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The ''Dear Prudence'' Story
by Rolf Erickson

Enlightenment - The Transcendental Meditation Magazine    Translate This Article
7 December 2014

Prudence Farrow Bruns, PhD, is the daughter of actress Maureen O'Sullivan and award-winning writer/director, John Farrow. She has been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique for 48 years, and has been a teacher of the TM program for 46 years.

It all started so simply. It was 1966, and 18-year-old Prudence Farrow was sitting on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean at her brother's home in Los Angeles. She was reading a book on meditation when she heard a voice say, 'If you're interested in meditation, I know just the meditation for you.''

The voice was that of Peter Wallace, a friend of her brother. Peter had spent six months traveling through India, where he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and began the Transcendental Meditation technique. He told her how simple and effortless the technique was, and yet how profound the experience and benefits could be.

''It was the simplicity of the practice that struck me most,'' Prudence said. ''I'd been trying different methods of meditation for some time, but they had all been complicated and difficult. When Peter described a simple, natural practice of diving deep within, I knew he was truly onto something.''

So Prudence learned the TM technique at UCLA. After experiencing the positive effects of TM for herself, Prudence wanted more. She wanted to meet Maharishi and to study with him. ''At that time Maharishi had courses in India,'' says Prudence. ''He brought people there, and they studied for three or four months with him. You meditated for long periods under his guidance.''

On January 23, 1968, three days after her 20th birthday, Prudence traveled with Maharishi from New York to Rishikesh, India to attend her TM teacher training course. And that's when the ''Dear Prudence'' story really began.

The Beatles Make the Scene

One month after Prudence arrived in Rishikesh, The Beatles showed up to study with Maharishi. While they all spent some time there, John Lennon and George Harrison stayed the longest.

''The Beatles were all very nice, humble, modest, kind, and down-to-earth people,'' Prudence remembers. ''I was closest to John and George, since they were my 'course buddies' during our studies with Maharishi. We were supposed to look out for each other during the course.''

''It was the simplicity of the practice that struck me most. I'd been trying different methods of meditation for some time, but they had all been complicated and difficult. When Peter described a simple, natural practice of diving deep within, I knew he was truly onto something.''

Prudence soon became known for her tendency to keep to herself in her room, focused on her meditation practice. ''I was deeply immersed in my studies and meditation, locked away in my quarters. John, as my course buddy, was concerned and wanted to bring me out of my room to enjoy the experience more.''

John and George would come over to her room and play their guitars, encouraging her to come out and sing with them. It was this experience that became the inspiration for their song ''Dear Prudence'' in which John sings, ''Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?''

Before he left Rishikesh, George mentioned to Prudence that they had written a song about her, but she had no idea what it was. She didn't hear the song until it came out on their 1968 album The Beatles, commonly known as the ''White Album.''

Prudence's dedication to her meditation practice did pay off. After four months, she graduated from the course and became one of the first and youngest teachers of the Transcendental Meditation technique at that time.

But that was just the beginning of the ''Dear Prudence'' story.

Prudence Comes out to Play

Once she completed her teacher training course in India, Prudence definitely did come out to play. Over the past 46 years, she's instructed thousands of people in the TM technique throughout the United States and Canada. She married TM teacher Al Bruns in 1969, and they have three children and four grandchildren.

She's produced Hollywood feature films and a play in Manhattan. She was an assistant to the curator of the ''Theatre Collection'' of the Museum of the City of New York. She has been a magazine writer. She's written two books.

Prudence earned a BA, an MA, and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. She received her doctoral degree in 2007, with a major in South Asian Studies and Sanskrit. She has made presentations to conferences at numerous universities, including Harvard, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Hawaii. She's taught courses at UC Berkeley and Rutgers University.

TM and Yoga

Prudence continues to teach the TM program in Florida. In fact, she's the most successful teacher in the U.S. at setting up Affiliate Programs in yoga studios. Maybe that's not so surprising, considering that she's a lifelong yoga practitioner, and she opened a yoga institute in Boston back in 1967.

''We need a better world. We need people to be more conscious, to be more evolved. And expanding the mind, like TM does, is absolutely vital to bring about stronger people. If you can strengthen people inside, you've changed the world.''

Maharishi Foundation created the Affiliate Program to bring TM to yoga studios and fitness centers. When a studio becomes an Affiliate, their members can learn TM at a reduced course fee, and the studio receives a share of the income. Everyone benefits—the new TM student, the yoga studio, and the local TM teachers.

Today most people think of yoga as a series of physical postures. But Maharishi has explained that in the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali identifies eight limbs of yoga, and the eighth limb is Samadhi or transcendental consciousness. Maharishi said that with the practice of TM, Samadhi is actually the easiest limb of yoga to achieve, since no effort is required. We simply tap into the natural tendency of the mind to go within, to transcend, and that transcendence nourishes and supports all the other limbs.

''I do think that Transcendental Meditation is—of the meditations that are available to us—the most direct, and the simplest,'' says Prudence. ''When you meditate, when you transcend, it allows your heart and mind to balance. And when they're balanced, that's when you are really healthy. You are happy. You're happy mentally, happy emotionally, and happy spiritually. Those three are all components of what make a human being, so that connection to transcendence is absolutely necessary for health.''

Creating a Better World

Fortunately for us all, Prudence did come out to play.

''The years of meditating have enriched my life so much,'' Prudence says. ''And that's why at this point in my life, I'm giving back. We need a better world. We need people to be more conscious, to be more evolved. And expanding the mind, like TM does, is absolutely vital to bring about stronger people. If you can strengthen people inside, you've changed the world.''

So even today, 48 years later, the 'Dear Prudence' story continues.

Copyright © ''Enlightenment - The Transcendental Meditation Magazine



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