(2/19/2008) I just returned from the TM center, where I am taking what's called
the "TM-Sidhi refresher course", a three nights' knowledge course
purposed to enliven and gently "tune up" the very personal, and yet universal,
practice of the TM Sidhi program.
The TM-Sidhi program was designed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the mid-seventies,
after the TM meditators' consciousnesses showed signs of being ready for
more powerful consciousness-development techniques.

The original sidhis, a Sanskrit word for "supernatural powers", were devised
by Maharshi Patanjali, an Indian Vedic master, a few thousands years ago.
Maharishi, in his indescribable genius, revived Patanjali's knowledge
and created a program for the modern spiritual seeker.
There are no words that can effectively describe the transcendental beauty of this program.
The delicate flavor of each sutra (a sutra is a phrase that embodies knowledge)
is refined and revived for the delight of the "sidha" -the TM sidhi program's practitioner)
and the benefits of his or her mind/body unit. And, very important, of his/her environment.
Dozens of studies on the effects of the TM-sidhi program have shown
how the group practice this program lessens violence, crime and general negativity
in the practitioner's surroundings.
Sounds like magic, and it works like perfect science every single time.

However I am writing this log to not to talk about the social effects
of this beautiful program, but to note and appreciate the very sweet
and beautiful experiences that I am having at a personal level.
I am very grateful to have the occasion to review my practice,
especially since I really have not been very regular with it.
The madness of relative life seems to sweep me away from my spiritual basis
more easily than I would like. I know how better centered, powerful and effective
I am when I am regular with my program. I hope that this refresher course
will bring me back to that. Who would not want to practice beauty, literally,
twice a day, who would not love to be transported into transcendence by simply "not doing".

The TM-Sidhi program trains me to think from the level of transcendence,
of unbounded silence, of pure consciousness. The sutras are "thought", better,
gently "felt" at their faintest nature, and then let go. This, when I am already
in transcendence as a result of having meditated a few minutes beforehand.
From that level of consciousness, thoughts are very powerful.
Sutras are then taken up. I think all of them, one by one, in a very natural manner,
with no strain and no expectations. And then is when beauty really unfolds...
And afterwards, rest. Profound, coherent, transforming. As the brain and the physiology
consolidate and organize experiences, forming new memories and their correlated
neural substrates, the body/mind is left "free to be free".
And new knowledge becomes me.

• TM Sidhi Refresher Course, Sacramento, February 2008:
  

The Beauty of Creation is both inside and outisde