The Nature of Effortlessness

I recently had the pleasure of teaching a PhD education expert Transcendental Meditation.  A few minutes into his first session, he said: “Oh!  TM works with the mind, not against it.”  This was music to my ears as it told me that not only had he understood the instructions perfectly but that he would enjoy both the meditation practice and the forthcoming explanations about how TM works.

It was also a very accurate observation.  If we close our eyes now and just sit for a minute, not meditating, not doing anything, just sitting easily, we’ll all notice the same thing: that our minds think thoughts. Everyday thoughts will arise in our awareness.  If someone then asks you if the thoughts arise effortlessly we will notice that they do.  So we can conclude that the mind thinks all day long and the process of thinking is effortless.

In TM, we’re not interested in concentrating or controlling the mind because this disturbs the natural way that the mind and the process of thinking works. Our technique is natural; we work with the natural tendency of the mind.  The process of TM goes almost by itself and one of the jobs of the teacher is to encourage the student to allow the natural process to proceed effortlessly. This means the meditation process is comfortable, easy and can also be very enjoyable.  It makes TM something that people want to make time for every day.

We teach Transcendental Meditation online monthly and in person three times a year at our beautiful Brighton & Hove venue.