Maharishi Mahesh Yogi described his initiative of bringing transcendental meditation or TM out of the Himalayas to the rest of the World as a global initiative “to improve the quality of Life wherever in the World.”

TM Devon is a local initiative on the principle of “Think Globally, Act Locally” to improve quality of Life – of health of mind and body for residents of Devon who would like this.

 

 

I learnt TM with the Maharishi Foundation in March 1990. This cost me about £100.

 

With this, I found I had access to what the Foundation describes as “restful alertness” or transcendence. It means a state of deep rest while remaining alert. It means to literally transcend thought and access the state of “Being.”

This is a very fine experience.

 

This state of deep rest has profound implications for improved and improving holistic health of mind and body for the individual – as I have witnessed many times.

 

At this time the Maharishi Foundation charged a fee according to an individual’s income to make learning TM an affordable reality.

In the early 1990s the Maharishi Foundation made the decision to increase the cost of learning TM to £1000. I was directly informed that there would be no exceptions with this charge – not even for students or people on low income.

In the late 1990s a group of highly experienced Maharishi Foundation trained teachers made the decision to set up a national charity called the Meditation Trust in order to be able to offer TM once again to the British population at an affordable level. By this time the Maharishi Foundation were charging £1280 to learn TM.

In this respect, the Meditation Trust is and has been a group of independent teachers based and teaching in the British Isles.

In 2015-17 I trained to be a teacher with The Meditation Trust because I felt it was the best decision for me in light of the reality of costs of learning when I learnt in 1990. I very much wanted and want to make TM affordable for ordinary working people in Devon.

There has been no TM teacher based in Exeter for decades. Just an occasional visiting teacher from other counties. This was not acceptable to me. I began this work or journey in 2017 and it will only grow from now.

It is true that the Maharishi Foundation now only charge £400 as a starting charge and do operate on the basis of charging according to income but that would not be the case without the existence of the Meditation Trust as a natural counter balance.

In mainland France & other parts of Europe the charge is still 1200 euros (March 2018) and in the United States $960 (down from $3000; when very few came to learn and there was heavy criticism of such a steep charge).

 

None of this will alter my complete and serious commitment to teaching transcendental meditation (TM) with strict adherence to the guidelines as laid out by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I will not deviate from attention to the highest quality teaching possible.

In fact the most important quality of a TM teacher is not that she or he is of great intellect. The most important quality is a complete commitment to teaching exactly according to the structure and principles that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi laid out for teachers. It is this dedication and commitment which will bring about the best outcome for the individual who comes to learn with a teacher.