Meditation: for old hippies or a better way of life?
JONATHAN ROWSON
The Herald, UK
I once told a taxi driver that I meditate, and was intrigued when he said he was into that sort of thing too. He said that for him it was watching tropical fish and for his wife it was taking a nap, and I conceded that there are many ways to relax and recharge.
Now I believe one method is superior. I learned transcendental meditation (TM) in 1998, while a student at Oxford University, six months before my final exams. I paid £140 for the privilege, and was struck by how easy it was to practise the technique. I suddenly had more energy, concentrated better and felt warmer towards other people. Shortly afterwards, I earned a first-class degree, which had not previously been on the cards. In fact, TM was by far the best thing I learned at Oxford.
I am now a professional chess player, the current British champion, and wouldn’t dream of playing a serious game without meditating beforehand. After meditating I feel calm, centred and ready to compete – but, more importantly, the technique allows me to “just play” and enjoy the game without worrying about the result. These kinds of positive effects are well-known to thousands of practitioners of TM and have been documented in more than 600 scientific journals.
Here is the full article.
Meditation won’t help me.
Proper meditation helps everybody. But you don’t have to pay $140 to learn it. try to find an anandamarga centre (anandamarga.org) near to your place and they will teach you for free. They consider meditation as a birthright.
Mayadi
Rowson was luck to get away with only paying $140. Most people spend a lot more on their courses, and they still can’t fly at the end of it!
Transcendental Meditation is a ripoff, on par with Scientology.
This is not to say that all meditation is a waste of time, just this particular type.
When I first read “Transcendental Meditation (TM)” I thought the TM in parenthesis was “trademark”… LOL
Rowson’s article is frank and I am glad to have read it and not just the abstract – Like the other postings meditation and training of the mind can help – not just active training – like improving one’s memory and speed reading as some common examples, but in this case, calming the mind down. Quieting the mind is probably of greater value to chess players.
For those in the Christian community interested in meditation, may I suggest two books: Praying Naked, by J. Francis Stroud; and Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline
i hate hippies.
Rastamann.
There are many different types of meditation that produce different results. Zen Master Seung Sahn uses one type to correct his heart beat and discusses other with physicians from Harvard.
http://www.dharmaweb.org/index.php/Completely_Become_One_Dharma_Talk_by_Zen_Master,_Seung_Sahn
I don’t know if he would recommend using meditation to improve one’s chess ?
*sigh* how can one recognize the right way amongst the milieu? In the end it is up to the individual’s independent decision. Here is a link to Zazen meditation group (http://www.dogensangha.org/), which, IMO, teaches the right way to meditate. Much like chess or any sports, the only way to learn this is through practice and not through words; hence the extreme difficulty in promoting this meditation technique! – Manoj (been there done that, hence I can confidently recommend the site).