Transcendental meditation

The Transcendental Meditation technique, or TM, is a form of meditation. Proponents have claimed it to be a simple, natural, easy-to-learn mental technique whose regular practice leads to significant, cumulative benefits on all levels of life, including mind, body, behavior and environment.

TM and religion

With regard to religion, Maharishi states that:

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• Religion and meditation are both necessary -- "One without the other will not survive."
• Everyone should follow their own religion.
• At its beginning, every religion included transcendental meditation.
• Now that religions have forgotten the technique, they are "like bodies from which the soul has departed".

This presents a more generic picture of TM than is commonly used, also within the TM movement: it can be true only for the core practice, not for the systematized way of learning and teaching, including the "puja" or thanksgiving ceremony. E.g. Jesus would certainly have done this differently, and most probably also have used different mantras.

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The above points are gathered from Science of Being and Art of Living, where Maharishi also discusses God, distinguishing between impersonal and personal God.

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Maharish's claims have been disputed by others. One U.S. court case -- (Malnak v. Yogi, 440 F.Supp. 1284 (1977), affirmed, 592 F.2d 197 (3rd Cir. 1979) -- whose principal findings have not been overturned by a higher court, found that many of the concepts behind TM were in essence religious concepts. It disallowed any government funding of TM courses.

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