The History of Transcendental Meditation

[Maria P. Shaver]

Meditation is a spiritual practice that has been used throughout history by people of all religions and cultures to achieve peace, love and harmony. It is an effective way to reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep, increase energy levels, reduce blood pressure and many other health issues.

The history of transcendental meditation (TM) is a long one with many different traditions and practices that have evolved over the years to create a unique approach to meditating. It has a strong spiritual base that is shared by millions of people worldwide.

Transcendental Meditation has been around since 1958 and it's easy to learn and can be done by anyone, anywhere in the world. Thousands of people are now practicing this simple yet powerful technique.

Where did meditation originate?
The first mention of meditation is believed to be recorded in the Vedas, which is a Hindu scripture. During the 6th Century BCE Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, abandoned his life as a prince and began to meditate in order to become enlightened. He sat under a Bo-tree for 49 days and was able to achieve a state of blissful stillness that is referred to as 'enlightenment' in the Buddhist tradition.

Eventually, the techniques and ideas that were developed in India were passed down to Taoist China and finally reached Japan with Zen Buddhism and zazen meditation. Then, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Indian and Asian spiritual teachers such as Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Vivekananda, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, travelled to the West and spread their teachings.

In the East, the practice was very popular and was widely adopted. It was even thought to be a cure for many of the illnesses that people were suffering from at the time.

It's roots go back to India - in fact, it was a key element of the teachings that Buddha taught. He said that 'true enlightenment' is only achieved through a process of detachment from the physical and by learning and developing the practice of meditation.

From there, meditation was a very popular and widely accepted practice in the East until it started to take off in the West in the mid-19th Century. It became popularized by philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

It was during this period that many Western intellectuals began to study Eastern philosophy and religious texts in earnest. Among them was Schopenhauer who was known for his admiration of Buddhism. He saw it as a method for achieving a'spiritual awakening' and considered it to be the "highest" of all forms of education.