what is transcendental meditation?

[Qwer]

is it any different or better than breathing focus? what is the basic technique? where can i learn it for free and is it worth doing? anything else?

[Shelli]

You can find more info here: The Transcendental Meditation (TM) Program - Official website. How and where to learn. I looked into TM a few months ago when Oprah aired a 2 hour special on it. Unfortunately I found very little free info beyond the basics. The official course costs $1500. But they offer scholarships for folk who can't afford it.

[Wolfwood]

Transcendental meditation is simply mantra meditation. I know it's difficult to find any source describing what it is..... because of the celebrity appeal, and thus price. But this link is from a student of TM: The TM Techniques Enjoy.

[Original Poster]

Transcendental meditation enables one to enter a deep state viable for self-hypnosis. This state is also known as Gnosis by some Magicians, and it can be used for Mantras, Tantras, Yantras, Chants, Positive Affirmations, Visualizations and Sigils. With a guide, one can utilize it to experience unconscious conditioning caused by "past lives," "psychic sense" or whatever. Most practices include counting down from 100 or going to your "happy place" To compare, Mindful Meditation (or Zen, or Buddhist Meditation) is about totally experiencing and surrendering to the present moment. One remains aware of their surroundings the entire time and surrenders to the flow of their experiences. This has also been called the act of watching oneself's experience. This is typically done by counting 5 or 10 breaths at a time, retaining alertness by restarting the count over and over. After building sufficient focus, one becomes aware of their own pure-awareness and becomes capable of giving their experiences space in order to experience completely rather than judge and transform everything into a static mental object. One experiences life as a flow, with arising, dancing and eventually cessating occurrences. While one can use TM to eventually transform their conscious experience, they can use Mindfulness in order to completely experience life from a position of total peace. This transforms life into a joyful experience as like attracts like and a good emotional standpoint attracts circumstances to justify it. Chants, Sigils, Mantras and etc... may also be used but they typically serve as an obstacle toward total surrender and liberation, and they do not bypass the Critical Barrier (your conscious filter on unconscious conditioning) so their effect is elusive unless one is extremely competent in Mindfulness. It is better to use such tactics to continue returning focus on the present moment, and eventually let go of them when they lose necessity. Of course they can be combined, for example to arise the Kundalini by remaining aware of the present flow of energy in the body and using visualization of the energy to give it space and enable surrender to it. In short, with TM one uses their unconscious awareness to positively influence their conscious experience; with Mindfulness, they use their conscious awareness to experience their unconscious influence. When one can achieve the latter, the unconscious influence changes itself as all things do.

[Phion]

Focus on your health and flexibility, like yoga or general stretching, and find the most comfortable posture or position for yourself first, and like you mentioned, breathing rhythm is very important. My favorite type of meditation is mindfulness, so I have very little experience with TM.