Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Detours: Vedic City Rises Above

January 19, 2011

Vedic City Rises Above
Winter 2010 – Destinations
Written by Jessica Rapp

Rush hour in Vedic City, Iowa, is an understatement. Every day, just minutes before 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., its main street transforms from a desolate country road into a gently moving caravan carrying approximately 1,900 passengers intent upon achieving world peace. This common objective attracts visitors from all over the world to the heart of the Hawkeye State, many of them followers of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement and believers of the tranquil lifestyle. They eat organically-grown foods, live in housing built according to natural principles and make sustainability a priority in the 2,200 acres of land bordering Fairfield, Iowa, that they call home. Twice a day, they make the pilgrimage to two shimmering gold-domed complexes to cross their legs in the lotus position, close their eyes and meditate, to improve not only their own health but to better the society surrounding them.

The TM organization cites numerous studies that it says proves its method works and distinguishes the program from other common forms of meditation or yoga. Jeffrey Cohen, director of the Invincible America Assembly at accredited Maharishi University of Management (MUM), said TMers demonstrated their method in Washington, and even as far away as Lebanon. Cohen said that in Lebanon, statistics showed a “direct correlation” between the size of the groups meditating and the amount of crime and violence in the area.

“In Washington, D.C., large groups of TM meditators convened to show that [their technique] would lower the crime rate in D.C.,” Cohen said. “And in fact, statistical analysis showed that it lowered violent crime by… a very significant amount. And again, it was reviewed by experts and sociologists.”

Since the 1950s, six million people worldwide reached a consensus that the program developed by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, famed guru to the Beatles, is worth following. (more…)

Posted in Articles, Health, Peace, Sustainable Living | Leave a Comment »

Veteran Dan Burks on Overcoming the Stresses of War with Transcendental Meditation

January 18, 2011

Veteran Dan Burks on Overcoming the Stresses of War with TM

DavidLynchFoundation | December 12, 2010

Transcription: “December 18th 1967 – Newsweek, five days after my birthday. This is a story called ‘The Days Work.’ And this is my unit, we went out and got ambushed, and this is me doing my job. We were attacked at this place called Buddha. That fight went on for two weeks. The first night I killed 14 people. There were 25 hundred of them, 250 of us. The next morning in front of my fighting position there were 18 of our men dead. So this is very, very, very distressing, and it creates huge amounts of distress in your system.”

“Later in the magazine there’s this… this is an article Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and a couple guys in my platoon, one of them got the magazine and came running over and said ‘Burks, you gotta read this!’ So I did. And I said, ‘I’m going to do that….’ Because it talks about stress release, about becoming a whole person.”

“The next part of the story is about getting home. And that’s a whole big deal, because things changed. All of a sudden you’re in a different culture. They don’t understand you. They have no idea. They don’t understand that you’re always still in the rubber plantation in the jungle. You’re always on an adrenalin high. You’re looking to protect your buddies, you’re looking to protect yourself and you’re looking to kill the enemy.”

Help us heal our Veterans – http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org

See two other videos: AFP: Meditation soothes war veterans and 50% reduction in PTSD symptoms within 4 weeks of Veterans practicing Transcendental Meditation.

See AFP’s How Clint Eastwood keeps his cool, Meditation May Ease PTSD for Vets, and watch highlights of the David Lynch Foundation‘s Operation Warrior Wellness press conference and the second annual Change Begins Within benefit gala.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in David Lynch Foundation, Health, Peace, Videos | 2 Comments »

Israeli Actress and Author Meital Dohan Interviews TM exponent Bob Roth

January 18, 2011

Talking Miracles with Israeli Actress and Author Meital Dohan
By Meital Dohan | Tuesday, January 18, 2011 12:25 PM ET

The very sexy and very spiritual actress and philanthropist talks with Bob Roth, executive director of The David Lynch Foundation.

Hello y’all…. I was honored to be asked to do a radio show called Loud Miracles on WOMEN’S RADIO and a blog by Tonic, and I decided to talk with you guys about Miracles — not like hoki poki abra cadabra style, but more about Miracles which make this life worth living.

I launched the first episode of my radio show with a very special guest named Bob Roth, someone whom I consider to be a miracle worker for his 40 years of contribution to the world of meditation.

Bob serves as the executive director to the David Lynch Foundation, started by the great filmmaker David Lynch who has a mission to provide scholarships for underprivileged and at risk kids all over the world to learn Transcendental Meditation. Bob also serves as the executive director of the nonprofit Transcendental Meditation Organization. You can read more about Bob’s work involvement by clicking on the links below.

I met Bob at a charity event a few months ago and he immediately began talking to me about Transcendental Meditation. He was very passionate about TM and I was very curious because I had tried so many things to improve my well being before. In other words, how to stay alive without jumping off a bridge or going to an asylum.

I was initially very skeptical about trying something new because I feel that are so many people out there promising to change your life. However, I did end up taking Bob’s advice and trying TM. I loved it and it has been part of my life, twice a day for 15 minutes, ever since. And of course, since my show is about miracles, I asked Bob to share his thoughts on miracles, which were very unique and inspiring.

Me: So I have the pleasure to have you as the first guest on the show. And the show is about miracles. And I wanted to hear if you believe in miracles at all.

Bob: First of all, I’d like to begin by reading this great quote from the great Catholic saint, Saint Augustine. And he said about miracles: “Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature.” And my feeling is that there is no such thing as a miracle. There are just deeper realities and deeper manifestations of the ultimate reality. And what we perceive to be a miracle is actually just an expression of an infinite network and fabric of Divine Life or nature’s existence. But the same intelligence that can create, not just all the infinite life forms on this earth, but think of all the planets and galaxies and infinite numbers. So that intelligence can do lots of things that we don’t understand. So I don’t know that the word “miracle” means something that is unreal. I think there are just very real things that are very profound that sometimes pop up and let us see them.

I wanted to give Bob enough time to describe the magic of Transcendental Meditation. Bob describes it in the best way when he compares our minds to the ocean.

Bob: If you take an ocean, you will see that there are waves on the surface and then there are 20-foot high waves and then a mile in depth of the ocean. The waves on the surface are a tiny little thing compared to the mile long depth of the ocean. And the active thinking mind, all the millions of things we have to do, are just the surface of the mind. But the mind is profoundly deep and silent in its depth. TM is a simple technique that allows the attention of the mind to turn inward. So we are not just stuck on the surface of the wavy mind. And the mind naturally begins to effortlessly settle down to experience quieter levels of thought. And then there are times when we experience the deepest level of the mind, the source of thought, when we transcend even the finest thought and we experience our big Self. The land of pure miracle.

Me: I am fascinated by [TM] and the effects of it. I was so taken by this technique that now we are talking about bringing more awareness to it and bringing it to people that serve in the Israeli Army. For me, your role is definitely to bring magic and miracles to other people’s lives.

Bob: Let’s say all of us are 100-watt bulbs. But stress and fatigue and tension and strain and doubt and disappointment and rejection, all of the stresses are like dust and dirt on the light bulb. And we don’t glow. It’s there. It’s inside of us. TM doesn’t create anything that isn’t already there. It just washes off that dirt and dust and we can shine the way we want to shine.

Me: What is the source of the technique?

Bob: TM has its origins in the oldest continuous tradition of meditation known. It predates Buddhism, Hinduism… It predates all the ‘isms’. It’s just a science of consciousness. It has been handed down from teacher to student, from teacher to student, throughout time. And the most recent custodian that everyone knows about at this time is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who brought TM to the world about 50 years ago. And I was very fortunate to spend some time with him. He taught me to become a teacher of TM.

I loved the way Bob’s explanations were so beautifully simple.

Listen to my first show to hear the complete, wonderful message from Bob Roth who was taught TM by the master himself, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

 Listen to other interviews by Meital Dohan posted on The Uncarved Blog.
 

* Are you a miracle worker? Perhaps you know someone who is a miracle worker. Meital would love to hear your story. She would like to interview some more miracle workers for her show! She invites you to post suggestions or stories on her Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/MeitalDohan
* To learn more about TM, visit their website at www.DavidLynchFoundation.org
* To learn more about Meital Dohan, visit her website at www.meitaldohan.com

Meital has moved on but her interviews are posted on SoundCloud.

Added July 16, 2019: Meital Dohan on Transcendental Meditation.

Posted in Articles, David Lynch Foundation | 1 Comment »

The prime mover of life – The Times of India

January 18, 2011

The prime mover of life

Lane Wagger, Jan 19, 2011, 12.00am IST

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s unique and enduring contribution to humankind was his deep understanding of—and mechanics of experiencing—pure consciousness, the vacuum state of consciousness, the most powerful state of the mind.

The ground state or vacuum state, is an inexhaustible field of creativity, energy, orderliness and intelligence: literally a field of all possibilities. Everything in the universe—animate and inanimate—emerges from this quantum mechanical level. It is the total potential of Natural Law. All of the innumerable laws of nature—the impulses of nature’s intelligence—responsible for governing all diverse tendencies in the universe, are found here. This same field of Nature’s unlimited potential can be located within each individual at the source of thought, the most settled state of one’s awareness. Acting from this level of pure consciousness, one inherits the infinite organising power of Natural Law, making all things easy of attainment.

Imagine a wave on the sea. Even a very big wave has limitations; it is only this high and that wide. Now imagine that wave settling down, flattening out, until it merges with the sea. Its value then assumes the unlimited, infinitely more powerful status of the sea. The wave, which was bound before, has gained boundlessness.

The mind is capable of the same settling down, or transcending process. During Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation (TM), the waves of thought ‘retire’ to the source of thought. The word “transcend” means to go beyond; “meditation” refers to thinking. During TM the mind experiences progressively less excited states of thought until one transcends thought completely, to arrive at its source. The agitated, limited value of thought gains the unlimited status of Being, the silent depth of the ocean of consciousness.

Transcending thought is as effortless as thinking. If a man can run, naturally he can walk and stand still. The active mind already contains the ability to be silently alert. No effort is required. It only needs a technique.

The mind is like a body of water: choppy on the surface, silent and stable at its depth. When we experience only the ‘noisy’, surface level of thinking, difficulties abound. All problems result from, or are magnified by, an agitated state of mind. If we could anchor the surface mind to its vacuum state—if we could enliven the stability inherent at the depth of consciousness—we would be insulated from “the winds of change”.

In the Bhagavad Gita (2.48) Krishna says: ‘Yogasthah kuru karmani’: Established in yoga or pure consciousness, perform actions. Here the mind is most powerful, most effective. ‘Yogah karmasu kaushalam’ (2.50): Yoga is skill in action. From this level we “do less and accomplish more”. The growth of inner silence is the basis of spiritual unfolding and material success.

Consciousness is the prime mover of life. Everything we do depends on the quality of our consciousness. If your mind is sleepy, agitated, or negative, then everything you perceive. Speak or do reflects that incoherence. But if your consciousness is orderly, fresh and alert, the world appears much different. Knowledge is different in different states of consciousness. When you wear red tinted glasses, everything appears red and when you wear green tinted glasses, everything appears green. The Vedas say that knowledge is structured in consciousness. The world is, as we are. If you are anchored to the silent, blissful state of consciousness, everything you do becomes joyful. Maharishi summarises simply, “Handle that one thing—consciousness—by which everything else is handled.”

Posted in Articles | 2 Comments »

50% reduction in PTSD symptoms within 4 weeks of Veterans practicing Transcendental Meditation

January 18, 2011

Reduction of PTSD Symptoms in Veterans with Transcendental Meditation

DavidLynchFoundation — http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/

Norman Rosenthal, M.D. (Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical School): Over half a million of our veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These are people who have been exposed to violence on the battlefield serving for our country. And, as one of my patients said, it can happen once in your life but a hundred times in your mind. The echos linger on.

Sarina Grosswald, Ed.D. (Cognitive Learning Specialist): With traumatic stress it’s really some enormous stress that’s more than the body can process, and it leaves a big impression on your brain. The estimates are that at least 30% of returning veterans are experiencing PTSD and really the estimates are that it’s probably much greater than that. I think that maybe as many as 50% who are experiencing these symptoms aren’t actually even seeking help.

Dr. Rosenthal: They get bombarded on a daily basis by memories and flashbacks and it’s a shocking statistic that 18 veterans every day commit suicide.

Dr. Grosswald: We’ve lost more to suicide than actually have been lost in combat. That’s the first time ever.

Dr. Rosenthal: One thing that we who are interested in Transcendental Meditation are seeking is could TM be one of the answers or one of the ways in which we can treat PTSD?

Dr. Grosswald: We put together a pilot study with returning veterans from the OEF-OIF war, which is the Iraq/Afghanistan war, and what we saw was for these young men there was, within 4 weeks, a 50% reduction in the PTSD symptoms. That’s pretty dramatic, I don’t think there’s anything that shows that level of response that quickly.

Dr. Rosenthal: Because of TM’s ability to settle down the nervous system, to quiet it down, to slow down the fight-or-flight response, I believe it is a very promising direction for us to explore. I think it’s definitely something we should be trying and testing and studying.

See AFP: Meditation soothes war veterans

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in David Lynch Foundation, Health, Videos | Leave a Comment »

Rick Hotton and Holy Molé make us laugh and learn “what is essential is invisible to the eye”

January 12, 2011

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

Copyright © 2011 Rick Hotton. All Rights Reserved.

Look familiar? Is this how you see reality—only what’s in front of you on your computer screen? Technology may be an extension of our senses to more effectively interact with the world, but it can also be what cuts us off from it. Sometimes we need a little humor to break this mistake of the intellect and make us see the light of day!

Rick Hotton, creator of the award-winning cartoon Holy Molé, opens our hearts and minds with insightful humor. His characters make us laugh and realize there’s more to life than meets the eye.

To find out how Holy Molé was born and to uncover the path of creator Rick Hotton, a dedicated martial artist turned math teacher and now cartoonist, read Behind Holy Molé’s Rick Hotton by Danielle Hope Hier.

Danielle describes the characteristics and spiritual significance of a mole as the main character in Rick’s cartoon and compares it to his outlook on life. She encapsulates his approach in this paragraph:

Through martial arts, math, and Molé, Hotton has captured the essences of working the body, the mind, and the spirit. The quest for knowledge is the thread that ties all three of these forms together, in what might otherwise appear as three completely separate entities.

Danielle asked Rick why he chose a cartoon as a way of expressing elements of his own spiritual journey. I love his answer.

He replied, “But for me, if I could get people to laugh, even if just for a moment…” He paused before rephrasing his next thought: “Being joyful is a state of grace.”

The January 2011 issue of Edge Magazine published an article by Randy Moore on Rick Hotton and the Mindful Art of Holy Molé. It’s interesting to note that both Danielle and Randy are also martial artists and writers.

If you like Rick’s sense of humor, visit www.holymolecartoon.com to sign up and have cartoons delivered to your Inbox. Also follow him on Facebook, Holy Molé Cartoon, to see his photo stream.

Speaking of a common thread that’s invisible to the eye, see William Stafford—The Way It Is. Twenty-five years ago I wrote Seeing Is Being, a poem about a more enlightened way of seeing the world.

This post is very relevant to the theme of how social media cuts us off from the world shown in the Holy Molé cartoon: Two innovative creative videos remind us how social media can destroy not build relationships.

Years later: this cartoon by Bill Bliss (@blisscartoons) of two cats looking at a sunset evokes a similar reaction as the cats in Rick Hutton’s characters above, only it’s what I ask myself after spending hours on my computer scrolling the internet and watching YouTube videos!

Years later I saw a similar quote to The Little Prince from Helen Keller: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”

An animated film with an all-star cast was made of that wonderful book. A little girl lives in a very grown-up world with her mother, who tries to prepare her for it. Her neighbor, the Aviator, introduces the girl to an extraordinary world where anything is possible, the world of the Little Prince. See The Little Prince (2015); original title: Le petit prince (1h 48m), available to rent or buy on Amazon.

— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Art, Articles, Humor | 4 Comments »

This Enduring Gift-A Flowering of Fairfield Poetry

January 6, 2011

This Enduring Gift

A Flowering of Fairfield Poetry

76 Poets Who Found Common Ground in One Small Prairie Town

Compiled and selected with introductions by Freddy Niagara Fonseca and a foreword by Donovan. Endorsed by two US Poets Laureate. Paperback and Hardcover versions with 300 poems, 16 chapters and 796 pages. Publisher: 1st World Publishing. Links to TEG‘s Website and Facebook.

Pictured below, Freddy invites Roger Pelizzari to read his poem, The Beginning of Real Time, during the book launch at Revelations Cafe and Bookstore in Fairfield, Iowa, September 24, 2010.

The room was filled with poets and guests that night. I’m sitting in the front row, and was also invited to read a poem. Since we were running out of time, I read the short tanka. Here are my poems, selected from the ones submitted, published in This Enduring Gift: Five Haiku, the tanka, Cold Wet Night, and Poetry—The Art of the Voice, which was later selected as the POEM OF THE DAY: Poetry – The Art of the Voice, by Ken Chawkin.

Posted in Articles, My poems, Poetry | 4 Comments »

CBC: David Lynch, Meditation and The Troops

December 19, 2010

Friday December 17, 2010

Interview: David Lynch, Meditation and The Troops

If you were sentient in the early 90s, you probably heard about a little show called Twin Peaks.

And chances are you’ve heard of its creator, David Lynch, director of the films The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.

But what you may not know is David Lynch is just as committed to the practice of Transcendental Meditation as he is to his art. And through his foundation, he’s been helping at-risk populations learn the practice.

This week, along with Clint Eastwood and a host of researchers, David Lynch launched Operation Warrior Wellness — a program to teach meditation to soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Take a listen to his interview with Brent Bambury. Click here to listen on the Day 6 blog.

Posted in Articles, David Lynch Foundation, Peace | 1 Comment »

Meditation May Ease PTSD for Vets

December 19, 2010

Health Stories Meditation May Ease PTSD for Vets

Tuesday, December 14, 2010 7:59 AM

Hollywood A-listers including Clint Eastwood joined grizzled U.S. military veterans Monday to promote what they called the near-miraculous powers of meditation in overcoming war stress.

The event in New York drew an unlikely alliance ranging from fashion designer Donna Karan to traumatized veterans of World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq.

Uniting them was a belief that transcendental meditation, dubbed TM for short, is the cheapest, most effective, and medication-free way of healing people who have suffered severe stress in war and any other extreme experience.

“I’m a great supporter of transcendental meditation. I’ve been using it for almost 40 years now. I think it’s a great tool for anyone to have,” said Eastwood, best known for playing violent, hardened characters on screen.

The fund-raising event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was organized by experimental filmmaker David Lynch, whose Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace encourages meditation along the lines espoused by famed guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Lynch said his project, named “Operation Warrior Wellness,” aims to train 10,000 veterans in the art of finding inner peace.

Critics have cast doubt on the value of meditation for treating psychological disorders.

But Lynch said there are “a lot of misunderstandings about meditation.”

The director of “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” said the technique can help everyone from disruptive school pupils to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

PTSD is an increasingly high-profile problem among servicemen returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, a large number of whom are believed to fear revealing their disorder to military health staff.

Vietnam vet Dan Burks gave a moving account of the mental scars he carried after a battle in which he says he killed Vietnamese soldiers and lost many of his own troops.

PTSD, he said, “is a wound. It takes your life away, just like losing a limb.”

“But guess what: You can get rid of it,” he said, describing his life after discovery of transcendental meditation as “the difference between heaven and hell.”

Another veteran, World War II pilot Jerry Yellin, told the fund-raiser that for three decades after the end of the war against Japan he “found no satisfaction in life in anything I did.”

At age 51, he took up TM and says he found peace. “We have the ability to teach young people who are suffering tremendously … young people who are in a foreign land,” he said of today’s veterans.

One of those, a former infantry soldier in Iraq, said TM “cleared the skies and I could tell where I was going.”

“I felt this warm groovy feeling,” he said. “It just gets better and better.”

The star-studded event hosted by Lynch also saw testimonials from Karan and British comedian Russell Brand.

Brand said he had suffered severe stress from his much-publicized sex-and-drugs addictions and also found solace in TM.

“I felt love, sort of love for myself but also love for everyone else,” he said in a rambling speech delivered in his trademark hyper-energized style.

“I am a human being and it is applicable to all human beings. Someone, everyone can draw from it.”

Skeptics may question whether war veterans already unwilling to speak about their mental problems will embrace regular meditation. Lynch says they can.

“Clint Eastwood is about as macho as they get and he’s been meditating longer than I have,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

“We’re behind this technique and we think it can help veterans reclaim their lives and save themselves, their families, and their friendships.”

Copyright AFP

Newsmax is one of the nation’s leading news sites; and AFP, Agence France Presse, is one of the world’s major news services. This AFP story was picked up by hundreds of news markets around the world.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Articles, David Lynch Foundation, Health, Peace | Leave a Comment »

Watch David Lynch Foundation Press Conference and the Change Begins Within Benefit Celebration

December 14, 2010

Watch livestream rebroadcasts of two extraordinary events: the David Lynch Foundation Press Conference to launch Operation Warrior Wellness, from the Paley Center for Media, and the Change Begins Within Gala Event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, Monday, December 13, 2010. See David Lynch Foundation’s Photos – Change Begins Within and Broadway World photo coverage of the 2nd Annual David Lynch Foundation’s Change Begins Within Benefit Celebration. Watch highlights of both events: the press conference and the second annual benefit gala.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in David Lynch Foundation, Health, Peace | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »