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Brahms - 'In tune with the Infinite' 
by Craig Pearson, PhD

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30 May 2011

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The article is another in a series of brilliant essays by Craig Pearson, PhD,* about great historical figures in world culture whose thinking, speech, actions, and written works have expressed a deep familiarity—based on direct experience—with the transcendental field of life. This one is about the great 19th-century composer Johannes Brahms, whose musical genius was widely recognized by his early thirties.

As in articles on Helen Keller, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Dr Pearson analyzes beautiful passages from Brahms's writings, articulating the details of experiences he describes in terms of the knowledge and experience of transcendental consciousness—the fourth major state of consciousness, beyond waking, dreaming, and sleeping—brought to light from the ancient Vedic tradition by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

''Brahms possessed uncommon insight into the creative process and the origin of genius,'' Dr Pearson writes. ''All great achievement, he believed, is the expression of a field of infinite creativity and intelligence, 'the infinite energy of the cosmos.' Human creativity and nature's creativity have a common source, Brahms suggests.

''For Brahms, this is more than philosophical speculation. He seeks to describe the unique, 'exalted' state of awareness from within which his greatest compositions arose—a state, he makes clear, quite different from ordinary waking consciousness. . . .

''His words call to mind Maharishi's description of the fifth state of consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness.'' Dr Pearson explains that with regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, the ''silent and serene'' experience of transcendental consciousness during meditation carries over into activity. ''Brain functioning remains integrated at all times. We begin to experience unbounded awareness coexisting with waking, dreaming, and sleeping, an unbroken continuum of experience deep within. The limitless ocean of creativity and intelligence at the source of thought is now available at all times. This, Maharishi observes, represents a fifth major state of consciousness, distinct from waking, dreaming, sleeping, and transcendental consciousness. . . .

''Cosmic Consciousness, Maharishi asserts, is the normal state of human life. . . . Brahms gives us a glimpse of what this state can be. His experiences, though transitory, gave rise to some of the West's greatest music.

''Now this state, glimpsed and celebrated by creative geniuses through history, is systematically available to all. Who can imagine, as more and more people begin rising to this state, the creative accomplishment and the transformed world that will result?''

Please visit Excellence in Action to enjoy the complete essay.

* Dr Pearson is Executive Vice-President of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. He has served the University for 33 years, also as Dean of Faculty, Dean of Students, Director of Maharishi University of Management Press, Director of Freshman Composition, and Professor of Professional Writing. He holds a PhD in Maharishi Vedic Science from MUM and is the author of books on the development of full human potential, including The Complete Book of Yogic Flying.

© Copyright 2011 Maharishi Foundation USA

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