According to MMY, meditation is based on thinking - anyone who can think can meditate.
[image: Inline image 2] Maharishi Golden Dome at Radiance, the TM Ideal Village Meditation simply means "to think things over". Based on that definition, everyone on the entire planet meditates. Everyone pauses once or twice a day to take stock of their own mental contents. And, we're all transcending all the time, even without a special technique! There are a few things about TM that you might know - it costs thousands of dollars to learn TM, and that alone wouldn't entitle you to get inside the golden dome at MUM for a group meditation. I got into TM for just the cost of one week's pay back when things were reasonable. Now you'd probably have to pay thousands of more dollars to learn the TM-Sidhi program. One TMer posted that he paid over $5,000 in order to learn how to do "yogic flying". But, there are lots of places you can learn how to meditate for free. Go figure. And, even if you did learn TM you'd probably be meditating on your own anyway. It's not likely you'd ever get to Fairfield, IA to meditate inside the MUM Golden Dome and there's only three other golden domes that I know of. One golden dome is down here at Radiance, TX, at the "TM Ideal Village" - the Maharishi Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge - home of the Superradiance Program; and there's a golden dome at Skelmer's Dale - "Sidhaland" - over in Lancashire, UK; and there's a golden dome called "Siddha Dorp" over in Lelystad, NE. Not likely you'd be over there anytime soon either just to be able to meditate inside a golden dome. So, I can speak from some experience having been initiated into TM back in 1964 - according to Beaulah Smith, I was TMer #214 in the U.S. I meditated with MMY himself on several occasions at the SRM and I have learned two advanced techniques from SIMS under Jerry Jarvis and Brahmacharya Satyanand. Before I started TM I was a meditation student at the SRF under Paramahamsa Yogananda and I can say without the least hesitation that TM is very similar to the kriya yoga that I learned there. Later I moved to San Francisco and sat under Shunryu Suzuki at the SFZC for two years and then I sat for another year at the Shamballah Meditation Center in Boulder, Colorado under the direction of Lama Chogyam Trungpa. I've been meditating every day for over forty-nine years. Go figure. Which is not to say I don't recommend the TM Program - if you're rich - but for the average seeker, you can probably learn how to meditate for much less, if you just search around for a good teacher. If you have any question about meditation I could probably teach you how to meditate in just a few minutes. I'm not a TM Teacher, but as long as I don't call it "TM", I can teach anything I want to. It's not complicated. Self Realization Fellowship: http://www.yogananda-srf.org/ San Francisco Zen Center: http://www.sfzc.org/ Shambhala Meditation Center: http://www.boulder.shambhala.org/ meditation – noun 1. to think calm thoughts in order to relax or as a religious activity: Sophie meditates for 20 minutes every day. 2. to think seriously about something for a long time: He meditated on the consequences of his decision. Works cited: 'Maharishi - A Promise for the Family of Man' Historic Lecture at Jones Hall, Houston, TX http://youtu.be/k3swI5n_mW0 Cambridge University Dictionary: http://tinyurl.com/dz5ut2
