Art, filmmaking and Transcendental Meditation

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

I had a question interrelating your practice of art and filmmaking with meditation. And I practice meditation. I’ve been to a retreat in which one individual was using a notepad, writing down ideas; I assume he was a writer. And the teacher sort of noted and asked him to get rid of that—you don’t need to carry the baggage of your idea of your profession of writing. And I was wondering: How do you compromise or negotiate your practice of being a seeker of tr [...]

Transcendental Meditation, conflict and stress

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

How do you think Transcendental Meditation would affect those of us that find our creativity in conflict and stress?

I think you’ve got to understand conflict and stress. It gives you ideas. Ideas can come from everyplace. But I guarantee you, if you have enough stress, you won’t be able to create. And if you have enough conflict, it will just get in the way of your creativity. You can understand conflict, but you don’t have to s [...]

Comparing the TM experience

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

I’ve listened to the lectures, but I’ve never had a TM experience, and I was trying to think of something that might be a corollary to the TM experience. Is there something that you can describe that might be something we’ve all experienced that comes close to that?

What they say: many people have experienced transcending. And there’s an experience that you can have just before you go to sleep. You’re awake, but you sor [...]

Watering the root with Transcendental Meditation

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

While I can respect the overall goal of world peace for your Foundation, I’m wondering: Do you think that this emphasis on the individual and individual consciousness takes away from important discussions about the structural, economic, cultural, historical, and ideological causes of war and violence?

In my mind, yes. But I’m interested in enlivening this field of unity with a peace-creating group. But many, many people are out there doing [...]

Creativity and catching the big ideas

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Can you could make some explicit statements about creativity, please?

Creativity is a little bit like problem solving.

And catching ideas: they’ve got to enter your conscious mind. So to me, if that conscious mind can get larger, you can catch ideas at a deeper level. And you can understand those ideas more, and appreciate a depth of them. And the thrill of them is more, and you can solve those problems along the way with the added bonus of bliss traveling down the track wit [...]

Serving people of all ages

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

You were saying that your Foundation is serving people ages 10 to 155. I’m wondering what’s magical about the age of 10? And you talk about children and reaching children at a very young age, and so why 10?

When you learn Transcendental Meditation you can get what they call a “walking mantra” at age five, and your “sitting mantra” at 10—that’s how come I said 10.

Things are getting better

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Are there personal spiritual lessons that you’ve learned over the years, especially in reference to creating?

What has happened is the heavy weight of anxieties and fears, those things have gotten less and less and less. And for me, life has gotten to be more like a game. And the things that used to almost kill me don’t kill me so much. And the enjoyment of doing gets so beautiful. And the ideas are flowing more and more.

I have a question that’s about a tension I’m struggling with, and I’m sure a lot of students are struggling with. And that’s the tension between changing your internal world and the external world. I guess it’s this tension between being content with what you have, because there’s a peace internally, and really transforming your external world so you can be at peace internally and making the change that you want to see happen in the worl [...]

Know thy Self

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:00:00 +0100

I’ve tried to do some experimenting with a more Zen technique of meditation. At some times, I think I have had the experience of bliss that you describe, but equally often I have experiences of advertising jingles or profound resentments for sins committed against me in high school. And I just wonder: Does that mean that I’m doing it wrong?

I don’t know Zen meditation. In Transcendental Meditation, there are plenty of thoughts, and [...]

Transcendental Meditation, bliss and positivity

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:00:00 +0100

When you speak about Transcendental Meditation, you speak about going into a place of bliss and extreme positivity. In your films, you show us a lot of horror and darkness. And I’m wondering if you think there is any inherent value to be had in human suffering, and if so, what.

Not a lot of value, except that it might turn you in another direction. And I think the number one thing is: stories—we should understand suffering and understa [...]

Dreams and meditation

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:00:00 +0100

I really enjoyed Mulholland Drive, because it’s one of the best films to convey dream state to me. And I was wondering—do you find inspiration in dreams? And does the dream experience for you have anything in common with the meditation?

I hardly ever have gotten ideas from dreams. In Blue Velvet, I was really struggling with the script; I wrote four different drafts. And I had one problem with it near the end. And I was in an office, a [...]

The power of a peace-creating group

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:00:00 +0100

What, if anything, have you heard about meditational techniques being able to affect people or places outside of you—ones not directly connected to you?

This is such a beautiful question. And what you’re saying is the key, in my mind, to world peace—because we’re like light bulbs, and you have an effect on your environment. Just like a light bulb, you enjoy that light inside, and if you ramp it up brighter and brighter, you [...]

The light of unity, pure consciousness

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Do you believe that there is an objectivity to good and evil? And when you talk about the oneness that’s there to be sought after in meditation, do you believe there is an objective quality to that?

This field of pure consciousness is a field of pure positive. And so when you start enlivening that, the darkness—negativity is just like darkness. And when you look at darkness, you see that it’s nothing—it’s just the ab [...]

Consciousness and the Unified Field

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Can consciousness expand?

For many, many years, people thought the earth was flat, and if you walked in one direction on and on, you’d fall off. And all during that time, it was just as round as it is now. This Unified Field is there. If it was fifty years ago and somebody said, “There’s a field of unity,” the scientists would say, “You’re full of baloney.” But now they’ll say, “Yes, there is.& [...]

Meditation and motivation

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:00:00 +0100

What gives you motivation to create the characters in your movies?

What gives you motivation is: you catch an idea. And that idea has—it’s like a spark goes off; I guess that’s how come I use this light bulb. The light bulb goes off. And that light bulb has a thrill with it, and you see the idea, and you see those—that character. It may just be a fragment, but it holds so much promise. And it has an inspiring quality to it. [...]

Landing in a pool of consciousness

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:00:00 +0100

You keep on talking about this pool of consciousness and this place that you go inside. And I was wondering: Do you see anything when you’re there, visually?

I’ll tell you the story of my first meditation.

I had heard this phrase, “True happiness isn’t out there. True happiness lies within.” And I used to think about that phrase. And in this phrase, they don’t tell you [...]

The film's message

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:00:00 +0100

What message are you sending in your films?

They say if you want to send a message, go to Western Union.

Ideas are their own thing.

And those stories and those characters came from ideas.

Transcendental Meditation and catching ideas

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:00:00 +0100

In several of your last films, particularly Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive and Fire Walk with Me, for me personally, it seems like there are a lot of underlying themes concerning Transcendental Meditation within the characters and such. And I was wondering: as you personally dive farther into TM, can we expect to see more abstract themes inherent in some of the later David Lynch films come out?

I didn’t realize that there were those thing [...]

Transcendental Meditation and inspiration

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Do you happen to have any meditational techniques conducive for invoking inspiration or general creativity? And if so, what is it?

You know, meditation is that thing that takes you within. And if you go all the way in, you experience this ocean of pure consciousness, or as modern science says, the Unified Field—oneness, pure bliss consciousness. And that is also a field of pure creativity. Vedic science has always said this field is there, and n [...]

The beauty of Transcendental Meditation

sanunit@iowatelecom.net — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:00:00 +0100

First of all, when you were young, did you find that you’d second-guess yourself a lot more? Now that you’re older, do you find that you don’t second-guess yourself as much on artistic ideas? Like I totally understand when you do this, that there’s an idea floating off there.

And I also what to ask: I don’t think that there’s a lot of people in Hollywood who understand what you do. And I think Sam Shepard [...]

David Lynch : Transcendental Meditation