--- In [email protected], "John Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > 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 >
*************** The TM mantras used are indeed meaningless sounds because their proper use in TM does not involve meaning -- what people want to think about the mantras outside of the practice of TM is their business. Nobody, whether they are Hindu or otherwise, is properly practicing TM if they are thinking that they are praying while they are doing TM -- the practice requires only innocence, and if you can't give it that, then it won't work. The TM mantras are not just random sounds because this would not produce the desired effects. The mantras are sounds that resonate with the mind to induce transcendence, which is beyond the realm of prayer or any other relative thing: "The Self in this state becomes completely free from all the influences of relative life including the gods." from MMY's Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, p.197 Ch. 3, v. 11 You can read more on this topic online by going to amazon.com and searching for "yagya" in MMY's Gita commentary (you have to have registered and purchased a book at some time to access this feature). Or almost every library in the country has a copy on the shelf. The reason why some people get uncomfortable practicing TM is because the atmosphere on this brutal planet is so laden with unhappiness that it does not allow many people to be happy, to experience the bliss of the self. Your insomnia is just an expression of that pressure found to be impinging on your spiritual growth. Bob Brigante http://mumbull.org
