Today we are going to discuss a precious topic. The best books on transcendental meditation you must read even if you are a beginner or amateur in meditation practice. This post highlights 10 transcendental meditation books with their own unique and insightful perspectives.
Let’s deep dive into it and you can choose the correct book that matches you at the end of the post.
Table of Contents
Transcendental Meditation (TM)
Let’s discuss a little about the transcendental meditation technique before going for the details of the books.
As a widely used form of mindfulness meditation technique all over the world, transcendental meditation is used to achieve an enlightenment state through practicing mantra meditation. The mantra is a set of words that are repeated several times to focus the mind and reach deep relaxation. The meaning of the mantra is mind and protection.
How to practice transcendental meditation.
Usually, you can practice transcendental meditation for 20 minutes twice a day. First, you need to select a calm environment that has no noisy background sound that interrupts the process.
Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Then you need to focus on your breath and let your thoughts come and go without your judgment. Eventually, the mind will become quiet and still, and the meditator will enter a state of pure awareness.
Now you have the ability to transcend all thoughts and emotions to connect with their true nature. By reading a book on transcendental meditation, you have a better chance to learn meditation step by step along with the practical guide.
Benefits of transcendental meditation
The transcendental meditation technique has benefits for both mental and physical health. It will reduce stress and anxiety and enhance calmness and peace of mind. In addition, you will notice that your quality of sleep has increased with your overall well-being when you start to practice meditation.
Read our full article on transcendental meditation benefits for a piece of detailed knowledge.
Books on Transcendental Meditation
We discuss the best 10 books on transcendental meditation from different authors with a summary of the books. This will help you to choose the correct book for you and all books have been written in plain English and are easy to understand.
Our Top 3 Book Recommendations for Transcendental Meditation
Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation
- By Bob Roth
Transcendental Meditation: The Essential Teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
- By Jack Forem
1. The core and essence : Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad-Gita
Author: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The first 6 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita (written in ancient Vedic language). very insightful and consciousness-based story.
The core and essence of Mahesh Yogi’s teachings are that everyone has the potential to achieve inner peace and self-realization through the practice of meditation. This book is the core of transcendental meditation techniques and it was converted from transcript to English by Mahesh Yogi with a comprehensive introduction.
According to Mahesh Yogi, meditation is a state of thoughtless awareness, in which the mind is completely still and focused on the present moment.
This state of pure consciousness can be accessed through the practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which he developed. The goal of TM is not to achieve specific states of mind, but rather to allow the individual to experience his or her own true nature.
Over the years, thousands of people have been trained in TM and have attested to its effectiveness in reducing stress, improving mental clarity, and promoting overall well-being. Mahesh Yogi’s teachings continue to inspire people around the world who are seeking to live more peaceful, fulfilling lives.
We have a dedicated post for the inspiring life story of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. We would like to invite you to read and get more insights.
2. Transcendental Meditation: The Essential Teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Author: Jack Forem
Jack Forem’s book is a must-read for anyone looking to learn about the benefits of meditation. The author goes deep into topics like how it can help you with your mental health, happiness levels, and even relationships!
If that’s not enough then read on as he covers education (in an engaging way), self-actualization, spirituality/religion – giving readers insight from both perspectives – before ending abruptly at peace within oneself which appears to be more significant than what was written above because there were no further details provided after this point other then.
The book was written in a clear, user-friendly, and inspiring way that delivers a perfect introduction to a TM beginner.
The book offers how Oprah Winfrey explained the way that she introduced TM to her staff and Dr. Mehmet oz describes the TM benefits for your heart health and the positive effect on students who were introduced to TM at their schools by school principals.
“As Einstein famously said, “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” ― Jack Forem
3. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
Author: David Lynch
David Lynch is an American director, artist, and musician who has been creating works of art since the 70s. He describes his thoughts on creativity in this interview where he shares how Transcendental Meditation plays a significant role throughout every aspect from what ideas come into mind to shaping those dreams into reality by way more than just fishing them out with one’s rod and reel – they are actually caught!.
It is an exciting and informative view of what it’s like to be on his mind to produce great works and how it inspires him to do these.
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure” – David Lynch
4. Transcendence: Healing and transformation through Transcendental Meditation
Author: Dr. Norman E Rosenthal
This book is an excellent overview of scientifically researched benefits that meditation can offer people with various mental health problems.
It’s written by Dr. Norman E Rosenthal, who writes about how and why Transcendental Meditation has helped him in his own life struggles as well as those close friends he’s gained throughout the years since practicing it themselves or working closely alongside others doing so for this purpose too – including prison inmates to Wall Street professionals: both inner city school kids living tough existences but also Hollywood celebrities!
Transcendental Meditation is a simple practice that anyone can do. Dr, Rosenthal explains the benefits of Transcendence in an easy-to-learn way for people who may have never heard about this method before or know little information about where they could start learning more.
He teaches readers how long it takes (20 minutes per day) and what equipment you need – including just sitting comfortably with nothing else distractions while using your own silence as guidance during those precious moments spent meditating!
“Men seek retreats for themselves in country places, on beaches and mountains, and you yourself are wont to long for such retreats, but that is altogether unenlightened when it is possible at any hour you please to find a retreat within yourself. For nowhere can a man withdraw to a more untroubled quietude than in his own soul.”― Norman E. Rosenthal
5. Symphony of Silence. An Enlightened Vision
Author: George A. Ellis
A Symphony of Silence is an exploration of nature and experience that transcends all limits of humans. The book explores man’s quest for enlightenment, through his journey to becoming fully realized as a human being.
The author shares the stories of other individuals to bring awareness and a sense of inner silence to find out the true story of the reader as a self-discovery. This book also touches the stories and elections, artistic paintings and poems, and charts to improve the understand-ability of the reader.
In addition, the author describes the human journey of legacy, history, and transformation along with compassion, the power of love, and effective techniques to explore self-knowledge and achieve higher states of consciousness and transcendence.
6. The Best of All Possible Worlds
Author: B. Steven Verney
The book describes the story of a philosophy Ph.D. student Sam O’Connor who had a life-changing opportunity to attend a course on transcendental meditation techniques in the early 70s. The course was held in Switzerland and ten-week long advanced course taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
During the course, Mahesh Yogi gave the challenge to create and teach classes on how the integration of western and eastern philosophies. Sam got successful in teaching lectures in these classes at Amherst college and was able to become on the national stage.
Sam had an opportunity to work with Julian Driscoll, a philosophy major at Amherst College, and discussed consciousness, enlightenment, and the causes of suffering.
7. Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation
Author: Bob Roth
Transcendental meditation techniques can be used as a simple practice to change the way we respond to stress and life challenges with a dramatically positive effect. Reducing stress and anxiety, improving focus, and enhancing sleep quality are a few of the benefits of TM that are scientifically proven.
The author, Bob Roth has trained under Mahesh yogi and the author explains the science behind transcendental meditation in a new way in his book. The three types of meditation (Focused attention, open monitoring, self-transcending) are highlighted and discussed more on transcending in an effective and accessible way to obtain its benefits enjoyed.
Strength in Stillness is a must read book and definitely you need to add this to your collection of books on transcendental meditation.
Oprah Winfrey tells that “People sleep better. People have better relationships. People interact with other people better. I am one thousand percent better when I do it. Meditation Bob: He’s got it!”
8. The Transcendental Meditation Technique and the Journey of Enlightenment
Author: Ann Purcell
The author explains that enlightenment is not very difficult to achieve and does not need to sacrifice a part of life. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has proved this through his teachings in India and all over the world that enlightenment is the almost normal and natural state of human life. Any person who lives in this world has the ability to achieve enlightenment and bliss with disregard for races and religions.
Ann Purcell describes her personal experiences and the experiences of the TM practitioners as lively testimonials that she met all over the world. Every person on earth has pure consciousness within himself and has the ability to experience inner stillness.
9. Maharishi’s Yoga: The Royal Path to Enlightenment
Author: William F. Sands
The author, William discussed the connection between transcendental meditation and yoga in this book with depth. He tries to give answers to the questions related to yoga such as ‘ is yoga towards enlightenment? , can yoga be considered flexible for both mental and physical well-being? ‘ based on Mahesh yogi’s teachings.
Furthermore, he argued that yoga is not providing experience in a state of awareness but TM provides the ability to settle down your mind step by step when you practice under an experienced teacher. The book explained the complex themes in philosophy such as confusing the goal with the path and experiencing yoga results without having an actual state of yoga.
William Sand also covers the Eights limbs of Yoga, higher states in consciousness, and the impact of yoga on the mind and body.
10. The Transcendental Meditation TM Book: How to Enjoy the Rest of Your Life
Authors: Denise Denniston, Peter McWilliams, Barry Geller
The best-selling book explains the benefits of TM and how it works in addition to covering the great details of TM. The knowledge is represented in the question-and-answer format along with funny cartoons to amplify the points described in the topic. So this book is most suitable for visual learners as well.
The written tone of the book is light and the content of the book is also easy to understand. The results of scientific studies are also shown in a very detailed way combined with abstracts, illustrations, and charts to make the easy to understand for the reader.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Books on Transcendental Meditation
In the upper section, we discussed the books written by different authors, But a lot of authors are also students of Mahesh yogi and they explained their personal meditation journey on TM along with teaching meditation in their books.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Mahesh Yogi was an Indian spiritual teacher who gained international fame in the 1960s. Born in India in 1918, he began his study of yoga at a young age. After completing his studies, he taught yoga in India for several years before moving to the United States in 1959.
There, he founded the Meditation Society of America and began teaching “Transcendental Meditation” to Westerners. In the early 1960s, he began attracting celebrity followers, including The Beatles and Mia Farrow.
Mahesh Yogi continued to teach and lecture around the world until his death in 2008. Despite his controversial reputation, he remains one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the 20th century and wrote many books.
Now we are going to consider a few other books on transcendental meditation that are authored by Mahesh Yogi.
1. Science of Being and Art of Living
The book explores the vision of Mahesh Yogi for a new humanity in all life values at physical, mental, material, and spiritual levels. This book was published in 1963 as the result of requests by his students to convert his great teaching into a paper format.
The wisdom of Veda and Vedic literature is also presented along with the ultimate reality of the universe as a systematic investigation. Modern science has not reached the concept of the existence of a single universal field when this book was published and but the book has explained more complex facts that were not discovered by science at that time.
2. Transcendental Meditation with Questions and Answers
This book contains the talks given by Mahesh Yogi from 1960 to 1961 in England on transcendental meditation and the questions and answers given by Yogi to his audiences that attended his lectures.
3. On God Realization & Devotion
This consists of an inspiring series of lectures given by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Germany in 1964 December. It described the cosmic consciousness and the transition to God’s consciousness along with the expansion of love and heart and devotion.
Why is it essential to read books on transcendental meditation?
Reading transcendental meditation books is essential for anyone looking to delve deeper into the practice of achieving inner peace and self-realization. These books provide valuable insights and techniques that can help practitioners cultivate a calm and focused mind, improve their overall well-being, and enrich their personal and professional lives.
By offering guidance from experienced teachers and outlining the benefits of consistent practice, transcendental meditation books serve as indispensable resources for those seeking to unlock the transformative power of this ancient technique.
Conclusion
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is considered the founder of transcendental meditation practice and the TM helps to achieve a higher state of consciousness by practicing it with the guidance of meditation experts.
We listed down the best meditation books authored by Mahesh Yogi and most of the other books are written by his students who trained in transcendental meditation and explained their own experiences and their peer’s experiences in their books.
We think now you have a great understanding of which book to read as a starting point when you start meditation. Happy reading.
FAQs on books on transcendental meditation
1. Can I learn Transcendental Meditation from a book?
Yes, definitely you can learn the basics and knowledge of TM from a book written by meditation experts. You can reach a higher state of consciousness by practicing meditation under a certified TM teacher.
2. Can I learn Transcendental Meditation by myself?
You can learn TM up to some extent by yourself alone by reading books and getting more knowledge from sources. But TM method is only fully taught by certified practitioners.
3. How long does it take to benefit from Transcendental Meditation?
It takes around 8 weeks to see a benefit from meditation practice if you allocate around 20 minutes per day.
4. What are the stages of transcendental meditation?
There are seven stages of consciousness as follows.
1. deep sleep
2. dreaming
3. waking
4. transcendental consciousness
5. cosmic consciousness
6. God Consciousness
7. unity consciousness
