Wellbeing: Exploring transcendental meditation and how it works

We can't break this with Gorgson Shungle.

It's 14 minutes after 6 o'clock time for us again

into our healthy living conversation.

Now you may remember, was it last week?

We had Dr. Teddy Blecher in studio.

He spoke to us about the incredible work they're doing

in downtown Joeburg.

And one of my favorite parts of the work they do

is all of their students at 18 o'clock in the morning

start the day with a little bit of transcendental meditation.

It has been transformative for all their students.

And so I thought, maybe let's get a little bit more

information on what transcendental meditation is.

Maybe you're someone who's tired or you're wanting to try

and you have a question, call us at 1183.07.

Send us your SMSes on 31702.

And your WhatsApp's on 072702.1702.

Joining us now in studio is a transcendental meditation teacher,

Lulama Dozini. Lulama, a very good morning to you.

Welcome to Weekend Breakfast.

Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Thank you so much for joining us.

So talk to us about what transcendental meditation is.

Transcendental meditation is a mental practice

for the better use of mind and body.

It is aware you're quite in one's mind.

You think a mantra or a sound without meaning.

And that helps you then to refine the thinking process.

So you experience thoughts as they get refined and finite and finer.

Up until the faintest impulse of thought is transcended,

then the mind is left by itself to experience itself,

what we call transcendental consciousness or pure awareness

or inner wakefulness. Right.

This is what people refer to when they say they're seeking inner peace

or inner happiness or inner calm or inner creativity or inner intelligence.

So meditation, therefore, is to...

It's a method of getting in touch with yourself.

Is you dive deep within yourself,

but using a method or a methodology that allows you to refine thinking.

Right. So it sounds as though correct me if I'm not getting this correctly.

Through transcendental meditation you are able to...

People often speak about the noise in their head.

Are you then through this practice able to quieten the noise?

Absolutely.

Right. And so when you then do that, what's left?

When you do that...

What is it different for different people?

It is different for different people,

but it's the same because it's a universal principle.

The old sages that have always said to us,

know thyself, knowing thyself is the basis of greatness.

If you're going to create magic in the world,

if you're going to express your most creative abilities,

if you're going to leave your potential,

you need to be in touch with who you are authentically inside.

Right. So to come back to your question,

what is left then is the self?

You experience being.

Because you start from thinking, you refine thoughts.

So mantra in transcendental meditation takes you from conscious thought,

the busy mind that you have from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep.

Right.

But then you go beyond the conscious thinking level into the subconscious or pre-conscious.

And then you transcend even that.

You go beyond and you get into this transcendental consciousness or pure consciousness or pure awareness.

Right.

There the mind is left by itself, to experience itself.

So there's no content of experience, there is no mantra, there is no thought.

It's you left with yourself.

So this inner peace then goes to come back to your question.

It takes you to the fountain, hate, to the reservoir of your most creative impulses of thought.

Because if we're to analyze what a thought is,

it's just an impulse of creativity, intelligence and energy.

Right.

So if you're going to the source, you're going to the fountain hate of all your creativity,

of all your intelligence and all of your energy.

So you come back then infuse with these qualities.

You mentioned Dr. Teddy Bletcher for an example and other people that meditate.

If you look at their creative work, if you look at the amount of energy that they have,

if you look at even just their state of being, their state of happiness,

it is because they infuse their mind and their bodies with this state of being with this state of mind.

Right.

So perpetually 24 hours a day, then you're in a state of peace,

you're in a state of calm, you're in a state of happiness,

you're in a state that allows you to bring about creative solutions in your work.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter if you are a radio host or you're an actress or you're a Tim teacher like me

or you're a mother at home or you're a business executive.

All of us, the quality of our lives depends on the quality of our mind.

Yes.

And so you said, when you start at the beginning of, I guess, your meditation,

there's either a sound or a mantra.

Yes, ma'am.

But then at some point, you said you can then achieve, you can attain that sort of like a quiet in your mind

without the mantra.

How does that work?

And when you say a mantra, what would be an example of the kind of thing I would be saying

at the beginning of a transcendental meditation class?

All right.

So what I mean by that, a mantra is a sound without a meaning.

Transcendental meditation itself is a very old practice.

It's thousands and thousands of years old.

It was revived for the modern age by Maharishi Mahashiyogi,

who's the founder of our transcendental meditation.

And then maybe let's define the word transcendental because embedded in there

is the mechanics, actually, of the technique.

So when he named it transcendental meditation, I'm from the Eastern Cape, I'm from Yugi.

Yugi is a small town, about 80 kilometers from Tata.

In the olden days, when you visit me, gooks, you would be coming to the trans guy.

Okay?

And if I was visiting you, in how things would be coming to the trans world.

So what that meant is when you come to the Eastern Cape and you visit me,

you come to the trans world, so you go beyond or you go across the great Kai River.

And when I visit you, I come across the great Val River, so I come into the trans world.

So to transcend means to go across or to go beyond thinking.

So that's what is in the name.

To get there, then you need a vehicle.

What would be the most suitable vehicle?

What would give you the greatest comfort and the greatest speed to arrive at your goal?

So a mantra then becomes that vehicle that you ride on.

Otherwise, this is natural in a thoughtless for the mind to transcend.

But so that you're not distracted by thoughts or you're to do list

or the things that you need to remember or even daydreaming, then you need to ride on something.

So the mantra becomes that sound that allows you to transcend and to go beyond,

beyond even the impulse of thought.

Right. And so at the point at which you don't need the sound or the mantra,

is that just from practice that you're able to kind of quieten the mind

and you're in the state of tranquility?

Yeah, is it that you've now been able to kind of access it,

but you don't need the vehicle anymore?

Yes and no.

Okay.

Yes, the mantra takes you there.

And know that this is innate in us.

Every human being has got this ability.

We can all meditate.

We can all meditate.

As long as you can think a thought, you can meditate.

So this is built in in us.

We have this potential in us.

So all you're doing in meditation is you remembering who you are.

It's like you're going back to the self.

So this is a journey of diving in.

It's a journey inward.

And therefore there's nothing for any is you coming back to yourself.

And intuitively you know the mind knows this because it finds it more charming.

It finds it more fulfilling.

And this is a place of happiness.

So the mind naturally wants to gravitate towards that.

So it's not a difficult thing at all.

I was saying to the group I was with yesterday in the hot in Tim Center.

The greatest joy I had about two weeks ago was to teach a five-year-old boy who came with his mother.

And he got it like that.

And he was in bliss and he enjoyed it.

And it's the youngest I've taught.

I think I've taught seven-year-olds, eight and ten-year-olds children to meditate.

But this was the youngest.

He gets it because it is him.

It's nothing for him.

It's nothing that is outside of yourself.

It is your mind.

It is your body.

It is your thoughts.

So it is you.

You're just calming yourself down.

Yeah.

And so what are the benefits of transcendental meditation?

One of some of the things you can, you know, as you deepen your practice or you do it more often.

One of some of the ways in which this can then benefit your well-being.

Right.

So the benefits are mentally that you are more calm.

So it's significant to reduce anxiety, stress, panic attacks.

All of those things are significantly reduced.

When those things are reduced, then the mind is left free to be able to focus better.

So the thinking process is much, much clearer.

You can make better decisions, you're more creative.

In terms of solving problems, you're more innovative.

That's that in terms of the mind.

In terms of the body because it's a relaxation technique.

When the mind relaxes, the body relaxes.

When the body gains deep rest, the body begins the process of healing.

It gets rid of stress and strains.

The body does its own internal scan and its own internal work.

And it looks for distortions.

It looks for pain.

It looks for discomfort.

And it would want to correct that.

So meditation is a very deep healing process.

Some of the people who are sitting with yesterday and people who come to our TM centers,

they are sent to us by their doctors.

So I don't just say go and then learn meditation,

but it's generally transcendental meditation for health and well-being.

So in terms of health, that's the second benefit.

That benefit then is in terms of family.

And by family, I mean private and also your colleagues in the workspace.

That when you are happy and you're clear and you're healthy,

then you find fulfillment in whatever that you do.

So in terms of job satisfaction, in terms of work relations,

in terms of how you relate with other people,

because you're more tolerant, you know, you're more calm, you're more happy.

So people find it easy to work with you.

Actually, it's a joy to work with your team.

So in terms of team building, in terms of coherence of your team,

and in terms of even unleashing the potential of your team,

it's an amazing tool.

And in the last category, then of benefits would be in terms of world peace.

This is an individual practice, but scientists as early as the seventies,

the early seventies, investigated a phenomenon called the Marisha effect.

How does a group of people who come together in practice transcendental meditation

bring about peace, face for themselves, for their community and also for their world?

What are you experiencing for an example at the Marisha Institute

with all the students meditating there?

That creates coherence for Johannesburg.

It creates coherence for our country, for South Africa.

It creates coherence, I'm truly for the whole continent.

And for you, what have been the benefits that you have seen personally

of doing this practice of transcendental meditation?

Some ghosts have been meditating now for 26 years,

and I've been teaching for 18 years.

I met it on my first year at university, starting business at mean.

I was a good student in high school, but I had terrible exam naves

and panic attacks.

I would forget in the exam rooms, even things that I knew that I studied.

So when I learned transcendental meditation, it helped me to be very calm

and to concentrate better, and it improved even my memory.

So I was in the same exam room with the same time pressure,

but it felt like I had more time.

I could, you know, scribble, you know, make notes, even before I answer the question paper.

So my grades improved greatly, that yeah, I finished on top of my class,

and I never looked back because this is something that I've improved my life so greatly.

First, there's a student, and then there's an employee,

and there's a trainer, there's a facilitator,

there's a leadership expert.

So in everything that I do, I bring my best self.

I bring my A-game, so to speak.

You mentioned that, you know, it was yesterday you taught your youngest student

at the age of five.

Is this the kind of thing that anyone can do?

So kids can do parents can do, maybe you are older, you're an elderly person.

Is this the kind of thing that it doesn't matter which life stage you are at?

You can pick up transcendental meditation.

Yeah, children from the age of four, maybe up to 60.

I'm sure we can teach people over 60, but I would say anybody can learn.

As long as you can think of thoughts, you can meditate.

And then you also mentioned that one of the big things that you see is doctors

saying to their patients, I recommend you try this.

And would it be for specific conditions like, oh, I don't know if someone has PTSD?

Or is it for, are you seeing people with a number and a differing number of conditions

being sent to do this type of meditation?

Yes, mostly the doctor is for mental health.

We worked for a very long time with a psychiatrist who would recommend patients to us.

Psychologists, they do the same.

But these doctors that sent the recent patients early this year, these cancer survivors.

So it's a variety of health issues that you come with.

Because meditation is a preventative measure, but it also helps you to recover much quicker.

And then, for an example, if you were undergoing a cancer treatment,

then even the hush, the hushment of, not sure if that is an English word.

Even the hush treatment of chemotherapy, for an example,

it would help you to deal with that.

So it can be any condition, or you could be like me.

You could be a 21-year-old student who just want to improve his mind, his focus and his concentration.

And there's nothing wrong with your health, but that is great.

And so if someone's looking to find out a little bit more about transcendental meditation

and or find a class near them, is there somewhere we can go?

Yes, please. Do come to the Houghton TM Center.

We are in number 19, Third Street, in Houghton.

Just opposite the golf course.

Our numbers are 0-1-1-4-8-3-06-8-4.

Our website just put on your search engine at TM in Jovec.

You will find us at the Houghton TM Center.

Lula Mamas, thank you very, very much for your time this morning.

Thank you so much for joining us in the studio.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

Thank you.

That is Transcendental Meditation Teacher Lula Martin-Dozini, joining us this morning.

Coming up, we talk all things nature diary.

And this week, we are looking at the reuse of invasive alien plants

and they benefit to communities.

We'll speak today with Mason.

We'll see Oh and Senior Consultant at Pushesani Non-profit Company.

And then as always, we'll be joined by a resident CSI,

and Nature Conservationist Tim Neary.

But first, it is 29 minutes before 7 o'clock.

Let's check in with your latest eyewitness news sports,

with Anthony Tsheda.