Why pay for TM when I can learn meditation cheaper at the Y or in my yoga class?

Kulreet Chaudhary


Kulreet Chaudhary, MD: It's great that meditation has become mainstream and so many people want to embrace it and even teach it. However, the Transcendental Meditation technique is not the same kind of meditation that you learn down at the Y or at your yoga class (unless your yoga studio has partnered with a certified TM teacher). Those forms of meditation can be helpful, but they're very different from the TM technique—in practice and results.

The TM technique is not just a practice of watching your breath, concentrating or contemplating. It's an effortless, natural technique for transcending, for going beyond thought to tap your deepest inner reserves of creativity, intelligence and well-being, directly enlivening your body's innate healing mechanisms. It's easy to learn but requires a qualified teacher.

Transcendental Meditation is taught by teachers whose training is as rigorous, committed and specialized as the training I underwent to become a licensed physician. These teachers offer a tested and proven gift of preventive health care, an authentic technology for developing consciousness. I'd say their service to society is at least as valuable as that of doctors or other highly trained professionals.

Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary is Medical Director of Wellspring Neurology at Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California.
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• How is TM different from other meditation practices? >>
• Will other practices give the same results? >>
• Why a course fee, anyway — why isn't TM taught for free? >>