March 2006

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Maharishi’s Global Peace Program Featured
in United Airlines Hemispheres Magazine

Interview with David Lynch Reveals Filmmaker’s
Long-time Practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation Program,
Support for Maharishi’s Education and Peace-Creating Programs

David Lynch, founder and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, is an award-winning director, writer, and producer. His work includes Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive.

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s global peace initiative to bring the Transcendental Meditation program to every school and establish groups of peace-creating experts in every country is highlighted in the March 2006 issue of the award-winning United Airlines in-flight magazine, Hemispheres.

Maharishi’s global peace program is the focus of an in-depth interview with world-renowned filmmaker David Lynch, a 32-year practitioner of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation technique who recently established the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace to fund Maharishi’s global education and peace programs.

Extensive published scientific research has shown that practice of the TM technique optimizes brain functioning, improves academic performance, increases IQ, improves health, and reduces stress, anxiety, and depression among meditating students. Published research also shows that group practice of the TM program and its advanced techniques, including Yogic Flying, reduces societal stress and promotes positivity and coherence throughout the surrounding population.

Maharishi’s global peace plan calls for opening schools in every country where students will practice the Transcendental Meditation program and Yogic Flying in groups to create coherent national consciousness—the basis of peace and invincibility for the nation. Mr. Lynch’s foundation aims to raise $7 billion to establish and fully endow these peace-creating educational institutions throughout the world.

The Hemispheres article cites a few of the thousands of schools in the U.S. and throughout the world where students practice Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation program, including: • Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse of Detroit (K–8), a public charter school that has offered the TM technique to hundreds of students • Chelsea School (K–8), a private school for children with ADHD in Silver Spring, Maryland, which uses the TM program to reduce anxiety • Public high schools in Augusta, Georgia, where the TM program was taught as part of a federally funded study to reduce blood pressure in African-American teens • Maharishi School (K–12) in Fairfield Iowa, where for 20 years all the students have practiced the TM technique and regularly score in the top 1 percent of the nation on standardized tests.

David Lynch in Hemispheres

The following are excerpts from the interview with David Lynch in the United Airlines in-flight magazine, Hemispheres.

Q: What’s the purpose of the Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace?

David Lynch: The first goal is to get 10,000 students practicing Transcendental Meditation in the U.S. to create a wave of peace in America that will be a catalyst for peace in the world. It will be a peace-meditating group like a factory that pumps peace around the world.

Q: Why are you so interested in working with students?

David Lynch: Today, with school violence on the rise and with metal detectors in many schools, classroom stress is at an all-time high. So, at some inner-city schools, children are practicing TM and diving within. These kids are happy. This is from the inside, and it grows, and these kids excel. This growth of consciousness is palpable.

Q: You also want to establish seven Universities of World Peace. What, exactly, will they be like?

David Lynch: Imagine a university with at least 8,000 students. Imagine them all knowing how to dive within, enliven the unity within themselves, and know themselves. Then they do their program together in a group, and that group is very powerful. Eventually, they will bring harmony and coherence and peace in the world.

Q: You’ve been practicing TM for more than 30 years. Do you remember the first time you meditated?

David Lynch: Like it was yesterday. My sister called, and she had started TM, and I’d been looking into different forms of meditation. And there was something in my sister’s voice—less stress, and more happiness, and there was some sort of little lilt in her voice like something good. And I said, “I gotta have that.”

Q: How much meditation do you do each day?

David Lynch: Twenty minutes in the morning and 20 at night. I meditate in my office or in a chair in another room.

Q: What does it feel to meditate?

David Lynch: It’s the superhighway to the gold. This causes negativity to go like sunlight causes darkness to go.

Q: How would you like to be known? As a great filmmaker, as someone who helped spread peace throughout the world, or as something else entirely?

David Lynch: I’m a helper. That’s what I am. The reason I’m out talking to people is that life just gets better and better when you start to experience your own ocean of pure bliss.

Q: Anything that you’d like to add?

David Lynch: Think about what you’ve read. See if it rings a bell inside. If you want to be part of the David Lynch Foundation, to bring Transcendental Meditation to students, and work toward real peace on earth, let’s do it—together. We need help, we need support, and we need to change the world.

Students in Every Nation Will
Make Their Country Invincible

Group Practice of Yogic Flying in Schools Will Create Integrated National Consciousness to Prevent Problems; Improve the Quality of Government

“This knowledge has been known throughout the ages”

(March 14, 2006) His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi declared this week that students in every country will soon raise their nations to true freedom and invincibility and create permanent world peace through group practice in their schools of the coherence-creating Transcendental Meditation program and Yogic Flying.

“Schools, colleges, and universities are now being established in every country where students will practice Yogic Flying together in groups,” Maharishi said. “These groups will create a high level of integration in national consciousness to prevent problems and promote positivity, coherence, and harmony in the whole country.”

Each school is being designed and built according to Vedic architecture in harmony with Natural Law to promote the total influence of coherence in individual and collective consciousness.

Maharishi’s announcement came during his March 8 global news conference, which was broadcast live via satellite and Internet webcast from the Capital of the Global Country of World Peace in Meru, Holland.

Raising 24 adopted nations to invincibility

Two weeks ago, Maharishi announced that his Global Country of World Peace is adopting 24 nations and providing each country with the knowledge and programs to create integrated collective consciousness. Maharishi said that establishing groups of Yogic Flyers in schools is the first step to raise the 24 nations to invincibility.

“In the same way that Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying create integrated consciousness for the individual, daily group practice of these technologies creates integrated collective consciousness for the nation,” Maharishi said.

Experience of Transcendental Consciousness promotes total brain functioning

Maharishi explained that the Transcendental Meditation program and Yogic Flying train the mind to function from the Unified Field—Transcendental Consciousness—which administers the infinite diversity of the universe with perfect order. This experience alone, Maharishi said, promotes total brain functioning. “When the total brain begins to function from the transcendental level of the mind, then every thought is promoted from the Unified Field—from cosmic intelligence, the omnipresent, omniscient, almighty will of God. Then every thought pervades the entire creation,” Maharishi said.

Maharishi said extensive research shows that when these technologies are practiced in groups, the influence of coherence radiates out from the level of the Unified Field and silently promotes coherence and harmony in the whole of world consciousness. “Then the life of every individual and every nation will begin to spontaneously function in accord with Total Natural Law—the Unified Field—which promotes the evolution of everyone and everything, from point to infinity, in the ever-expanding galactic universe,” Maharishi said.

Schools to offer complete knowledge of the Unified Field

Maharishi said that the new schools, colleges, and universities that are being established in the 24 adopted countries will offer students the complete knowledge and programs of the Unified Field. “Students will be given direct experience of the Unified Field through Transcendental Meditation, its advanced techniques, and Yogic Flying. They will gain the complete intellectual understanding of the Unified Field from the modern physical sciences and the eternal Vedic science of India,” Maharishi said.

Maharishi then emphasized: “The Unified Field is not a new reality, even though it was only recently discovered by modern science. It has been known throughout the ages—it transcends space and time. It is the Veda—it is the unified basis of all diversified values in the universe.”

Creating integrated national consciousness
is the only way to improve government

In response to a press question, Maharishi said that creating integrated national consciousness is the only way to improve the quality of government. “National consciousness is the motivator for every action of a government,” Maharishi said. “A government cannot do anything other than what is dictated by national consciousness. So, if we want government to be free from problems, then we have to improve the quality of national consciousness.”

“The whole world will rise to the divine level of invincibility”

Maharishi concluded by saying that the groups of Yogic Flyers in every country will raise national administration above the unsatisfactory level of human problems and human weaknesses to the flawless level of divine administration. “Then every government—as well as the United Nations—will fulfill its parental role of doing maximum good for its people, and the whole world family will enjoy freedom, peace, and invincibility,” Maharishi said. “So now is the time for the wise people of this generation to establish this knowledge for their children, grandchildren, and all future generations to enjoy.”

Questions to Maharishi from the Press Conference on March 8, 2006

The Difference Between Transcending and Cognition

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you, Maharishi. Here is another short but deep question: What is the difference in the mechanics of a person who transcends and experiences pure Being—pure, unmanifest Veda at the source of thought—and the process that a Rishi undergoes when he cognises the Veda, when he sees and hears the hymns of the Veda. So the question is: What is the difference between transcending to experience pure Being, and cognising the Veda within that reality of Being?’ 

Maharishi: ‘When we say Veda, in that three values are involved: the Rishi, which means the seer; the process of seeing; and the object of sight. So the seer, seeing, and the sight—all the three mean the Veda. Rishi, Devata, Chhand—all the three mean the Veda, Total Knowledge. Cognition of the Veda means when you hear the Veda, when you see the Veda, then what you see is: who is the seer, what is the seeing process, and what is the sight, which is the goal of seeing.

‘The seer, seeing, and the sight—Rishi, Devata, Chhand—are the cognitions of the three aspects of the Veda. When we say all the three, then we say all the three together—Samhita. “Samhita” means the Unified Field, the Unified Field of all the three—Rishi, Devata, Chhand. Three in togetherness—that is the Veda. That is the soul of everyone. That is the Atma of everyone. That is the Totality. That is Unity Consciousness. That is Brahm. “Aham Brahm”—I am Totality, I am Brahm. That is the reality of man in the Light of God. That is why man has that authenticity. Man is the master of his own destiny, because at the top level he is on the level of the Almighty, total liveliness of Natural Law, cosmic law, divine law, pure divinity, God, the Unified Field.’

Religious Differences and the Unified Field

Mr. Jones: ‘Maharishi, thank you for that. When you look at the world now and you see the stark division that exists between the Islamic world and the Christian world, do you look at one side and say, “Well, I have more sympathy with that side or the other side”? Also, how do you see that this great conflict might be resolved through Transcendental Meditation?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Transcendental Meditation is one thing on the level of experience. On the level of theory, they will all come to the Unified Field. The Unified Field is a field which unifies all differences. Christianity has a God, and Islam has a God, and Buddhism has a God, and this one has a God, and this one has a God. The Unified Field has all the Gods on one level, the unified level. So it is the scientific age that is going to eliminate the thorny edge of differences of all religions. Not only all religions, but all systems of politics, all systems of economy, all systems of differences everywhere.

‘This is going to be the scientific approach to life, now that the Unified Field has been discovered by Dr Hagelin and his colleagues in the world. When the top level has been known, young students’ time should not be wasted in test-tube laboratories. In those days when science was developing, then the test-tube laboratories for students were all right. Now, the students should be given the direct experience of the Unified Field and the direct understanding of all the mathematical calculations emerging from zero, from the zero-point motion, where all the Unified Field is a reality—from zero. What is not being taught in the schools is zero.

‘Mathematics starts not from one, two, three, four, five, but from zero. When we write a Vedic one, first we write the zero and lengthen the line to be one. So, when we see a Vedic one it has a zero in it and one in it. When we write any other one, say supposing an English one, a straight one, there is no zero. What is missing is the source of one. The source of one is missing in other units of language, in other languages, but in the Vedic language, zero is there and one is there. In other languages, a simple one is there. When one is there, one hangs without a source, and anything without a source will never satisfy the completeness of knowledge. It is a very simple argument, which I am giving just to say that even mathematics, which decides so many different values, is without its real permanent basis. Now you see where mathematics is?

‘So we go to Vedic Mathematics, we go to Vedic Language, we go to Vedic Expression, we go to Vedic Silence. Then, we have trained our brain physiology to function completely, and we are really fully developed individuals, fully developed human beings. We are expressions of the divine. We are the masters of our own destiny; otherwise, we are slaves of situations and circumstances.

‘These are simple plain words. It may appear to be hard, but they are very soft.’

The Future of the TM Movement

Mr. Jones: ‘I do not know precisely what age you are, but clearly you will not live forever, like any of us. What will happen to the TM Movement when you pass on? Do you have successors in mind? Do you need a successor to be a figurehead of the Movement or how will it work?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It does not work on the individual level; it works on a cosmic level, which is expressed in the individual. A body is to pass on, but Transcendental Meditation is not my creation. Transcendental Meditation has been throughout the ages since time immemorial. The unmanifest, self-referral, Unified Field is Transcendental Meditation. People forget about it; someone comes to say it is there with you. He passes away. This passing away is not of any importance. We do not give importance to the individual. We give importance to the transcendental reality, which transcends the individual and establishes the universal, eternal oneness of Being.

‘A man speaks on it in these years, and another man speaks on this in that year. So it is not the individual; it is the same reality that is eternal. It is being spoken by those who like to enjoy speaking about it. I am not thinking of my life or death or this. I am thinking that Transcendental Meditation has now very properly come to bless nations as a whole, to bless the unified value of all nations at a time when all the people of the world—all your intelligent people I mean—are hankering to find a solution. This gives a solution to them.

‘When all these organisations, like the United Nations and all the governments of each country who like to do maximum for their people, find their fulfilment in this programme, the whole world will rise to a Divine level rather than being exposed to the human level. The human level is a very unsatisfactory level.’

Source of Maharishi’s Energy

Mr. Jones: ‘Thank you very much. One more question: Where do you get your tremendous energy? I understand that you only sleep about two hours a day.’ 

Maharishi: ‘Nobody knows what even those two hours are like. Nobody knows if I am sleeping even those two hours. People make their stories, but these are not significant in my case, because I am not living in terms of how much I sleep, and how much I eat, and how much I wake up and all. This is not my life. My life is that level where unmanifest prevails through all differences in manifestations.

‘It is like the life of everyone: how much one sleeps, and how much one wakes, and how much one eats, and what one eats, whether one eats sweet more, or pungent more, or salt more—what does it mean? It is a waste of life, waste of time.’

Maharishi’s Message for the Youth

Mr. Max: ‘We have another question from the press, which has to do with the fact that this weekend there will be an unprecedented pilgrimage from throughout the entire United States and all over the world to Maharishi Vedic City and Maharishi University of Management. Over a thousand will assemble at Maharishi University of Management for a national conference entitled “Exploring the Frontiers of Consciousness, Creativity, and the Brain”. They will hear from renowned filmmaker Dr. David Lynch, from Dr. John Hagelin, and from other scientists of Maharishi University of Management, who will speak about the infinite potential of the human mind, and how development of total brain functioning and the full potential of consciousness is the basis of inner fulfillment and outer permanent peace for the world.

‘The question for Maharishi is: Do you have a particular message that you would like to convey to all these young people who are coming to your university to gain this profound knowledge? What should they know? What should they learn that they do not already know?’

Maharishi: ‘They should know that they should learn something that is within themselves—their own consciousness, whose total potential is hidden from view. Their world is a world of sensory perception. Now they have to close the eyes and face the reality of their own existence, their own intelligence, their own self-referral Unified Field in their own Transcendental Consciousness. This is what they have to know, they have to be, and they have to use in their lives.

‘They are fortunate to be in this generation where Transcendental Consciousness is going to be the conscious ruler of their actions, the conscious manager of their perceptions. This is going to be the reality of life. That, which is hidden from view, they will unfold through Transcendental Meditation and bring out into the field of the relative.

‘The whole field of relativity is just a matter of opinion. The reality is transcendental, self-referral consciousness, bliss consciousness, invincible consciousness—coherence in the field of consciousness. Now, the world is going to be a world ruled by that reality which has been transcendental so far.