Please Help Us Update: How are TM Mantras Chosen?

The founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,  was insistent that the TM mantras came from a long “Holy Tradition,”and that the “purity of the teaching” had to be maintained.  He taught that each individual instructed in TM had to have his or her mantra carefully chosen by a highly trained teacher in order for it to be suitable for that individual and to produce the best results.  It was implied that choosing the correct mantra involved metaphysical knowledge.    

Mahesh cautioned teachers of TM that except during initiation, they were never to say aloud or write down the mantras that he had taught them.  They weren’t even permitted to say them to other TM teachers.  So it wasn’t until TM teachers got disillusioned, broke Mahesh’s rule, and started sharing mantras that they discovered that Mahesh, rather than passing down the categories for mantras with perfection, precision and purity, had actually taught mantras based on changeable categories.
  
Readers of TM-Free Blog and other websites skeptical of TM now know that over the years, Mahesh has taught TM teachers to choose the mantras based upon the initiates’ age, or sex, or age plus sex.  On different TM Teacher Training Courses (TTC), Mahesh added mantras, deleted mantras, changed the spelling or pronunciation of mantras, and changed which category got which mantra.

The excellent website minet.org, written many years ago by TM-Free Blog coordinator Mike Doughney, provides the following table, listing which mantras Mahesh taught on different TTCs:


                               The TM Mantra Tables

1961 1969-Male 1969-Female Fiuggi, 1972
Sex Mantra Age Mantra Age Mantra Age Mantra
MALE RAM 0-15 ING 0-15 IM 10-11 ING
FEMALE SHIRIRAM 15-30 AING 15-30 AIM 12-13 IM
30-45 SHRING 30-45 SHRIM 14-15 INGA
46 + SHIAM 46 + SHIAMA 16-17 IMA
18-19 AYING
20-21 AYIM
22-23 AYINGA
24-25 AYIMA
> 25 SHIRING
1976 1977 1978 October,1978 1987
Age Mantra Age Mantra Age Mantra Age Mantra Age Mantra
03-10 ENG 03-10 ING 0-11 ENG
10-12 EM 10-12 IN 10-12 ENG 10-12 ENG
12-14 ENGA 12-14 INGA 12-14 EM 12-14 EM 12-13 EM
14-16 EMA 14-16 INA 14-16 EMGA 14-16 ENGA 14-15 ENGA
16-18 AENG 16-18 AING 16-18 EMA 16-18 EMA 16-17 EMA
18-20 AEM 18-20 AIM 18-20 AENG 18-20 AING 18-19 AING
20-22 AENGA 20-22 AINGA 20-22 AEM 20-22 AIM 20-21 AIM
22-24 AEMA 22-24 AIMA 22-24 AENGA 22-24 AINGA 22-23 AINGA
24-26 AEMA 24-26 AIMA 24-25 AIMA
24-30 SHIRING 24-30 SHIRING 26-30 SHIRING 26-30 SHIRING 26-29 SHIRING
30-35 SHIRIM 30-35 SHIRIN 30-35 SHIRIM 30-35 SHIRIM 30-34 SHIRIM
35-40 HIRING 35-40 HIRING 35-40 HIRING 35-40 HIRING 35-39 HIRING
40-45 HIRIM 40-45 HIRIN 40-45 HIRIM 40-45 HIRIM 40-44 HIRIM
45-50 KIRING 45-50 KIRING 45-50 KIRING 45-50 KIRING 45-49 KIRING
50-55 KIRIM 50-55 KIRIN 50-55 KIRIM 50-55 KIRIM 50-54 KIRIM
55-60 SHIAM 55-60 SHIAM 55-60 SHYAM 55-60 SHIAM 55-59 SHAM
60 + SHIAMA 60 + SHIAMA 60 + SHYAMA 60 + SHIAMA 60 + SHAMA
Notes: The year at the top of each column indicates the year the teacher was trained.
“Age” is that of the initiate at the time of learning the technique.
_____________________________________________________

This table was compiled by interviewing former TM teachers who had been trained on different TTCs.  Some of the table comes from the old TM-EX newsletter:  http://minet.org/TM-EX/Spring-91.  (By the way, I looked at this newsletter and found it fascinating.)

It is clear to me that this table is incomplete.  For instance, the mantra “rarim,” which my mother received, is not listed anywhere here.  

Can you help us?

If you are a former TM teacher, and you got a different set of mantras or different how-to-choose categories from the ones listed on the table, could you please write us a “Comment” with the list you were taught, and the year and location of your TTC course?

If you are not a TM teacher, but when you learned TM you were taught a mantra that doesn’t line up with any of the mantras listed above, could you please “Comment” for us as well?  If it doesn’t interfere with your privacy, we’d like to know your sex, your age at the time of initiation, and what year you were initiated.  

We would be interested in any other inconsistencies, oddities  or tidbits, like who your TM teacher was, what TTC they attended, if you learned TM in a group rather than individually, did you learn TM from Mahesh personally and what was that like, etc. etc.

Or if you were under 21 on your TTC, did Mahesh forbid you to teach anyone over 25?  Did he only give you child and young adult mantras?  When you reached age 21, did he give you the mantras for adults?  If so, list those too, if they don’t match the table, and let us know what year you received them.  

Or, if you were given “special” mantras for monks, nuns, seminarians, etc., please list those, how chosen, date of receiving them, etc.  We already know that some TM teachers were told to give this group the same mantras that were given out to teens!
  
Many thanks!  Here’s for increased truth!

SOURCE: tmfree.blogspot.com
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