Transcendental Meditation is Effortless

One of the greatest things about Transcendental Meditation is its simplicity.  Not all meditation techniques are simple. Some require concentration and great discipline.  For such a widely researched practice with so many demonstrable benefits to be described as an effortless process seems astonishing.  Especially when we consider that to get results in anything usually requires effort.

To find out why TM is effortless we need to look at the way the mind behaves.  All of us experience that when we wake up, the mind ’switches on’ and begins to think.  Throughout the rest of the day, the mind continues to think.  Streams of thoughts, ideas and impressions and memories keep the mind active until we fall asleep at night.  Interestingly, we don’t need any effort in order for the mind to be busy.  This is just the way it works.

In TM, the principle is this:  if the mind can be busy and active without using any effort, surely it could be quieter and less active with even less effort?  For the mind reach a state of inner silence or no activity during meditation the process would have to be effortless because effort involves mental process, mental activity.  The mind can’t be active and silent at the same time.

And so the only way to experience the mind becoming systematically more and more quiet is to also experience it expending less and less effort.  The state of inner silence is effortless in its nature.

There aren’t many things in life that bring us more benefits the less we do. Transcendental Meditation is definitely one of them!