I should change my mantra. He said no, doesn't matter.

ages 6-15 (children's technique from 6-10 ing, boys, im girls )
11-16 ing male, im female
15-30 aing male, aim female
30-45 shring male, shrim female
45 and over shiam male and shiama female.

I had gotten my "second" (a.k.a. night) technique from Sattyanand (this turned out to be slightly different from what a friend had gotten in a different group either before or after my group – I'll dig out my notes in order to discuss this later, I don't recall it being hugely significant, we had all been taught to check it, essentially give it, the same way). – The night technique never worked until about 18 months later in Fiuggi, then it worked brilliantly until my next technique which Mahesh gave me, then it stopped working completely and I forgot about it.

Two months after becoming a teacher, Sattyanand gave me my third technique. He asked me what my mantra was and I said aim (pronounced I'm ... right age, wrong gender). He more or less grunted I'm namah and told me to go and meditate.

I did.

It felt like I was falling out of an airplane. I felt dragged down and down and down, becoming increasingly and increasingly, heavy, woozy, dreamy and all the time consciousness of this and increasingly unable to form a clear thought, like help, for example.

After about two more tries of this, I asked him to check my mantra. He asked what it was, I said I'm namah and he grunted no, eye'ng namah. Lots of emphasis on his part, I knew unquestionably I had made no mistake of understanding before. After that, meditation was just meditation, moderately dull, kind of restful.

In Fiuggi the mantras list was just ages and mantras. the first two the same as my first two, but no gender differentiation [I doubt he had gone equal opportunity given his penchant for separating men and women, but that came later anyway]. I don't remember the ages, but I do remember the mantras: ing, im, inga, ima (obvious, add a to the end of the first two) aying, ayim, (obvious, add ay to the end of the first two) then ayinga. ayima, (adding a to the end), then shring, my 40-45 men's mantra.

Long story (omitted here but it was after Fiuggi), I asked Mahesh to make me an M-Group teacher. Which he did. I could teach monks, nuns, priests, and religious brothers so they could take the SCI course. Mahesh wasn't just trying to invade politics! – I was given two mantras aying for men, ayim for nuns.

I still have the piece of paper he picked up to write them for me.

What's personal about personal mantra in the mythical purity of the teaching?

Next, I want to mention a few things about some observations I have about what Mahesh said about mantras in Beacon. And then, maybe, what Yogananda said about his use of mantra.

*§* part two

Mahesh lied (3 to 5 years to CC, gimme a break) in order to sell the product I believed in. That’s a given. But I certainly believed and he certainly lied, depending on rumour and innuendo to persuade me, all of us, of not only the greatness of TM but his personal greatness as well.

But he lied and he wasn't so great, either.

We all, as far as I know, believed at one time that if lying was what it took to spread TM, then that was OK. The end justified the means because, speaking for myself, I truly, deeply, completely believed TM was the greatest gift that could be given.

Sure, I had some difficulty with the fact that anyone wanting to learn had to pay so I could give this great gift; but I managed.

I rationalized.

To this day, I firmly believe that meditation is a great and valuable gift. But is TM meditation? Is TM “great” and is it “valuable”? I want to look at this in Part 3.

It certainly is not a gift. It is an expensive commodity – one not only purchases TM like a pair of shoes, but also comes to possess something to which of necessity commits like raising a child. Except this product surreptitiously elevates you to another life-style. And while you might have started out as the one taking care of it (good old 2x20) eventually it takes over and you are buying it the next thing Mahesh is selling, the next thing that will make it work better, faster, smoother.

Are we also to absolutely trust Mahesh when he tells us his method* is the only thing that can be called meditation? In the early days he referred to smoke, to unwinding. It was not until his meeting with Hans Selye that we discovered that we were unstressing. Didn't he understand his own method? Whose meditation is it, anyway?

Can someone “own” a method?

I have tried several different forms of meditation. BUT I am not claiming that my assessment is sufficient reason for anyone to stop what is working, or switch to something else. If you personally are happy with the results of TM or any other form of meditation, if your life is running smoothly and you are not dependent on anyone to tell you what kind of life-style is most appropriate, what life-partner you should or should not have, if you are making good decisions that are working out for you and not alienating you from family and friends, if you are not having to get new friends to support new life-style – then you are most likely on a path very likely appropriate for you.

TM is one of several mantra-based methods. What is special about TM as a method is THE WAY the mantra is used. I have found this way to be brilliant, highly effective in every one of the meditation methods I have tried. I do not know where Mahesh got this method, from whom he borrowed it or from whose efforts he extracted it.** I am, however, very grateful for this method. The meditation I am presently doing gives me much, much more peace, calm and insight than the TM mantra-based method did.

What is the method? Return to an awareness of the object of meditation (in the case of TM, the mantra; in the case of one of the methods practised in Theravāda Buddhism in the Thai Forest Tradition, the breath) as effortlessly as you experience the awareness of having drifted off the object.

This is simply brilliant.

My question is this: why are the results in activity so much more rewarding for me using the breath as an object than using a "meaningless sound".

The “method” is useful, but what about the “mantra”?

The mantra (a.k.a. meaningless thought, meaningless sound): Let’s look at what Mahesh said at the beginning:

We do not select any sound like mike, flower, table, pen, wall etc. because such ordinary sounds can do nothing more than merely sharpening the mind; whereas there are some special sounds which have the additional efficacy of producing vibrations whose effects are found to be congenial to our way of life. This is the scientific reason why we do not select any word at random. For our practice we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch to us the grace of personal Gods and make us happier in every walk of life.***

So, first we don’t want sounds that just do nothing more than merely sharpening the mind. Isn’t this in and of itself a red flag? Why wouldn’t we want sharp minds? If we had sharp minds might we detect something not in Mahesh’s best interests? That was my thought when I read this remark by Mahesh.

Like any totalitarian thinker, Mahesh would only want sharp minds from which he could cull information. Then, as he has done so often when finished with someone providing him with answers, he could send them to round and do the ‘sidhi’ program until they were no longer sharp enough to realize they were being blindsided and their work siphoned off to the credit of someone else. This requires some more discussion and I intend to get to that in Part 3.

So, we need “special” sounds that have the additional efficacy of producing vibrations whose effects are found to be congenial to our way of life – doesn’t that suggest maintaining the status quo and feeling better about it?

Is Mahesh actually saying, as I obviously suspect he is: give me your devotion and resources and I'll make you happy. Doesn't that sound suspiciously like some grubby guy on a street corner our mothers told us to stay away from?

Then Mahesh mixes science and God. This is the scientific reason why we do not select any word at random. For our practice we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch to us the grace of personal Gods and make us happier in every walk of life.

How is this scientific? Is Mahesh suggesting that what he says is as valid as “science” [just because he says it]? Isn’t science based on observation, trial and error until we find what works consistently? In what way could such experiments be undertaken to find the suitable mantras of personal Gods?

What are personal Gods and how is this not a religion? (An unswered question, as far as I know.)

To me, his words suggest that you somehow get the calling card of some “god” (whatever he might or might not mean by that) or maybe you get the private, unlisted number of some god (a super-being, a fairy godmother, a notion that can only be the product of magical thinking) who then owes you? How can that possibly make sense? Again, how is this scientific?

What are personal Gods? What are Gods and who determines how they get personal? When did this become acceptable thinking? Or, as has been easily observed so consistently, the development of Maheshism resides in the repetition of the same words which finally brings acceptance, not necessarily understanding, but definitely unquestioned acceptance. Back to page one of Beacon Light of the Himalayas mind control. Mahesh was advertising "his" method as mind control.
Who was going to control whose mind, anyway? Or has that become increasingly obvious since those early days? Did he or did he not know what he was talking about then? If he did, why isn't he talking about it now? Is TM a secret religion?

In Mantras Part 3, I want to look at what the mantra is doing as opposed to what Mahesh says the mantra is doing.

--- The Notes ---

* Mahesh referred to TM as “my method” from the very beginning; this is unquestionable. You can refer to Beacon Light of the Himalayas in the related links section. But note also that he advertises on the cover of this document MIND CONTROL. Who will be controlling whose mind? It doesn’t say.

** I am suspicious that he might have conned it out of some Lama fleeing Tibet as it so closely resembles some of the teachings of Dzogchen, such as “sky-like” mind and “nonmeditation”.

*** Beacon Light of the Himalayas, page 65, published in THE MAHARISHI, by Paul Mason, 2005, [see footnote 310] pages 248-9. The complete text of Beacon is available at Paul’s web site.

*§* part three

The TMO (TM Organization) has been careful to ignore and cover up the problem of casualties: such things as loss of mental stability, depression, suicide, bankruptcy (in the effort to buy the next greatest course rumoured to be the next greatest course), burgeoning drug use amongst its children, neglect of children in favour of “program” and so on.

Yet, we know people who did TM, got checked regularly, did or tried to do all the courses but crashed, burned and were simply invisible on the radar of Movement.

Of course, we also know people with varying degrees of success (as described by Mahesh and the TMO).

In the end, it seems only one thing can be said about TM: results vary.

Why?

On one level, TM is no different from any other practise or endeavour in which large numbers become involved. If Mahesh chooses to only notice the “good news” brought to him by his tail-wagging sycophants and on that basis believes that “his” meditation is some universal good, that tells us much more about Mahesh than it does “his” meditation.

In Part 2, I questioned Mahesh’s primary statement about “his” method and mantras. Any ordinary word, he said, would only “merely sharpen the mind”. But to make a stronger case for himself/”his” method, he said, “for our practise we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch to us the grace of personal Gods and make us happier in every walk of life.”

We might wonder how this is not religious or why he said something very different in the West.

I am very much indebted to Paul Mason (author of the 'The Maharishi') for editorial comments and for sharing with me his excellent analysis regarding what Guru Dev apparently taught, what Mahesh initially did with it and then simply ignored any kind of obligation he might have had toward Guru Dev and his own Hindu heritage by “masking” his religious teaching as a meditation method based on ‘meaningless sounds’.

(see and the contents of 'Beacon Light of the Himalayas'. See also the Blog more about "techniques")

The Images

Mahesh used two images which, I am sure, are familiar to all TMers: the image of dipping-the-cloth and the bubble diagram.

The bubble diagram purports to explain that since thoughts arise and come to our attention on the “surface” of the mind, the gross awareness, we should therefore be able to follow a specific thought backwards, to the source of thought.

We accepted that as factual.

But, is it?

Then, we accepted as factual that a specific thought, not just any thought, but a specifically chosen personal (meaningless sound), would do just this, dissolve into the source from which all thought arises.

Is this factual?

What would the source of thought look like? If we found it, how would we know. The answer seemed to be you just would.

Then we learned that no thought and no mantra (personal meaningless sound), an after-the-fact experience, was just that, pure consciousness, the source of thought.

Was it?

A Sideways Look at Things, a different perspective:

This is how I think the bubble diagram and the dipping-the-cloth image can be explained and account for some TM casualties. Since no blanket explanation can be made about the effects of TM because so many different people have had so many different experiences, results and so on, I will try, here, to explain just one possible result of the TM method and meaningless sound:

(1) When you just sit and think a thought, you notice that it leads to other thoughts which in turn lead to other thoughts. I do not think it is possible to think one and only one thought for any prolonged period. It certainly is not possible to think the mantra and only the mantra because it is very clearly laid out in the checking procedure that when we realize we are “off” the mantra, we come back to it as easily as we notice any thought.

You can check http://www.trancenet.net/ or http://minet.org/checktoc.html for the precise wording of the checking notes.

(2) What were you doing when you noticed you were “off” the mantra? Were you daydreaming? Were the daydreams clear or were you unable to recall what the mind was experiencing?

(3) OR, and especially after some familiarity with the practice, were the daydreams much muzzier than your usual daydreaming? Have you noticed that this kind of experience/daydreaming tends toward long absences from memory?

Since so many people have so many different experiences and few if any have the same experience repeatedly, I want to talk about just this one possibility: muzzy disconnected daydreaming becoming increasingly gossamer until there was a blank spot. – This is where I think TM leads, to a bleary, disjointed, ephemeral experience of increasingly vague, insubstantial daydreaming until (that other image) dipping the cloth becomes complete.

Dipping-the-cloth

Sometimes, this takes a long, long time, sometimes, not. Some might and some might not remember the process; BUT on teacher training courses in the past and I suspect ‘sidha’ experience today, the vague and woolly experience (dipping yourself into the dye of no meaning and no memory) gets speeded up. The cloth (that’s you and your awareness) becomes more and more the state of vagueness and less and less a “merely” sharp mind.

Just what colour was he impregnating your cloth with, anyway!

As I did not like the way rounding made me feel, I didn’t do much of it, so at the peak of rounding, when Mahesh told the assembled pie-eyed believers that only he could love them, that no one could love them as he could, I was just a little shocked; I became more taken aback as he clarified that neither mother nor father could love you as he could. He kept at this theme for some time. The assembled were malleable, supple in the hands of an expert at indoctrination (of course, I only recognized this for what it was much, much later). So many of us had dipped-the-cloth to the point of total surrender; no wonder he didn’t want us to make any new decisions on the course, he wanted us to accept his decisions, he wanted us to leave no room for any but his decisions, the permanent dye of his thinking.

My interpretation of mantras/meaningless sounds used in the intimate way of Mahesh’s meditation

The mantra does NOT draw the mind into finer and finer levels of thought until it reaches the “bottom” or the source of thought. Rather, the mantra takes the awareness, the clarity of mind, the thinking process sideways into a vague state of daydreaming and disconnect from meaningfulness where no clear perception or clear thought can be formed.

What else can a meaningless thought do? Mahesh told his Indian audience about personal gods and suitable mantras for those gods but then later taught that the mantras were meaningless.

Which is it? To whom was he lying?

Was he suggesting Guru Dev was wrong? Did he know better than the teacher to whom he pretends such devotion? Or was he simply modeling our future behaviour toward himself?

Words with no attached meaning ARE meaningless and meaning does not arise from meaninglessness. But if you are sufficiently saturated with the colour of TM, the colour of rounding, the colour of imagining you can fly – then how easy would it be to insinuate an idea that seemed completely meaningful i.e. that by repeating the mantra one would discover blissfulness, heaven on earth!

A simple experiment:

(after you read this)

Sit and close your eyes and say/think/ponder some word over and over; just that word, over and over, some word you understand, some particular word you know the meaning of. Pick a simple word like house or flower or chair.

What happens?

If you keep doing it you notice that it becomes nonsense. The sound and the meaning detach from one another. There’s just this very strange sound that does not have the sense it had when you started. It’s even funnier if you do it again and pick a complex word like hypothalamus or train station. After a while you begin to hear what someone who known no English hears.

Now notice: do you get intellectually sharper doing this, or do you feel slightly spacey? – Ask yourself very carefully how different is “just any word” and your personally selected meaningless sound? Do different words bring different experiences of silliness? Is this a beneficial experience of altered alertness? Is this experience of altered alertness beneficial?

Only you can answer. Obviously experiences may vary.

Suppose that you undertake to do this experiment 2x20 (twice each day for twenty minutes each time) and go on a teacher training course where you do this 4x20 twice morning and twice afternoon). Suppose, given the fun of group meditation and suchwhat you do this 4x30 or 4x45 ? On the teacher training courses I attended the “rounding” escalated to 4 morning rounds and 4 afternoon rounds.

Now the ‘sidhi’ program requires something near 4 hours morning and afternoon. In the early days before the ‘sidhi’ program, Mahesh only encouraged 2x20, but when he surveyed an ATR for which I was course-leader, everyone was doing AT LEAST 45 to 50 minute meditations! He didn’t have a hissy fit, he didn’t get angry, he didn’t do anything.

Apparently no response is assent.

Dipping-the-cloth. Whose colour was your dye?

The more you dip into the TM pool, the Maheshism pool of altered alertness, the more easily it is to disconnect from meaning and clarity and get comfortable with that spacey feeling where no meaningful thinking is taking place … do you remember “the mind goes in the direction of more and more”? That is a definition of greed and craving; but Mahesh wanted you to think that more and more meant encountering the “source of thought”, the “field of all possibilities”. He wanted you to think you were becoming more and more enlightened. Were you becoming more and more enlightened? Are you more and more enlightened? (What in the heck does “enlightened” mean, anyway, more and more spacey?)

If Mahesh brought anything to the west, it was the super fast-drying dye-job of Maheshism.

I am firmly convinced that when Mahesh said the nature of the mind is to go in the direction of more and more, what he knew was that the more you became absorbed in that spacey realm of the unclear and purposeless, the more easily you simply accepted every word and any word he said, bought into every new course, concept and product, made every effort to attend every program.

Just consider those moments you thought of as no thought, no mantra – might they have been blackouts, periods when you were not there! Might you have been in some hypnotic frame of mind, open to suggestion?

Meaninglessness takes the awareness sideways.

The more you willingly participate in the super fast-drying dye-job of Maheshism, the more sideways, dissociated, disconnected, purposeless your mental function becomes. The more you readily believe the magical thinking of Maheshism, the more willingly you participate and tell others.

Remember when Mahesh said again and again on your teacher training course “we do not make any decisions on teacher training”? He wanted you to get the full benefit of what you were being exposed to: the disconnect nature of your own mental processes which he told you was the source of thought. You were being shepherded from your colour to his preference, he was dipping you in his dye, you were taking on his colour. – Have you ever asked yourself what became of your colour? What was your original colour, can you remember?

You don’t have to give this any further thought if you truly and sincerely believe you are getting or have gotten your money’s worth from TM. Many are firmly convinced they are truly blessed by all that is Mahesh and TM. But if you have doubts, you might want to consult with http://www.suggestibility.org/ .

*§* part four

There is a significant difference between what Mahesh said (“For our practice we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods.”) and understanding the concept that some things are endowed with spiritual significance. To endow a thing with spiritual or religious significance does not change the thing in any way. What changes is attitude on the part of those who subscribe to the endowment.

Mahesh clearly endowed his actions/teachings and "vision" with spiritual and religious significance and cultured that attitude in us. Remember The Spiritual Regeneration Movement?

Unstressing

When bizarre behaviour began to erupt at Mallorca, Mahesh called it waves of bliss. He said something good was happening. He didn’t teach that the experience was just another experience and we were to experience the feeling until it resolved itself. Yes, something like that was somewhere in the checking notes, but people thrown off guard by suddenly strange behaviours and feelings, seeing their neighbours in the same situation are highly UN-likely to run off to check the checking notes.

From my side, I see "unstressing" as the body-mind experiencing a crisis, cognitive dissonance in opposition to which it cannot restore its integrity: body and mind feel like they are coming apart and behaviours beyond will-power or aside from what one had previously considered her/his will-power display themselves. I think that many of us accepted Mahesh in toto rather than resolve a crisis.

Feeling the Body

Many of us were there, saw it, even experienced it. The checking notes as they appear on line now http://minet.org/checkinggp.html or http://www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/checkinggp.shtml give excellent if somewhat inconsistent teaching regarding untoward experiences arising in meditation. But were these "general points" in the checking notes at the time? I would very much appreciate knowing if anyone has the checking notes from Mallorca or prior to Mallorca and could tell me or preferably show me how the understanding of "feeling the body" was taught. Maybe they were, but who had the presence of mind to look? Where were the “monitors” who should have kept people sane by making sure they weren’t going off the deep end? Where was Mahesh’s head when he suggested that during the week of silence we should meditate as much as possible! He never mentioned round as much as possible, suggesting asana breaks!

I only remember a conversation with Jerry Jarvis, prior to Mallora. He said that 'it' probably shouldn't be called feeling the body but should be called continuing. At the time, however, this concept seemed a very minor consideration.

I do not ever recall any time when Mahesh explained "feeling the body" as anything integral or as a necessary element to know or practise with as part of long periods of rounding. I can recall no mention of feeling-the-body as a "stitch in time". Regarding the horrendous freak-out that was Mallorca and (to a lesser extent) Fiuggi, apparently very few if any others remembered or knew or thought about this, either. – My conclusion: Mahesh is irresponsible, or, even more irresponsibly, he thought that he was weeding the weak from the strong, separating those he might like to use from those he could discard.

Beyond

I knew that I was really seeking something.

In a story Ramakrishna* told, he said that the seeker is like a thief in the night, he slips into the darkened house, touches this and that always muttering not the gold, not the gold. But when his hand feels the gold, he knows, he grasps it and is immediately gone into the night.

In some way, I knew I was in the darkened house of ignorance and TM really had the feel of gold. Maybe it might have been just that; but much later I discovered that Mahesh was corrupted by his own greed and narcissism subsequently corrupting not only what he had purloined from his tradition and teacher, but those he taught as well. This is my perception to this day, based upon my interaction with Mahesh and observing his interaction with others.

But just because I had been hoodwinked by a charlatan whose motives I felt were highly suspicious, I did not cease seeking. I kept looking for the gold and now I feel I have found that gold and have been examining it in the broad daylight, questioning practitioners and teachers alike, watching, observing, certainly looking for the behaviours and attitudes with which TM allowed me to be familiar. I am also looking at criteria such as Lifton’s to see if I am being cheated. I wish I could have done this from the beginning with TM.

I have continued the search that began in the spring of 1964. I can only conclude at this time that there is much more to life than TM. There is more than imagining that if you believe something good is happening long enough something good will happen. There is more to life than imagining you have been spiritually endowed by using the suitable mantras for personal gods.

I am a Buddhist presently practicing in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravāda Buddhism. I have no intention of suggesting that this is better than or superior to what Mahesh or Guru Dev is teaching/taught. However, if you are or feel you might be or might have been a TM casualty, you might want to look at “feeling the body” as explained in the Buddhist teachings.

If, and only if after considerable reflection on your part you feel that this is a step, endeavour or exercise you feel confident in making read through http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/clubs/buddhism/vimalaramsi/main.html. This is a link to The Anapanasati Sutta – A Practical Guide to Mindfulness of Breathing and Tranquil Wisdom, the Buddha’s own very straightforward, uncomplicated alertness-based method of meditation and/or http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soma/wayof.html, The Satipatthana Sutta, basically the same method, but given in more detail. Notice, there is nothing held back, no secret courses, no fees.

I am suggesting nothing easy, but I am suggesting something very do-able and uncomplicated. But, if you will, notice that the teaching begins with following the breath and letting mind and body become calm. Do you remember from the checking procedure how, before any mention of mantra, after opening and closing the eyes, you felt some quiet and calm, just naturally?

Did you realize anything or ever think about this?

You already knew how to be calm and quiet. It is my opinion that Mahesh’s teachings beyond establishing this insight is nothing more than a distraction from that calm and quiet, sidestepping the only meaningful reality, your own innate, knowable reality.

How can there possibly be any other basis for happiness in the world than knowing your own specific reality (your own colour)?

Cultivating this calm-and-quiet is the object of the Anapanasati Sutta. The method and teaching above (A Practical Guide) has been extremely helpful for me and I feel that if it is only read as an explanation it is helpful to understand the concept of mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition.

Further, in the The Satipatthana Sutta, we read how the Buddha established mindfulness in four REALITIES, the primary four realities of the individual, the person, YOU.

The first foundation is, basically, feeling the body, getting settled in and comfortable with your own physical reality just as it is. Little by little, as the impediments to mindfulness come up, they are skilfully abandoned.

I want to leave off with the advice of Padmasambhava**, an 8th century CE Tibetan teacher, who summarized his advice on spiritual development like this:

As for the innermost advice: no matter what kind of disturbing emotion you feel, look into the emotion and it tracelessly subsides. The disturbing emotion is thus naturally freed. This is simple to practice.

This is for me the gold and legitimate teachers share this innermost advice but do not sell it.

_____________
* Ramakrishna late 19th Century Indian saint living in the Bengal
** Padmasambhava’s Advice from the Lotus-Born (‘Pointing the Staff at the Old Man’)

more about "techniques"

A couple of American initiators who trained in India before my course in the West told me they had been told that if initiating couples together to give both the man's mantra. This was in the days of mantras for men, mantras for women. (This was before gay marriage.)

On my course, His Wholly Weaselness told us that if couples wanted to be instructed together, we should crumple a piece of paper in the face/direction of the other person whilst we gave the mantra to one and then the other way around for the other person. -- I immediately knew that there was no way I could pull off that piece of crap and set it aside.

I learned from an Indian India-trained initiator that on his course he had been given three mantras (I didn't ask what they were). He was taught to ask the person being instructed what god s/he worshipped. If the person said one of the three of his mantras, he was to give the person that mantra. If the person said something else, he was to give the first of his three.

One of the initiators at our Centre, in the days before World Plan Centres, said that Mahesh had giver her and her husband an advanced technique "for couples".

I have no reason to think any of this is rumour. This was told to me by people I trusted, one of them being Mahesh himself. While I would no longer trust Mahesh under any circumstances, still I heard it from him.

Because he gave people pieces of paper in Fiuggi from which to copy the mantras, and because someone left one lying about and because I looked, I do know that Mahesh didn't give all teachers the same mantras. Those were different from mine.

This is obviously not a rumour and raises serious questions about "personal mantras". The instant Mahesh handed me my piece of paper with the mantras written out in his handwriting, I knew that personal mantra was as much a lie as his "Vedic Revelations" had been during the course (about which I spoke previously).

S

The A of E technique I learned in 1975 Part Two

This is a convoluted explanation of what followed upon my learning the A of E "stuff" --

There were rumours on that ATR in 75 that Mahesh was going to teach Kriya Yoga. I had heard about Kriya Yoga and Yogananda because like so many, I had read Autobiography of a Yogi. But Mahesh had repeatedly made fun of Yogananda on my Teacher Training Course (TTC), “Yogananda brought the bicycle age, TM is the jet age.” Always, this was followed by gales of laughter coming from the little garden gnome sitting on the silk draped and flower cloaked couch at the front.

More laughter from the gnome: “Yogananda taught so many things, it takes all day to do them.” At the time, I never questioned how he knew this. Like everything that issued from the little gnome, we simple internalized it. It was the next best thing to Gospel. It was truth. We were so fortunate. Those were heady times.

Rumours abounded on ATR. Of course we were never, never, never, never, never (so King Lear) to discuss techniques under any circumstances. Mostly we never did. But so many knew I had been his personal secretary that often things were confided in me.

In reference to Part One, after some 6-months of abject misery, both physical exhaustion and mental fatigue and something akin to an all-pervasive anxiety but more like background paranoia (about both I had learned much in the company of Mahesh and the viperous sycophants who made much of themselves and their importance to him), I abandoned first the A of E and a week or two later, the ‘sidhi’ and then began cutting meditation down by about 5 minutes every few days.

I had seen the damage done in the Mallorca TTC in '71 when the would-be initiators crashed from something like 8 to 10 hours of nothing but TM (Mahesh had said that for the week of silence we should do as much meditation as possible … he may have actually said more but these are the words that stuck in my mind and, apparently in many other minds). Some of the course participants were very tearful. Some complained of stomachache, others were snapping their heads from side to side during the group meditation and some even during dinner! Some people were jerking limbs (in meditation and at other times not usually associated with meditation). One fellow took to spitting at anyone who made eye contact. Another simply could not carry on a conversation, but talked loudly and, well, raved, at/to/with anyone who either got too close, made eye contact or tried to help.

Since I was not interested in this as a possible personal experience, I cut back on TM slowly. Eventually I was only doing 10 minutes twice a day,

During this time of decreasing TM (and, of course, avoiding all possible contact with anyone I knew who did TM), I began to study Yogananda’s SRF lessons. One came every week. Compared to TM and the gnome’s endless self-flattering talk, Yogananda was shallow. Very religious, Jesus was one of the Kriya yogis; the Gospel of John was made to sound like a Kriya teaching.

But, I persisted and finally received the Kriya instructions. The basic Kriya is to move the energy from the point between the eyebrows up to the crown of the head then down the spine stopping at each of the charkas. When one reached the last charka at the base of the spine, one moved up one by one to the charka between the eyes. Rather than using mantras, one breathed from one chakra to the next, all minutely explained in lesson after lesson. This was one Kriya. Beginners started out doing a Maximum of 28 Kriyas with the eventual hope of being able to do 108 Kriyas.

Lessons were sent, fine points explained, and questions were asked. Time and time again, I wrote the exams and received personal attention from one of the Monks at “mother centre”. When I responded successfully, then the next level of kriya instruction was received. If you have had any involvement with the TM Organization, can you say organized and caring?

But discovering that my A of E from Mahesh and his Holy Tradition and Purity of the Teaching was, in fact, a reworking of Yogananda’s Kriya Yoga was not only funny but set me on a path of investigation of all things TM and Mahesh.

About which, of course, there will be more later.

S

Age of Enlightenment Techniques: How Many Versions?

So far we have three posted below: from anonymous, Kropinski, and Sudarsha. How many more are out there?

I plan on writing this evening about the implications of the Maharishi's "research experiments in consciousness." Stay tuned.

The A of E technique I learned in 1975 Part One

This is what I learned to do: After TM/before ‘sidhi’

At the top of the head think/feel OM
At the eyebrow level, between the eyes think/feel Bhur
At the throat level, think/feel Bhuvah
At the heart level think/feel svah
At the solar plexus level think/feel tat savitur

-> We were to do this moving our attention/awareness down the spine. (More detailed, exacting instruction I did not, unfortunately, record in my notes; not do I recall ever asking or being given any kind of explanation what this was for, what it was supposed to do/accomplish.)

I was told to go to one of the skin boys for checking. He had to tell me over and over what the “mantras” were. I had at the time a vague notion that this was something familiar.

It turned out to be the beginning of the Gayatri Mantra.

I do not remember how many times this was to be done before progressing to the ‘sidhi’ program. Since I learned this on an ATR (Advanced Teaching and Rounding, I think), I left for home almost immediately thereafter. I had been doing the ‘sidhi’ program for some time and felt increasingly exhausted and dull from morning meditation to evening meditation. I wanted to sleep all the time and could barely function without a lot of effort, very difficult effort.

The addition of the “A of E” increased the dullness of the ‘sidhi’ program and added something I still find difficult to describe despite the sparce notes from this time in my journals. I simply felt awful. Dutifully, month after month I wrote my A of E experience evaluation and sent it off to wherever we were to send these things. I am unable to find the list of questions we were to answer and apparently did not keep copies of the pleading letters I sent. I felt so bad I was pleading month after month for some kind of help, any kind of assistance. Needless to say, there was no response.

I now recall a Sufi teaching lession I learned some years later: I have sent you a thousand letters and you have not answered one; but that too is an answer.

After about 6-months of this (apparently if you are dull, exhausted, feel wretched and afraid that you will be cut off like the errant son of some stuffy and heartless aristocrat), you keep doing the same thing again and again expecting better results.

The Gayatri:

Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah
Tat
Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yonah:
Prachodayat

English translation:

Throughout all realms of experience
‘That’
essential nature illuminating existence
is the adorable
One.
May all beings perceive through
subtle and meditative intellect
the magnificent brilliance
of enlightened awareness.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~dham/gayatri_mantra.html

(More Blog input on the matter of the A of E later.)

Reader Submission: Full Age of Enlightenment Techniques

We received the following in today's email from a reader who wishes to remain anonymous. The Age of Enlightenment techniques were taught on the fabled 6-month course in the mid-1970s. The cost of the course would be approximately $25,000 in today's dollars. Enjoy the "fruits" below -- for free!

To: jmknapp53@gmail.com

[F]rom my personal, handwritten notes. Enjoy!

Keep up the great work.


Full Age of Enlightenment Technique
After T[ranscendental]M[editation]S[idhi]P[rogram]:

Place attention on the following in sequence:

• Nostrils
  
• Lips
  
• Ears
  
• Eyes
  
• Between Brows
  
• Top of head
  
• Whole head
  
• Throat
  
• Chest
  
• Stomach
  
• Sides of the body
  
• Back
  
• Upper back
  
• Shoulder blades
  
• Upper arms
  
• Lower arms
  
• Palms
  
• Fingers
  
• Upper legs
  
• Ankles
  
• Feet
  
• Whole body
  

Then have sequential and growing awareness of the following spaces, along with the mantras which follow:

• City you are in
  
• Country you are in
  
• Continent (North/SouthAmerica)
  
• Africa
  
• Europe
  
• Austral-Asia
  
• Whole world
  
• Earth and the Sun together
  
• The Solar System
  
• The Galaxy
  
• Clusters of Galaxies
  
• Whole Universe
  
• The Absolute
  
• The Whole Body
  

Lokas (done simultaneously with the above):

• Om Bhu (mentally utter at level of clouds)
  
• Om Bhu Va (higher and higher)
  
• Om Sva
  
• Om Maha
  
• Om Jana
  
• Om Tapa
  
• Om Sat Yam (pron: Om Sut Yum)
  

When you utter "Sat Yam" place attention on the top of your head.

Have an awareness of the Whole Body.

Sutra: Soma, soma, soma.

Rest 5-10 minutes.

A couple points interest me.

The above techniques are very similar to some beginning techniques taught by Yogananda. We hope to have a post discussing this shortly.

Also, the TM Governors were instructed to repeat the mantra "OM" 7 times. This despite the Maharishi's constant warnings, going back to 1956 and The Beacon Light of the Himalayas, that it was dangerous for "householders" to repeat "Om":

"Ladies should never repeat any Mantra beginning with Om. The pronunciation of Om is like fire to the ladies. This is the practical experience of many devoted ladies who repeated 'Om Namah Shivaya' or 'Om Namonarayanaya' or 'Om Namo Bhagawate Vasudevaya' or any such mantra beginning with Om. It cannot be God's wish that you should suffer in your devotion to him. Do not cling to the unhelpful Mantras. The moment you find you have got into the wrong train, it is wise to get down from it as soon as possible. It is foolish to stick on to the wrong train and go wherever it takes you."

Finally, we are aware that there were several variations on these techniques taught to succeeding 6-Month Courses. Here you will find a link to an alternate description of the techniques given as testimony in the infamous Kropinski fraud case against the TM Orgs and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

If you have knowledge of Transcendental Meditation Org secrets, please consider emailing jmknapp53@gmail.com. Your confidentiality and anonymity are assured, if you wish.

TM Mantras -- What Difference Does Their Meaning Mean?

The important point for me about the meanings of TM mantras is that on my TM teacher training course I was directly taught by my course leaders to say that TM mantras have no meaning (in the Fiuggi notes for the 1st lecture and in the 2nd preparatory lecture notes).

The assertion that they have no meaning or religious connotation is/was false. Whether you split hairs as to whether they are hindu gods or vedic dieties is a distinction without a difference. Many, many, many people would be indignant to find out that the mantra they learned in the '70s for 25 or so bucks was religious in nature and derivation. Was in fact the name of Shiva, Lakshmi, Saraswati, or other devas.

Whether you or I would be upset is really moot. The point is the TM movement as represented by its legal agents, that is TM teachers, insisted that the mantras had no meaning. They do. And at least one reported mantra, "ram," is pretty clearly the name of a recognizable god (Rama -- Gandhi on his death uttered "He Ram!" in the belief that by saying the name of God he would be guaranteed eternal bliss).

Look, I've got no problem with uttering "shri ram namah," "shri buddah namah," or "shri allah namah" until the cows come home. And the really old-time TMers who may very well be muttering "shri ram namah" in their meditations may or may not have a problem with it. God bless 'em, enjoy!

But if I were a rabbi/priest/mullah instructed in TM and just now finding out that I've been repeating a sound sacred to a vedic diety for the last so many years -- all the time assuring superiors and parishioners that there was nothing religious about TM, I might very well be fairly pissed and chagrined at this point to find out I had been inadvertently telling an untruth.

I know such religious people. Believe me, they are pissed.

The real question is, why can't the TM movement just say things straightforwardly, outright and simple? For instance, "Yes, in some cultures, the mantras that we use are considered religious. We don't think they have any religious connotations, but our Shankaracharya tradition has found these mantras to be effective. If you are uncomfortable repeating what some religions consider sacred sounds, perhaps TM is not for you. Thank you for your interest. If you don't mind, or even find this interesting, we will be holding instruction on Saturday at 8 a.m. Please bring 3 fruit, 6 flowers, and a new, clean, unused, white handkerchief." I didn't find any such speech in my Fiuggi Lecture notes. Did you? Did any TM teacher?

Why does the TM movement hide behind word games?