Finding Oneself

through meditation, enquiry, & chanting

Learning TM

Learning TM takes place over a period of several days.

The first step is an introductory talk. This involves a discussion of the ways we can benefit from meditation and how it works. This is usually in a small group and takes about an hour.

If you decide to go ahead, you fill out a form containing some personal information that is used by the teacher to select the appropriate mantra. There is then an individual interview that may involve brief clarification about the information on the form. It is also an opportunity for you to ask questions privately.

We then arrange meetings over a period of 4 days for the instruction. The first 3 days must be consecutive.

The introductory talk

Conditions for instruction

You are required to meet these 3 conditions:

1. To commit to practise TM for at least a month in order to be able to assess its value.

2. There is no charge for instruction. However, if something is available very easily, it may not be taken as seriously as if it was difficult to obtain. For this reason I ask you to make an easily affordable donation to the charity of your choice. The amount is entirely up to you but a suggestion is £50.

3. That you don’t use non-prescription drugs for the course of instruction and the preceding two days. This is so that your nervous system can respond in a natural way to your first meditations.

Ongoing

Meditators are encouraged to attend regular follow-up meetings to check their practice and review information. The first of these is usually about 10 days after learning.

Day 2: A group meeting to check experiences and to cover the do’s and don’ts of meditation, from how to sit to what to do if your meditation is disturbed. This meeting must be the day after learning so that any questions are quickly addressed. This meeting takes about an hour to an hour and a half.

Day 3: Another group meeting, this time about how meditation works. This meeting must be 2 days after learning, in order to establish a correct understanding of what is happening during meditation and how to deal with any unusual experiences. This meeting takes one and a half to two hours.

Day 4: Another group meeting, held soon after day 3, to discuss the long term effects and purpose of meditation. This meeting takes one and a half to two hours.

Day 1: Individual personal instruction, or initiation. The student is asked to bring some fruit, flowers, and a new unused white cotton hanky or other piece of white natural cloth. These are used in a short ceremony or puja that the teacher does in front of Guru Dev’s picture. This is in order to remind the teacher that this ancient practice is to be passed on in the traditional way without being changed. It may also take the student’s attention out of their habitual thinking so that they are receptive to the new experience of meditating. The student is then guided through their first experience of TM. The whole session takes about an hour.

Instruction