Can you learn nondirective meditation without consulting a teacher?
Mobile apps like Headspace and Calm claim to have taught millions of users mindfulness and other Buddhist-inspired forms of meditation. Similar solutions for nondirective meditation are entering the market—but do they work?
It started with books, with printed letters on paper. Then came cassette tapes, CDs, and MP3 files, all of them based on recorded sound. In the past few years, the market for online meditation has exploded. In 2017 Calm was elected “App of the Year” on Apple App Store. Headspace has been made available on flights, in hotel rooms, and in department stores. Both are based on guided meditations with strong directive elements, in the case of Calm with a focus on particular states of mind. So far, nondirective meditation has not made the same impact, but may be on its way.
Not everyone is convinced of the value of written, recorded, or online instructions. As early as 1963, Mahesh Yogi (1963, p. 39) said about Transcendental Meditation:
It cannot be imparted through a book because it not only involves telling an aspirant how to experience the subtle states of thinking, but an even greater responsibility lies in finding out what the aspirant experiences when he proceeds on that path.
Similarly, although some Acem publications contain printed in1 structions for simpler forms of meditation, those who want to learn
Acem Meditation properly need to sign up for an offline, face-toface course.
The main objection to printed, recorded, or online instructions is that they provide no room for dialogue between teacher and student or for interaction between participants in a group. The format only allows for basic advice concerning some of the most widespread challenges encountered by students of meditation. Beyond that, any kind of individualized guidance is impossible, not to mention psychological or existential dialogues. Since there is a close connection between the way one meditates and one’s personality and character, the subtleties of the technique cannot be learned from printed, recorded, or online instructions. The sense of community that develops between participants in a group is also important, partly because it provides motivation for establishing a regular practice, and partly because it includes valuable opportunities for the exchange of experience.
Nevertheless, both Herbert Benson (2000, pp. 10ff.; 170ff.) and Patricia Carrington (2012, ch. 6) have published written instructions for their versions of nondirective meditation—Relaxation Response 2 and Clinically Standardized Meditation, respectively. In addition, Carrington has produced MP3 files with spoken instructions. In the past few years, a number of online solutions of varying quality have emerged.
3 The free and quite slick mobile app “1 Giant Mind” is available for both iOS and Android. It has been developed by a team of Australian meditation teachers who teach a form of nondirective meditation called “Vedic meditation” in their offline existence.
Many aspects of the instructions closely resemble those of Transcendental Meditation, though no connection is acknowledged, and there is no initiation ritual. The app uses a single mantra, aham, which is the Sanskrit word for ‘I.’ The word has a number of religious connotations in Indian lore, but is treated here as a neutral meditation sound. Suggested meditation time is 20 minutes each time. During the 12-step introductory course, the meditation practice is guided by recorded instructions and simple and purportedly “meditative” background music. After the introductory course, however, the instructor suggests dropping both the instructions and the music, though the meditator can still choose to keep these suggestive and directive elements.
As in all forms of nondirective meditation, the attitude toward spontaneous thoughts and feelings during meditation is one of acceptance. This also applies to unpleasant feelings. According to the instructions, “there’s no such thing as a bad meditation.”
As in Transcendental Meditation, feelings of agitation or restlessness are understood as expressions of “stress release.” In chapter 12 of this book, we have seen how such “paradoxical effects” may form the basis for developing the psychological potential of the technique, stimulating a process of personal development and self-understanding. However, without the kind of meditation guidance that has been most thoroughly developed in the context of Acem Meditation, this potential is not easily realized. In the “1 Giant Mind” app, this process is not emphasized but rather warned against: “It’s very important that you don’t practise more than twice a day as this may cause strong stress release that can be experienced as emotional and physical agitation in your eyes open state.”
As is common among teachers of Transcendental Meditation, the “1 Giant Mind” app treats some states as particularly beneficial, as signs of “a unique state known as transcendence,” of “contact with your deepest nature.” This, we are told, is what happens when you “[lose] sense of hands and feet or your whole body,” when you feel “an all encompassing sensation of calm expansiveness, a feeling of bliss,” or when you have “the experience of forgetting where you are in meditation but knowing you didn’t fall asleep.” Such semi-metaphysical interpretations contrast with the way the meaning of such states of mind is downplayed in the psychological framework of Acem Meditation, which emphasizes the quality of the 4 practice itself rather than any particular mental state.
The developers of the app are keenly aware of the limitations of app-based meditation courses. While maintaining that one can learn meditation from the app, they add the following qualification:
“To gain the full benefits of this style of meditation, we recommend seeking out a qualified teacher and continuing your learning face-to-face.”
5 A slightly different online solution is called “Natural Stress Relief.” Its links to Transcendental Meditation are more explicit, as its founders and current instructors have previously taught TM, but left due to “the high expense and unnecessary mysticism of TM®” (Istitutio 6 Scientia 2012, p. 50).
“Natural Stress Relief” has no app, but has a manual and a four-minute audio instruction, both of which can be downloaded or bought as a book and CD at a moderate price. In addition, it is possible to have one’s meditation “checked” with a qualified instructor by e-mail or phone, thus partly making up for the lack of face-toface teaching. Several people report having been able to establish a meditation habit and profit from the practice (including, in one case, quitting a drug habit), though the same people have later taken Acem Meditation courses in order to benefit from the community of an organized group.
“Natural Stress Relief” uses a single one-syllable mantra from the Indian tradition, though it is treated here as a neutral meaningless syllable. The recommended practice is to meditate for 15 minutes twice a day. The main effects of meditation are said to be “stress release,” “transcendence,” and “pure awareness.”
Like other groups inspired by Transcendental Meditation, “Natural Stress Relief” warns against longer meditations, and even suggests reducing the meditation time or stopping the repetition of the mantra for a few minutes if one has “loud and insistent thoughts,” “nervousness or anxiety,” “movements or sensations,” or other forms of “discomfort.” Again, these phenomena are understood as parts of the “stress release” effect, but instead of guiding meditators into a beneficial psychological process, “Natural Stress Relief” cautions against such effects. On the other hand, “Natural Stress Relief” also includes the idealization of certain states of mind, as when you “feel expansive and blissful,” “feel like smiling,” or when “the syllable disappears, yet your mind remains in a state of awareness, silence, or fullness.”
The course offered on the website nondirective.org is another attempt at teaching nondirective meditation online, though in this case only with a fairly simple written course text divided into six “lessons” that teach a twice-a-day 15 to 20-minute practice that is 7 based on the gentle repetition of a mantra.
After two preparatory lessons, the third lesson of the course provides a list of nine mantras suitable for different religious or secular orientations, though it is also possible to choose one’s own mantra. The fourth lesson gives basic advice on how to use the mantra, emphasizing the effortlessness of the practice: “Be OK with whatever happens, whether that is bliss or boredom.” As in other forms of nondirective meditation, we are told to “release control of the mantra,” though the course text also says: “If you have lots of distracting thoughts, or are sleepy, you can increase the speed of the mantra.”
In spite of the many warnings against expectations, the fourth lesson includes a list of no less than nine “signs you are doing it right”: “bliss”; “periods of time during meditation where you loose [ sic ] track of time”; “silence, emptiness, peace”; “the mantra becomes beautiful”; “the mantra disappears, leaving silence”; “thought become less and less [ sic ]”; “a lack of concern”; “stomach activity”; “muscle twitches.”
The main goal of the practice is to release stress and to “settle naturally into a state of peace, and sometimes bliss.” Stress, we are told in the first chapter, comes in two versions: “One is the normal day to day stress, and another is the long term buried stress.” There is no indication that moving from short-term to long-term stress release might involve “paradoxical effects” or phases of resistance, and again, we are warned against long meditations: “If you go longer than 20 minutes, you could run into issues with releasing too much stress, which can be frustrating …” Psychological issues are not discussed, and guidance techniques are out of the question, since the entire course consists of a brief written text. Thus, it is very unlikely that such a course will be able to help the meditator realize the psychological potential of nondirective meditation.
A different approach to online nondirective meditation is Deepak Chopra’s “Primordial Sound Meditation,” which is more explicitly 8 oriented toward Indian philosophy and metaphysics. It presents itself as providing the meditator with a “personal meditation mantra—calculated according to your birthplace, date, and time, and presented to you... via a private, sacred, pre-recorded video ceremony.” Again, the focus is not on psychological processes, but in this case on “[making] higher states of consciousness your everyday reality.”
The drawbacks of written, recorded, or online meditation courses have been discussed above. In many cases, the lack of teacher– student and student–student interaction will mean that such courses are of limited help in establishing a regular meditation practice. In particular, they may provide little or no assistance in realizing the technique’s potential for physiological relaxation and, especially, psychological and existential development.
However, this does not mean that no one can benefit from such courses. As mentioned above, we know of people for whom such courses have provided important help in turning around a nonproductive lifestyle and, in one case, in stopping a drug habit. However, the same people eventually found it more beneficial to learn nondirective meditation in an organized group, with offline face-toface courses, meetings, retreats, and guidance.
1 See instructions for “Observing the breath” in Holen and Hobbel (2012, p. 136); for body feeling in Holen and Hobbel (2012, p. 137), and Holen and Hobbel (2010, pp. 49–51); and for body meditation at https://soundcloud.com/acemmedia/ kroppsmeditation (Swedish only). 2 Carrington (2012) only presents a simplified version of Clinically Standardized Meditation, the full method requiring the combination of written and recorded material presented at https://patcarrington.com/learn-to-meditate-kit/. 3 cdn.1giantmind.org. 4 See chapter 12. 5 natural-stress-relief.com and nsrusa.org. 6 Cf. also www.nsrusa.org/who.php. 7 Downloaded from https://nondirective.org/nd-course-options. 8 chopra.com/online-courses/primordial-sound-meditation/on-demand.
Benson, H, (2000). The relaxation response, updated and expanded edition. New York: HarperTorch.
Carrington, P. (2012). The book of meditation: The complete guide to modern Meditation. Kendall Park, NJ: Pace Educational Systems.
Holen, A. & Eifring, H. (2013). Acem Meditation: An introductory companion, 2nd edition. Oslo: Dyade Press.
Holen, A. & Hobbel, T. (2010). Practical guide to Acem retreats. Oslo: Dyade Press.
Holen, A. & Hobbel, T. (2012). Meditative yoga: Integrating body, breath and mind, Oslo: Dyade Press.
Istitutio Scientia (2012). Natural Stress Relief meditation manual. Istitutio Scientia/ National Stress Relief, Inc.
Mahesh Yogi, H. H. M. (1963). The science of being and art of living. New Delhi: Allied Publishers.