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A mantra never spoken aloud
The private mantra
A teacher gives the mantra to the student, and it can't be learned from anyone else. Sitting with eyes closed, the student engages the sound silently for at least twenty minutes once a day, typically twice. Rick Rubin did his right after waking and again before dinner.
Starting again
He learned it at fourteen and stopped when he went to college. After he moved to California, he knew it would be a big decision and that there would be a right moment to start again, and it took several months before he actually sat. In that first session after five years away, the practice felt familiar, a big part of who he was. Returning to it was the only proof of its value he had.
Meditating in studios
Back in California studios, he meditated with Tom Petty and Johnny Cash before sessions, and with the Red Hot Chili Peppers before theirs. The teacher who brought the practice west, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, likened each session to a deposit in the bank. That stopped being rhetoric for Rubin: the depth builds, and the surface of things became less interesting to him than what lies underneath.
Why is a TM mantra kept private?
The Transcendental Meditation organization describes its mantras as sounds without meaning, chosen by a teacher and given to each student individually. The reasoning is that a private sound gives the mind nothing to analyze or discuss. Speaking it aloud or comparing it with others is discouraged for the same reason. Students learn the technique over several sessions with a certified teacher, and the practice itself is taught as twice-daily sessions.
How did Transcendental Meditation reach the West?
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began teaching the technique in India in the 1950s and took it on a world tour starting in 1959, arriving in the United States through Hawaii and Los Angeles. It reached a much bigger audience in 1967, when the Beatles attended one of his lectures in Wales. In early 1968 they traveled to his ashram in Rishikesh, India, and the press attention made TM famous worldwide. Other musicians and actors followed through the late 1960s and 1970s.
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