Transcendental Meditation

[Goofaholix]

Hinduism strikes back.

Considering how Buddhism almost disappeared in India and how many Hindu attitudes have found their way into Buddhism it's been striking back for a while now.

[dhamma_newb]

http://www.suggestibility.org/

Thanks for the link tilt. I especially liked learning about "mental reservation." And to think I was considering attending the TM University! Yikes! Glad they didn't have a Psychology program.

[Saijanai]

Thanks tiltbillings. I wanted to know because I did experience moments of bliss during TM which built up my motivation to practice every day. I am starting to notice some moments where I experience similar states while practicing samatha and vipassana, although with TM it was much faster. I think it is so interesting that there are so many different types of meditation which lead to different results. I used to be one of those people with no meditation experience who thought that "meditation" was just one thing.

Bliss is just one thing of which to let go.

THe term "Bliss" in the context of TM practice, is short for "sat-chit-ananda" (Absolute bliss-consciousness) which is, in TM theory, another word for Samadhi or Turiya. Leaving aside kinds/degrees of samadhi found in yogic texts, this is understood to mean "Pure Consciousness": a state of pure restful alertness, which is a state of the nervous system where the brain still shows qualities of being alert, but there are no thoughts, no sensations, no emotions, no intuitions, no memories, no mental activity of any kind, even though the person is not asleep.

This is considered to be the deepest level of rest that a person can possibly be in, and allows for the nervous system to repair itself, normalizing damage and distortion from the deepest [strongest] and/or most deep-rooted [oldest] stressful experiences. The reason why it is called "Bliss" is because the transition OUT of the state is often quite pleasant. However, as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi used to say, Bliss is not blissful. The state itself has no qualities that can be reported, simply because there is no thing to report. It is also not a goal of TM, but merely the logical endpoint of a continuum of restful states that can occur during TM practice, ranging from extremely agitated mentation at one end, to pure restful alertness at the other.

Short answer to your comment

Bliss is just one thing of which to let go.

:

You can't let go of Bliss because by the time you notice it, you aren't in the state anyway. All you can attempt to do is hold onto some pleasant aftereffect, which is a form of effort and control, which isn't part of TM practice in the first place, so the instruction has no meaning.

[tiltbillings]

. . . .

Eighth jhana. One more thing of which to let go.