The word 'transcend' means to go beyond. The term 'transcending meditation' has a two-fold meaning when used to describe Conscious Mental Rest.
First, CMR allows the conscious mind to go beyond (to 'transcend') active thinking and take our awareness towards mental stillness.
Second, the process is so natural that its simplicity typically goes beyond, or transcends, what one normally associates with meditation techniques and practices.
Definition of meditation Websters Online Dictionary: Meditate, Verb 1. Reflect deeply on a subject; "I mulled over the events of the afternoon"; "philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years"; "The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate". 2. Think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes; "He is meditating in his study". NB:See also what Webster's Online Dictionary says about the noun Meditation
Images of meditation Do a Google Images search on the word meditation, and see what images come up. Those who use the CMR method will know that CMR bears no resemblance to most of those kinds of images.
Conscious Mental Rest - Transcending Meditation Conscious Mental Rest transcends all of the above. It does not fit the dictionary definitions of meditation, and it does not fit the images. Nor does it require or suggest traditional meditation postures, clothing, mind discipline, the use of a mantra, and so on.
So 'CMR - Transcending Meditation' is a loosely used term that fits quite neatly with the method of Conscious Mental Rest. Its effects are what many meditation techniques aspire to achieve, so in this respect it could be called a form of 'meditation'. Yet its method and its approach are quite different from many 'meditation techniques'.