Meditation is and is not, a little bit how it works, some of the benefits, and how you

would learn the technique. So we're all on the same page, I want to start off with a

very simple, working definition of Transcendental Meditation. Number one, TM is a very simple

technique. It's simple not because it's simplistic or a beginner's meditation, but because there

is elegant simplicity to the practice, a very profound, elegant simplicity to the practice.

Number two, it's natural. There's no manipulation, there's no suggestion. Every human being can

practice Transcendental Meditation as well as every other human being. Very simple to

learn, and very enjoyable to practice. Number three, it's effortless...effortless in contrast

to many other meditation techniques, which involve concentration, or control of the mind,

trying to clear the mind of thoughts. This is completely effortless, as we'll see in

a few moments. It's practiced twenty minutes twice a day, sitting comfortably in a chair,

with your eyes closed. It can be done, you know, on a train, it can be done on an airplane,

it can be done in a car, if someone else is driving. But it can be just done...it's just

done sitting comfortably, it's a silent technique, with your eyes closed. And this is what it's

not...It's not a philosophy. I have no philosophy for you when you learn Transcendental Meditation.

No one's gonna give you a TM philosophy of life. There's no philosophy whatsoever. It

doesn't involve any change in lifestyle, you don't change your diet or anything. And the

third thing is: there's nothing to believe in. I want to emphasize that, because sometimes

people think, "Oh when learn to meditate, I have to believe in it for it to work." You

can be 100% skeptical and the technique works just as well, the benefits are just as profound,

as if you, uh, went into this thing thinking, "Oh I believe in meditation, it's gonna work."

So there's no belief whatsoever. So to understand what Transcendental Meditation is, and to

understand how it compares to other forms of meditation, or self-development, I like

to use the metaphor, or the analogy of an ocean. You're on a small boat, you're in the

middle of the ocean, out in the middle of the ocean, and all of a sudden you get these

huge swells, these huge 40, 60 foot high waves, and you could think, "Oh my god, the whole

ocean is in upheaval." Well, not really. Because if you do a cross-section of the ocean, you

see these little 40 foot high waves, and the ocean is like in reality a mile deep, and

the ocean is active on the surface, but at the depth of the ocean it is naturally silent,

and it doesn't matter if those waves are 200 foot high waves, at the depth of the ocean,

untouched, is naturally silent. That's the nature of the ocean...active on the surface,

silent at it's depth. And the analogy is our mind. The surface of our mind is the active

thinking mind...all the things that we're thinking about all during the day...it's like

the waves on the surface of the ocean. And I like to call it the gotta, gotta, gotta,

gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta mind...I gotta do this, and I gotta do that, and I gotta

call him, and I gotta call her, and then I gotta make a list, and then I gotta find the

list, then I gotta make a new list, and I gotta get going, and I gotta slow down, and

I gotta get to sleep, and I gotta wake up...I'm sure everybody's had a gotta, gotta, gotta

mind at some point. And there's a natural inclination, a natural desire to have some

inner calm, some inner clarity, some inner focus, some inner inspiration, some inner

peace, some inner happiness...Natural. And the operative word there is inner. And the

question is, where is that inner? And how do we get it? How do we get there? Deep within

every human being, the mind of every human being, deep within all of us, is a level of

the mind that is already calm, already settled, already wide awake. The ancient meditation

texts used very big words...they say it's a source of our unbounded creativity, unbounded

intelligence, happiness, focus, clarity. It's there...it was there--if it's there--it was

there yesterday, it's there right now, it'll be there tomorrow...we've just lost access

to it. We're stuck up here, we're stuck up on the surface gotta gotta gotta level. And

Transcendental Meditation is a simple, natural, effortless technique that allows the active

thinking mind to just, all of it to just settle down, and experience quieter levels of thought,

and quieter levels of thought, and then experience what has been called 'the source of thought,'

or the 'unified field of consciousness,' or 'transcendent level of the mind,' 'pure consciousness,'

within every human being. Now here's a question...How do we know during Transcendental Meditation,

that that's actually happening. How do we know something substantive is taking place?

That we're not just imagining this? And we know from science...and why do we know from

science? Because we know from science, mind and body are not just interconnected, in many

regards mind and body are basically one. And if it's true that during Transcendental Meditation

your mind is just effortlessly, comfortably settling down, experiencing quieter and quieter

levels of the mind, and then experiencing that source of thought, it must show up in

a very profound and dramatic way during the meditation, and it must show up in the body.

And I'm not gonna go into all the details here, this is just a quick survey, but you

can go to TM.org, you can, on this site, you can go to all the research that's been done...

But basically, what the research shows is that during Transcendental Meditation your

body gains a state of rest and relaxation in many regards deeper than the deepest part

of deep sleep. And what that deep rest does...it allows the build up of stress, fatigue, tension,

anxiety to be dissolved, to be eliminated. When we get a state of deep rest, which I

said, that allows the body to repair itself, there's a hormone probably some of you have

heard of called cortisol...cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands, which sit on the kidneys,

when we're anxious. So when we're anxious the body secretes cortisol, and then we secrete

cortisol and we feel more anxious...it becomes this vicious cycle...and then we feel more

anxious, more cortisol, more anxious, more cortisol. We get a good night's sleep, cortisol

levels drop a bit...that's why we wake up feeling fresher in the morning. Research shows

that twenty minutes of Transcendental Meditation cortisol levels drop 30%. That's a significant

reduction in this production of this anxiety hormone. Serotonin levels, a neurotransmitter,

which are so called the 'happiness neurotransmitter.' There's an increase in serotonin, there's

an increase in another hormone called prolactin, which is present when there's a feeling of

wellbeing. Other research shows the results of this, the benefits of this, is a significant

reduction in high blood pressure, in cholesterol, in reduction in risk of heart attack, stroke,

atherosclerosis...a reduction in all sorts of range of disorders like bipolar disorder,

trait anxiety... In the last 40 years, there have been over 340 scientific studies published

in independent, peer reviewed journals, including the American Medical Association's journal

'Archives of Internal Medicine,' the American Heart Association's journal 'Stroke and Hypertension."

...Wide range of some of the most respected journals in the world have published research

on Transcendental Meditation. The National Institutes of Health have provided $26 million

dollars to study the effects of Transcendental Meditation on stress and heart health. The

Department of Defense just provided $2.4 million dollar grant to study the effects of Transcendental

Meditation on post-traumatic stress on soldiers who are coming back from combat in Iraq and

Afghanistan...who have come back from those war torn areas. I think one of the really

interesting areas of research is the effects of Transcendental Meditation on the brain.

This is interesting because every experience we have impacts the brain in some way... And

so research on Transcendental Meditation shows very clearly the effect that it has on different

parts of the brain, including the amygdala, which is at the center of the brain and that's

your fear center, the frontal lobes, which is the executive functioning, and on both

hemispheres of the brain, which is the so called analytical and intuitive aspects of

the brain. And what they find is...what the research shows, is that during Transcendental

Meditation there's a strengthening of the connections between the frontal lobe and the

back of the brain. This is important because the frontal lobes govern decision making,

planning, judgement, problem solving, sense of self, ethical reasoning...everything good

about the brain depends upon the connections between the front of the brain and the back

of the brain...between all aspects of the brain. And stress rips apart...you could say,

as if takes the frontal lobes offline. That's why...does a stressed person have good judgement?

Does a stressed person, um, solve problems, plan well? No! Because the frontal lobe goes

offline. During Transcendental Meditation those connections are strengthened. During

Transcendental Meditation the connections between the left and right hemispheres of

the brain are strengthened...all parts of the brain connect together during TM. And

because of something called neuroplasticity, those connections that we have in meditation

last in daily life. And that's why people report that they think more clearly, that

they make better decisions, they solve problems better, why students find that their grades

go up and their test scores go up. It's not magic, it's now the brain is optimized. The

whole brain is functioning in a coherent, integrated way...in fact there is a spreading

of coherent alpha brain waves from the back of the brain to the front of the brain, and

alpha brain waves are indicative of a state of restful alertness, and that's what Transcendental

Meditation produces, a state of restful alertness. Now the big question is: how do you get there?

How do you go from the active, thinking, gotta gotta gotta level of the mind to these quieter

and quieter and quieter levels, to that source of thought? And how do you get there effortlessly?

I'm just gonna touch on it now, the fundamental principles, and answer some questions about

how we get from that excited, active, thinking level of the mind to that quieter level, to

that level of our mind which is there right now...I want to emphasize that...In theory,

it's there right now. We don't have to muscle it, we don't have to believe in it, be don't

have to clear our mind of thoughts...that's trying to stop the waves on the surface. We're

accessing the level of our mind that's already calm. It's a wonderful experience...it's a

blissful experience...it's a satisfying experience. And how do we get there? The key thing I just

said is, 'It's a satisfying experience.' I'm going to give you three examples of daily

life of why that's important, and then tie it in with Transcendental Meditation. You're

sitting in a room and you're listening to some music, and it's dreadful music, let's

face it, it's really bad music. And in the other room some really, really elegant, excellent

music comes on that you just love...Where does your attention go? You turn that off,

I want to listen to that, right? You don't have to think it through, your attention is

drawn to that just beautiful music, wonderful music. Or you're at a dinner party, and you're

stuck in a corner somewhere, and you're in a really boring conversation...and just a

few feet a way you can overhear a really interesting conversation...Where does your attention go?

You're trying to pay attention, but you keep being drawn to that more fascinating conversation.

Or, third example, you go on vacation and you have two books. The first book is boring,

you can't read it. The second book is great, you're absorbed in it, hours fly by. Those

three examples are examples of what we call 'the natural tendency of the human mind to

be drawn towards some field...something more satisfying...absolutely, spontaneously, more

satisfying. Inside is a field of great satisfaction...the source of thought...great, very charming field.

In Transcendental Meditation we learn how to give the attention of the mind an inward

direction. Instead of outward through our senses towards that nice music, that interesting

conversation, that...you know, is it hard to watch a great movie? No, your attention

is drawn to it. So, but that all goes out through the senses. Now, like that cross section

of the ocean, we learn how to give the attention of the mind an inward direction, and automatically

the attention is drawn...settled quieter and quieter and quieter levels...because quieter

levels of the mind are increasingly more satisfying...more satisfying. It's like you teach a child how

to dive...you say, "Honey, just stand like this, stand here, now get those initial conditions,

bend over like that..." the rest is automatic. Gravity, nature takes over. In the same way,

with Transcendental Meditation we learn to give the attention of the mind an inward direction,

and automatically the attention is drawn inward. And as the mind settles down, we notice our

body gaining a profound state of rest and relaxation...that rest and relaxation releases

stress, dissolves stress, rejuvenates the body, and then we're ready to go for the next

6, 8, 10 hours of our day or evening. So for the attention of the mind to settle down effortlessly

in Transcendental Meditation, we use a mantra. A mantra is a word or a sound that's used

silently, that, number one, has no meaning. If it had a meaning, then we're stuck on the

surface...what does that mean, what does that mean...the intellect kicks in. It's also a

word or a sound, used silently, that's positive...it's known to be positive, life supporting...it's

a good sound for the mind to settle down. It's a sound...a mantra that's been used for

thousand and thousands of years for just this purpose. Transcendental Meditation is always

taught one to one, by a trained, certified teacher of TM. I need to emphasize that. This

isn't...never...Transcendental Meditation is not a mass meditation...it's not something

you learn out of a book, not something you get from a tape... The technique is taught

over 4 consecutive days, of about an hour to and hour and a half a day...4 consecutive

days. And the first day always one to one with a trained teacher of Transcendental Meditation,

a certified teacher. And at that time what you learn from your teacher is you're given

a sound, the proper mantra, proper vehicle for you to settle down, and you're taught

how to use it properly. Both things are absolutely essential. This meditation dates back thousands

and thousands and thousands and thousands of years...it predates all the 'isms,' it's

not a religion, it's not a philosophy, it's a universal 'human being' practice. And from

that tradition of Transcendental Meditation, called the Vedic tradition of teachers, it