Hi, I'm new to this list, so I hope the following post is appropriate. It is also somewhat lengthy, for which I apologise - conciseness was never my strong point. But I am in search of a spot of advice, and wondered if anyone here could help...
I learned TM about nine months or so (I know, a newbie!). It appealed to me since whislt I consider myself in a sense spiritual, I am not religious, and TM seemed to offer a non-faith based approach to meditation. And it has not been entirely without benefit. But since then I have suffered increasingly from insomnia. Not to a dreadful degree, but I'm lucky if I get three hours sleep a night. Growing unhappy with my instructor's standard 'part of the process' response, I took a look online and found this wasn't entirely uncommon, and nor was it necessarily temporary. But, in addition, I also came upon the translations of the mantras. And here lies my real problem. I am not overly bothered by the deception involved when I was told, on learning, that they are without meaning, since, for me at least, they were. But not any more. Now it seems to me that any universal truth has, by definition, to transcend cultures, or it is not universal. The laws of gravity, for example, might have been discovered in the west, but gravity works everywhere at all times no matter what it is called or how it is defined (well, a few claims to the contrary aside!). The processes of nature, the existence of the bundle of emotions and feelings we define as love, the existence of bad television shows...the list goes on, in all disciplines of life. And if meditation has value, then similarly, the same should be the case, must be the case. So. There seem to me to be two possibilities. One, that the actual mantra used is irrrelvant, meaningless. Just a word to return to during meditation as a way of letting go of thought. But if this is so, why the insistence, in TM and indeed other traditions, on the use of particular mantras? Or two, that the mantra used is important, and does have meaning. But if this is so, then the technique is not universal but rooted in a particular culture. Moreover, when meditating I am in effect praying to a god not of my culture, and of whom I have no knowledge, which leaves me deeply uncomfortable. There are, of course, non-mantra based meditations. But those that I have encountered seem based around the breath. And although this would indeed seem universal, what quiet I do find through TM comes when thought of breath has fallen away (as a woodwind musician, I am rarely unaware of, if not actively controlling, my breath). Hmm. I'm not sure there is a question in the above, so much as a seeking of thoughts and opinion. Is the mantra used of importance? If so, why? If not, why?! Do there by any chance exist other non mantra-based, non-religious, 'aimless' meditations? Are my thought processes described above flawed? If so, why and how? Anyways, thanks for reading this far, and any advice would be greatfully received. John
