David Lynch on Esquire Network, How I Rock It, talking about Transcendental Meditation

December 21, 2013

How I Rock It: Filmmaker David Lynch & Transcendental Meditation

Filmmaker David Lynch describes how he develops and gains personal happiness and inner peace in his style and work through the art of Transcendental Meditation.

David describes his first blissful experience of transcending

David describes his first blissful experience of transcending

I tried to embed the video but it didn’t work in this space. Click here to see this short (2:20) impressive video on the Esquire TV Network website: It’s really good, as David would say.

In addition to the interview, some of the footage is taken from a pre-screening reception for the film, Meditation Creativity Peace, about David’s 16-Country tour, shown in the Billy Wilder Theater. Watch the hilarious, but informative, post-screening discussion with David Lynch, Russell Brand, and Bob Roth.

Read this lucid description by of his experiences with TM: Daily Reset – A Look Into Transcendental Meditation. And see The GQ Guide to Transcendental Meditation: The Totally Stressed-Out Man’s Guide to Meditation.

Related: Style.com: David Lynch and Italo Zucchelli on their creativity and Transcendental Meditation.

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Posted in David Lynch Foundation, Health, Videos | 4 Comments »

@MaharishiU Sustainable Living students build adobe house from scratch in Texas desert

December 19, 2013

MUM Students Build Adobe House From Natural Desert Materials

Maharishi University’s Sustainable Living students study natural building and travel to the Texas desert to put up a 14′ x 14′ adobe bunkhouse made primarily from indigenous materials mum.edu/AdobeHousePR

MUM students build adobe house from scratch in Texas desert

MUM students build adobe house from scratch in Texas desert

As a continuation of the Sustainable Living Program at Maharishi University of Management where students learn how to build a tiny house, a group of 12 students traveled to the Texas desert during their October Natural Building class and spent 11 days putting up a 14 x 14 adobe house made primarily from local materials.

They first made 850 adobe bricks from soil near the construction site, created a frame of posts and beams from dead spruce trees harvested beforehand on campus, and then topped the structure with a waterproof thatched roof made of river cane.

“It really has an amazing feel,” said course instructor Mark Stimson. “It’s rectilinear and oriented toward the cardinal directions, and adobe walls give it an ancient, grounded feeling.”

Intended to serve as a bunkhouse for future visitors, it sits on land owned by Mr. Stimson and his wife that’s adjacent to Big Bend National Park. Also on site is a tiny house students built last year.

In addition to learning practical construction skills, the students had the opportunity to experience an extraordinary landscape that includes deep vertical canyons, distant mountains, and rock-outcroppings dating back 500 million years, fossils, petrified wood, and a hot spring on the Rio Grande River. Plus the occasional tarantula and scorpion.

“The students had a transformative experience,” Mr. Stimson said. “They’ve never seen anything like this desert, with its vast scale. The heights and distances reset your perspective on things.”

Mr. Stimson’s desert site is 80 miles from the nearest town on a road too rugged for ordinary cars. The students prepared and canned all their food in advance. That alone was a learning exercise in planning and execution.

They traveled to the site via the Sustainable Living Department bus powered by biodiesel fuel that was made by the students and staff member Steve Fugate.

Every aspect of the construction required learning new skills. The students began their work on campus, creating a plan and estimating the amount of materials they would need.

Once on site, the students learned to sift the soil used for the bricks, moisten it with water, and then use forms to create the bricks. Once skilled, they were able to make a brick in less than a minute.

But then the bricks, all 17,000 lbs. of them, had to be carried up a long hill. The students formed a chain, and accomplished the task with aplomb.

“The students were confronted with many challenges in this remote desert region,” said Stimson, “but in the process they learned a lot about teamwork, leadership, self-sufficiency, and how to be flexible in the changing conditions they encountered.”

He related an incident of the students trying to prepare and dry adobe bricks, when an early morning desert fog prevented the sun from drying them out. It happened three or four days in a row. Of the many things they planned for, he said, the desert wasn’t one of them! But the sun burned it off by noon each day, and the adobe blocks dried enough to be used.

In order to comply with Maharishi Vedic℠ architecture, they learned how to perfectly align the building by using the North Star and the meridian transit off the sun.

“It’s within a quarter or even one-eighth of a degree of being perfectly aligned,” Mr. Stimson said.

He said his desert site is intended to serve as a retreat for campus groups and students in other departments, as well as the Sustainable Living students.

MUM students complete adobe house from scratch in Texas desert

MUM students complete adobe house from scratch in Texas desert

Commenting on the success of this course and the happiness of the students who participated in it, Professor Lonnie Gamble, Co-Director of the Sustainable Living Department said, “They’re happy because they’re taking their part in creating the world that they want to live in. I think it brings out a great joy, a great satisfaction, something that many of them have been looking for at other institutions before they’ve come here.” http://link.mum.edu/AdobeHouse

Part of this report was taken from The Review, Vol. 29, #6, November 27, 2013. For more information visit http://link.mum.edu/AdobeHousePR.

Read the description under this video posted on the MaharishiUniversity YouTube channel with more details describing how the students prepared for their trip, built their tools when they got there, gathered and processed the local materials to construct the adobe house.

Founded in 1971, Maharishi University of Management (MUM) offers Consciousness-Based℠ Education, a traditional academic curriculum enhanced with self-development programs like the Transcendental Meditation® technique. Students are encouraged to follow a more sustainable routine of study, socializing and rest without the typical college burnout. All aspects of campus life nourish the body and mind, including organic vegetarian meals served fresh daily. Located in Fairfield, Iowa, MUM is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in the arts, sciences, humanities, and business. Visitors Weekends are held throughout the year. For more information, call the Admissions Office at 800-369-6480 or visit http://www.mum.edu.

Source: PRWeb: http://www.prweb.com/releases/MUM-SL/AdobeHouse/prweb11363060.htm

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@DMRegister’s Rox Laird Features Fairfield, Iowa’s Civic Collaboration and @MaharishiU’s Sustainable Living Center

December 18, 2013

On the first Sunday in November 2013, the Des Moines Sunday Register published an Opinion piece about Fairfield, a city of around 10,000 in southeast Iowa. Written by editorial columnist Rox Laird, it praises Fairfield’s ability to work together as a community to manufacture dreams. Laird tours the town with Mayor Ed Malloy, who points out many cultural assets, creative entrepreneurial businesses, and green features for energy self-sufficiency, part of an overall plan for the city. They visit a new and unique net-zero classroom building housing the Sustainable Living Center on the campus of Maharishi University of Management in the north part of town.

MUM obtained permission to make this wonderful article available as a reprint. Here is a PDF of the article: Fairfield defines community action, also available on the MUM website link.mum.edu/GreenFF.  A photo of the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center replaces the Register file photo in the article. The same photos of the Sustainable Living Center and Mayor Malloy appear in the reprint along with FACC and MUM logos and contact information at the end. For additional information, I’ve listed some articles at the bottom related to some of the topics mentioned in the Op-Ed piece.

Laird: Fairfield defines community action
Jefferson County town shows how to ‘manufacture dreams’ through civic collaboration

Nov. 3, 2013 3:45 PM
Shops on the square in downtown Fairfield, a mixture of classic Main Street Iowa and international fare. / Register file photo

Shops on the square in downtown Fairfield, a mixture of classic Main Street Iowa and international fare. / Register file photo

Written by ROX LAIRD

Fairfield, Ia. – Drive around this Jefferson County seat with Mayor Ed Malloy and you begin to understand why this town is considered unique in Iowa.

The obvious reason is the presence of Maharishi University of Management that is a magnet for Transcendental Meditation devotees from around the world, which is evident as Malloy wheels around the downtown square. It is lined with unusual shops, art galleries, bookstores, restaurants offering international fare, imported chocolates and teas. A monthly First Friday Art Walk draws a cross-section of the community and people from around the state.

Just off the square, across from the Jefferson County Courthouse, sits the community center and the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts. It is home to what is described as the only professional live musical theater company in the state and attracts a variety of performing arts events.

A couple of blocks on is Malloy’s oil trading company, housed in an office building built according to the ancient Indian principles of Maharishi Vedic architecture that seeks harmony with the energy of the sun and nature for the well-being of occupants. Many examples of Vedic design can be seen in Fairfield and in Maharishi Vedic City, incorporated in recent years.

Fairfield is a town of contrasts, where you can see a BMW parked on the street next to a pickup truck. The native population has increasingly accepted immigrants who brought a different culture and an entrepreneurial spirit that invigorates the city’s economy. Fairfield has earned a long list of plaudits in numerous “best of” categories, including the April Smithsonian magazine’s list of “The 20 Best Small Towns in America.”

Fairfield lives green

Among the striking things about Fairfield is its ethic of self-sufficient sustainability. This manifests itself in many ways, such as a cooperative organic food market and a solar-powered radio station run by volunteers. Solar panels sprout from roofs and from freestanding structures. The city of Fairfield has an energy efficiency coordinator, whose salary is shared by the city and by Iowa State University’s extension service.

In the city’s industrial park, Sky Factory uses backlit photography to create outdoor scenes for ceilings of hospitals and medical clinics. The plant has set aside space next to its parking lot for an array of solar panels and a garden tended by employees.

On the opposite side of town, a mostly off-the-grid subdivision called Abundance EcoVillage captures energy from the wind and the sun, and draws air for heating and cooling from the Earth.

This conservation ethic runs deeper in the community than these outward symbols of alternative and renewable energy sources. As a participant in Alliant Energy’s Hometown Rewards program, Fairfield took on a challenge beginning on Earth Day in 2012 to reduce its overall energy consumption by 4 percent. It hit that and exceeded it: Fairfield residents shaved electric and natural gas consumption by 8.5 percent and businesses cut theirs by 8 percent.

Working with Alliant, which provided marketing and technical support, the city held workshops for residents and business owners, some 4,500 participants pledged to meet energy savings goals by doing laundry in cold water and installing compact fluorescent light bulbs. A fund was created to make loans for new windows and insulation.

The total savings of 10.2 million kilowatt hours of gas and electricity is enough energy to power 1,077 homes for one year, according to Alliant, which independently verified the energy savings. Besides the savings on power bills, Alliant dangled a carrot in the form of a grant of nearly $19,000, which the city put toward installation of solar panels on the roof of the Fairfield Library this summer.

Alliant Energy spokesman Justin Foss attributed the success of this impressive energy savings to the level of community engagement, working at a neighbor-to-neighbor level creating peer pressure that came from an active group that led the charge.

“This is a program that works really well for Fairfield,” Foss said. “You can’t do that in every community.”

A foot in both worlds

Ed Malloy is perhaps the best example of how Fairfield has melded small town Iowa values with the exotic culture inspired by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Malloy is an immigrant from New York, practices TM and lives in a spacious and handsome home built to the exacting Vedic principles. He moves comfortably among traditional and nontraditional Fairfield, which is evident from his support by voters for more than a decade.

Malloy says Fairfield’s can-do culture begins with setting ambitious goals, but achievements are celebrated by the entire community, not just the strong core of Transcendental Meditation followers fed by Maharishi University.

In Fairfield, Malloy said, “people go out and manufacture their dreams. When we all share the pride, that’s when everything changes.”

Classroom building is a lesson in sustainability

Fairfield, Ia. – Maharishi University of Management here set out three years ago to build a new classroom building for its sustainable living program that lived up to the department’s mission. The finished product may be the greenest building in Iowa.

The building is constructed of compressed-earthen blocks manufactured by students on site and load-bearing timbers consisting of full-size aspen tree trunks. It generates more energy than it consumes. It collects and treats rain­water from the roof for drinking and flushing. Daylight supplies two-thirds of light in classrooms and offices during the day. Passive and active solar energy is stored in 600 tons of earthen blocks and a 5,000-gallon water tank, which is supplemented with wind-generated electricity. It has a greenhouse for growing plants indoors and edible landscaping outdoors.

The Schwartz-Guich Sustainable Living Center is performing exactly as intended. In fact, it is “exceeding our expectations in energy efficiency in cooling and heating seasons,” said Lawrence Gamble, professor of sustainable living at MUM and an irrepressible evangelist on the subject of renewable energy and natural resource conservation.

Standing beside the center’s electric meter outside the building recently, Gamble pointed to the spinning wheel that measures electric consumption. The wheel was going backward, however, meaning the building was returning power to the electric grid. In fact, according to Gamble, the center produces about a third more energy than it consumes. And it consumes less than a quarter of what an ordinary building of the same size would consume.

Besides employing nearly every imaginable green building technique, the Sustainable Living Center design follows the principles of Maharishi Vedic architecture, an ancient design philosophy from India that puts buildings in harmony with nature. It is hard to imagine a building that does a better job of meeting that goal.

The Smithsonian’s 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2013. Fairfield, Iowa is in the Top 10 (No. 7)
Iowa Outdoors: Fairfield’s Abundance EcoVillage: Harmonious Living With Nature — Off The Grid
Video segments of Oprah’s Next Chapter on OWN: Oprah Visits Fairfield, Iowa—”TM Town”—America’s Most Unusual Town

A few selected Comments:

Chuck Offenburger · Top Commenter · Cooper, Iowa

Terrific look around Fairfield by Rox Laird. It’s been fun over the last two decades or so watching Ed Malloy develop as one of the most effective and most congenial leaders in Iowa. The whole extended Fairfield community has been very well-served by him — and he has frequently contributed his talent and insight to state-level initiatives, too.

Dan Piller · Sales Executive at TLC Vintage Collection

Remember the fuss four decades ago when the Maharishis took over the old Parsons College? You’d thought the Soviets were coming in. I am disappointed that the Beach Boys never set up their planned recording studio there.

Ed Malloy · Mayor, City of Fairfield at Fairfield, Iowa

Rox Laird did an outstanding job with the article and to have it recommended by my good friend Chuck Offenburger is icing on the cake. Thanks Chuck!

Gary Greenfield · Top Commenter · Works at Certified Teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique

Well-deserved praise. Fairfield continually strives to be a dynamic and creative community that embraces sustainable living.

June 2016, Des Moines Register business writer Kevin Hardy wrote an article on Fairfield: Why this Midwest town is thriving when so many aren’t, which was also posted in USA TODAY.

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Posted in Architecture, Art, Articles, Education, Maharishi University, Sustainable Living | 6 Comments »

Finding the needle in a haystack: MUM teaches data-mining class – Andy Hallman/Fairfield Ledger

December 14, 2013

Finding the needle in a haystack MUM class teaches students how to find useful information in a sea of data

Article & photo by ANDY HALLMAN, news editor for The Fairfield Ledger Dec 13, 2013

Maharishi University of Management professor Anil Maheshwari teaches a class on data mining at the school. The students learn how to glean insights from enormous data sets to help businesses serve their customers, among many other things.

Maharishi University of Management is becoming a key player on the national stage for its research into data mining.

Data mining refers to techniques for finding useful knowledge in a vast sea of information. Due to a recent partnership between IBM and MUM, university students have free access to IBM software to help them crunch huge data sets. They’re using those tools from IBM in a course titled “Business Intelligence and Data Mining,” taught by MUM professor Anil Maheshwari.

The IBM Academic Initiative offers participating schools course materials, training and curriculum development to 6,000 universities and 30,000 faculty around the world.

Maheshwari said modern computers have taken number crunching to new heights. They allow programmers to find correlations between sometimes seemingly unrelated variables. This kind of computing power is valuable for businesses because it allows them to fine-tune their advertisements.

Businesses collect reams of information about the demographics of their customers. Data mining allows them to sort through this information to find out who buys the product, such as whether the customers are mostly male or female, young or old, single or married, etc. Learning which variables are important and which are not is key to a successful marketing campaign.

“Data mining is just like mining into diamond,” he said. “You need a lot of skill and tools but also an artistic edge of identifying the diamond.”

Maheshwari said data mining holds the promise of being able to answer questions the way contestants do on a game show such as Jeopardy! He even mentioned a computer called “Watson” that has competed on the show. The computer is fed the question and then generates an answer based partly on how the words in the question correspond to encyclopedia articles in its database. Data mining power has reached a point where Watson’s sophisticated algorithms can arrive at the correct answer even when the question employs puns.

A computer that can answer questions after searching through a database would be useful to doctors who are trying to predict whether a symptom in a patient is likely to lead to a malignant or benign tumor. Data mining computers could search through thousands of cases to find which variables, symptoms in this case, predicted malignant tumors and which predicted benign tumors.

Such technology could be applied in other realms, too, such as finding out which students were likely to drop out of school based on data about previous drop outs.

Maheshwari said collecting large amounts of data is easier than most people think considering so much of it is publically available on the Internet. He said the government gathers massive amounts of data for everything under the sun. Accessing the data is not the tricky part – knowing how to separate the wheat from the chaff is. Actually, Maheshwari said the analogy he prefers is finding a needle in a haystack, because the vast majority of data in a database is useless in answering the researcher’s question.

In response to the growing need for experts in information technology such as data mining, MUM has introduced an online graduate certificate program in Management Information Systems. The program can be completed entirely online in one to two years.

This front-page news story is reprinted with permission from the Fairfield Ledger. Click on this link to see how it appears in that issue: FFLedger12-13-13_1A.

For more on the story, including a video interview with Anil Maheshwari, see http://link.mum.edu/DataMining.

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a new tanka: Dementia Blues

December 12, 2013

Dementia Blues
A tanka written after a holiday party at Parkview

Brain cell by brain cell
You’re disappearing from me
I’m alone again

How hard it must be for you
Disappearing from yourself

© Ken Chawkin
December 8, 2013
Fairfield, Iowa, USA

Related: An Unwanted Guest

The Curse of Dementia: On watching a loved one diminish before your eyes, poem by Ken Chawkin

Sitting with Sally: 5-haiku poem

Rage Against the Disease

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Posted in My poems, Sally Peden | 15 Comments »

Maharishi University’s Fred Travis talks about the brain and meditation on What Women Must Know

November 21, 2013
Sherrill Sellman

Sherrill Sellman

Sherrill Sellman, host of What Women Must Know, interviewed Fred Travis of Maharishi University of Management on the Progressive Radio Network, PRN.fm, “The #1 Internet Radio Station for Progressive Minds,” on November 21, 2013. Listen to this interesting interview as they discuss different stages of the brain’s development and how it is affected by PTSD, ADHD, and different meditations. Today’s show is titled Your Brain, Rejuvenation and Meditation with Dr. Fred Travis.

Dr. Fred Travis

Dr. Fred Travis

Dr. Fred Travis is Professor of Maharishi Vedic Science, Chair of the Department of Maharishi Vedic Science, Dean of the Graduate School, and Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition, at Maharishi University of Management. He earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Maharishi University of Management, and a B.S. in Design and Environmental Analysis from Cornell University. He is also the author of Your Brain is a River, Not a Rock. Visit his website for video presentations, publications and more: drfredtravis.com.

Listen to a Podcast of the show or search for it in the Archives.

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Andy Bargerstock reveals a costly disconnect in Lean companies not completely walking their talk

November 12, 2013

Standard Costing Very Costly, New Research Shows

Lean Accounting expert, Andrew Bargerstock, PhD, CPA, Director of Maharishi University’s MBA Programs, will present new research findings that show for the first time, empirical evidence of the waste inherent in Lean manufacturing companies that still use a standard costing accounting model. His talk, “The failure of standard accounting systems in Lean companies,” will be presented this week at the local chapter of the Institute for Management Accounting (IMA) during their Fall Conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Fairfield, Iowa (PRWEB) November 12, 2013

Andrew Bargerstock, PhD, CPA, Director of MBA Programs at Maharishi University of Management

Andrew Bargerstock, PhD, CPA, Director of MBA Programs at Maharishi University of Management

Lean Accounting expert, Andrew Bargerstock, PhD, CPA, Director of Maharishi University’s MBA Programs, will present new research findings that show for the first time, empirical evidence of the waste inherent in Lean manufacturing companies that still use a standard costing accounting model. Lean management principles are based on the generic elements of organizational development from companies like the Toyota Motor Corporation who build long-term customer loyalty while streamlining operational processes.

Dr. Bargerstock says, “Many mature lean manufacturers continue to use standard costing when it is no longer useful. This wasteful practice costs companies millions of dollars.” Professor Bargerstock will present his findings this Thursday, November 14 at 1pm, at the regional chapter of the Institute for Management Accounting (IMA) during their Fall Conference in the Double Tree Hotel in Cedar Rapids, IA. His presentation will include a summary of the research study and a model of a three-tiered system of organizational performance metrics that drive lean innovations.

“Companies are still attached to standard costing because it is the staple of business schools emulating General Motors operational controls from the 1950s. Lean offers a new model for operational controls. Our research is the first to show that mature Lean companies who still use standard costing accounting systems are leaving money on the table.” Professor Bargerstock says.

Lean manufacturing is a sustainable, cost-saving, adaptive and highly efficient manufacturing management process originated by Toyota Motor Company in the 1980’s, and since adopted worldwide by hundreds, even thousands of manufacturers. The Lean strategy can be applied to any type of organization profit or non-profit.

Wasted money, lost profits, weaker earnings

The new research, done at Maharishi University of Management, a 4-year Iowa college of arts and sciences that integrates practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique into its curriculum, shows that many companies using Lean manufacturing processes are not discarding standard costing, and as a result, are missing significant additional savings, losing profits and weakening the bottom line. “Companies using Lean manufacturing, but not using Lean Accounting are losing money by clinging to an antiquated costing model.” Dr Bargerstock says.

This is the first empirical study to test a prediction made by many Lean Accounting theorists, that mature lean manufacturing enterprises will discard standard costing systems. Anecdotal evidence suggested that companies may be holding onto standard costing, but no empirical study has verified the observed behavior.

Manjunath Rao, PhD and Andrew Bargerstock, PhD

Rao and Bargerstock

In 2011 and 2013, Bargerstock and one of his PhD students, Manjunath Rao, published articles in the Management Accounting Quarterly on the research conducted at MUM. The article published in Summer 2013 MAQ is entitled, “Do Lean Implementation Initiatives Have Adequate Accounting Support?”

Dr. Bargerstock was the chair of Rao’s dissertation committee. Lean accounting experts and academics at the Institute for Management Accounting collaborated on the research. The article describes the analysis of some of the data gathered during Rao’s dissertation research. The study found that in a sample of mature lean manufacturing companies, lean accounting implementation lags behind lean operations implementation, which may give rise to inadequate accounting support in lean initiatives.

A former Fortune 500 executive and national consultant for federal and state governmental agencies and private corporations, Dr. Bargerstock was selected as the 2009 Excellence in Lean Accounting Professor by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), one of the leading non-profit associations dedicated to the education and promotion of Lean Management in the country. LEI, along with the co-sponsorship of the IMA, have also recognized two of Prof. Bargerstock’s PhD students during the last three years as Lean Accounting Student of the Year.

See a short video of Dr. Bargerstock outlining the main points for his talk to the IMA, and an additional segment on the success of MUM students in the MBA Lean Accounting Program.

Founded in 1971, Maharishi University of Management (MUM) offers Consciousness-Based℠ Education, a traditional academic curriculum enhanced with self-development programs like the Transcendental Meditation® technique. Students are encouraged to follow a more sustainable routine of study, socializing and rest without the typical college burnout. All aspects of campus life nourish the body and mind, including organic vegetarian meals served fresh daily. Located in Fairfield, Iowa, MUM is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in the arts, sciences, humanities, and business. Visitors Weekends are held throughout the year. For more information, call the Admissions Office at 800-369-6480 or visit http://www.mum.edu.

PRWeb: http://www.prweb.com/releases/Lean/IMA/prweb11309348.htm or bit.ly/19Z629I

Posted on: Virtual-Strategy Magazine and other top news outlets.

In an effort to encourage more faculty to attend the The Lean Accounting Summit, organizers interviewed Andy Bargerstock on Friday, October 18, 2013 in Orlando, FL. He was asked to share what he had learned from previous summits. Of all the interviewees, they selected Andy to go in their LEAF (Lean Education Advancement Foundation) newsletter. You can see both here: A Special Letter to Lean Accounting Summit Participants from the LEAF Board of Directors.

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David Lynch on meditation in the NewStatesman: Heaven is a place on earth

November 1, 2013

This week Russell Brand was guest editor of the UK’s NewStatesman, which came out October 24, 2013. He invited David Lynch to contribute an article on meditation. The diagram looks like it may be the same one David drew during an interview with a French journalist in Paris as he was explaining Transcendental Meditation to her. A large part of the article reads like a transcription of that brilliant explanation, which was woven throughout a documentary film made of David’s 16-country tour, Meditation Creativity Peace.

David Lynch on meditation: Heaven is a place on earth

Transcending is the only experience in life that gives total brain coherence. Any other thing we do utilises different small parts of the brain, this small part for painting, another small part for mathematics, that small part for playing the piano.

By David Lynch Published 31 October 2013 14:45

Mind and matter: Lynch’s diagram of Transcendental Meditation. Image: copyright David Lynch

Mind and matter: Lynch’s diagram of Transcendental Meditation.
Image: copyright David Lynch

What is Transcendental Meditation? What is transcending? Where do you go when you transcend? And what good is it to transcend? To help answer these questions, I’ve done a little drawing and you can refer to it from time to time. You will notice a line at the top of the drawing representing the surface of life. We live on the surface and see surfaces everywhere. This right side represents matter and the left side will represent mind. Mind and matter.

About 300 years ago, scientists started wondering: what was matter, what was wood, what was air, what was water, what was flesh, etc? And they started looking into matter and they began to find things – things that we now learn about in school. They found cells and molecules. They went deeper and found atoms; they went deeper and deeper, all the way down to the tiniest particles – the elementary particles.

They found four forces that act upon the particles. And on a deeper level, they found that the four forces became three. Some unification started. And, on a deeper level, the three forces became two. About 35 years ago, modern science, quantum physics, discovered the Unified Field at the base of all matter. This field is the unity of all the particles and all the forces of creation. This is a field of nothing, but the scientists say that out of this nothing emerges everything that is a thing. This Unified Field is unmanifest yet all manifestation comes from this field.

Ancient Vedic science, the science of consciousness, has always known of this field. Believers say that it is an eternal unbounded ocean of consciousness. And this consciousness has qualities. So this Unified Field, this ocean of consciousness, is a field of unbounded intelligence, unbounded creativity, unbounded happiness, unbounded love, energy and peace.

Transcendental Meditation is a mental technique, an ancient form of meditation brought back for this time by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It is a technique that allows any human being to dive within, through subtler levels of mind and intellect, and then transcend – that is experience, that ocean of pure consciousness at the base of all mind and matter – to experience this Unified Field within with those all-positive qualities.

In Transcendental Meditation you’re given a mantra. A mantra is a very specific sound vibration – thought. The mantra that Maharishi gives is like a law of nature designed for a specific purpose and that purpose is to turn the awareness 180 degrees from out, out, out to within, within, within. Once pointed within, one will dive easily and effortlessly. It is easy and effortless because the nature of the human mind is always to want to go to fields of greater happiness.

Each deeper level of mind and each deeper level of intellect has more and more happiness – charm, as they say. So the happiness growing is like a magnet that gently pulls us within. And at the border of intellect, one then transcends and experiences the transcendent, the Unified Field, the ocean of pure consciousness, the kingdom of heaven that lies within – the Tao, the home of total knowledge, being or divine being; Atma, meaning the Self, the Self with a capital “S”.

There’s a line we’ve all heard: “Know thyself.” This is the Self they’re talking about. This field is also known as Brahm, meaning totality. First seek the kingdom of heaven that lies within and all else will be added unto you. All else is totality.

Every time a human being transcends, they infuse some of this all-positive consciousness and they truly begin to expand whatever consciousness they had to begin with. There is a side effect to expanding consciousness, and that side effect is that negativity begins to recede. Things like stress, traumatic stress, anxieties, tension, sadness, depression, hate, anger, rage and fear start to lift away very naturally.

The analogy is: negativity is just like darkness. When this light of consciousness begins to truly expand, it is like being in a dark room with a light on a dimmer. As the light gets brighter, the darkness starts to go. And when the light is full on, there is no darkness. Likewise with the light of unity – consciousness – growing, negativity very naturally starts to recede, automatically and without you having to worry about it. This heavy weight of negativity lifting gives such a joyful feeling of freedom to a human being. So you could say the person practising Transcendental Meditation each day is infusing gold and getting rid of garbage.

Transcending is the key word!!! Transcending is truly experiencing that deepest eternal level of life. It is this experience that does everything good for a human being. Every human being has consciousness but not every human being has the same amount. The good news is, every human being has the potential for infinite consciousness. Every time you experience this ocean of consciousness within, you expand more and more consciousness and you are unfolding your full potential as a human being. The full potential of the human being is called enlightenment – infinite consciousness, infinite happiness, total fulfilment. Totality.

Transcending is a holistic experience, meaning that all avenues of life will start improving. The things that used to stress you will still be out there in the world but they will not be able to hit you so hard. You’ll still be able to feel sadness but the sadness won’t last so long. It will lift away more quickly. The same with anger; the anger will leave more quickly. It won’t stay with you and poison you and the environment. Fears begin to lift – you work in more and more freedom. This is a field of infinite creativity. You will see creativity and problem-solving start to expand. Through research, scientists know that IQ can go up because of transcending each day.

Happiness comes more and more and you feel good in your body and enjoy the doing of things more and more. The field within is a field of universal love. This universal love feeds personal love and relationships improve. This field within is a field of infinite energy. People today are so fatigued and here within each of us is an infinite amount of energy to fuel our work and play. There is infinite peace within and that is deep, deep contentment, harmony, coming up inside the human being. It is so beautiful.

Transcendental Meditation is, as I said, easy and effortless. Many people might think that because it is easy it is not as good as other meditation techniques. This is wrong thinking. Concentration forms of meditation, contemplation forms of meditation, will keep a human being hovering on the surface. There will be no transcending. And it is hard work and it is boring and the reward is not there.

Transcendental Meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is a technique that has been here many times before and it is a blessing. It is the real thing. It works. Brain research scientists have found a wondrous thing. When a human being truly transcends, hooked up to an EEG machine, then the full brain gets engaged in concert. They call this “total brain coherence”.

Transcending is the only experience in life that gives this total brain coherence. Any other thing we do utilises different small parts of the brain, this small part for painting, another small part for mathematics, that small part for playing the piano, and so on. Scientists have always told us before that we use only 5 per cent or 10 per cent of our brain but transcending is an experience that utilises the full brain.

This shows us something of the relationship of the human being to this glorious Unified Field within. The more we transcend, the more this coherence stays with us and this eventually gives rise to higher states of consciousness, culminating with supreme enlightenment. On the EEG machine, Transcendental Meditation meditators are seen to transcend many times in each 20-minute meditation. Those meditators who practise concentration or contemplation forms of meditation do not transcend. They do not get the experience of that ocean of bliss consciousness, the Unified Field.

A ten-year-old child can practise this technique of Transcendental Meditation; a 110-year-old can do it, easily and effortlessly, and they will each get the experience they are yearning for. It is a sublime experience to transcend and feel that rejuvenation and that happiness and all those other all-positive qualities growing.

Transcendental Meditation is not a religion. People from all religions practise this technique and they see there is no conflict with their religion. On the contrary, they say they understand and appreciate their religion more because understanding and appreciation for all things grow by transcending each day. It is a technique for human beings, no matter what walk of life, what religion or where you are from. People who have experienced great suffering have gotten this technique and happily said, “Now I have my life back again.” The real story is: THE NATURE OF LIFE IS BLISS and THE INDIVIDUAL IS COSMIC.

Russell Brand’s article in this paper is about revolution. Revolutions are usually associated with violence or force. Transcendental Meditation leads to a beautiful, peaceful revolution. A change from suffering and negativity to happiness and a life more and more free of any problems. The secret has always been within. We just need a technique that works to get us there to unfold a most beautiful future.

Find out even more about Transcendental Meditation at: davidlynchfoundation.org.uk.

For American readers, visit www.tm.org and davidlynchfoundation.org.

See Russell Brand and David Lynch at LA Premiere of ‘Meditation, Creativity, Peace’ Documentary and related links to other videos and articles. Visit http://meditationcreativitypeace.com to see a preview of the film and where it may be playing.

This is an excellent interview: David Lynch speaks with Alan Colmes about his 16-country tour film Meditation Creativity Peace.

The NewStatesman article reads like a transcription from this film, which you can now see: “Meditation Creativity Peace”—A documentary of David Lynch’s 16-country tour during 2007–2009.

See an earlier article written by David Lynch published in Jane Magazine: Celeb Spiritual Report: One significant day in my life by David Lynch for Jane Magazine (May 2004).

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Posted in Art, Articles, David Lynch Foundation, Education, Health, Peace, Writing | 3 Comments »

Maharishi University of Management’s Ye Shi Named Lean Accounting Student of the Year

October 26, 2013

Maharishi University of Management PhD candidate, Ye Shi (Linlin), was awarded the 2013 Lean Enterprise Institute’s annual Excellence in Lean Accounting Student Award during their Lean Accounting Summit this month in Orlando, Florida. This award continues a pattern of recognition for MUM from LEI: Dr. Andrew Bargerstock was named Lean Accounting Professor of the Year in 2009, and Manjunath Rao was selected as Lean Accounting Student of the Year in 2011 for his PhD dissertation.

Tabitha Dubois (right), LEI's Director of Finance and Administration, gave the Lean Accounting Student Award to MUM’s Ye Shi, and the Lean Accounting Professor Award to WWU's Dr. Audrey Taylor.

Tabitha Dubois (right), LEI’s Director of Finance and Administration, gave the Lean Accounting Student Award to MUM’s Ye Shi, and the Lean Accounting Professor Award to WWU’s Dr. Audrey Taylor.

Fairfield, Iowa (PRWEB) October 25, 2013

By Ken Chawkin

Maharishi University of Management PhD candidate, Ye Shi (Linlin), was awarded the 2013 Lean Enterprise Institute’s annual Excellence in Lean Accounting Student Award during their Lean Accounting Summit this month in Orlando, Florida. The Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) is a non-profit educational association, which recognizes students who have been actively engaged in research, education, and the development of Lean Accounting and accounting for Lean.

Andrew Bargerstock, PhD, CPA, director of MUM’s MBA programs, had nominated Linlin for this award based on her accomplishments in lean accounting. “We are very happy that Lin Lin’s accomplishments are recognized by one of the biggest names in Lean Accounting, James Huntzinger, in his role as the chair of the Student of the Year selection committee for Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) and the Lean Accounting Summit.”

Jim Huntzinger

Jim Huntzinger, president and founder of Lean Frontiers

On September 23rd Jim Huntzinger, president and founder of Lean Frontiers, and author of Lean Cost Management: Accounting for Lean by Establishing Flow, notified Linlin of her selection as Lean Accounting Student of the Year. Huntzinger founded the Lean Accounting Summit in 2005, as well as produced many other Lean summits.

As to why she was selected, Jim Huntzinger said, “Linlin was recognized as LEI Lean Accounting Student for 2013 due to her commitment to help others understand and develop a deep understanding of the new paradigm in Lean Accounting. We hope that she will continue to deepen her knowledge of this area and encourage more students and faculty to join the Lean Accounting adventure, and utilize her PhD research to both deepen and further her understanding of lean accounting.”

This award continues a pattern of recognition for MUM from LEI. Dr. Andrew Bargerstock was named Lean Accounting Professor of the Year in 2009, and Manjunath Rao was selected as Lean Accounting Student of the Year in 2011 for his PhD dissertation.

Linlin completed both the MBA in Accounting (2011) and the Post-graduate Certificate in Lean Accounting (2012) at MUM. In September 2013 she began her second year of teaching three of the two-credit courses in the Lean Accounting Certificate program.

In collaboration with Dr. Bargerstock, Linlin has developed case studies to illustrate how to implement kaizen methodologies to improve accounts payable processing. Linlin is currently taking coursework in the PhD program at MUM and expects to begin her dissertation next year.

Linlin is passionate about Lean, which she says is “the great strategic thinking that leads to true sustainable development. Lean accounting is an advanced way of articulating business through present and real financial numbers compared to the historical and sometimes misleading numbers provided by traditional accounting.”

Linlin says Lean enables better communication and employee engagement, and greatly enhances leadership. She adds, “It’s also a great illustration of how to do less and accomplish more, which is a fundamental principle of our university’s educational approach, Consciousness-Based Education.”

Ye Shi (Linlin) with MUM Professor Andrew Bargerstock at the 2013 Lean Accounting Summit

Ye Shi (Linlin) with MUM Professor Andrew Bargerstock at 2013 Lean Accounting Summit

Linlin says she is thrilled and honored to be recognized as the Lean Accounting Student of the year. “I am grateful for the support from MUM, Lean Frontiers, LEI and IMA. I appreciate the guidance and support from Dr. Andrew Bargerstock and other mentors and friends. Without them, any personal development for me would not have been possible.”

The summit offered Linlin, and other participants, the opportunity to meet with elite academic lean professionals and business lean practitioners. “It’s thought provoking to hear the speakers from different fields articulating the Whys and Hows of lean accounting based on their empirical research and practical experience. To be able to talk to them face to face and exchange opinions during the open discussions was fantastic. Also, the Q&A session with the executive team from the renowned Institute and the rest of the speakers provided the practical solutions for any problems people may encounter during lean transformation. It was really exciting to learn the live examples and have the inspiring conversations.”

Included in Linlin’s award was a complimentary registration at the Summit and $500 towards her travel expenses.

Photos of LEI Award Winners are available at garrethoover.com/LEI. Tabitha Dubois (red dress), Director of Finance and Administration for LEI, gave the Excellence in Lean Accounting Student Award to MUM’s Ye Shi, and the Excellence in Lean Accounting Professor Award to Dr. Audrey Taylor, Professor of Accounting at Western Washington University.

Founded in 1971, Maharishi University of Management (MUM) offers Consciousness-Based℠ Education, a traditional academic curriculum enhanced with self-development programs like the Transcendental Meditation® technique. Students are encouraged to follow a more sustainable routine of study, socializing and rest without the typical college burnout. All aspects of campus life nourish the body and mind, including organic vegetarian meals served fresh daily. Located in Fairfield, Iowa, MUM is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in the arts, sciences, humanities, and business. Visitors Weekends are held throughout the year. For more information, call the Admissions Office at 800-369-6480 or visit http://www.mum.edu.

Source: PRWeb: MUM’s Ye Shi Named LEI’s 2013 Lean Accounting Student of the Year

In an effort to encourage more faculty to attend the The Lean Accounting Summit, organizers interviewed Andy Bargerstock on Friday, October 18, 2013 in Orlando, FL. He was asked to share what he had learned from previous summits. Of all the interviewees, they selected Andy to go in their LEAF (Lean Education Advancement Foundation) newsletter. You can see both here: A Special Letter to Lean Accounting Summit Participants from the LEAF Board of Directors.

Also posted on AndyB’s Blog: MUM’s Ye Shi Named LEI’s 2013 Lean Accounting Student of the Year

See MUM MBA Students Win at CAPSIM: The Role of Business Simulation Competitions in Higher Education.

See: Maharishi University’s Rao and Bargerstock published in Management Accounting Quarterly.

See Maharishi University MBA Students Win National Business Simulation Competition.

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Posted in Articles, Education, Maharishi University, Sustainable Living | 1 Comment »

Not the loss alone — a poem by Gregory Orr

October 22, 2013

Not the loss alone,
But what comes after.
If it ended completely
At loss, the rest
Wouldn’t matter.

But you go on.
And the world also.

And words, words
In a poem or song:
Aren’t they a stream
On which your feelings float?

Aren’t they also
The banks of that stream
And you yourself the flowing?

~ Gregory Orr ~

 (Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved)

See two other poems by Gregory Orr from the same book:

Let’s remake the world with words

Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved

 

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Posted in Other poems, Poetry | 3 Comments »

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