I was 18 when I learned the Transcendental Meditation® technique in Ankara, Turkey, in 1990. I remember going up the stairs of the TM® Center, which was filled with the scent of pure sandalwood, and receiving my TM instruction from a man who seemed like a saint. He led me to a world of unboundedness within myself.

Learning TM that day—with feelings of absolute transformation in just an hour and a half—is the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me.

Twenty years later, I became a Certified Teacher of the TM technique myself, to be able to share this profound program with others. My career as a TM teacher has brought me deep fulfillment and satisfaction as I see my students grow and progress in their own lives.

I am writing to share my own story of how I learned the importance of regular TM practice, which is so crucial for developing higher states of consciousness.

Learning TM that day—with feelings of absolute transformation in just an hour and a half—is the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me.

Learning about Cosmic Consciousness

In my teaching experience, I have seen firsthand that whether new meditators have a clear experience of unbounded pure consciousness or not, they are benefiting from the inner silence, expanded awareness, and deep rest that come from their daily TM practice.

With regular meditation, stresses are released and the physiology returns to its normal state of functioning. As a result, this experience of transcending gradually becomes clearer, and its beneficial effects in one’s activity continue to grow. This is the natural progression towards higher states of consciousness that every TM meditator enjoys.

Meditators first hear about higher states of consciousness on the last day of their TM course. The highlight of that meeting is a video of a 1972 talk on Cosmic Consciousness by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Founder of the TM program. Maharishi beautifully explains why we do TM and what our ultimate human development can be through regular, twice-daily practice.

Maharishi defines Cosmic Consciousness as the fifth state of consciousness. We’re familiar with the first three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and sleeping. When we practice the TM technique, we experience a fourth major state of consciousness: a state of restful alertness in which the mind is awake and alert while the body is in a deep state of rest. This fourth state is called Transcendental Consciousness.

Over time, with daily experience of Transcendental Consciousness and the normalization of our nervous system, this inner awareness becomes more established. This means we spontaneously experience  the qualities of inner silence and expansion beyond our meditation, while we’re in activity or even sleeping or dreaming.

Gradually, as our regular TM practice dissolves all the stress from our physiology, Transcendental Consciousness becomes permanently established. That inner experience of pure consciousness or unboundedness is always there, along with our waking, dreaming, and sleeping.

This is the fifth state of consciousness, or Cosmic Consciousness. The name conveys the all-inclusive nature of the experience, where we never lose the foundation of inner, unbounded consciousness even in the midst of the changing states of waking, sleeping, and dreaming. (See Dr. David Orme-Johnson’s article “What Is Cosmic Consciousness?” for more information.)

Over time, with daily experience of Transcendental Consciousness and the normalization of our nervous system… we spontaneously experience the qualities of inner silence and expansion beyond our meditation, while we’re in activity or even sleeping or dreaming.

Growing Cosmic Consciousness

I myself had not known or understood for many years of my TM practice how I was actually saturating my physiology with cosmic Being each time I meditated and then came out into activity. Without knowing it, I was growing in the characteristics of Cosmic Consciousness.

In fact, the “percentage” of Cosmic Consciousness actually increases more and more with twice-daily TM practice.

Even if one has not stabilized Cosmic Consciousness and is overcome by irritation or sadness sometimes, the value of the higher Self is becoming more established. Through regular meditation, it is being integrated into the changing fields of our life and our physiology.

We might experience the rewarding glories of growing Cosmic Consciousness during our daily life as spontaneously noticing that more clear, calm, silent level of Being while we are driving or eating or looking at a tree.

To ensure that your life continues to get better and better and one day blossoms into the best, as Maharishi expresses in his talk, regular TM practice is essential.

Even if one has not stabilized Cosmic Consciousness and is overcome by irritation or sadness sometimes, the value of the higher Self is becoming more established.

Take the Survey: Would you like to share your experiences of transcending during your TM practice or of growing experiences of Cosmic Consciousness in your life? We are collecting written experiences from TM Meditators around the world and would like to include yours. Please note: We never share any information without your expressed permission. Please take the survey and share your experience or leave a Comment at the end of this article.

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The Importance of Regular TM and Balanced Activity

During my earlier years as a meditator, I loved my TM practice very much, but didn’t realize the huge added benefit of regular twice-daily practice. As a result, I would begin and stop, begin and stop. I let the business of taking a full course load in college and working two jobs get in the way. I was not fully regular until 2001, but since then I’ve never missed a session.

Now I realize that because I was missing many meditation sessions, when I sat down to do my TM practice, it wasn’t always smooth. I missed having a clear experience of that fullness of unboundedness and bliss, but my physiology could only experience what it was capable of at the time.

With overworking and creating too much stress in my life by extending myself in all directions, not sleeping enough, and missing my TM sessions, what was I expecting? With this routine, I was setting myself up for a lot of stress, frequent drowsiness, and falling asleep due to deep fatigue.

Over time, I learned that it was much better to stay regular with my TM practice because it prevented the build-up of stress. It also helped to keep the experience of transcending smooth and clear. And overextending myself in activity always had consequences. But if life and work occasionally required more from me, I still benefited greatly from not missing any TM sessions.

I also learned the importance of not meditating too much. When I started my Ph.D. program in German Literature at the University of Michigan in 2003, the demands on me were higher than ever. I was even more stressed and anxious about my new life. Thinking more meditation might help, I began meditating about 40 minutes to an hour each time.

But something was off in the way I felt, so I contacted the local TM Center.

Over time, I learned that it was much better to stay regular with my TM practice because it prevented the build-up of stress.

Greater Ease and Support with TM Checking and Maharishi AyurVeda^SM

I  made an appointment with the local TM teacher for a TM Checking session, which changed my life forever. She reminded me of the process of release of stress during TM, and how thoughts are a by-product of the dissolution of stress.

She also explained why it is crucial to follow the recommendations of our TM teacher: usually 20 minutes of TM, twice a day. This provides us with the best balance of rest and daily activity.

She encouraged me to take advantage of TM Checking as often as I needed. I found this very helpful and went to see her for Checking almost once a month. (Find your TM Center to make a Checking appointment.)

Additionally, she introduced me to the wonderful principles of Maharishi AyurVeda, which include balancing our lives by living more in tune with nature’s cycles. One of the most important cycles, of course, is rest and activity.

Slowly but surely, I began implementing these principles. Along with practicing TM for the prescribed time morning and evening, I went to bed a bit earlier each night.

As Maharishi reminds us in the talk about Cosmic Consciousness… it is very necessary to keep a good routine and undertake balanced activity along with regular TM.

TM Retreats for Deep Rest and More Bliss

I also started attending the TM Retreats that this teacher offered regularly at a wonderful facility near a lake. Since participants are away from the demands of their daily lives, these structured weekend programs include extended TM practice as well as talks and videos on developing higher states of consciousness.

These retreats gave me the deep rest I needed to recover and recharge from my stressful grad school schedule.

We also learn Maharishi Yoga^SM postures and breathing exercises on a TM Retreat, and I began adding them to my TM sessions at home whenever I could.

Within a year, these TM Checking sessions and quarterly TM Retreats transformed my whole experience of my TM practice. Once again I was experiencing the pure bliss of unbounded awareness more and more, for longer periods of time during meditation.

And I was so much more blissful in my activity. I noticed this shift in how I looked at the world around me. As stressful and mentally taxing as it was to teach classes in German language and literature and write a dissertation, I was experiencing gaps of peace, happiness, and lightness at the most unexpected times and places.

By late afternoon, I would be completely exhausted, filled with anxious thoughts about all that had happened that day and all that was expected of me the next day. But after my TM session, just 25 minutes later, I would come out feeling literally lightened up, wanting to dance and laugh. And sometimes I did!

As stressful and mentally taxing as it was to teach classes in German language and literature and write a dissertation, I was experiencing gaps of peace, happiness, and lightness at the most unexpected times and places.

TM Retreats for Growing Experience and Understanding

Over a period of two years I attended eight TM Retreats. These weekend courses took my TM experience to a completely new level. When I returned to the facility for each new course, the trees and the lake looked different, and my perception of them had deepened.

On the retreats I began experiencing what Maharishi calls “witnessing.” This happens when the silence and expanded consciousness we experience during our TM practice becomes more established in our physiology, and those qualities grow during activity, sleeping, and dreaming.

I experienced this as observing my self, in activity and during conversations, as a calm, silent, blissfully dynamic, peaceful being. Witnessing did not happen by desire or intention; it simply came upon me: I would be walking and talking, and at the same time feel great wholeness and oneness—a sense of total unity with everything around me.

This experience began extending beyond TM Retreats to my graduate school activity. I found myself simply smiling at all the people in the library. I would feel a great sense of unboundedness in the most bound circumstances. I would be in the middle of teaching or grading, or having a discussion with my colleagues, or walking home from campus, and I would experience feelings of unbounded wholeness.

Witnessing did not happen by desire or intention; it simply came upon me: I would be walking and talking, and at the same time feel great wholeness and oneness—a sense of total unity with everything around me.

Expanding Consciousness with the TM-Sidhi Program

This experience of inner wholeness and unboundedness along with daily life would come and go, but I began to understand what it was by attending TM Retreats. The knowledge meetings that are part of the retreat gave me a chance to watch videotaped talks by Maharishi. I learned that, with regular TM practice and experience of Transcendental Consciousness, one can begin to have glimpses of higher states of consciousness even before Cosmic Consciousness has become a permanent feature of one’s life.

My growth, work, and life also profoundly benefited from the TM-Sidhi® program. In 2008, while in Switzerland to write the first chapter for my dissertation and work as an assistant to a literature professor at the University of Lausanne, I often went to the Geneva TM Center for weekly meditations.

At the potlucks after the group practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs, I met many wonderful practitioners who told me about the powerful results of the program. I had heard about it on TM Retreats, but now I could feel the phenomenal energy from the group practice at the Center.

I was at the writing stage of my Ph.D., and I expected that if I added the powerful TM-Sidhi program to my practice, my work would proceed more quickly, easily, and joyfully. I was right. Soon a one-month TM-Sidhi course in Istanbul, Turkey, was offered, and I became a Sidha in September 2008.

With the foundation of profound rest and expanding consciousness provided by my regular TM practice, TM Retreats, and now the TM-Sidhi program, I completed my doctoral dissertation on German-Turkish authors and film directors and received my Ph.D. in 2009.

I was at the writing stage of my Ph.D., and I expected that if I added the powerful TM-Sidhi program to my TM practice, my work would proceed more quickly, easily, and joyfully. I was right.

Peace in Everything

Immediately after graduating with my doctorate, I joined the faculty at Maharishi International University (MIU, at the time called Maharishi University of Management) in Fairfield, Iowa. I taught in the Literature and Writing Department for five years.

In 2010, after a couple years of experiencing further expansion of consciousness with the TM-Sidhi program, I decided I wanted to be able to teach what is dearest to my heart—the gift of experiencing one’s own true Self by transcending. I completed the TM Teacher Training Course and became a Certified TM Instructor.

Over the next four years at MIU, I instructed many incoming students in the TM technique, in addition to teaching my literature and writing courses.

At another time, I’d love to share how becoming a Sidha and then a TM teacher profoundly expanded my growth and evolution. But for now, I want to encourage everyone to never take their TM for granted, to see a local TM teacher if the practice isn’t smooth, to make twice-daily TM a priority, and to keep a balanced routine—complemented by extremely valuable TM Retreats.

With these simple steps, you will blissfully enjoy your own inner peace, and the peace that is in everything around you.

I want to encourage everyone to never take their TM for granted, to see a local TM teacher if the practice isn’t smooth, to make twice-daily TM a priority, and to keep a balanced routine—complemented by extremely valuable TM Retreats.

Take the Survey: Would you like to share your experiences of transcending during your TM practice or of growing experiences of Cosmic Consciousness in your life? We are collecting written experiences from TM Meditators around the world and would like to include yours. Please note: We never share any information without your expressed permission. Please take the survey and share your experience or leave a Comment at the end of this article.

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Adile Esen, Ph.D., was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, and came to the United States in 1991, after learning the TM technique in 1990. In addition to her Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan, she holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature, an M.A. in German, and a Certificate to teach English as a Second Language from California State University (CSU) Long Beach. She has taught German, English, and Comparative Literature at California community colleges, CSU Long Beach, and the University of Michigan.

Dr. Esen’s most precious and memorable years of college teaching were in the Literature and Writing Department at Maharishi International University (MIU), where she designed and taught five new courses, including Music and Literature, Nature Writing, and Literature and Enlightenment.

Dr. Esen left MIU to join the San Diego TM program as co-director in 2014, and since then, she has taught TM actively in San Diego, Antalya in Turkey, Arizona, and Long Beach. Since September 2018 she has been the TM program co-director in Silicon Valley, Mountain View, California. When not busy teaching TM courses, she is usually hiking in nature, reading, or enjoying the beach. She loves visiting her parents in Turkey every year, and welcomes opportunities to travel around the world.