{"id":12198,"date":"2014-11-11T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/?p=12198"},"modified":"2016-05-23T11:49:31","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T15:49:31","slug":"meet-bob-the-man-who-teaches-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/people\/meet-bob-the-man-who-teaches-meditation\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Bob: The Man Who Teaches Meditation To Middle-School Students, Celebrities, And The Homeless Alike"},"content":{"rendered":"

We talk a lot about the David Lynch Foundation and celebrities that practice the TM technique, but today we\u2019d like to introduce you to our own personal celebrity. He\u2019s the man behind the David Lynch Foundation and a celebrity in his own right; so much so that Modern Luxury<\/a> featured the following profile on him. Without further ado, meet Bob Roth, and let him tell you about his beginnings with the Transcendental Meditation technique, and how it \u201cblossomed into a calling to help people around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/br>\u201cI love teaching people to meditate. Particularly the skeptics \u2014 the ones who say, \u201cMeditation? I don\u2019t believe in that stuff.\u201d Or who tell me, \u201cI\u2019d love to meditate, but I could never do it because my mind is too busy\u2014I could never clear my thoughts.\u201d Or who think meditation is some sort of a generic thing, as in, \u201cI meditate when I jog\/listen to music\/nap\/paint.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are so many basic misunderstandings about meditation: that it\u2019s difficult, or a religion, or an escape, or basically nothing at all.<\/p>\n

\t\r\n\t\t“…Manhattan hedge funds, media companies, schools and hospitals now offer TM as part of their wellness program.”\t<\/span>\r\n\t When meditation is properly understood and practiced, none of these is true. It\u2019s an incredibly simple, practical, effective tool to help the busiest, most cynical, most alpha-dog personalities gain a state of profound rest and relaxation that is, in many regards, deeper than sleep. Meditating 20 minutes, twice a day translates into a host of healthful benefits.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been teaching the Transcendental Meditation technique for more than 40 years. When I first learned to meditate, most people thought it was some sort of a religion or philosophy. But today, meditation in general, and TM in particular, is considered mainstream.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s one very good reason for that: scientific research. Hundreds of studies have shown that TM really works\u2014that, for example, it can reduce stress, improve focus and creativity, and reduce high blood pressure. This makes it so much easier for people to look beyond the name \u201cmeditation\u201d and give it a try. In fact, you\u2019d be amazed at how many Manhattan hedge funds, media companies, schools and hospitals now offer TM as part of their wellness programs.<\/p>\n

My parents raised me and my three siblings with a deep sense of appreciation for the good fortune of our lives, and taught us that it behooved us to give back to others in need.<\/p>\n

Growing up I had a love for public service. I worked for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s presidential campaign and had my sights set on going to law school, entering politics and, ultimately, being a U.S. senator. All that changed with the bloodshed of the \u201960s, and I shifted my focus to education, with an emphasis on developing curriculum.<\/p>\n

Through a series of serendipitous incidents, I ended up learning to meditate, and within a few years, found a desire to teach the technique to inner-city school kids. So I became a teacher, and since then have instructed thousands of people. But the highlight for me came nine years ago, when I was fortunate enough to team up with the great filmmaker David Lynch\u2014also a devoted meditator\u2014to establish a charity in his name.<\/p>\n

\t\r\n\t\t“Because of their big-heartedness, we\u2019re bringing genuine meditation and deep relief to those who need it the most.”\t<\/span>\r\n\tThe idea caught fire in ways I could never imagine. Today, the Foundation brings TM at no cost to thousands of NYC\u2019s youth and adults in underserved schools, women\u2019s shelters and veterans\u2019 hospitals. We\u2019re active in 35 countries and have provided meditation scholarships for nearly 500,000 at-risk youth, veterans, incarcerated men and women, and survivors of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

There are now more people learning TM in NYC than in any other city in the world. Some of the more prominent practitioners\u2014including Jerry Seinfeld and Howard Stern (both 40-year meditators), Martin Scorsese, Donna Karan, Dr. Oz, Hugh Jackman, George Stephanopoulos and Lena Dunham\u2014are also among the most generous.<\/p>\n

Because of their big-heartedness, we\u2019re bringing genuine meditation and deep relief to those who need it the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/br>You can learn more about the David Lynch Foundation here<\/a>, or watch a complete intro to the TM technique by Bob Roth here<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Roth talks about his beginnings with the Transcendental Meditation technique and how it \u201cblossomed into a calling to help people around the world.\u201d Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[60,295,213,214,22],"class_list":["post-12198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-david-lynch-foundation","tag-meditation","tag-meditation-teacher","tag-modern-luxury","tag-transcendental-meditation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12198"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12260,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198\/revisions\/12260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}