Meditation (redirected from Mindfulness meditation)

meditation, religious discipline in which the mind is focused on a single point of reference. It may be a means of invoking divine grace, as in the contemplation by Christian mystics of a spiritual theme, question, or problem; or it may be a means of attaining conscious union with the divine, e.g., through visualization of a deity or inward repetition of a prayer or mantra (sacred sound). Some forms of meditation involve putting the body in a special position, such as the seated, cross-legged lotus position, and using special breathing practices. Employed since ancient times in various forms by all religions, the practice gained greater notice in the postwar United States as interest in Zen Buddhism rose. In the 1960s and 70s the Indian Maharishi Mahesh Yogi popularized a mantra system known as Transcendental Meditation. Meditation is now used by many nonreligious adherents as a method of stress reduction; it is known to lessen levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. The practice has been shown to enhance recuperation and improve the body's resistance to disease.

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meditation

Private religious devotion or mental exercise, in which techniques of concentration and contemplation are used to reach a heightened level of spiritual awareness. The practice has existed in all religions since ancient times. In Hinduism it has been systematized in the school of Yoga. One aspect of Yoga, dhyana (Sanskrit: “concentrated meditation”), gave rise to a school of its own among the Buddhists, becoming the basis of Zen. In many religions, meditation involves verbal or mental repetition of a single syllable, word, or text (e.g., a mantra). Visual images (e.g., a mandala) or mechanical devices such as prayer wheels or rosaries can be useful in focusing concentration. In the 20th century, movements such as Transcendental Meditation emerged to teach meditation techniques outside a religious context.

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Meditation 

mental activity directed toward bringing the human mind to a state of deep concentration, which is therefore both the result and the objective appearance of meditation. Psychologically, meditation presupposes the elimination of extreme emotional states and a substantial decrease in responsiveness. The meditator’s body is relaxed; his frame of mind is elevated and marked by a certain indifference to physical objects and internal sensations.

In such practices as worship, philosophical religion, psychotherapy, and the didactic method, the induction and course of meditation are generally associated with a specific series of mental acts that form a natural process. In almost all languages, the word “meditation” is semantically related to both “mind” and “thinking” as natural human abilities independent of man’s conscious intention (Sanskrit dhyana; Russian duman’e; ancient Greek medomai; English “musing”).

Methods of meditation differ in technique and in the sequence of stages for reaching mental equilibrium and psychic unresponsiveness. Hindu and Buddhist yoga place particular emphasis on meditation as one of the principal means of attaining religious liberation. Meditation was also practiced and developed in the ancient “philosophical ecstasy” of the Platonists and Neoplatonists (among the former, it was an essential prerequisite of theoretical, particularly mathematical, thought), in the Orthodox “mental doing” (Logos meditation, or Jesus prayer), in the spiritual exercises of the Jesuits, and in the doctrine of the “way” of Muslim Sufis. Meditation has been used in some schools of contemporary psychoanalysis (C. G. Jung) whose goal is the integration of personality.

REFERENCES

James, W. Mnogoobrazie religioznogo opyta. Moscow, 1910. (Translated from English.)
Thurston, H. The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism. Chicago, 1952.
Evans-Wentz, W. Y. Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines. London-Oxford, 1967.

A. M. PIATIGORSKII