By Robert Meredith
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| Brighton |
I first learnt to meditate in 1969, It was my birthday present to myself when I was living in Brighton, a town on the South coast of England, and working with Apple Theatre, The Beatles theatre company.
The person who taught me was an Australian woman called Edna Linnell, who I was sure, must have mispronounced the mantra she gave me because of her Aussie accent. In spite of this (or maybe because of it!) my very first meditation was an amazing experience, the beginning of a lifetime practice and an important part of my work.
The practice that Edna taught me was Transcendental Meditation, brought to the West by the Indian teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I went on to become a T.M. teacher and national co-ordinator for the T. M. organisation in the UK, and spent many months studying with Maharishi.
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| Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with The Beatles |
Maharishi’s intention was to take meditation out of the realm of the mystical and make it accessible to as many people as possible. To do that he gathered around him a group of physicists and medical professionals who carried out the first research into the physiology of meditation, demonstrating objectively the effectiveness of the practice. He also trained teachers and established teaching centres all over the world.
Literally millions of people have learnt the T. M. technique, and to this day it is the most researched and validated meditation practice available, bringing measureable benefits to virtually every area of life.
How did you get started? What prompted you to learn to meditate? We'd love to hear your stories... feel free to add your comments.
My foray into the world of mediation was nearly 24 years ago. I attended a course called NOW –New Opportunities for Women. The course ran for three months and included two weekly sessions of meditation. The first three weeks I fell asleep on the floor. The fourth week, (yes I’m a slow learner) I experienced the sensations of actually being present and a few months after that it felt very natural, like I’d been meditating my whole life. When my Children were growing up I taught them meditation with the help of books by Maureen Garth; Starbright and Inner Garden. I’ve also had the privilege to teach meditation to my work colleagues. Nowadays meditation is a daily ritual and part of my Dharma practice. Tracey G
ReplyDeleteThinking about Maharishi (and Indian gurus) triggers this memory of when I was little and my father ran his meditation prayer groups. I was fascinated watching everyone in devoute meditate ... the rituals of Eastern prayer practice, the smell of incense wafting ...the sensation of my woollen prayer mat. He was quite amazing ... meditating one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Teaching Australians about Indian spiritualism and meditation. Some kids learn not to interrupt their parents when they are at the computer, my sister and I learned not to interrupt my father and his students during meditation groups! Funny how times change. Miss this those days.
ReplyDeleteCool stuff you have got and you keep update all of us. How to meditate
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