Russell Simmons is one of many well-known people that recommend Transcendental Meditation. To my surprise, and delight, I've recently found out that he's sharing the technique, only without branding it as TM.

In his book Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All, he states in the chapter Finding Your Inner Stillness – How to Meditate the following:

Seeing that you already paid your twenty-five dollars for this book, now I'd like to throw in for free some of those "expensive" tricks they teach in the TM course. If after reading this chapter you decide that TM might make sense for you, then maybe you'll go to TM.org and sign up for the class. But what I'm going to give you now is more than enough to get started. In fact, it could be all that you'll ever need.

And this is how Russel meditate:

A lot of people ask me how to meditate, expecting it to be difficult, but it’s actually very simple. First, find a comfortable seat and set your alarm for 20 minutes. It’s very important that you are sitting comfortably. After a minute silently repeat (in your mind) the Mantra “Rum” over and over to yourself. You can do this at a fast or slow pace as you like, but repeat this mantra simply as a vibration (it has no meaning). Meditation only requires that you sit, be patient and “watch all your thoughts” as they come and go. But, you MUST be patient, patience is the key.

Don’t expect anything. You will likely lose your mantra, it will slip away and a thought will take over your mind. That’s OKAY. Finish your thought and gently go back to the mantra. In a few minutes you might experience a real calmness and if you do, your mind will notice this and rebel. But you must continue to sit and let your mind go crazy. The mind is like a monkey in a cage: When it realizes the cage will not move, it will settle. It (the mind) WILL eventually slip deeper into meditation.

Just sit, relax and repeat your mantra…. This is how you meditate.

In the video above, Russell gives a mantra meditation workshop to an audience at Google. The learning of the actual technique takes place at 52:56.

The Mantra Ram

You can also choose the mantra "Ram", which I use myself:

When meditating repeat (silently) the Mantra Ram...do not fight the thoughts instead watch them come and go. Gently go back to Ram ram ram..

— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) September 17, 2011

How I Meditate

I'd like to add something regarding my own mantra meditation practice:

• I begin my meditation sessions with 30 seconds of silence with eyes closed.
• Then, I start repeating the mantra effortlessly for 15-20 minutes.
• Coming to an end, I once again sit in silence (without repeating the mantra) for 2-4 minutes before opening my eyes and resuming my daily activities.
• No alarmclock is used. After a few sessions, your body and mind become familiar when time is up.

I can't publish this post without including Deepak Chopra's excellent talk about how to use the mantra:

Tip: See also my post "Transcendental Meditation and the Alternatives".