Medinapping

I first posted about meditation back in 2010 in a post titled, Meditate? Me?  Since then, I have at least mentioned meditation in 93 posts.   Those two sentences would probably make you think I meditate regularly, but I’m willing to bet that more than half of those mentions involve NOT meditating because for all the good I know regular meditation brings to my life, I find it hard to make myself stop and do it (see Stuff We Already Know, Tuesday’s post). I first tried meditation back in the seventies when the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was hyping Transcendental Meditation, capitalizing on his association with The Beatles.  Transcendental Meditation, or TM as it was called by friends, suggested 20 minutes of meditation twice a day using a mantra given to you by you instructor in return for several hundred dollars.  It was suggested that you sit upright in a straight-backed chair to avoid falling asleep.   I managed to stick with twice a day for about a year, even though there was absolutely no doubt it made me calmer.  Twenty years later, I would begin to work the 12-Steps, which among other things recommend prayer and meditation.  I began to meditate every morning on my way to work (stopped in the park, of course).  I found an mp3 track of meditation bells online for 15, 20 and 30 minute meditations, one gentle bell at the start and three at the end.  You can find them here.  And I reached seventy, still meditating sporadically in spite of the benefits with one more obstacle.  Of course at my age, I needed more sleep, a notion I have trouble accepting … so most times I fall asleep, chin-on-chest before my meditation bells ring, straight-back chair or not.  The Maharishi would not approve.

Making (Brain) Waves

In the 1950s, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced a meditation technique in India termed Transcendental Meditation, so-called because its practice was said to transcend normal thought processes to a higher state of consciousness.   Although initially taught as a spiritual or religious practice, in the 1960s, the Maharishi began to take a more behavioral approach to TM, citing health and mental benefits, which … along with the participation of various celebrities such as The Beatles … ushered in a burst of popularity in the United States.  Transcendental Meditation is a mantra meditation in which the meditator focuses on a single word while sitting in a relaxed position with closed eyes for twenty minutes, twice a day.   The idea of achieving this higher state of consciousness without effort in forty minutes a day made it ideally suited to our Microwave Society, although it attracted the ridicule of more traditional practitioners of meditation.   It was also condemned by some religious leaders as a stealth religion or a cult.  However, by the 2000s, it had been taught to millions of people worldwide and established multinational organizations to promote its practice.