Mary Oliver went Swimming, One Day in August, to deepen and quiet her spirit, then wrote about it. The poem was published in RED BIRD (2008) and posted @maryoliverofficial Instagram with other wonderful poems. It is a perfect metaphor for transcendence and renewal. We may not be able to swim in the sea, but we can dive daily into our own consciousness with our TM practice to experience “the deepening and quieting of the spirit,” then come out refreshed to take on the day.
Swimming, One Day in August
It is time now, I said, for the deepening and quieting of the spirit among the flux of happenings.
Something had pestered me so much I thought my heart would break. I mean, the mechanical part.
I went down in the afternoon to the sea which held me, until I grew easy.
About tomorrow, who knows anything. Except that it will be time, again, for the deepening and quieting of the spirit.
Publisher Beacon Press on Red Bird
“Red bird came all winter / firing up the landscape / as nothing else could.” So begins Mary Oliver’s twelfth book of poetry, and the image of that fiery bird stays with the reader, appearing in unexpected forms and guises until, in a postscript, he explains himself: “For truly the body needs / a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this work, / the soul has need of a body, / and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable / beauty of heaven / where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes, / and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.” — Taken from Mary Oliver’s publisher Beacon Press on Red Bird.
See this remembrance of Mary Oliver (1935-2019) and her astonishing poetry, with links to articles, interviews, and readings, as well as more of her favorite poems I’ve loved and posted over the years.
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
These days we are constantly bombarded with social media and advertising messages on our portable devices. Life has become a lot more complicated than in the past. This short poem by Wu-Men reminds us to take time to notice the simple pleasures that each season brings. And with a peaceful mind we can enjoy our best life.
I first discovered this text as one of a four-book compilation by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings, published by Tuttle in 1957. I had bought a paperback copy of the 1961 Doubleday Anchor Book from a Montreal used book store in 1967 and carried it around with me.
That summer, I had an awakening experience, and those contradictory koans I read somehow made sense. I had become a seeker and learned Transcendental Meditation (TM) on September 30, 1967, three weeks after Maharishi had visited Expo 67 to speak at the Youth Pavilion. This was during Canada’s Centennial Year and what was considered to be one of the most successful World’s Fairs of the 20th century.
When the school year started, I set up a SIMS club—a chapter of the Students International Meditation Society—then arranged for and publicized a TM Introductory Lecture on the Loyola College campus. Other new meditators had done the same at McGill University, and Sir George Williams University, which, with Loyola, would later become Concordia University.
Many hundreds of students learned TM that school year in Montreal, and some of us would go on to become TM teachers. The same situation occurred in cities across Canada and the United States. It was an exciting time, especially when the Beatles had learned TM and went to Rishikesh, India to study with Maharishi. “Dear Prudence” Farrow Bruns was on that course, along with Beach Boy Mike Love and Donovan. From June 10-14, 1968, I joined other meditators to study with Maharishi at Lake Louise.
I never imagined that posting a little poem by Zen master Wu-men would awaken memories of reading Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and learning to meditate all those years ago. TM continues to help me live a better life.
Also enjoy reading the fine poetry of Ryōkan, another Zen master.
Stephen Mitchell later translated and read Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (The Book of The Way). I first enjoyed reading The Way of Life According to Laotzu translated by Witter Bynner. George Harrison was inspired to write “The Inner Light” based on Chapter 47 of this ancient text. It was first released March 15, 1968 by the Beatles as a B-side to “Lady Madonna”.
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
This blog post is thanks to Ellen Metropole for telling me that Markus K, a busker I follow on YouTube, attended the 10,000 course in Hyderabad, India! I didn’t know he was a TM-er. He wrote a song about the course while he was there and premiered it when he went to Morocco. It’s a catchy tune and tells the story of why everyone from so many countries attended. He performed the song on Feb 21, 2024 in Casablanca at his first Moroccan busking session.
Enjoy ‘Consciousness is All there Is’ written by Markus Koehorst, aka, Markus K, during an international Peace Project in Hyderabad, India called Ten Thousand For World Peace.
In his notes, Markus mentioned a great article about the Peace Project in Hyderabad, India published in Pressenza India: Ten thousand people meditating for world peace. I posted more articles listed below.
He also mentions 10 000 For World Peace – Transcendental Meditation, a beautiful video with images from the course, to the music of ‘Across the Universe’ by John Lennon. Unfortunately, the video was later taken down.
John Lennon wrote the song in England before the Beatles left for India. He had had a disagreement with Cynthia and couldn’t sleep. So he went downstairs and wrote down the words as they came to him. Of all the songs he had ever written he said Across The Universe was his best. It wrote itself. I remember reading somewhere that John had sung it to Maharishi in India, especially the chorus, “nothing’s gonna change my world.” Maharishi had suggested that he sing, “meditation’s gonna change my world,” but he didn’t change it. The Beatles Bible describes a complete history of Across The Universe in two parts 1 & 2.
David Lynch gave his own take on John’s expression in the song, “Nothing’s gonna change my world.” He explained that “nothing” as “no-thing”, i.e., the transcendent, which Maharishi was discussing, would change his world. John must’ve loved the double entendre, and contradictory meaning of that word in the repeating expression of his song. David mentioned that as part of his message to a DLF event via Zoom. He concluded his call with his short prayer for peace. You can listen to it here.
Born in Holland, Markus K spent 30 years in England based in Liverpool, UK and now travels the world playing on the street and connecting with people. Main instruments: guitar, vocal, percussion. Looper Master. Mostly originals; some drastic reworks of classics. Main influences: blues and anything with real soul, warts and all. Passionate about inner peace and conscious living. We Are All In This Together. In this video, Markus K – blues fusionist (presentation) Dec 31, 2017, Markus talks about his music, his busking and his travels.
On December 7, 2024, I came across a new and very cool variation of Markus K’s song, when, on May 24, 2024, he posted MAGIC on the street in HAMBURG – Consciousness Is All There Is. He wrote: “This is why I love to jam with Dominic Dobernowsky. He always brings magic to the mix, like that opening theme of his from where the whole thing evolves. Magic happens on the street!” Enjoy this new version. He also posted it a year later On This Day 24 May 2024 on TikTok.
Friends emailed me to see the premiere episode of Season 3’s NCIS: Hawai’i. NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) is a popular TV series. I was able to stream it on Paramount+ and now watch new episodes each week. Here’s how they describe the show.
NCIS is more than just an action drama. With liberal doses of humor, it’s a show that focuses on the sometimes complex and always amusing dynamics of a team forced to work together in high-stress situations. From murder and espionage to terrorism and stolen submarines, these special agents investigate all crimes with Navy or Marine Corps ties.
James Todd Smith, known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He starred for many years as federal agent Sam Hanna in NCIS: Los Angeles and was recently transferred to NCIS: Hawai’i. He brought everyone up to date via Instagram and TikTok on how Season 2 ended, with Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) in bad shape.
After passing her medical and psych evaluations, Jane Tennant is surprised to see Sam Hanna conducting her final interview to clear her return to work. In the middle of this premiere Season 3 Episode 1, Run and Gun (Feb 12, 2024), Tennant and Hanna have a heart-to-heart talk one evening at a private shooting range (23:15).
Both have been deeply traumatized due to violent situations on the job. Tennant may have been medically cleared to return to work after healing from severe injuries, but she is in denial about her psychological and emotional state.
Hanna has been there and is trying to get through to her about it. Tennant finally asks Hanna what he did “to get out of the hole.” See his answer and how she responds to it in this 2-minute segment—Whatever Gets You Through The Night!—available on cbs.org and The NCISverse.
LL Cool J was involved in the creation of the Def Jam Recordings label. His collaboration with Rick Rubin laid the foundation for one of the most influential hip-hop record labels.
A TM practitioner since he was a teenager, legendary music producer Rick Rubin received the Lifetime of Harmony Award (Feb 27, 2014) from the David Lynch Foundation through its new performance arts events division, DLF Live. See more details in this Feb 25, 2014 billboard article.
Which leads me to think that maybe LL Cool J has also been doing TM, is familiar with its researched beneficial effects, the good work of the David Lynch Foundation, and might have had something to do with including Transcendental Meditation into the script. Whatever the reason, it was an unexpected surprise, and turned out to be an appropriate plug for TM!
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
There has been a wave of publicity before, during, and after the largest group of 11,000 TM meditators from 139 countries who gathered at Kanha Shanti Vanam near Hyderabad for 14 days to help create world peace. Here is a sample of some of that news coverage starting with The Week, which came out in their print issue on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
IN EARLY 2005, security checkpoints at the Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq―notorious for torture and abuse of its inmates―were overrun by armed militants. The surprise attack met with strong resistance from US coalition forces guarding the site. Several American soldiers suffered injuries, and many militants lost their lives. Brian Rees, a doctor with the US military, remembers rushing out to treat civilian casualties. Whenever he got a chance, he said, he would retreat to a corner and meditate.
I felt I could use TM to reset. It kept me resilient on the ground. It is important to maintain a healthy rhythm.
—Brian Rees, us army veteran
Rees has learned to find peace among chaos. He meditates twice a day―20 minutes each in the morning and in the evening. Transcendental Meditation (TM) has been a source of strength for him while serving in Iraq and in Afghanistan. It helped him beat long periods of boredom and to cope with the shocking sights of blood and gore. “I felt I could use TM to reset. It kept me resilient on the ground. It is important to maintain a healthy rhythm or things can go very wrong,” said the veteran about the benefits of meditation in a war zone.
Rees has introduced hundreds of US veterans to TM in the last 10 years, helping them return to normalcy after stressful missions. He still remembers a veteran telling him just two minutes after attending a session that TM was going to save his life. “The veterans have a lot of questions on why this is happening. But they have no answers,” said Rees. “TM will really help them see hope and remove negative aspects.”
Nearly 4,000 TM practitioners from outside India like Rees and 6,000 Indians took part in a residential meditation programme organised by the Global Union of Scientists for Peace (GUSP), a group that works to carry forward the legacy of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was held for two weeks from December 29 at the Kanha Shanti Vanam ashram near Hyderabad. The programme was intended to trigger a world peace field based on a theory propagated by the Maharishi.
Tony Nader, chairman of GUSP, explained the idea behind getting 10,000 people at one place. “The research is based on findings of 50 years that when one per cent of the total population practises Transcendental Meditation in any city, there is a reduction in crime, conflict, hospital admission and road accidents. One per cent of the world population today would be 81 million and it is a big number to bring together for meditation. The Maharishi produced a new technique, which is based on Patanjali yoga sutras, where it was found that the square root of one per cent of the population is enough to achieve the desired effect. It means that instead of 81 million, its square root―9,000―could be used. The number 10,000 was selected to have the safety factor on top of the needed number.”
Nader, who leads TM-related organisations in more than 100 countries, hails from conflict-ridden Lebanon and credits meditation for helping him survive the horrors of the civil war in the 1970s. The 14-day programme saw participants practise basic TM, yoga sutras and flying sutras. Frederick Travis, director of the Centre for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition, Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, used a special device fitted with 19 sensors on a participant to study the impact of group meditation on the brain. He recorded a high coherence in the brain as a result of meditation practised by thousands in the vicinity.
Alex Kutai, a theatre actor-turned PR professional from Israel, said meditation was an antidote to war. Kutai, an active TM teacher, was drawn to the movement after the 1973 Yom Kippur war. “After every war, the interest in TM becomes high. Thousands learned TM after the Yom Kippur war. I thought it could support my well-being,” he said.
Kutai said many people were suffering from trauma, depression and pain because of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. “When people along the Gaza Strip had to be evacuated, we taught them meditation so that they could cope with the loss. We are also teaching TM for free to those who are suffering from the loss of lives of close ones,” he said. Kutai lives in Hararit, a village near the Lebanon border which was created by a community of TM members in the 1980s. Though he has not taught TM to Palestinians, Kutai said he was willing to teach friendly Arabs who reside around his village.
Another participant in the programme was Vadym Bykovets, a Ukrainian who nurses war wounds even though he is not physically involved in the war with Russia. The 49-year-old lives in Lithuania and works in the private sector. He counts his friends and acquaintances among those who died or were seriously wounded. He encourages fellow Ukrainians to practise meditation. “I feel that they are emotionally wounded and stressed. Without meditation, they would feel terrible. They are even scared of loud sounds.” How does meditation help him? “War is a painful topic. Regardless of what information I get from back home, I meditate,” he said. “It cleans my mind and soul, and I do not feel involved in that situation.” The reason Bykovets came all the way to Hyderabad is to support the belief that meditation is the right medium to achieve global peace.
Correction: Maharishi University of Management is Maharishi International University.
# # #
Visit Dr Tony Nader’s Instagram @drtonynader for inspiring photos, excerpts from articles, and video clips from the course and more.
They wrote: Dive into the fascinating world of Dr. Tony Nader, a Lebanese neuroscientist, researcher, and leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. Discover his inspiring journey from the turmoil of the Middle East’s civil war to becoming a renowned figure in neuroscience. Join RJ Archana as she explores Nader’s insights on the current global conflicts, the roots of youth anger, and the importance of grassroots change. Learn about Nader’s transition from his initial days to his current stature, and gain profound insights into his work, including the founding of the International Journal of Mathematics and Consciousness. Don’t miss this thought-provoking episode on Viral City!
This first video (6:05) features Dr. Tony Nader at Maharishi International University (MIU) in Fairfield, Iowa talking about the need for TM in today’s stressful world. The video opens with students meditating with Dr. Nader. Using EEG, Dr. Fred Travis demonstrates the increase in brainwave coherence of a subject as she starts meditating. Students also discuss the practical benefits from their TM practice.
The second video (7:50) takes place in Medellín, Columbia at one of Father Gabriel Mejia’s shelters for rehabilitating homeless children with addiction problems. One of them went on to become a TM teacher and returned to teach the students how to meditate. They were inspired by the positive transformation and growth in his life.
The third video (5:02) was filmed in a Rhode Island hospital where medical staff were still dealing with the stressful repercussions from the Covid-19 pandemic. TM provided welcome relief from the traumatic loss of life and continues to be taught there. Dr. Nader mentions the David Lynch Foundation’s Heal the Healers Now campaign. They provided the funding for TM instruction, which helped thousands of healthcare professionals during the pandemic. Many continue to meditate regularly.
Embedded below are the videos with their short descriptions posted on the GWI site. Each title and chapter also take you to the BBC StoryWorks pages with the same videos plus 3 slides selected from each per chapter: Nature, Self, Community.
1. TM: Listening to your inner rhythm: Dr Tony Nader has been researching the mind and meditation since he was a medical student. Discover his methods for finding peace in a busy and ever-changing world.
2. TM: A healing journey: For Breiner, meditation had a transformational effect on his life, a lesson which he is now passing on to younger generations.
3. TM: The calm in the storm. Finding a peaceful moment to recalibrate. Ongoing strains on health clinicians from the Covid-19 pandemic are still apparent in hospitals. These medical doctors are finding strength in the moments of peace that Transcendental Meditation can provide.
November 2, 2023: Dr. Sanford Nidich was invited to present at a Ukraine Medical Conference, Current Status of Personalized Medicine: Global Issues and Prospects for Research. The title of his talk: Effects of Transcendental Meditation on PTSD, Depression and Sleep Problems in Veterans, Military Personnel and Other High Risk Groups. At 9:15 into the video, Dr. Nidich makes a PowerPoint presentation covering some of the related scientific research on Transcendental Meditation (TM). I selected Transcript, copied his talk leading up to the PowerPoint, and added a few hyperlinks. The whole video presentation is 29:25 minutes.
Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to this very prestigious conference, Current status of Personalized Medicine: Global Issues and Prospects for Research. It’s very important that we look at alternative approaches, including personalized approaches to medicine. The field is changing very rapidly, and it’s changing for the better. We’re able to help people progress with their disorders. We’re able to talk about and apply preventative medicine much more readily in a more accepted way than ever before.
Today, I wanted to address you on the effects of Transcendental Meditation on PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and sleep problems in veterans, military personnel, and other high risk groups. We’ll be covering a lot of the research that’s been published on this very specific and effective program of Transcendental Meditation that has been taught and researched around the world for over the past 4 to 5 decades. It’s something that millions of people have been practicing in the United States and around the world, that many, many people are practicing in Ukraine.
There’s some initial research that is ongoing right now in Ukraine dealing with mental health issues in women. And there are other projects, perhaps with the military there at early stages that are being planned with Transcendental Meditation.
For transparency purposes, I started Transcendental Meditation in my first year of college at George Washington University in Washington, DC. There was hardly any research at the time that I started several decades ago. And since that time, there’s been over 700 research studies alone on Transcendental Meditation and over 400 peer reviewed independent studies on Transcendental Meditation conducted around the world.
Central to that natural system of medicine is the practice of Transcendental Meditation, which is easy to learn, systematically taught to people everywhere in the world in the same way. And it’s really been something that has been a life-changer for many, many people, from veterans and active military to prison inmates to healthcare providers. In terms of women’s health, in terms of the mental health and academic performance of college students and high school students, and in other specific areas of medicine medicine, such as cardiovascular disease, oncology, and other medical disciplines.
It’s been a program that researchers throughout the world have been researching, including very top researchers in the United States at Columbia University Medical School, University of Michigan Medical School, Georgetown University Medical School, and on and on, Howard University in Washington, DC, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.
So, it’s a practice that is easy to learn. Produces a unique state of restful alertness whereby during the 20 minutes of practice, the brainwave activity becomes more coherent and orderly, leading to greater executive functioning, memory, other cognitive factors. And at the same time that it’s producing a heightened state of alertness, it’s producing very, very deep rest throughout the whole physiology.
It produces a fourth major state of consciousness beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep called a state of restful alertness, or a hypo-metabolic state of wakefulness. Again, where the body noticeably feels and experiences, it exudes a very deep state of rest, while at the same time, we’re still fully alert. It’s not a state of hypnosis. It’s not some program that we just practice once a day, and, you know, and when we feel better, we don’t have to practice it.
We practice it twice a day for 20 minutes. And it’s a lifetime program that we can do once we learn it. And there are people who’ve been practicing Transcendental Meditation for well over 40 years now who have learned it in the 70s and 80s. And the reason they do it is because the human potential is enormous.
Consciousness is the new frontier of medicine. And we can expand consciousness. We can develop our own consciousness, which is the basis of our own thinking and behavior. We can produce greater orderliness and balance throughout the whole physiology, throughout the whole mind and body as a result of enlivening pure consciousness at the very basis of all thought and matter.
So there’s a lot to look forward to. It’s truly a new horizon. It’s causing a new paradigm shift where consciousness is seen to be primary, giving rise to all of our thinking and behavior in a very positive, orderly society, beneficial manner.
So what I’d like to do is, is take my time now to address you and go over some of the key scientific research on Transcendental Meditation. So let me see if I can share my screen so that you can be able to see my slides. So the title of my talk is, Effects of Transcendental Meditation on PTSD, depression, and sleep problems in various high risk populations, and I’ll be covering research principally in these areas.
Go to 9:15 in the video to see the 20-minute PPT containing slides of scientific research presented by Dr. Nidich.
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
A new TM study and two related articles on Transcendental Meditation came out in the third week of October 2023. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (OJIN) published a study showing TM reduced burnout and enhanced well-being in nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on the OJIN TM study, and KFF Health News Morning Briefing highlighted both the AJC article and OJIN study. Separately, Vogue Magazine published a very good article on TM, which also ran in the UK.
First, congratulations to Bob Roth, Kelly Malloy, and DLF on this great TM article in Vogue magazine, Transcendental Meditation Is a Superpower—And It’s as Easy as Two Syllables (and 20 Minutes)! (10/20) I liked the introduction where Corey Seymour describes how he had tried everything, was finally open to learning TM, and shared his surprise at how easy it was. A friend of Corey had learned TM from DLF CEO Bob Roth and she told him about it. Kelly Malloy taught him and Bob said that Corey “was the right guy at the right time…very smart and pure-hearted.” In his article, Corey makes understanding and appreciating TM very accessible. Impressed, I tweeted the article. The following day British Vogue (10/21) also ran the same article.
KFF Health News, a respected national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues, publishes daily summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Here is what appeared at the top of their Wed Oct 18, 2023 Morning Briefing, which I also tweeted. Their second paragraph is about the AJC TM article.
A story in Vox highlights how resistant doctors are to receiving mental health care or medication. Also: Iowa plans to remove mental health questions from medical license paperwork. Separately, a recent study shows that transcendental meditation can help combat nurse burnout.
According to a recent study published in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, transcendental meditation is effective at reducing burnout and enhancing the overall well-being of nurses. The study is a response to increasing levels of burnout within the healthcare industry, largely exacerbated by the pandemic. According to another recent study, by market research and consulting company PRC, 15.6% of U.S. nurses surveyed reported feeling burnout. (Boyce, 10/17)
The fact that KFF highlighted and positioned the AJC report showing TM as a solution to burnout for nurses juxtaposing it with problems doctors are having with burnout speaks volumes for TM!
As far as I know, the AJC and KFF news reports on this latest important TM study happened naturally without any official publicity efforts!
Nurse Amy Ruff, RN BSN, National Director of Transcendental Meditation for Nurses, told me that Tom and Linda were two of the TM Teachers from the Ann Arbor TM Center who were involved in teaching TM to the nurses in this study through the David Lynch Foundation’s Heal the Healers Now campaign. I asked Tom for some comments about the study and he wrote back with these experiences from the side of the teachers and two of the nurses.
TM Teachers: It was a great experience sharing this knowledge with healthcare workers during the height of Covid and hearing of the benefit they were having. Witnessing the work load and cultural expectations demanded of these workers in a profession of giving, would turn anyone into an advocate for the improvement of healthcare worker conditions. They all expressed gratitude for the benefits of their regular TM practice and opportunity to learn TM through the DLF HtHN initiative. Here are emails from two of the nurse involved in the study.
First Nurse: Dear Margaret, Kelcey and Tom,
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the U of M TM RN research study. It was a great honor to be selected and participation has greatly impacted my life and the lives of people around me. These past few months have been very challenging and TM helped me remain balanced, gain clarity and keep a positive attitude. I find myself being able to let go of frustrations more easily, not engage in disruptive situations such as road rage and be able to relax more easily following difficult shifts at work. I have improved relations with the people around me and have been able to improve communication skills in difficult situations. Daily TM practice has been very beneficial to my well-being and positively affected my work as a nurse on a demanding unit.
My long term goal and hope is to get more training and bring what I have learned to my patients.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to extend a sincere thank you to you and behind the scenes team members.
Sincerely,
Gerti Schrattenthaler
Second Nurse: Good day,
I completed the survey, sorry for the delay in my responses. Our email system just changed so I no longer had access through my phone to check email. I wanted to let you know how beneficial the TM practice has been for me. It has allowed me to fully relax and recharge. It has helped me cope during the last couple of months which have been extremely stressful with the increase in COVID patients. The practice has been extremely helpful for my mental and emotional well-being. I am so grateful for this opportunity. I hope you get the opportunity to expand the study and allow other healthcare workers to benefit from this wonderful practice. I will continue the TM practice as part of my daily routine.
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
“The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) seems to be another of his “death poems,” as his wife Linda referred to them in a January 21, 2011 interview. It was probably written toward the end of his life (73) when he was diagnosed with leukemia and had started Transcendental Meditation (TM).
Linda Bukowski described what TM had done for her husband. “It allowed him to open up a space within himself to say these words about himself dying. These later poems, death poems, are so acute and so awake and aware and I think that had a lot to do with how meditation allowed him to be creative in his later months and write these poems, that I still cannot read.”
The poem, cited on bukowski.net, was written and first published in Prairie Schooner circa 1993, the year before he died. He had learned Transcendental Meditation prior to that and was enjoying practicing it regularly.
Even filmmaker David Lynch, toward the end of a Dec 31, 2006 New York Times article, was quoted as saying that Bukowski liked meditating. “I heard Charles Bukowski started meditation late in his life,” Mr. Lynch said, referring to the poet laureate of Skid Row, who died in 1994. “He was an angry, angry guy, but he apparently loved meditation.”
I later added that information to an earlier post about another death poem, “a song with no end,” in Charles Bukowski sang the life victorious. He carried that same upbeat message in this poem.
The Laughing HeartBy Charles Bukowski
your life is your life
don't let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can't beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.
Footnote: Thanks to Rhonda Thompson Gilpatrick‘s comment on September 19, 2009 pointing out an error in the fifth line of this Bukowski poem that Best American Poetry had posted. The correction was made and works better now.
Love this poem, but you’ve got one of the lines wrong (every site I look at does, though). I have the original printing of this. The line “there is a light somewhere,” should be “there is light somewhere.”
This is an important distinction between a specific light somewhere and light that is universally available somewhere—most likely within first, then without as well.
During Transcendental Meditation, breathing slows down, momentarily suspends; metabolic rate lowers twice as much as in deep sleep; deeply-rooted stresses and strains are released, dissolved, and repaired, respectively; bodily functions normalize; reaction time improves, a host of factors improve indicating a reversal of the aging process. Longtime TM meditators have a biological age of 12-15 years younger than their chronological age—one way “you can beat death in life, sometimes. and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be.”
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
July 5, 2024: I came across a fascinating interview with Charles Bukowski’s wife posted by Read Me A Poem: Bukowski Born Into This INTERVIEWS LINDA LEE BUKOWSKI. Linda mentions when her husband Hank had learned Transcendental Meditation and had practiced it regularly twice a day during the last six months of his life. The whole interview is brilliant. The TM part starts at 6:54. I was happy to hear her speak about his appreciation for TM, but also surprised to hear her describe what she felt when she saw him meditating. It is quite profound and very moving. When he was diagnosed with leukemia, he had stopped writing. TM made a deep impact on his life. He was able to write again. And he wrote the most profound poetry of his life.
New Federal Grant from Department of National Defence Awarded to the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative
Over the last three consecutive years, the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative (CWWI), has been awarded a grant from Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) to teach the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) program to military veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) and related comorbidities while serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. The Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative is a charitable organization mandated to bring the TM program to individuals whose lives are impacted by toxic levels of stress.
In February 2023, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, the Honourable Lawrence MacCaulay, and his team met with the National Director of the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative, Helen Creighton, to review the work of CWWI in bringing the TM program to Veterans and their family members.
Department of National Defence Grant Awarded in April 2023
Based on the success of the VAC-funded grants, the Department of National Defence (DND) has now fully funded a new grant for CWWI to teach TM to survivors of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) who are currently serving, or who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) or the Department of National Defence: Community Support for Sexual Misconduct Survivors Grant Program. [At this link, Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative (CWWI) is listed under Nova Scotia, where their National Office is located.]
The project can also include family members or support workers and will be taught in 8 major Canadian cities where TM teachers have taken additional training to work with this population.
This initiative aims to bring an effective evidence-based stress-reduction technique to those who have experienced sexual misconduct within the Defence community. Due to the trauma and negative emotions linked to sexual misconduct, this population is at risk for prolonged mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTS, low self-esteem, addiction and more.
Research has demonstrated that the TM program is one of the most effective methodologies for reducing the above issues, which are often present in those who have experienced sexual misconduct. Overcoming the negative effect that sexual misconduct has on one’s mental health is a critical first step in moving forward with one’s life.
Confidential quantitative surveys will be administered pre- and -post TM training for self-compassion (Neff, 2011) and trait anxiety survey (Cohen, 1983).
Self-compassion is the self responding positively in times of personal struggle. In addition to decreases in stress and improved levels of self-compassion, CWWI expects results to be similar to past research with veterans, such as:
• Reduced flashbacks and bad memories: Military Medicine 176 (6): 626-630, 2011
• Improved quality of life: Military Medicine 176 (6): 626-630, 2011
• Decrease in insomnia: Journal of Counseling and Development 64: 212-215, 1985
• Twice as effective as other relaxation techniques for decreasing trait anxiety: Journal of Clinical Psychology 45(6): 957–974, 1989
The CWWI project is overseen by several Advisory Boards, including healthcare professionals and military members and employs a researcher with expertise in qualitative and quantitative data.
CWWI is working with support groups mandated to help those affected by sexual misconduct, networking with doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists who work with this population, and reaching out to support groups.
CWWI is grateful to researchers Ann Royer, PhD, and Tanis Farish, PhD, as well as to Advisory Review Board members Dr. Raju Hajela [Major, retired], Dr. Brian Rees [Colonel, retired], and Ami Stadnick, MSc, R. Psych.
Article submitted by Helen Foster-Grimmett, Lead Instructor—Canadian Armed Forces, Veteran, Police and First Responder Outreach—Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative.
# # #
An article by Garry Foster on both TM grant programs and research was published in a BC Navy newsletter. It was picked up in a few provinces across Canada. It appears in print and online and is read by active duty personnel, veterans, their families and the public. Click on Volume 68, Issue 25, June 26, 2023, select English or French, and go to page 12 (page 11 in the downloadable PDF) to read: New DND grant expands support for sexual misconduct survivors, including family members.
A similar article by Garry Foster written for the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative was published in the September 26, 2023 issue of the Totem Times in English and French on page 5, New DND grant expands support for sexual misconduct survivors. (Click to enlarge and read.)
The Uncarved Blog 