“It is amazing that most of us, even though we have been thinking right from the beginning of our lives, have rarely thought, ‘Where was the thought before we thought it?’ Nobody bothers about the origin of thought. How does thought start and how does it develop to be appreciated as a thought on the conscious, thinking level? A thought starts from the depths of consciousness, like an air bubble rising from the bottom of a lake. As the air bubble starts, it’s very [small]. As it rises, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Upon arriving at the surface, it explodes, and is therefore appreciated as a bubble. In the same way, a thought starts from the deepest levels of consciousness. Modern psychology calls it the subconscious. As it emerges, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, coming up toward the conscious thinking level, where it is appreciated as a thought. In Transcendental Meditation, we appreciate each thought on the surface level of the mind, tracing it back until the conscious mind reaches the source. And thereby, the conscious mind expands. By the time the conscious mind has experienced the source of thought, full depth of the subconscious has been explored. Nothing remains subconscious. And this is what is called the expansion of the conscious mind.”