Meditation - Types of meditation

Meditation - Types of meditation

According to Bogart (1991) and Perez-De-Albeniz & Holmes (2000) the different techniques of meditation can be classified according to their focus. That is, whether they focus on the field or background perception and experience, also called mindfulness, or whether they focus on a preselected specific object, also called "''concentrative'' meditation." There are also techniques that shift between the field and the object.

Categorizing the varieties of meditation is difficult. One common way is according to religion or lineage. Of course, some meditative traditions such as yoga or tantra are common to several religions. Also, meditation increasingly occurs outside of religious contexts, or crosses religious boundaries. Therefore, to avoid controversies, we will not attempt to classify all meditations into a religious class or leanage.

Forms of meditation include the following:

•   Meditation in Hinduism - several schools exist.
•   Meditation in Vedanta
•   Yoga as outlined by Patanjali describes eight "limbs" of spiritual practices, half of which might be classified as meditation. Underlying them is the assumption that a yogi should still the fluctuations of his or her mind: Yoga cittavrrti nirodha.
•   Sant Mat teaches "sound and light meditation" (surat shabd yoga)
•   Osho Meditation: Osho taught a wide variety of meditative techniques, including a "laughing meditation".
•  Transcendental Meditation (TM) was introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian spiritual teacher. It is grounded in Vedantic Hinduism. Meditation is based on a mantra, which is given to the practitioner by the teacher.
•  Sikhism encourages the divine meditation on God''s name, through simran.
•  Buddhist meditation: Meditation has always enjoyed a central place within Buddhism. The Buddha himself was said to have achieved enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree. Most forms of Buddhism distinguish between samatha and vipassana meditation, both of which are necessary for enlightenment. The former consists of learning to focus the attention single-pointedly; the latter involves seeing the true nature of reality.
•  Theravada Buddhism emphasizes vipassana meditation directed towards anapana, mett_ bh_van_, or 38 other traditional topics (see: Kammatthana).
•  In Mahayana schools, Tendai (Tien-tai), concentration is cultivated through highly structured ritual. Chinese Chan Buddhism (Sanskrit Dhyana, Japanese Zen) emphasizes ts''o ch''an and kung an meditation practices. The esoteric Shingon sect shares many features with Tibetan Buddhism.
•  Tibetan Buddhism emphasizes tantra for its senior practitioners; hence its alternate name of Vajrayana Buddhism. However, visitors to Tibetan monasteries are often surprised to discover that many monks go through their day without "meditating" in a recognizable form, but are more likely to chant or participate in group liturgy.
•  Zen Buddhism''s meditation practice is called Zazen.
•  Taoism includes a number of meditative and contemplative traditions. Historically, to judge by the texts of the Tao Tsang (or Taoist cannon), these often focused on ecstatic journeys to other realms (some of them within the human body). Today Chinese temple activity tends to be ritualized, routinized, conflated with other religions such as Buddhism, and very noisy. More quietistic, perhaps purer forms of Taoist "meditation" is likely to be found at Taoist pilgrimage sites, such as the five sacred mountains in China.
• Qigong and Daoyin, a large, diverse array of Chinese breath training practises originally related to Taoism, Buddhism, traditional Chinese medicine and the Chinese and some Japanese martial arts. In fact, the Chinese martial art "Tai Chi Chuan" It is often referred to as meditation in motion.
• Meditation in Judaism: Although Kabbalah and Hassidic Judaism have the explicit concept of meditation (Hebrew hitbonenut), one can reasonably argue that a good deal of Jewish prayer (tefillah) is meditative. Jewish prayer is usually described as having two aspects: kavanah ("intention," which is similar to mediative spirit) and keva (the ritualistic, structured elements). See Jewish Meditation, by Aryeh Kaplan.
• Christian meditation: Christian traditions have various practices which might be identified as forms of "meditation." Many of these are monastic practices.
• Eastern Orthodoxy recognizes the Jesus prayer or hesychasm which some have felt to be similar to Hindu mantra meditation (an analogy which is not usually accepted by the Orthodox).
•  Roman Catholicism includes various contemplative practices, such as the rosary, lectio divina, or the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. There are several forms of Catholic Spirituality which each has a different approach to prayer.
• Protestant groups, especially in the wake of pietism, came to emphasize Bible study, and changing one''s life in accordance with scriptural principles and the Holy Spirit. Probably the Quaker meeting, in which participants sit quietly, waiting for the "inner light" to move someone to speak, best matches our expectations for what "meditation" ought to look like. New Thought groups practice "meditation" (often called such) during which various positive thoughts are " affirmed".
• Meditation in Islam:Within Islam "meditation" is normally associated with Sufism. It includes practices ranging from dhikr (recitation of the divine names) to the sema of the Whirling Dervishes.

Introduction and links to related topics

Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.


Healthy Happy - An instructional group founded by the Indian Sikh Dharma Yogi Bhajan in Los Angeles, California, in 1968 to promote holistic well-being through kundalini yoga.

Flourishing during the period of most intense international interest in Asian meditation techniques, the 3HO taught a simplified or neo-Hindu practice for awakening the psychic energy believed to lay dormant within the human body. (See 3HO)

Dyadic Eye Fixation - meditation technique of mutually gazing into one another’s eyes. (NAD)

Eidolon - Image, phantom or apparition; deliberately intended to confuse reflection or reflected image. The purpose of an idol is not worship but to serve as an aid to meditation in one''s effort to enter the world of that particular god or phenomenon and in this sense an idol may be considered an eidolon, or generator of images. In a society where idols are forbidden or ignored, any ubiquitous object becomes a lure for metaphor, desire, standard, tradition, the will, etc. Thus, in many parts of the world, the automobile has come to take the place of a god or a monument and is a model for purpose and the major criterion for reality.

Amrit - The nectar of immortality; the divine nectar that flows down from the sahasrara when the Kundalini is awakened.
An area in Siddha Yoga meditation ashrams and centers where refreshments can be purchased.

Ecstasy - Ecstasy, Ecstasis (Greek) (from ekstasis displacement, standing out from the proper place, hence rising above)

A transference of consciousness from the physical plane to another inner and superior plane, accompanied by awareness and memory of the experience. It is necessary to distinguish between an astral-psychic experience and a truly psychospiritual one.

The former is delusive and fraught with harm; the latter is the state of illumination spoken of by Plotinus, resulting from the true asceticism of the disciple, and in its highest form is the same as the high stage of meditation of the Hindu yogi.

Used in the Gospels to mean astonishment, trance, or ecstatic visions.

Past-life Regression - Act of using meditation or guided meditation to pass through the veil of linear time and perceive experiences encountered in a previous existence.

Concentration - Focussing the mind on a particular ideal or object, either tangible or intangible as an aid to meditation and subsequent spiritual realization.

Age Regression - Recalling under hypnosis or in meditation events from one’s present or past life.

Satsang - A meeting of devotees for the purpose of chanting, meditation and the study of relevant scriptures. The fundamental Guru/Disciple relationship.

Saptah - (lit., seven) A term introduced by Swami Muktananda to refer to the continuous chanting of the name of God, which also may be accompanied by dancing in a circle in a series of measured steps as an act of devotion and a joyful experience of meditation in motion. Saptahs were often held in the ashram for seven days at a time.

Yoga - Yoga (Sanskrit) Union; one of the six Darsanas or schools of philosophy of India, founded by Patanjali, but said to have existed as a distinct teaching and system of life before that sage. Yajnavalkya, a famous and very ancient sage of pre-Mahabharatan times, to whom the White Yajur-Veda, the Satapatha-Brahmana, and the Brihadaranyaka are attributed, is credited with inculcating the positive duty of religious meditation and retirement into the forests, and therefore is believed to have originated the yoga doctrine. Patanjali''s yoga, however, is more definite and precise as a philosophy, and imbodies more of the occult sciences than any of the extant works attributed to Yajnavalkya.

The objective of the Yoga school is attaining union or at-one-ness with the divine-spiritual essence within which is virtually identical with the spiritual essence or Logos of the universe. True yoga is genuine psychology based on a complete philosophical understanding of the entire inner human constitution.

There are several states leading to spiritual powers and perception. The eight stages of yoga usually enumerated are:
yama (restraint, forbearance);
niyama, religious observances such as fastings, prayer, penances;
asana, postures of various kinds;
pranayama, methods of regulating the breath;
pratyahara (withdrawal), withdrawal of the consciousness from external objects;
dharana (firmness, steadiness, resolution) mental concentration, holding the mind on an object of thought;
dhyana, abstract contemplation or meditation freed from exterior distractions; and
samadhi, complete collection of the consciousness and its faculties into union with the monadic essence.

There are several types of yoga such as karma yoga, hatha yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga, and jnana yoga. "Similar religious aspirations or practices likewise exist in Occidental countries, as, for instance, what is called ''Salvation by Works,'' somewhat equivalent to the Hindu Karma-Yoga, or, again, ''Salvation by Faith -- or Love,'' somewhat similar to the Hindu Bhakti-Yoga; while both Orient and Occident have, each one, its various forms of ascetic practices which may be grouped under the term Hatha-Yoga.

"No system of Yoga should ever be practiced unless under the direct teaching of one who knows the dangers of meddling with the psycho-mental apparatus of the human constitution, for dangers lurk at every step, and the meddler in these things is likely to bring disaster upon himself, both in matters of health and as regards sane mental equilibrium. The higher branches of Yoga, however, such as the Raja-Yoga and Jnana-Yoga, implying strict spiritual and intellectual discipline combined with a fervid love for all beings, are perfectly safe. It is, however, the ascetic practices, etc., and the teachings that go with them, wherein lies the danger to the unwary, and they should be carefully avoided" (OG 183).

The various forms of yoga from the standpoint of theosophy when properly understood are not distinct, separable means of attaining union with the god within; and it is a divergence of the attention into one or several of these forms to the exclusion of others that has brought about so much mental confusion and lack of success even in those who are more or less skilled. Every one of these forms of yoga, with the probable exception of the lower forms of hatha yoga, should be practiced concurrently by the one who has set his heart and mind upon spiritual success.

Thus one should carefully watch and control his acts, acting and working unselfishly; he should live so that his daily customs distract attention as little as possible away from the spiritual purpose; his heart coincidentally should be filled with devotion and love for all things; and he should cultivate, all at the same time, his will, his capacity for self-sacrifice and self-devotion to a noble cause, and his ability to stand firm and undaunted in the face of difficulties whatever they may be; and, finally, in addition and perhaps most importantly, he should do everything in his power to cultivate his intuition and intellectual faculties, exercising not merely his ratiocinative mind, but the higher intuitive and nobly intellectual parts.

Combining all these he is following the chela path and is using all the forms of yoga in the proper way. Yet the chela will never obtain his objective if his practice of yoga is followed for his own individual advancement. He will never reach higher than the superior planes of the astral world even in consciousness; but when his whole being follows this yoga as thus outlined with a desire to lay his life and all he is on the altar of service to the world, he is then indeed on the path.

Riddhi-pada - Riddhi-pada rddhi-pada (Sanskrit) [from riddhi supernormal power + pada step, way, ray, beam of light]

The way or steps to the attainment of supernormal powers; four steps being enumerated in raja yoga. These "are the four modes of controlling and finally of annihilating desire, memory, and finally meditation itself -- so far as these are connected with any effort of the physical brain -- meditation then becomes absolutely spiritual" (TG 324).

Tapasa-taru - Tapasa-taru (Sanskrit) [from tapas meditation + taru tree]

The tree of ascetics, the Sesamum orientale or Terminalia catappa. This tree was "very sacred among the ancient ascetics of China and Tibet" (TG 320).

Vipassanupakkilesa - Corruption of insight; intense experiences that can happen in the course of meditation and can lead one to believe that one has completed the path. The standard list includes ten
light, psychic knowledge, rapture, serenity, pleasure, extreme conviction, excessive effort, obsession, indifference, and contentment.

Zafu - A cushion used for meditation. The function of the zafu is to raise the buttocks so that the knees are pressed firmly against the ground. During proper meditation the knees should be pushing the Earth down, and the sky (heavens) up. The zafu, in this way, helps to maintain correct posture during meditation, and is also essential to correct posture. Traditionally it is a firm cushion filled with kapok.

Purva-mimansa - Purva-mimansa (Sanskrit) [from purva prior + mimansa profound or striving thought or meditation from the verbal root man to think]

Inquiry into the first portion of the Veda -- the matra portion; the fifth of the six Darsanas or schools of Hindu philosophy. The school of philosophy in our days considered to be chiefly concerned with the correct interpretation of the Vedic texts; hence sometimes called the First Vedantic School.

Jaimini is reputed to be its founder, as well as the author of the Mimansa-darsana, the sutras or aphorisms which constitute its chief doctrinal authority. This school is also sometimes termed Karma-mimansa because of the doctrine advocated that by its teaching one can be more or less freed from the making of new karma.

The more advanced portion of the Mimansa is called the Vedanta, which is the present-day theosophy of Hindustan. The Vedanta, also called the Uttara-mimansa, is attributed to Vyasa, the arranger of the Vedas, as its founder.

Niyama - Niyama (Sanskrit) [from ni the verbal root yam to hold back, curb]

Restraining, checking, controlling, especially the wandering, erratic mind. The second of eight steps of meditation in Hindu yoga: restraint of the mind or religious observances of various kinds, such as watchings, fastings, prayings, penances, etc.

As a proper noun, necessity or law personified as a son of Dharma and Dhriti; also a name of Vishnu.