Re:How scientists are bringing advanced meditation out of th...
by haswell on Monday August 28, 2023 @06:39PM
(#37301299)
Yeah, TM is quite a different thing.
The scientific interest in meditation is primarily focused on the mindfulness variety, which is more about observing your state of mind without judgement, and learning to stop getting lost in discursive thought, vs. TM's focus on mantras.
While the mindfulness family of practices has been fairly well secularized, it does seem that TM brings a lot more baggage along with it.
I think this still boils down to the person practicing. While researching/evaluating meditation practices, TM was something that I decided to steer clear of, for many of the reasons you describe.
The scientific interest in meditation is primarily focused on the mindfulness variety, which is more about observing your state of mind without judgement, and learning to stop getting lost in discursive thought, vs. TM's focus on mantras.
While the mindfulness family of practices has been fairly well secularized, it does seem that TM brings a lot more baggage along with it.
I think this still boils down to the person practicing. While researching/evaluating meditation practices, TM was something that I decided to steer clear of, for many of the reasons you describe.