Question: The claims for the results of the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) technique are numerous: improved test scores, improved emotional development, less stress, less violence, etc. It’s all quite impressive, but to be honest, almost too good to be true. My question is: How does TM work? What happens during the practice? How can a student sit with his or her eyes closed for ten or fifteen minutes and receive so many benefits?

Maharishi: With Transcendental Meditation, step by step the mind is led on to the transcendental field. It must be too good to be true because, in the world of chaos, in the world of destruction, the talk of saving life is like the talk of light in the utter darkness. Talk will never satisfy anyone. Experience alone will do it.

The whole process is very simple. How does it work? It works in the same way for the mind as the slope of a mountain works for a stream of water. You put a bucket full of water on the slope, and it just trickles down. How does it trickle down? By its own gravity, by its own nature.

The Mind Flows in the Direction of Greater Happiness

Another example. You are seeing something, and suddenly someone comes with a beautiful rose. Suddenly you are attracted to the rose. Why are you attracted to it? Because it gives greater happiness. The mind always flows to a field of greater happiness. The transcendental field is the experience of bliss. And this bliss naturally makes the mind trickle down to finer experiences, and trickle down to the transcendent.

“It is the habit of the mind to be drawn to greater happiness, and this nature of the mind causes the mind to trickle down and experience Transcendental Consciousness.” —Maharishi

It’s simple. It flows by its own nature, right from the first time, the second time, the third time. It doesn’t take a long time. The mind is always flowing in the direction of greater happiness, very naturally. More and more happiness is experienced in the direction of the transcendent. And abundance of happiness is experienced in Transcendental Consciousness.

Transcendental Consciousness Is an Ocean of Happiness

It is the habit of the mind to be drawn to greater happiness, and this nature of the mind causes the mind to trickle down and experience Transcendental Consciousness. There is no magic. It’s the nature of the mind. It’s the nature of life. That’s why the whole theory comes out to say, “The potential of the individual is cosmic.”

So from tiny fields of joy, from tiny waves of joy, one gets to the ocean of happiness, which is called bliss. And bliss has been sung in the Vedic literature. Everywhere bliss is sung. Bliss is another name for that light of the merciful Father, the same dignity of life.

So the answer is, by nature. Nothing other than nature is the answer to the question about how the mind descends down to the transcendent. It is by nature.

The Experience of Total Knowledge Is Necessary

And how does the transcendent creep into the field of the boundaries? By nature. Unity in diversity, diversity held in unity, by nature. Not much education is needed. Only experience is necessary. Without experience, the whole thing is just gossip.

Without the experience of water, the thirst will never be satisfied. Without the experience of total knowledge, without the experience of the unified field, without the experience of the transcendental field, life will remain distorted, unsatisfactory. And in dissatisfaction, the man will do all the wrong that he can do.

Teachers and educators can help their government, they can help their people, and thereby they can help the world. The knowledge is there. Use it. It’s all there for you.

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