How to Begin your Journey

Now that Bob has spent a few weeks presenting listeners with the benefits of meditation in general, and specifically, Transcendental Meditation, Bob takes a few minutes to talk about how it actually works. The path to learning to meditate is different for everyone, so hopefully this will be the next step in your journey.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Hi.
I'm Bob Roth, and I've been teaching people to meditate
for fifty years, helping them to stay calm under pressure,
reboot and re energize their lives, and basically be a happier,
healthier version of themselves. And now I want to help

(00:22):
you do the same. Welcome to Stay Calm, your daily
dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story,
offer a simple practical tip about how you or a
loved one can stay a bit calmer in your life,
and then we'll end each episode together with a moment
of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what
I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably,

(00:47):
take a few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey.
So I've been talking a lot about meditation in general
and specifically transcendental meditation, and a lot of you have
written in and said, well, how does it work. One
of the things that many people say to me is
I believe that meditation would be good for me, but
my skepticism is whether I could do it myself. I

(01:09):
want to make this point that all meditations are not
the same in In a previous podcast, I talked about
the three different types of meditation. Focused attention, which is
a concentration technique, open monitoring meditation where we learned to
dispassionately observe our thoughts. But transcendental meditation recognizes that there's

(01:32):
a vertical dimension to the mind, just as there's a
vertical dimension to the ocean, and that while the ocean
may be turbulent on the surface by its nature, it's
pretty darned silent at its depth. And the mind is
the same way. On the surface, we have a million thoughts,
but at the depth of our mind, the hypothesis is quiet, peaceful,

(01:55):
naturally calm, and wide awake. So in transcendental meditation, how
do we go from that surface, agitated level of the
mind to that deep inner quiet. I'm going to give
you two examples that have nothing to do with meditation,
but I'll tie it back, and this explains how we
go from the surface to that quiet depth. You're sitting

(02:17):
in your room or your office doing some really boring paperwork,
and all of a sudden, in the other room, some
unbelievably beautiful music comes on. Where does your attention go
to that music, turn up that music that is so beautiful.
Or you have two books to read and one book

(02:37):
is so poorly written you can't imagine how it was
ever published, and you can't read a word, and the
other book is spectacular, and you're absorbed in hours go by.
So what are those two instances? Your attention being drawn
to that music, your attention absorbed in the book. What
this reveals to us is, by its name chure, the

(03:00):
attention of your mind, given the opportunity, will always be
drawn to something more satisfying. The natural tendency of the
mind is to seek greater happiness, knowledge, satisfaction, pleasure, wisdom, beauty.
And where we go to find that happiness is out

(03:21):
through the senses, into the environment, this job, relationship, new clothes,
new home. In transcendental meditation, it's a simple process of
setting up the conditions so that the attention of your mind,
instead of going outward, is drawn inward. How do we
do that? In transcendental meditation, we're given a mantra, which

(03:45):
is a word or a sound. It's a simple syllable,
simple sound that has no meaning, because if it had
a meaning, then we're stuck on the surface. And then
we're taught how to use it properly. A certified teacher
in personal instruction gives us a mantra and then just us,
you alone, not in a crowd, the teacher teaches you
how to use the mantra correctly effortlessly, which means no forcing,

(04:08):
no strain, automatically easily. It's like teaching a child how
to dive. You say, honey, lean over like this, take
the correct angle, and then gravity takes over. So in
transcendental meditation, we learned how to give the attention of
the mind an inward direction, just like it's drawn to
that music. It settles down inwardly, and we know that's

(04:31):
happening because our body takes a profound state of rest
and relaxation. The technique has taught over four consecutive days,
about an hour each day, practice for twenty minutes twice
a day, once in the morning, sitting comfortably in a
chair with the eyes closed, and again in the afternoon
or early evening. It's not a religion, it's not a philosophy.

(04:51):
It's not a change in lifestyle. You can be a
hundred percent skeptical and the technique works just fine, and
if you're interested you can go to TM dot org
and find out more about it. It's a nonprofit educational organization.
Now I'm going to shift gears here for a moment.
I'd like to give a little tip for health. It's
going to sound like when you're a kid and your

(05:13):
mother said, eat your vegetables. Vegetables are a food that
are incredibly healthy. Vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber,
and disease fighting phytochemicals. You can't take a pill that
will give all of that to you, but you can
eat your vegetables. All right, Let's end this time together

(05:33):
doing something that I think should be a feature of
our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's
take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break,
just take a moment. It turns out when we do that,
it's good for our health as well. I'll be right
back all right. Thank you for joining. This is Bob Roth.

(06:23):
Keep calm, Thanks for listening today. I hope you heard
something that inspires that uplifts you and that you can
incorporate into your own life. Until next time, remember, meditate,
be kind, and be true to yourself. Hey all, of
you out there. I'd love to hear from you. You
can send me your stories, your questions, or anything else

(06:46):
on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me
an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com.
I look forward to hearing from you.