Meditation as Transcending All Thought

Abstract

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in ancient Vedic literature identifies the essential practice of Yoga as settling mental activity to inner silence, samadhi. Vedic proponent Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has re-clarified the systematic technology to experience samadhi effortlessly, the Transcendental Meditation® technique. Its efficacy is supported by extensive research on transcendental consciousness as a fourth state in addition to waking, dreaming, and sleep, that results in a wide range of mental, physical, and social health benefits. This effortless technique has been distinguished from concentrative, contemplative, and mindfulness practices that correlate with psychophysiological signatures associated with the ordinary waking state of consciousness. Direct experience of samadhi adds to the systematic means to gain knowledge in the ordinary waking state that has been fundamental to modern science.