The Science of Meditation

The first big wave of scientific research on meditation came in the 1970s and mainly focused on the physiology of relaxation. The second wave, which is still ongoing, has a stronger focus on modes of attention and their neural correlates. In both waves of meditation research, Anglo-American scientists have dominated the arena, but the kinds of meditation investigated have almost exclusively been of Asian origin. This essay argues that the shifting focus of scientific studies is not only determined by the available scientific methodology, but also by the form of meditation under investigation, as well as the influence from society and popular culture.

Meditation in the Classical Daoist Tradition

The classical Daoist textual corpus, while often treated as abstract philosophy, emerged from a tradition of teachers and students that was primarily based on a common set of meditative techniques, and goals. These techniques emphasized proper posture (aligning the body and keeping it still), breath cultivation (concentrating, patterning, guiding, relaxing and expanding the breath), the use of attention (focusing on the one or on the center), as well as a variety of apophatic training regimes designed to restrict or eliminate desires, emotions, thoughts, knowledge and sense perceptions and reveal a deeper reality known as the Way, believed to underlie these faculties. With time, a tradition emerged for viewing these self-cultivation practices as particularly beneficial for rulership, connecting the ruler to a correlative web of cosmic energies.

Tibetan Longevity Meditation

The central aim of Tantric practice in Tibetan Buddhism is enlightenment, but the same techniques are also used to attain good health and a long life. The image of the Tantric deity and the surrounding mandala enables the imaginative recreation of a universe in which body-mind and wider environment are connected. Along with mantra recitation, secret breathing techniques, sometimes sexualized visualizations, and various movements and postures, this is understood to help the person reabsorb various kinds of life-essence that have been lost to the environment. Technique and culture are intertwined, since the practices are based on a ‘shamanic’ world-view in which life-essence may be lost to external forces, and the body-mind complex restored to good health and functioning through their recovery.

The History of Jaina Meditation

This essay argues that the many discontinuities and innovations in the history of Jaina meditation stem from the confusing descriptions of meditation in canonical texts, including the Āyāraṅga and the Uttarajjhayaṇa. The term used to denote meditation, dhyāna (or jhāna), is also used for non-meditative mental activity, but canonical lists of four types of dhyāna were typically, and confusingly, read as types of meditation. The only truly meditative type of dhyāna in these lists, “pure meditation”, was often seen as occurring only in the last moments before death, and even came to be considered altogether inaccessible in the present age. The resulting vacuum was filled in different ways by various post-canonical writers, among them Hemacandra, sometimes basing themselves on experience and influence from sources outside Jainism.

Yantra and Cakra in Tantric Meditation

In Hindu Tantric meditation, yantras are visual meditative tools composed of concentric linear shapes centered on the Bindu, a dimensionless point. This essay discusses the Śrīyantra, the symbol of goddess Tripurasundarī, which represents the meta-worldview of Śākta Tantra. The Śriyantra is composed of nine circuits, which are identified with nine psychic energy centers of consciousness along the vertical midline of the visualized subtle body. The meditative process commences from the gross levels of consciousness represented by the peripheral circuit and moves toward the subtle and transcendent consciousness of the center (=bindu). The symbolic universe of the Śrīyantra consists of mantras, deities, cosmic categories and psychological traits. These symbols form the interpretative frame for inducing psychocosmic identities without which the meditative object, the yantra, and the meditator will remain dichotomized and disconnected.

“Quiet Sitting” in Neo-Confucianism

In China, meditation is primarily associated with Buddhism and Daoism, but also played a significant role in Neo-Confucianism. Often referred to as “quiet sitting”, such practice was seen as a means to achieve an intuitive comprehension of the “original nature” or “universal principle” that lay at the bottom of Neo-Confucian thought. However, the attitude toward such practice was ambivalent, since it could undermine traditional teachings and norms. “Quiet sitting” was one of the factors behind the emergence of syncretist trends. When Confucian scholars began to write meditation manuals, the techniques described were mostly inspired by Buddhist and Daoist models, including regulated breathing, the circulation of qì, concentration on the “cinnabar field” (dāntián), as well as complete silence and lotus posture. However, late Ming scholar Gāo Pānlóng tried to make up a manual of strictly Confucian meditation, such as that of “recovering [the original state of mind] in seven days”.

Meditation Objects in Pali Buddhist Texts

What makes a meditation object? This essay explores early Pāli accounts of objects still used in modern practice, especially in Southern Buddhism. Their very variety reflects this tradition’s stress on a graduated path, where different stages and individuals require different teaching approaches, at different times. Usually, in practice, objects inducing “calm” and various states known as jhāna, are recommended, before those producing “insight”. Some objects produce both calm and insight; others balance, ensuring health of mind. So, early Pāli literature describes many meditative routes: variety and skillful combinations for individuals are considered key. What is essential, however, is how objects are given and used. Dhammapada narratives in particular, describing a gradual path, a movement between internal and external, “shocks” in chance occurrences in the world, and skilled interventions by friends or teachers, demonstrate a pedagogy striking for its stress on individual need rather than rigid imposition and structure.

Nām Simran in the Sikh Religion

This essay explores the many varieties of the meditative practice of nām simran, or “remembering the divine name,” as it is practiced in contemporary Sikh traditions. This practice includes silent repetition and loud chanting and can be conducted both as an individual contemplation or a communal worship. The devotional emphasis precludes the regulation of strict techniques, but technical elements, such as cross-legged posture, regulated breathing and the adjustment of recitation to the heartbeat, are common. The sacred words used are valued not only for their semantic properties, but also for what they are capable of doing. Although the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib describe the ultimate goal as liberation from rebirth, nām simran is in practice widely seen as a means to procure a variety of protective and moral rewards and to sustain and develop devotion, in line with the focus on selfless devoutness.

Samādhi in the Yoga Sūtras

The Indic Traditions have a rich two and a half millennia long variegated history of meditational and contemplative practices. Patañjali’s systematization of these techniques, as expressed in the Yoga Sūtras, eventually emerged as the recognized and generic model of meditative praxis for the Yoga traditions, and it was accommodated within the theologies and metaphysics of the heterogeneous sects. The basic principle of yoga practice lies in stilling the mind. From there, the yogī goes through various states of consciousness that lie beyond everyday experience. Patañjali presents a highly schematized version of this development, gradually moving from gross to subtle awareness, and eventually to a state in which consciousness is detached from all objects, including the mind itself, and becomes purely self-aware. This essay examines the seven ultimate states of consciousness that culminate from progressive stages of meditative focus outlined in this text.

Types of Meditation

This essay distinguishes between directive meditation, which seeks to bring about inner transformation by means of outside-in processes, and non-directive meditation, which builds on inside-out processes. The two types differ in terms of their meditation object (thematic vs. technical), mental attitude (concentrative vs. non-concentrative), and the context surrounding the practice (suggestive vs. non-suggestive). Most meditation practices include both directive and non-directive elements, but differ widely in their emphases, as illustrated by references to modern studies as well as traditional works on meditation. The suggested distinction differs from the widespread Buddhist-inspired contrast between “concentrative” meditation (or “focused attention”) and “insight” meditation (or “open monitoring”), which is shown to be problematic, especially when applied to non-Buddhist forms of meditation. The social constructivism that has long dominated cultural history tends to give preference to explanations based on directive working mechanisms and to disregard the equally important processes associated with non-directive meditation.