TM

TM procedure:

1. Sit erect

2. Close your eyes

3. Wait for about 30 secs

4. Start mantra

Mantra translates to mind (man) instrument (tra). A tool to traverse the mental realm.

Starting mantra once is enough. Whatever happens in the next 20 minutes is not important. You have completed the meditation successfully. 

The subjective experience of meditation will change every time. Don't worry about it. 

Take it as it comes. Here goes nothing attitude. 

The sign of success during meditation is effortlessness. If meditation becomes effortfull, focus on the body. See if there is any stress in the body. 'Feel the body' technique says be aware of the part of the body where there is stress. Don't try to control it or change it. Just be with it. And whenever appropriate, innocently come back to mantra.

If you feel sleepy during meditation, the guidance is to sleep rather than continue with meditation. The wisdom is to listen to the body.

Cool down period - rest after meditation is important for integration. It's like dust settling down after you remove dirt from bottom of a fish tank. You need to give it time.

There is a relation between mind and body. During TM, you go into both local brain hemisphere alpha coherence and whole frontal coherence. This is seen uniquely with TM method. When mind settles, coheres, body settles. Sometimes you become aware after the moment there was no mantra, no thought. Sometimes you don't breathe during those deep moments. And then you gasp for breath, this is normal during TM. As part of stress release, body activates and then thoughts arise. The only agency you need to exercise during meditation is when you find you are off the mantra, innocently come back to it.

We all incur a lot of sleep debt. We push through with caffeine. TM retreat helps remove some of this debt. During a retreat, we do something called rounding to enhance the effect of the practice. It includes this sequence - yoga, pranayama, TM and rest. You do many rounds every day in a retreat. You do longer duration of TM and rest.

Recommendation is :

1. Do TM twice a day - right after you wake up and in the middle of your day

2. Naturally reduce caffeine - this usually happens over time for TM practitioners. Caffeine is a simulant you shouldn't need to go through life. 

3. Get sufficient sleep and don't let sleep debt build up. Try to not set alarm. Take naps if needed. 

Yogastha kuru karmani

This translates to 'established in yoga, perform action'.

TM is a spiritual practice to get a taste of Enlightenment. Enlightenment is a one way door. Once you attain it, you are established in Yoga and nothing external can shake your unity with non-dual Being. Your actions are naturally authentic and spontaneous.

There are no absolute answers to moral questions - what is good, bad etc. An enlightened being performs actions authentically and spontaneously. But most people are not enlightened. TM gives us a tool to transcend the best we can twice a day and engage with life after that in the most integrated way possible.