7

A friend of mine was practicing zazen for many years. They started to get discourage with their practice and started to explore transcendental mediation. Now, they claim their progress with TM is far better in a matter of weeks when compared to zazen. I was wondering if there is an equivalent to TM in any of the Buddhist traditions? If so, what are the basics and framework of the parallel type of meditation?

5 Answers 5

10

What is TM (Transcendental Meditation)

Being a Buddhist, I only have a cursory familiarity with TM, but here it is. A TM practitioner is instructed to sit regularly, at least 15 minutes every morning, or more. Meditation is presented as joyful, easy, resting activity that does not require much effort. Instead of suppressing thoughts or holding uninterrupted attention on breath etc., the practitioner is instructed to let their mind expand in its natural state. This is a state of open unfettered unperplexed awareness, like your mind on a day when you have enough time that you don't have to rush and can instead allow yourself to "gather your thoughts". As the mind expands, all kinds of memories and thoughts start bubbling up into scope. At this point the meditator is instructed to use their personal mantra, especially selected to match their personal predispositions (this part sounds like upaya to me). After reciting the mantra several times until the thoughts calm down, the TM meditator can stop using the mantra, and let their mind expand naturally. This combination of letting the mind expand while not letting it wander is said to be the core principle of TM. Two other unique elements are the joyful & resting mood that the TM meditator learns to associate with meditation, and the use of mantra.

What Buddhist meditation is similar to TM

I'm not aware of any Buddhist meditation that would combine the same exact elements in the same way as TM. However, all elements of TM are found in Buddhist meditation techniques:

  • The joyful and resting mood is like in satipatthana, like in 2nd jhana.
  • Letting the mind expand in its natural state is like zazen, like Mahamudra meditation.
  • Coming back when thoughts arise is like the labeling ("thoughts!") technique in beginner's samatha meditation.
  • Using mantra is like in mantra meditation.

So to me, TM sounds like a peculiar combination of techniques usually associated with beginner's meditation (using the mantra, coming back from thoughts), with intermediate-level technique of generating the joyful mood, plus a technique that firmly belongs at advanced meditation levels -- letting the mind expand in its natural state.

3
  • I wasn't aware that any meditation technique included the attempted suppression of thought. Can you give me a pointer? I always understood the thoughts should be observed, not judged, then released, that thinking is an unceasing stream that can't be stopped, it isn't?
    – Shon
    Jun 21, 2015 at 1:14
  • 1
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha
    – Andriy Volkov
    Jun 22, 2015 at 14:20
  • Thanks, that works wonders for neurotic thoughts. Calming the mind makes more sense to me than attempting to cease thinking.
    – Shon
    Jun 22, 2015 at 14:23
3

TM is mantra meditation. You're given an "unique" mantra in TM. Of course there's nothing unique about it. They use tables like this one to "calculate" your unique mantra.

Something comparable is therefore to be found in Vajrayana Buddhism (Tibetan or Shingon or others), arguably also Nichiren (their mantra "Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo").

The most popular mantra in Buddhism is probably Om mani padme hum

Vajrayana is also called Mantrayana.

3
  • 1
    I agree, as does wikipedia where it says: "Transcendental Meditation (TM) refers to a specific form of mantra meditation". But I don't think there is anything that's similar to the advanced TM technique 'Yogic Flying' (aka hopping).
    – THelper
    Jul 17, 2014 at 14:11
  • 2
    Vajrayana is dubbed Mantrayana for reasons that have nothing to do with mantras.
    – Andriy Volkov
    Oct 6, 2014 at 2:35
  • Hey Methexis. You could increase the quality of your answer by deleting that first sentence ;-)
    – tkp
    Mar 20, 2015 at 5:48
2

Meditation techniques are, ultimately, all variations on one theme, liberation: see the films "Spiritual Liberation" and "With One Voice", which are documentaries of the practice of meditation in most of the world's religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Sufism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. (available for free on GaiamTV here and here, and for rent on Amazon Instant Videos, or any video rental or sales service). Both movies concentrate on the similarities of the world's meditative practices.

TM is very similar (I think) to Sri Ramana Maharshi's "Who Am I?" meditation, which is very similar to the Mahamudra meditation of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Yeshe, founder of the FPMT, also was a proponent of the subject, 'you', being the object of meditation. They all take the mind (or the "I" thought in the mind) as the object of meditation. Progress, meaning advancement to where one understands why one is practicing and can see the progress and its positive results, is quite quick, depending on the time and effort spent on the practice.

I practice the Mahamudra practice as taught by the Drikung Kagyu school, a "soup to nuts" approach. My favorite two books on the subject are "Mahamudra, The Moonlight, The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation", by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, and "The Gelukpa/Kagya Tradition of Mahamudra", by HH the Dalai Lama. The first is more of a handbook, while the second is more of a scholarly treatment. A great online guide is "A Meditation Guide For Mahamudra"

0
2

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras states in the beginning that Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of mind matter. This "Yoga" is when there is an absence of thoughts yet the person is not asleep. The awareness has gone beyond the intellect. This state cannot be attained directly by mental effort for the very effort of the intellect keeps one tied to the mind. However certain mental efforts such as koan contemplation or mindfulness on the body can through a kind of distracting fatigue eventually "trick" the mind into collapsing for a moment or a while and the cessation of the fluctuations of mind matter can occur. Transcendental Meditation is a japa type meditation where a meaningless mantra is repeated over and over again. When the meditator realizes that they have once again become engaged in a thought or chain of thoughts and have stopped repeating the mantra they then simply return to repeating the mantra again. The mantra having no ideological or emotional connections acts as a simple sound that the the ever busy mind follows like a charm to simpler and simpler levels of thinking until finally there is only the sound of the mantra reverberating in the mind leading to an effortless state where the mantra may die away and the mind settles upon nothing. No fluctuations of mind matter, no mind. The awareness has transcended the mind and abides in its own nature...awareness without thoughts.

This state may last for 5, 10, 15 minutes or maybe it is for just a mere moment and then the mind reengages and thoughts are once again the experience of awareness. Done on a regular basis this acts as an almost effortless culturing of the "Self" to see it's true nature as pure awareness beyond the level of the intellect and not identify as the thoughts and ideas we entertain in our minds.

It's consistently pleasant, easy and a wonderful release of stress that does not require starring at a wall for an hour. I do believe that vipassana, and many other approaches to meditation do lead ultimately to a transcendental state of awareness but in my opinion none get there as easily or consistently as TM. I also think it would be a perfect compliment to all the active inner work that one engages in during a serious Buddhist practice.

5
  • 1
    In Buddhism, vipassana does not lead to the "Self" to see it's true nature. Vipassana leads to the mind to see it's true selfless nature. Apart from that, I enjoyed your answer. Regards May 1, 2017 at 23:52
  • Thank you, I have not before read a description of the T.M. approach. It seems to me that all sorts of sitting meditations and perhaps other methods could lead to the cessation of thoughts. Whether any particular one was easier or more pleasant would have to do with the tendencies of the person. Is there a stage to the teaching beyond the meditation technique? Not part of this question, I suppose.
    – user2341
    May 2, 2017 at 11:26
  • Regarding the statement "vipassana does not lead to the self to see its true nature. Vipassana leads to the mind to see its true selfless nature". May 4, 2017 at 4:05
  • (edit) Dhammadhatu: Regarding the statement "vipassana does not lead to the self to see its true nature. Vipassana leads to the mind to see its true selfless nature". In my statement the term Self refers to the witnessing quality that witnesses the screen of the mind. The mind is indeed "selfless" but oh how the observer of the mind (Self?) identifies with that mind as its defining narrative.The "observer" being selfless also. However, consciousness is eternally conscious of consciousness. . Some unreconciled nomenclature here but I think we are basically in agreement. May 4, 2017 at 4:36
  • no comprende: Yes the particular meditation technique one settles on depends on the characteristics of the individual and the opportunities they may encounter however the simplicity and effectiveness of the Transcendental Meditation technique seems to be universal. Often people are expecting something more complicated or challenging so end up settling on some other approach. As far as a stage to the teaching that is beyond the meditation technique there is "Yogic Flying" which augments the meditation with sutras. The rest is based on the Vedas and vedic literature. May 4, 2017 at 4:50
0

Anapansati, follow your breath and whenever the mind wanders come back to your breath. T.M meditation will take you to the sphere of nothingness as taught by Buddha and Alara kalama his first teacher . It's just transcendental consciousness where you've transcended physicality mind thought perception even for a few minutes. Transcendental meditators understand it as transcending. Time goes by really fast you don't even realize you were meditating for 30 minutes feel like it was five. Zazen is pretty grueling . May take a long time staring at a wall before you experience this Jhana. Anyway that's the comparable method experience to T.M . You are just following your breath instead of using a bija root mantra.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .