Meditation is vital to Mindfulness. When people seek
treatment for anxiety, oftentimes meditation is recommended. When people seek
to learn meditation, mindfulness is a result. It is not a new idea that, if we
are conscious to and present in the moment we are experiencing at the exclusion
of almost everything else, we will be more happy and healthy. Meditation has
been used in Eastern religions since ancient times.
Meditation practices are no longer
relegated to trained practitioners who live in monasteries or ashrams, or
adherents to exotic religions and mystical groups. These days, meditation has
become a practice that is accessible to almost everyone. It is no longer simply
a spiritual tool, either; it has been quickly garnering the backing of
neuroscience and other medical specialties because of the health benefits it
supplies.
What has sparked the upsurge of interest in meditation? It
is thought to have existed for many thousands of years, so why the sudden
popularity among diverse groups of people?
One answer is the simple fact that the scientific community
is giving it credence as a reliable method of stress relief and tool to deal
with things such as trauma. Some people believe that the rapidly growing
popularity is also due to evolution of consciousness among humanity. Finally,
in a world that is increasingly chaotic and moving at a frantic pace, people
are seeking out ways to implement calmness and balance in their lives. Let us now explore the history of the practice of meditation and its origins in different
religions.
Known history of meditation
The earliest known teachings on meditation came from ancient
Hindu religious forms, circa 1500 BCE, from the Vedic texts. This practice of
dhyana translates roughly from Sanskrit as contemplation or reflection, and
refers to nonjudgmental awareness and sustained attention. This concept was
further developed centuries later in Buddhism, Jainism, and formal Hinduism,
albeit with slightly different understandings of what it meant. The internal
urge to live a mindful life is not new. In fact, the idea of being present 100
percent of the time has been desirable to some people for thousands of years.
Ancient peoples recognized that focusing on one thing at a time could increase
productivity and also result in a more pleasurable life. They worked to
cultivate systems and protocols that increase the mind’s ability to focus.
Aspects of meditation were geared in this direction. In antiquity, this work
combined with religious devotion to produce calm, focus, and connection to
something larger than one’s self. Meditation can be a doorway to mindfulness.
It’s interesting how the world’s different religions and cultures look to
processes of quieting and stilling the mind, and thereby do everything from
foster a religious connection to find peace amid stress. These endeavors
signify evolution, humanity, and a revolution in understanding consciousness.
Meditation in Major Faith Traditions
Some form of meditation exists in almost every major faith
tradition. These largely arose out of the spread of ideas throughout antiquity
and increased with broadening travel and trade during the Middle Ages. As groups
of people began expanding outward more from their cultural centers, they took
their spiritual practices with them. Many scholars believe that meditation
practices first appeared in early Vedic teachings, and then developed further
in other Asian traditions such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Meditation
forms were present in more than just the major religions of the world.
Hinduism
Meditation in Hinduism developed out of early Vedic texts,
and later, the Upanishads. The earliest forms of meditation were focused on
trying to understand ultimate reality. Is the universe a projection of
humanity, or is humanity a projection of the universe? Is the universe an
illusion, or is our individual existence an illusion?
Scholars of early Hinduism are aware of four types of
meditation based on the ancient texts. Rishis were ancient seers or sages who
took what they learned from meditation and composed hymns about their
conclusions. They wrote of mantra meditation, visual meditation, meditation on
learned insights in the heart and mind, and, finally, an ecstatic state that
occurs when merging with the universal reality of Brahman (divinity). Early Hinduism
also had ascetic adherents who incorporated various other practices such as breath
control and the ability to levitate. Similar descriptions of ascetic
shaman-seers have been included in modern-day writings like Autobiography of a
Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.
Hindu meditation developed over the centuries as a multifaceted
approach to self-realization called Yoga Vedanta. The yogic path includes
components such as service, knowledge, and devotion, and is variable according
to each individual’s needs. Because Hinduism dates back thousands of years,
many schools of thought have risen from it with nuanced differences in belief
and practice.
Buddhism
Buddhism developed in India out of early Hinduism. Unlike
the yogic eight-limb path— eight guidelines to living a meaningful and
purposeful life as outlined by the sage Patanjali—Buddhism emphasizes three
“training.” Many Americans are most familiar with just the meditation training.
However, the other two training, wisdom and ethics, are considered to be interconnected
with the practice of meditation. Following the death of the Buddha, several
doctrinal canons emerged with his supposed teachings. There remains scholarly
debate on the authenticity of various portions of these canons, which helped
give rise to the different schools of Buddhism. With the Silk Road—an ancient
network of routes that connected distant regions of the Asian continent—opening
up trade during the middle Ages, Buddhist meditation teachings were transmitted
out of India and throughout Eastern Asia. Around the eighth century, they
spread to Japan in the form of Zen. The primary schools of Buddhism that were
cemented over time are Mahayana, Theravada, Pure Land, Zen, and Vajrayana. Each
school developed its own meditation practices.
Judaism
A current of meditation practices has run through Judaism
for centuries. As one writer put it, meditation is so wrapped up in the daily
rituals of Jewish life that they weren’t separated out as individual practices.
However, the rituals gave many moments for “meditative awareness,” even if they
weren’t specifically called meditation. Many of the more technical types of
Jewish meditation were recorded as oral traditions, especially in the mystical
Kabbalah literature, so they may not have permeated out to the mainstream
Jewish population. However, there were many Hebrew words that would have been
familiar to lay practitioners that implicitly described various forms of
meditation practices such as seclusion, focused concentration, and visualization.
Christianity
Early Christianity is known for its Desert Fathers and
Mothers, ascetics and monks who went out into the wilderness to seclude
themselves and commune with God. Early Common Era writings from some of these
ascetics point to the practice of mantra meditation, calling it “pure prayer.”
In the middle Ages following the East-West Schism in Christianity, the
practices of Lectio Divina (a meditative reading of Scripture) and Hesychasm (a
meditation based on repetition of the Jesus Prayer) developed and took root. Over
the centuries, meditative practices remained within various contemplative
branches of Christianity, especially within monastic communities. However, they
are experiencing a resurgence of popularity within the mainstream Christian
population.
Islam
The bulk of meditation practices in early Islam came through
the mystical branch of Sufism. Two early forms, practiced as early as the
fourth century AD, were silent dhikr (rhythmic repetition of God’s names and
attributes) and the meditation of the heart. The motivation behind both of
these practices is the intense energy of love, both toward others and toward
God. By focusing on love, thoughts and emotions will fade away. Sufis are most
known for the meditative practice of “whirling.” Sufi orders were first
established in the twelfth century, and many took part in this activity.
Whirling is a physical meditation that helps one connect with God through
music, movement, and the relinquishment of ego and individual desires. Though
whirling is most identified with Sufism, there are several other orders of
Sufism and meditation practices as well. One order, started in the fourteenth
century, is called the Silent Sufis. They believe that God must be reached only
in silence.
Conclusion
We can now say that though meditation has its roots dated
from ancient Hindu religious forms, it exists in almost every major faith
tradition in some or the other form. Meditation forms were present in more than
just the major religions of the world however, meditation practices first
appeared in early Vedic teachings, and then developed further in other Asian
traditions such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
In my next blogs I shall talk about numerous types and
nuances of meditation but my next blog will be on "OM and meditation"
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