Reposted: BY COREY SEYMOUR-October 20, 2023 https://www.vogue.com/article/demystifying-transcendental-meditation
Transcendental Meditation Is a Superpower—And It’s as Easy as Two Syllables (and 20 Minutes)
But what was it? What’s “transcendental” about it, how do I achieve that, and why wasn’t I doing it already? My only understanding was that it required a secret mantra delivered via specialized and seemingly expensive personal training.
Let’s save some time here: Is there any real need, in the year 2023, to explain that meditation is good for you? That a regular practice of sitting still and quiet and clearing the mind, in one way or another, amidst a world filled with more and more distractions, from the micro to the macro, each of them seemingly demanding our attention 24/7, is probably helpful, welcome, soothing, beneficial, and all the other good things?
You’ve tried it, yes? I sure have. No, I’ve more than tried it—I’ve done it. I’ve meditated in a million ways over a million days: on some odd impulse back in high school, I sat cross-legged in my bedroom in front of a candle, trying to, you know, just stare at the flame without, you know, thinking too much about staring at the flame; a few years later in college, when I studied zen, Buddhism, and Eastern philosophy and religion, I tried variations and permutations on the theme now and again; more recently, I’ve visited zendos and immersed myself in sound baths, tried out walking meditations, and various mindful apps.
Each of these experiences was a great idea, both before and after. Some of them even produced a vague (and short-term) sort of clear-headedness—in addition to the self-satisfaction that I had, you know, done it. None of them, though, seemed necessary, and none of them became a practice, a habit, a regular part of my life—likely for all the same reasons that are in between you and whatever kind of self-care you wish you were practicing, from going to the gym to becoming one with the universe. The zendo was just too inconvenient; the sound bath was fun but just too weird; and the apps, somehow, were almost too easy, too available, too anything-goes to deliver the life-changing transformation I was after. I mean, please: Does anybody endure an hour-each-way commute to a zendo to sit in silence and excruciating pain among strangers, struggling to completely empty one’s mind and soul to achieve a vague clear-headedness? No: Give me the revelatory transformation, the effortless mastery of time, space, and dimension!
Which brings me to Transcendental Meditation. I’d been hearing about it for years, always at arm’s length: Friends of friends raved about it maddeningly non-specific; musicians, artists, and directors whose work I followed swore by it.
