Meditation has a special significance in Buddhism. Here are several meditation styles that originated in the Buddhist tradition:
Insight Meditation
Insight meditation, derived from the Theravada school of Buddhism, focuses on intentional watching of the mind. The intention is to keep focused awareness within the mind, and when it wanders, to gently bring it back. This type of meditation is also called mindfulness, or vipassana. Wonderfully nonreligious, this is a method that is very useful today.
Insight meditation has been popularized by such well-known figures as Thich Nhat Hanh. Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, helped to bring mindfulness practices into the mainstream and medical world in the 1980s and beyond through his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) clinic.
Zen Meditation
Zen meditation’s roots are in the Mahayana school of Buddhism that largely grew out of Japan and Korea. This type of meditation focuses on three sub-types of practice:
1. Similar to insight meditation, the practitioner watches thoughts as they arise and disappear.
2. The student attempts to sit very quietly, doing nothing, with no thought at all.
3. The meditation student ponders a koan, or word puzzle, designed to elevate thought above dualistic thinking (a style unique to Zen).
Two major proponents of Zen in the West were Alan Watts and D. T. Suzuki. Post–World War II America proved to be fertile ground for Zen from Japan to take root in America. The 1950s saw the rise of the Beat movement in the United States, in which a group of rebel thinkers and artists were disillusioned with their culture and looked to Eastern philosophy for inspiration. The Beat revolt provided a clear entrance for Zen values into much of the American mainstream. During this period of the early 1950s, D. T.
Suzuki came to the United States to lecture on Zen. His ability to translate traditional Zen texts for Americans and relate Zen to modern physics, medicine, and Christianity resonated with the intellectual population.
Tibetan Meditation
Tibetan meditation carries many cultural trappings from Tibet and is composed of three primary components: Tibetan shamanism, traditional Buddhism, and tantric teachings from India. Tibetan meditation uses the cultural deities and tantric practices of incorporating one’s own energy to help achieve a mind-body connection.
Tibetan Buddhist centers are found throughout the United States. Perhaps the most well-known contact with this type of meditation for most Americans is through the Dalai Lama. Tibetan lamas began to take on students in America in the mid-1950s. One of the most famous of these lamas was Chögyam Trungpa, who came to the U.S. in 1970 and developed an organization that would later become Shambhala International. He created over one hundred meditation centers as well as Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
Two of his more well-known students who became teachers in their own right are Pema Chodron and Ken Wilber.
Dzogchen Meditation
Dzogchen is a style of meditation that is gaining more popularity in the United States of late. Another derivative of Tibet, it attempts to discover “pure mind”—the absolute nature of reality. It is akin to many insight meditation practices in that it seeks to achieve deep awareness of the present moment, but it draws on practices like Tibetan-based visualization and tantra to help reach this goal.
Dzogchen became more popularized by the Tibetan diaspora in the early 1950s, and the fourteenth Dalai Lama is a teacher of this style. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a famous early translation of the Dzogchen teaching, although it is claimed to possess many translation errors.
Buddhism can't be imagined without meditation. Most of the prayers involves deep meditation. Does Christianity involves meditation? My next blog will answer this question.
Insight Meditation
Insight meditation, derived from the Theravada school of Buddhism, focuses on intentional watching of the mind. The intention is to keep focused awareness within the mind, and when it wanders, to gently bring it back. This type of meditation is also called mindfulness, or vipassana. Wonderfully nonreligious, this is a method that is very useful today.
Insight meditation has been popularized by such well-known figures as Thich Nhat Hanh. Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, helped to bring mindfulness practices into the mainstream and medical world in the 1980s and beyond through his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) clinic.
Zen Meditation
Zen meditation’s roots are in the Mahayana school of Buddhism that largely grew out of Japan and Korea. This type of meditation focuses on three sub-types of practice:
1. Similar to insight meditation, the practitioner watches thoughts as they arise and disappear.
2. The student attempts to sit very quietly, doing nothing, with no thought at all.
3. The meditation student ponders a koan, or word puzzle, designed to elevate thought above dualistic thinking (a style unique to Zen).
Two major proponents of Zen in the West were Alan Watts and D. T. Suzuki. Post–World War II America proved to be fertile ground for Zen from Japan to take root in America. The 1950s saw the rise of the Beat movement in the United States, in which a group of rebel thinkers and artists were disillusioned with their culture and looked to Eastern philosophy for inspiration. The Beat revolt provided a clear entrance for Zen values into much of the American mainstream. During this period of the early 1950s, D. T.
Suzuki came to the United States to lecture on Zen. His ability to translate traditional Zen texts for Americans and relate Zen to modern physics, medicine, and Christianity resonated with the intellectual population.
Tibetan Meditation
Tibetan meditation carries many cultural trappings from Tibet and is composed of three primary components: Tibetan shamanism, traditional Buddhism, and tantric teachings from India. Tibetan meditation uses the cultural deities and tantric practices of incorporating one’s own energy to help achieve a mind-body connection.
Tibetan Buddhist centers are found throughout the United States. Perhaps the most well-known contact with this type of meditation for most Americans is through the Dalai Lama. Tibetan lamas began to take on students in America in the mid-1950s. One of the most famous of these lamas was Chögyam Trungpa, who came to the U.S. in 1970 and developed an organization that would later become Shambhala International. He created over one hundred meditation centers as well as Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
Two of his more well-known students who became teachers in their own right are Pema Chodron and Ken Wilber.
Dzogchen Meditation
Dzogchen is a style of meditation that is gaining more popularity in the United States of late. Another derivative of Tibet, it attempts to discover “pure mind”—the absolute nature of reality. It is akin to many insight meditation practices in that it seeks to achieve deep awareness of the present moment, but it draws on practices like Tibetan-based visualization and tantra to help reach this goal.
Dzogchen became more popularized by the Tibetan diaspora in the early 1950s, and the fourteenth Dalai Lama is a teacher of this style. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a famous early translation of the Dzogchen teaching, although it is claimed to possess many translation errors.
Buddhism can't be imagined without meditation. Most of the prayers involves deep meditation. Does Christianity involves meditation? My next blog will answer this question.
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