How Transcendental Meditation returned as the new status symbol.

Meditation Nation
Power brokers no longer motivate or medicate—they meditate. How Transcendental Meditation returned as the new status symbol.
By Joseph Hooper,

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201109/transcendental-meditation-pure-consciousness#/ixzz1z121UaPp

A funny thing happened on the way to enlightenment. The quest got stripped of yogic posturing, Buddhist trappings, and even the last vestige of spirituality and turned into a search for the kind of clarity that might help us all in our worldly pursuits. Which is why movers and shakers are again embracing that seventies mainstay Transcendental Meditation. You’re likely to hear it spoken of reverentially in interviews: Russell Brand, whose wildman behavior was cartoonish in its intensity, credits TM with helping him to conquer his heroin, sex, and alcohol addictions. “After meditation,” he has said, “I felt this beautiful serenity and selfless connection.” And where celebrities venture (the latest wave of TM-ers includes the likes of Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts), many of us are likely to follow. The rolls of practitioners have tripled in the past three years, according to the Transcendental Meditation Program, the practice’s national organization. A funny thing happened on the way to enlightenment. The quest got stripped of yogic posturing, Buddhist trappings, and even the last vestige of spirituality and turned into a search for the kind of clarity that might help us all in our worldly pursuits.

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION

[L. Hughes, op: NRMs of Indian Origin – lecture 3 – 11/3/99]

Transcendental Meditation (TM) was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who was born Mahesh Prasad Varma in Central India in 1911 (or 1918 according to some sources). After graduating in Physics from Allahabad University in 1940, he studied for thirteen years at Jyotirmath in the Himalayas with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati (1869 – 1953), usually referred to by his title “Guru Dev”.

TM Mantras

THE CONTINENTAL LIST From Mildenberger/Scholl: “Zauberformel TM”, Wuppertal, 1977, p.64.

THE ANGLO-SAXON LIST From R.D. Scott: “Transcendental Misconceptions”, San Diego, 1978, p.50.

The Holy Tradition

The Vedic tradition, upheld in its purity by a long history of custodians, enshrines the supreme knowledge of the integration of life. From time to time, a revival of man’s understanding of its eternal wisdom arises from this Holy Tradition, rescuing him from suffering, restoring him to the speedy path of evolution and awakening him to a meaningful life in fulfilment. The Masters of this tradition have been exponents of reality from earliest ages. In each new epoch they have propounded the enduring truths of practical living and have set out those standards by which men’s lives may attain the highest achievements and fulfilment, generation after generation.

Explanation of the Invocation

The Invocation referred to in this explanation can be found here

In the expression of “I bow down” I feel myself rising to identify with the dignity of the Supreme and its creative intelligence of Cosmic life, through the form of Guru Dev, the expression of purity, Kindness incarnate, the essence of creation the adornment of Brahman, the Supreme.

Invocation

An explanation of this Invocation can be found here.

Whether pure or impure, whether purity or impurity is permeating all over, whosoever opens himself to the expanded vision of unbounded awareness gains inner and outer purity.