The central event of our age is the discovery that we can transcend the mind.
The knowledge gained by transcending the mind is infinitely greater than anything the mind could know, even though this knowledge contains no object, no image no thought.
This "knowledge" is not the known, but the knower. It is the luminosity of consciousness its Self. It is the only peace, the only freedom. Through the practice of regular meditation, the radiant and boundless transparency of this knowledge can become the ground of our daily experience.
This knowledge, of course, is recorded in the ancient Upanishads. But it was the domain of the rare mystic, immersed in his ascetic religious lifestyle. Today, a critical mass of humanity is realizing this direct experience of transcendental conscious, beyond the mind, yet deeper within the Self: the spaciousness that is here before a single thought arises. When great numbers of people touch this awareness, the world will be transformed by their silent radiance.
The consciousness transcending thought may be known even during sleep, as described in the Bible's Song of Songs: "I sleep, but my heart wakes." Even while the body is in deepest slumber, awareness remains awake in the bliss of Turiya. Turiya is defined in the Mandukya Upanishad as the fourth state of consciousness, distinct from waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Beginning with an article in Scientific American, 1972, "A Hypo-Metabolic State" by Dr. Robert Keith Wallace, modern science has confirmed that this meditative awareness is physiologically distinct, and not to be confused with either REM or dreamless sleep.
Turiya is self-effulgent silence free from thought. It is the natural birthright of humanity. We know that when we lack sleep, our lives become stressed and unhealthy. Humans who lack the regular experience of Turiya also live in an unnaturally stressed and unhealthy condition.
Forgetting to meditate has produced a human race that is hyper-active, aggressive, angry, prone to illness, and inefficient. But incorporating Turiya into our daily lives, through meditation, we become fully natural and healthy human beings. Life simply becomes whole. What if a flower has soil, air and sunlight but no water? It withers. But when we add the fourth element, water, the flower blossoms. One would not say that this flower is saintly, or that it has been touched by the supernatural. One merely says that it is healthy. It is a normal flower.
Those who incorporate Turiya into their daily round of waking, dreaming and sleep, become normal human beings. The present state of humanity can only be called abnormal. Bringing meditation into the daily life of humanity is the normal way to establish peace on earth and restore harmony to civilization. No political, economic, or religious ideology can do this. What is lacking is simply awareness at its most fundamental and silent level.
Mind without silence is ego, and ego inevitably undermines peace. The ego-mind feeds on division, argument, and conflict. Through conflict, the ego acquires a sense of self-importance. Such a mind knows how to engage in conflict, but has no idea how to engage in peace. Because peace is not an idea; peace is silence within. When this inward silence underlies our actions, our actions are sane.
Every peace conference, political assembly, business meeting, or university class should begin with silent transcendental meditation, because successful work arises from inner silence. We are more available to one another when we transcend ideology and dissolve the busy chatter of thinking. Then every thought springs out of the ground of silence as a flower of pure intention, manifesting in appropriate action free from strain. To become an effective community, church, business or government, let us begin our activism with transcendental deep meditation. Jai Guru Dev.
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LINK: NBC News on how Transcendental Meditation transforms inner city schools in San Francisco.
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