Reading some recent posts in this forum caused my mind to reflect on the NSR practice and what I had learned. This morning I had a flash of insight and finally reached a point of genuine understanding. (I'm sure this is stated elsewhere, but wording it in my own words has been helpful).

Is the following a correct assessment:

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In NSR the process of "transcending" involves a willingness to expend no effort. Keeping muscles tense and thinking thoughts, worrying about the future or other things all involve spending effort. In NSR we use the syllable, which itself requires next to no effort, to guide us into eliminating any other effort in our bodies. The syllable however, does actually require the very smallest and most minute fragment of effort to remember the syllable. When one has transcended, even that very smallest quantity of effort is unconsciously discarded and the person forgets the syllable and is left enjoying pure consciousness. Even if just for a few seconds, that state of pure consciousness is very therapeutic for the person.

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Is that on track? I think I finally get it. It took me a while because I think I am finally realizing that I have been a control freak. Thanks for your patience.

David,

Yes! Beautiful!

Assuming you are the same David who has been posting here for the last two months (the price of anonymity is anonymity), you appear to be emerging from your pain like a firebird arising from its ashes.

There is much more to come. Enjoy!

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA

David,

Yeah, that's me. I'll probably get an account and stop posting anonymously one of these days.

The things you have been saying in the forums and the manual came together for me this morning. I have been intensely stressed lately and have not been practicing as I ought to have done. My sick son kept me up until 2:00 AM last night, and I have had a headache all week and everything has been stressful at work with an upset client.

I sat down and did a short session this morning. I was finally willing to let go and make no attempt to control. Even though it was short, probably only 10-11 minutes, it made its mark today. The headache was gone and today was much better.

I have had good experiences with NSR before. However, I am going to go back into practice wiser this time: If you "TRY" to re-create a wonderful past "bliss" experience, you are expending effort and thus preventing yourself from getting what you really want. I have done that before.

So back I go with no preconceived goals.

Best regards,

David.

this is great info David, thanks i am new at this , and already i get what you mean!
letting go!

David wrote: "If you "TRY" to re-create a wonderful past "bliss" experience, you are expending effort and thus preventing yourself from getting what you really want."

For me, this is one of the most important aspects of this practice. ANY expectations at all - even the expectation of experiencing bliss, or silence, or relaxation, or a refinement of the syllable - is counter-productive. If you'll excuse reference to a religious book, it is said (paraphrased here) that one cannot take the kingdom of heaven by force. The mere 'intention' to ALLOW whatever happens to happen, even 'nothing happening', is all that is required.

And, IF one should be fortunate to experience any quietness, or bliss, or silence, or peace during the process, then it CAN be tempting to want that experience again in the next session of CMR. And such a temptation will work against the innocent process. It can even cause one to get angry with outside factors that one might see as 'preventing' that experience -- factors such as noisy family members, a noisy car exhaust of high-revving motorbike, whatever.

The instructions in the manual are based on a really, really enlightened understanding of the mechanics of life itself, and of the human mind. Innocence and preparedness to follow the instructions verbatim are all that's needed.

David, your insights and the way you expressed them are soooo valuable to others in this forum!

Regards to all,
Gavin
Long-term TM meditator

"It can even cause one to get angry with outside factors that one might see as 'preventing' that experience -- factors such as noisy family members, a noisy car exhaust of high-revving motorbike, whatever."

I have experienced that, of course. But until you posted your comments I did not see the very direct CAUSE->EFFECT relationship between my control attempts and the subsequent irritation at external factors (like noisy kids).

Thank you Gavin. I will now use irritation as an indicator that I am trying to "control".

This hits the nail on the head with me too. After experiencing a good session, it is easy to expect the same or better next time.

This morning I remember feeling slightly dissapointed because I felt anxious during the relaxation period. I expected to feel better.

This can be the case in much of life. Even to the extent that doing something well can almost be 'worse', because there is that to live up to next time.

My expectation can go in cycles, from having a great burden of expectation to having very little.

For me, it seems to boil down to acceptance of the here and now, which is something that I am learning with the help of NSR.

Andrew the builder,

That is a very good insight.

When we are cleaning away the dirt, naturally we will feel dirty from time to time. But these feelings are temporary and indicate that the dirt is going. Soon the dirt will be gone and the great results will return, better than ever.

Because stress release hides our enjoyment of the dive within, we tend to resent it. For this reason, we must always judge the effectiveness of our meditation sessions not by what goes on during them, but by what happens in our life afterward, over a period of several weeks.

Here are some questions we can ask ourselves: Are friends and relatives making comments about how much nicer we are toward them? Are we accomplishing more during the day with less fatigue? Are we handling stressful situations with more ease and grace?

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA

So, I had another great meditation session this morning. Which is significant to me because it followed yesterday which was also great. I have decided to make one small addition to the program (which I feel necessary for me at this stage and I'm not necessarily advocating for everyone else).

Before I begin my session I will explicitly ask myself the following question:
Are you willing to yield control for 20 minutes and let whatever happens happen?
The theory is that this will help me consciously decide to let go of the the reins before I even begin. I did something like it this morning and I seem to respond favorably to a polite request.

This may not be necessary for me forever if I undergo some personality change as a result of prolonged meditation practice, but for now my "default" behavior is to try to control and manipulate things to become what I think they should be -- because of course everything is supposed to "achieve" and reach its' ultimate potential and it won't do that without conscious exertion and help.

I have recognized this line of thinking and appreciate that it means well and may be suitable for other areas of life. But its methods are in opposition to what NSR is trying to accomplish.

It is like stressing out over trying to relax in the perfect way. You don't even know what the perfect way is because you've never done it because you are too busy stressing yourself out trying to find it and thus you will never find it anyway. In relaxation, more effort does not yield more results. Go figure.

So anyway, I am coaching a small group of young men in a six-month exercise program starting on Monday. We will be exercising 6 days a week (properly separating muscle groups across different days of course). I am doing the program with them. So I am committing to everyone here that I will practice NSR consistently for the next six months. I will not take credit for the exercise day unless I have done at least one NSR session (I will still be trying for the twice daily, of course).

Best regards everyone,

David.

ok, so my first week of NSR is done, funny to say that i have got around all kinds of emotional state this week!
Thanks David, you really clarified me today with what you have put on the forum today and yesterday, i felt very good while meditation, but the rest of the day sometimes was more like hell! angry getting mad at everybody, anxiety muscle pains, but like i said i felt good while doing NSR its relaxed me a lot, even felt what i think was Bliss for a few seconds, Wowww
what a feeling, and like David said, i think i tried to reach that state every time after and it's what got me stress out more even along the rest of the day... ( Could that be??? )
well i guess, i am gonna try and let go and just enjoy things the way they come when i meditate.

Ps: Can Someone put any relaxed background music? like ocean sounds or rain drop whatever,
i did not try it, wanted feedback first!!!!

I know exactly what you mean. "Trying" to re-create the feeling when you've had a good session is so powerfully tempting, because that bliss feeling is so night and day different to a person under stress. I think we have both seen now, though, the trying leads to "continual trying" which never leads to the results. In a way it is really funny because the concept is so foreign to people who are "working hard to achieve" -- which described me until recently.

On your background music or sounds question, David Spector can probably best clarify as he has far more experience than I do.

But I have tried something like it before. I used one of those Binaural programs, which is basically like the rain drop sounds with some subtle tones beneath that are designed to manipulate your brain waves.

Being completely honest I was trying to "increase effectiveness" by using the audio to block out ambient sound and induce a brain wave state that I could build upon. Seems logical right? If something can help quickly induce the brain state for you you should get farther faster, right?

Well, it has been one big control attempt for me and it resulted in more stress. It was flawed at the outset because what was I trying to do? I was TRYING to INDUCE the state!! I disregarded the manual, modified the technique and paid the price.

I'm not dwelling on failure in the least, but I'm starting to trust more the experience of folks like David Spector and Gavin and others in this forum who have been doing it for years. If you look, there is remarkable consistency between the way they all describe the same things. I think they have already taken most of the side roads and know where they lead. And all the realizations I've just had were pretty much spelled out in the manual from the beginning. It's just funny how we sometimes don't take things seriously until we do them ourselves.

I think if I were to ever experiment with binaural stuff again in the future, it will be after I have given up my need to "control". I don't know whether you get different results if you are void of "controlling intent" or not. Intent is powerful stuff, by itself. You may get totally different mileage if you are not trying to control.

I'm still pretty new. Now that I finally get this one concept, things will be very much different and I'm excited to see where it leads. I printed out my willingness question and posted it above my meditation chair.

Keep going Steven. You are doing great. NSR is powerful stuff. You are really going to get your money's worth if you keep going.

Best regards,

David.

Steven,

It is best not to use background music. NSR is not relaxation, it is transcending (search in this forum for the definitions of transcending and transcendence). Any sensory input would tend to attract our attention to the surface level of life (that is, to the level of thinking concrete thoughts). This would tend to act against the natural desire of the mind to transcend.

Instead, we want to encourage the mind to enjoy more, to transcend. We can only do that if we follow the guidelines and instructions in the NSR manual without changes or additions. We need to be completely innocent, like a small child.

I like all the postings in this thread, because they reveal how deadly control is to the natural process of meditation. It is not that healthy for life in general, either.

Congratulations to all on the great insights.

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA

David Spector has clarified this one. I just want to add, though, that - from my own personal experience - a neutral background "sound" (not music, but something like white sound, such as the brrrrrr of an electric fan, that is constant and neutral, and just there to soften outside sharp noises) can sometimes be useful if one is very sensitive to sudden noises. But sounds that change frequencies or that are intended to affect brainwaves are not useful to this kind of meditation.

Gavin
Long-time TM meditator

wow thanks everyone!
today i didnt force anything, and right now i feel great! loving it...

guy s is it ok to put on ear plugs?
my 2 boys make so much noise!

steve's divine time,

This is a very good question.

The direct answer is: feel free to use earplugs if you need to for comfort. They will do you no harm.

However, it may be good to understand that they are not really necessary. As posting http://www.network54.com/Forum/254541/thread/1178571516/ relates, even dynamite explosions are no barrier to successful meditation. The irritation you may feel at noise during meditation is stress release, which is just what we are after in NSR.

The ideal situation is to meditate not minding if there is noise. If the attention is captured by the noise, do not resist, and stop thinking the syllable if necessary, resuming when it once again comes effortlessly.

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA

By the way, I think it might help this forum if participants used distinct names when posting. Names like "David" and "Steven" are fairly common, so they may not be sufficient to indicate which postings are by the same person, particularly over a period of many months.

You don't have to register or lose anonymity to use a distinct name. You could identify yourself as "Curious Sam", for example.

Just a suggestion.

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA

ok guys, from now on , i am Steve's Divine Time

I am going to adopt Gavin's name/location method.