David Lynch on Diving Within
Q. I’m a fan of your movies, but I never knew that Transcendental Meditation was an interest of yours. What is Transcendental Meditation?
A. Transcendental Meditation is a mental technique that allows any human being to “dive within” and experience subtler levels of mind—to transcend and experience the ocean of pure consciousness within, at the source of thought. Transcendental Meditation is a vehicle that gets you to that ocean of pure consciousness. And with regular practice, that ocean of pure consciousness is enlivened, it unfolds. It starts to grow.
Q. Then what is consciousness?
A. Consciousness is the Self. It’s awareness, wakefulness, inner happiness. It’s an ocean of creativity, intelligence, love, harmony, coherence, and power and energy that anyone can dive into because it’s within every human being.
Q. How often do you meditate?
A. I meditate once in the morning and once in the evening, and then I go about my business. As a result, the joy of “doing” increases so much I can’t tell you. As you expand your container of consciousness, understanding grows. Creativity, problem-solving, intuition grow. And the side effect is that negative things start to recede. It’s money in the bank for the filmmaker—for everyone—because you can see things more clearly.
Q. What was the first benefit you noticed from TM?
A. I had this anger when I first started. And I used to take this anger out on my first wife. And two weeks after I started meditating, she came to me and she said, “What’s going on?” And I was quiet for a while, because it could have been any number of things that she was referring to. And I said, “What is it?” And she said, “The anger: where did it go?” Anger, depression, sorrow, fear, anxiety, stress—all these things that can kill us start to recede. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s an ocean of bliss consciousness—and bliss, they say, is the sweetest nectar of life. When you dive in, the splash of this is bliss. That’s inner happiness—and that starts growing.
Q. What got you interested in Transcendental Meditation?
A. What got me interested was the phrase, “True happiness is not out there; true happiness lies within.” But they don’t tell you where the “within” is, nor do they tell you how to get there! So I always thought of it as a kind of a mean phrase, but with a ring of truth. We always look for happiness out there. And we get it, but then it starts going away. We live in a world of change—so then we look for something else, and then we look for something else. When you dive within, true happiness is there. And all those things that used to kill you—in the film business, there’s so much pressure; there’s so much room for anxiety and fear. Diving within makes life more like a fantastic game. Then creativity can really flow. And the same ocean of creativity, as you’ll hear from Dr. John Hagelin, that creates everything that is a thing. In Vedic science, this ocean of pure consciousness is called Atma, the Self. “Know thy Self.” What is that? You don’t know yourself by looking in the mirror. You don’t know yourself by sitting down and having a talk with yourself. It’s there, within, within, within.
Q. But have you always been interested in meditation?
A. No. I actually used to think meditation was a waste of time. I didn’t even really want to know about it. But then suddenly, I became very interested in meditation. I’d hear the word “enlightenment,” and I started thinking: “Maybe this meditation thing is some way to go and unfold that.” I didn’t know what it was, I still had questions—but I just knew I wanted it.
Then I met the teacher who taught me the technique. She gave me a mantra, which is a sound-vibration-thought. You don’t meditate on the meaning of it. She took me into a little quiet room to have my first meditation. I sit down, close my eyes, start this mantra—and it was like I was in an elevator and they cut the cable. Boom!—in the bliss. I say: this word “unique” should be saved for that experience—so blissful, so deep, so wide. It’s an experience that I really wanted. It’s not like you have to meditate every day; you want to meditate every day. And if it leads to unfolding your full potential, if it leads to enlightenment, why would you not want that?
Q. How has Transcendental Meditation affected your own creativity as a successful director, painter, and photographer?
A. In two ways: First, my ability to catch ideas has grown. I feel that when the container of consciousness expands, you can get ideas at a deeper level where the ideas are bigger. It’s like fishing: the little fish swim at the surface, and the bigger fish swim deeper. I want to catch big ideas—I want to be able to understand those ideas. And so for that, I want intuition to grow—to get to a level of a knowingness where I am able to solve any problems that come along. And second: anxieties and fears and anger and tension no longer have the power that they once had. You can still be sorrowful, but you can’t hold onto it. You can still get angry, but you can’t hold onto it. Life just gets too enjoyable. This is the greatest thing for creating because if you’re depressed, really depressed, you can’t even get out of bed.
Q. Let’s say you discover the root cause of one of your most troublesome problems. What do you do with that information once you’ve acquired it?
A. Well, it doesn’t make it go away just because you discovered it. Wishing problems away and talking about them, for me, doesn’t make them go away. It’s like the thirsty man with the glass. He needs water. And imagination is just—doesn’t cut it. And wishing doesn’t fill the glass up. You’ve got to give him water. And then watch what happens: the thirst is quenched.
There is this place that we can dive to. And whether or not you know about the root cause of that problem it can dissolve. You don’t have to be stuck with it. You don’t have to go through life with one-sized consciousness. Consciousness can expand. And it brings so much good things with it—so much.
Q. What do you say to people who are skeptical about all this?
A. Skepticism is very good. There are so many con artists in the world. You should be skeptical. But you shouldn’t remain skeptical of something after you look into it and find that is good. Skepticism shouldn’t keep you from something good. Ask questions; check it out; look at research; talk to people who’ve done it.
Q. I hear about Hollywood schedules of 16-hour days. Don’t people get mad at you for saying, “I have to take a meditation break?”
A. I’ve been meditating 32 years and have never missed a meditation. You can meditate anywhere. You can meditate in an airport, you can meditate at work. I meditate in the morning before breakfast, and then in the evening before dinner. That’s the best time.
Q. Now you’ve started a foundation to raise money to offer Transcendental Meditation to any student in America who wants to meditate. Why are you doing this?
A. I think everybody has realized, or is quickly realizing, that education is in trouble. Everyone wants to change it, but they don’t know quite what to do and it keeps getting worse. More and more private schools are popping up and even those schools don’t fully educate a child. There’s all kinds of rising stress going on and many problems we all know about in the schools.
I visited Maharishi University of Management and Maharishi School in Iowa and I saw a play. I remember it was a rainy, cold night, and it’s a tiny, little theater, but the theater was packed. I sat there thinking, ‘This is going to be such a boring evening.’ I sat in the middle. There was no way I could leave, and I’m going to see a high school play. I started watching this thing and literally, in maybe 15 seconds, I realized this wasn’t going to be boring. Then it just got better and better. I saw things on that stage that I couldn’t believe. I saw a level of intelligence and a consciousness just beaming off these students, who weren’t actors, but were doing incredible things.
The play was so creative, every person was so great, and it just pulled me in, and I said, “What in the world is going on?” I’ve never seen a thing like that. Afterwards, I thought, “Every actor has got to start meditation.” Then I thought, “Every student has got to start meditation.”
Q. What is your foundation doing now?
A. We are raising money and using it to implement consciousness-based education programs in many inner-city schools across the country. And now we’re raising money to give scholarships to college students who want to learn to meditate. We are doing this not only for a growth of consciousness for the students, but we are doing it for the world. Everyone is like a light bulb with the light of consciousness within. We can ramp up this light of consciousness by experiencing it within our selves. And then we can enjoy that brighter light of consciousness—but we can also radiate it to our environment, to the world. So my invitation to anyone who can help us, please help.
Q. Any final comment?
A. I really love film, and I love catching ideas, and I love my Transcendental Meditation. I love enlivening unity. And I think the enlivening of unity brings a better and better life. Maybe enlightenment is far away, but they say when you walk toward the light, with every step, things get brighter. Every day, for me, gets better and better. And enlivening unity in the world will bring peace on earth.
Resources:
For more information on the David Lynch Foundation, visit: www.davidlynchfoundation.org
For more information on the David Lynch Weekend, visit: www.lynchweekend.org
For more information on the Transcendental Meditation program, visit: www.tm.org
For more information on Consciousness Based Education, visit: www.cbeprograms.org
For more information on Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, visit: www.maharishischooliowa.org
For more information on Maharishi University of Management, visit: www.mum.edu