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Teaching Transcendental Meditation: The tools to create a better world - Dr Robert Roth accepts honorary degree
by Global Good News staff writer

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22 November 2009

From youthful dreams of saving the world, to his work as National Director of Expansion for the Global Country of World Peace in the US, Dr Robert Roth shared his inspiring, profound vision as he accepted the degree of Doctor of World Peace, Honoris causa, bestowed by the Trustees of Maharishi University of Management (M.U.M.).

The honorary degree was conferred in a special ceremony on the M.U.M. campus in Fairfield, Iowa, USA on 12 November 2009, by Dr Bevan Morris, President of the M.U.M. and Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace, (Please see previous article.)

Beginning his acceptance speech, Dr Roth said, 'There are no words to express my profound appreciation for this highest honour—a doctorate of World Peace from the world's greatest university of world peace, bearing the name of the greatest proponent of world peace, whose meditation technique I have practised for over forty years, His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,' Founder of the Transcendental Meditation Programme and the Global Country of World Peace.

With characteristic brilliance, humility, and humour, Dr Roth inspired all who were gathered for the ceremony, including the M.U.M. Board of Trustees, the university community, Dr David Lynch (whose Foundation Dr Roth serves as Vice President), as well as family and friends.

Quoting from Dr Lynch's book, Catching the Big Fish, Dr Roth said, 'When you catch a big idea from the deepest level of your Being, about something really great you want to do with your life, always, always, always be true to that idea. Never forsake or compromise on that idea, because that idea has the support of the deepest level of life. That idea is like a seed that has everything you need for success.'

Two major ideas shaped his life. As a 10 year old boy, he had a 'burning desire' to be a professional baseball player. Then, during his teens, a second great idea grew in his awareness. 'It was around the time of President Kennedy, and it has stayed with me ever since,' he said. 'It was the desire to save the world.'

In 1968, Dr Roth began studies in political science and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, with the intent to become a lawyer and US Senator. Disillusionment quickly set in as he was confronted with hidden agendas, instead of the noble ideas he sought. 'I was then, and still am, a hopeless idealist,' he said. He came to realize, 'The changes I could make in politics were too incremental, too transitory, not foundational enough, to really do what I wanted to do—to help people in need and save the world.'

He considered a career in education, working with teenagers and young children. Around that time he learned the Transcendental Meditation Technique. 'On the day I was instructed, a new idea rose up within me—the desire to teach this meditation to children.'* He studied with Maharishi and became a Teacher of Transcendental Meditation in 1972. He taught the technique in San Francisco's inner city schools, in San Quentin prison, and at General Motors Corporation. 'I even taught the UCLA basketball team,' he said.

'Then Maharishi started to speak of . . . the collective effects of Transcendental Meditation,' the TM-Sidhi Programme and Yogic Flying.' Maharishi explained that the stress in collective consciousness fueled the violence that raged around the globe, and that groups of Yogic Flyers could neutralize that stress, creating invincibility and harmony in the life of every nation. Dr Roth described his realization that 'I had the tools to contribute something meaningful to create a better world. Tools that transcended politics, economics, national borders, public opinion, and the machinations of dictators and despots, and special interest groups.'

Global Good News will feature the conclusion of Dr Roth's acceptance speech in coming days, in which he describes the connection between his youthful dreams of baseball and world peace.

* Dr Roth is Vice President of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. The organization is making it possible for many thousands of schoolchildren worldwide to learn the Transcendental Meditation Technique.

** Dr Roth's acceptance speech was featured on the 16 November 2009 Maharishi Global Family Chat, which is broadcast daily via Internet webcast on the Maharishi Channel, Channel 3. Podcasts of the daily Global Family Chat (audio track) are also available for automatic download, via an RSS feed.

© Copyright 2009 Global Good News^®

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