99 Noble Strategy [10] One Tool Among Many - The Place of Vipassanā

 10] One Tool Among Many - The Place of Vipassanā in Buddhist Practice

What exactly is vipassanā?

Almost any book on early Buddhist meditation will tell you that the Buddha taught two types of meditation: samatha and vipassanā. 

Samatha, which means tranquility, is said to be a method fostering strong states of mental absorption, called jhāna. 

Vipassanā—literally “clear-seeing,” but more often translated as insight meditation—is said to be a method using a modicum of tranquility to foster moment-to-moment mindfulness of the inconstancy of events as they are directly experienced in the present. 

This mindfulness creates a sense of dispassion toward all events, thus leading the mind to release from suffering. These two methods are quite separate, we’re told, and of the two, vipassanā is the distinctive Buddhist contribution to meditative science. Other systems of practice pre-dating the Buddha also taught samatha, but the Buddha was the first to discover and teach vipassanā. Although some Buddhist meditators may practice samatha meditation before turning to vipassanā, samatha practice is not really necessary for the pursuit of Awakening. As a meditative tool, the vipassanā method is enough for attaining the goal.

Or so we’re told.

But if you look directly at the Pali discourses—the earliest extant sources for our knowledge of the Buddha’s teachings— you’ll find that although they do use the word samatha to mean tranquility, and vipassanā to mean clear-seeing, they otherwise confirm none of the received wisdom about these terms. 

• Only rarely do they make use of the word vipassanā—a sharp contrast to their frequent use of the word jhāna. When they depict the Buddha telling his disciples to go meditate, they never quote him as saying “go do vipassanā,” but always “go do jhāna.” 
• And they never equate the word vipassanā with any mindfulness techniques. 
• In the few instances where they do mention vipassanā, they almost always pair it with samatha—not as two alternative methods, 
• but as two qualities of mind that a person may “gain” or “be endowed with,” and that should be developed together.

One simile, for instance (SN 35:204), compares samatha and vipassanā to a swift pair of messengers who enter the citadel of the body via the noble eightfold path and present their accurate report—Unbinding, or nirvana—to the consciousness acting as the citadel’s commander.

Another passage (AN 10:71) recommends that anyone who wishes to put an end to mental defilement should—in addition to perfecting the principles of moral behavior and cultivating seclusion—be committed to samatha and endowed with vipassanā. 

This last statement is unremarkable in itself, but the same discourse also gives the same advice to anyone who wants to master the jhānas: Be committed to samatha and endowed with vipassanā. This suggests that, in the eyes of those who assembled the Pali discourses, samatha, jhāna, and vipassanā were all part of a single path. 

Samatha and vipassanā were used together to master jhāna and then—based on jhāna—were developed even further to give rise to the end of mental defilement and to bring release from suffering. This is a reading that finds support in other discourses as well.

There’s a passage, for instance, describing three ways in which samatha and vipassanā can work together to lead to the knowledge of Awakening: Either samatha precedes vipassanā, vipassanā precedes samatha, or they develop in tandem (AN 4:170). 

The wording suggests an image of two oxen pulling a cart: One is placed before the other or they are yoked side-by-side. 

Another passage (AN 4:94) indicates that if samatha precedes vipassanā—or vipassanā, samatha—your practice is in a state of imbalance and needs to be rectified. 

A meditator who has attained a measure of samatha, but no “vipassanā into events based on heightened discernment (adhipaññā-dhamma-vipassanā),” should question a fellow meditator who has attained vipassanā: “How should fabrications (sankhāra) be regarded? How should they be investigated? How should they be viewed with insight?” and then develop vipassanā in line with that person’s instructions. 

The verbs in these questions—“regarding,” “investigating,” “seeing”— indicate that there’s more to the process of developing vipassanā than a simple mindfulness technique. In fact, as we will see below, these verbs apply instead to a process of skillful questioning called

“appropriate attention.”

The opposite case—a meditator endowed with a measure of vipassanā into events based on heightened discernment, but no samatha—should question someone who has attained samatha: 

“How should the mind be steadied? How should it be made to settle down? How should it be unified? How should it be concentrated?” and then 

follow that person’s instructions so as to develop samatha. 

The verbs used here give the impression that “samatha” in this context means jhāna, for they correspond to the verbal formula—“the mind becomes steady, settles down, grows unified and concentrated”—that the Pali discourses use repeatedly to describe the attainment of jhāna. This impression is reinforced when we note that in every case where the discourses are explicit about the levels of concentration needed for insight to be liberating, those levels are the jhānas.

Once the meditator is endowed with both samatha and vipassanā, he/she should “make an effort to establish those very same skillful qualities to a higher degree for the ending of the mental fermentations (āsava—sensual passion, states of becoming, and ignorance).” 

This corresponds to the path of samatha and vipassanā developing in tandem. 

A passage in MN 149 describes how this can happen. You know and see, as they actually are, the six sense media (the five senses plus the intellect), their objects, consciousness at each medium, contact at each medium, and whatever is experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither-pleasure-nor-pain based on that contact. You maintain this awareness in such a way as to stay uninfatuated by any of these things, unattached, unconfused, focused on their drawbacks, abandoning any craving for them: This would count as vipassanā. At the same time—abandoning physical and mental disturbances, torments, and distresses—you experience ease in body and mind: This would count as samatha. This practice not only develops samatha and vipassanā in tandem, but also brings the 37 Wings to Awakening—which include the attainment of jhāna—to the culmination of their development.

So the proper path is one in which vipassanā and samatha are brought into balance, each supporting and acting as a check on the other. 

• Vipassanā helps keep tranquility from becoming stagnant and dull. 
• Samatha helps prevent the manifestations of aversion—such as nausea, dizziness, disorientation, 
• and even total blanking out—that can occur when the mind is trapped against its will in the present moment.

From this description it’s obvious that samatha and vipassanā are not separate paths of practice, but instead are complementary ways of relating to the present moment: 

• Samatha provides a sense of ease in the present; 
• vipassanā, a clear-eyed view of events as they actually occur, in and of themselves. 

It’s also obvious why the two qualities need to function together in mastering jhāna. 

As the standard instructions on breath meditation indicate (MN 118), such a mastery involves three things: 

• gladdening, 
• concentrating, and 
• liberating the mind. 

• Gladdening means finding a sense of refreshment and satisfaction in the present. 
• Concentrating means keeping the mind focused on its object, while 
• liberating means freeing the mind from the grosser factors making up a lower stage of concentration so as to attain a higher stage. 

The first two activities are functions of samatha, while the last is a function of vipassanā. All three must function together. 

If, for example, there is concentration and gladdening, with no letting go, the mind wouldn’t be able to refine its concentration at all. 

The factors that have to be abandoned in raising the mind from stage x to stage y belong to the set of factors that got the mind to x in the first place(AN 9:34). 

Without the ability clearly to see mental events in the present, there would be no way skillfully to release the mind from precisely the right factors that tie it to a lower state of concentration and act as disturbances to a higher one. 

If, on the other hand, there is simply a letting go of those factors, without an appreciation of or steadiness in the stillness that remains, the mind would drop out of jhāna altogether. So samatha and vipassanā have to work together to bring the mind to right concentration in a masterful way.

The question arises: If vipassanā functions in the mastery of jhāna, and jhāna is not exclusive to Buddhists, then what is Buddhist about vipassanā? 

The answer is that vipassanā per se is not exclusively Buddhist. 

What’s distinctly Buddhist is 

• (1) the extent to which both samatha and vipassanā are developed; 
• (2) the way they are developed—i.e., the line of questioning used to foster them; and 
• (3) the way they are combined with an arsenal of meditative tools to bring the mind to total release.

In MN 73, the Buddha advises a monk who has mastered jhāna to further develop samatha and vipassanā so as to master six cognitive skills, the most important of them being that 

• “through the ending of the mental fermentations, one remains in the fermentation-free release of awareness and release of discernment, having known and made them manifest for oneself right in the here and now.” 

This is a description of the Buddhist goal. Some commentators have asserted that this release is totally a function of vipassanā, but there are discourses that indicate otherwise.

Note that release is twofold: release of awareness and release of discernment. 

• Release of awareness occurs when a meditator becomes totally dispassionate toward passion: This is the ultimate function of samatha. 
• Release of discernment occurs when there’s dispassion for ignorance [?]: This is the ultimate function of vipassanā (AN 2:29–30). In this way, both samatha and vipassanā are involved in the twofold nature of this release.

The Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2) states that release can be

“fermentation-free” only if you know and see in terms of “appropriate attention” (yoniso manasikāra). 

As the discourse shows, appropriate attention means asking the proper questions about phenomena, regarding them not in terms of self/other or being/non-being, but in terms of the four noble truths.

 In other words, instead of asking “Do I exist? Don’t I exist? What am I?” you ask about an experience, “Is this stress? The origination of stress? The cessation of stress? The path leading to the cessation of stress?”

Because each of these categories entails a duty, the answer to these questions determines a course of action: 

• Stress should be comprehended, 
• its origination abandoned, 
• its cessation realized, and 
• the path to its cessation developed.

Samatha and vipassanā belong to the category of the path and so should be developed.

 To develop them, you must apply appropriate attention to the task of comprehending stress, which is comprised of the five aggregates of clinging—

• clinging to physical form, 
• feeling, 
• perception, 
• thought fabrications, or 
• consciousness.

 Applying appropriate attention to these aggregates means viewing them in terms of their drawbacks, as “inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self” (SN 22:122). 

A list of questions, distinctive to the Buddha, aids in this approach: 

• “Is this aggregate constant or inconstant?” 
• “And is anything inconstant easeful or stressful?” 
• “And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?” (SN 22:59). 

These questions are applied to every instance of the five aggregates, whether “past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle, common or sublime, far or near.” 

In other words, the meditator asks these questions of all experiences in the cosmos of the six sense media.

This line of questioning is part of a strategy leading to a level of knowledge called 

• “knowing and seeing things as they have come to be (yathā-bhūta-ñāṇa-dassana),” 
• where things are understood in terms of a fivefold perspective: their arising, their passing away, their drawbacks, their allure, and the escape from them—the escape, here, lying in dispassion.

Some commentators have suggested that, in practice, this fivefold perspective can be gained simply by focusing on the arising and passing away of these aggregates in the present moment; 

if your focus is relentless enough, it’ll lead naturally to a knowledge of drawbacks, allure, and escape, sufficient for total release. 

The texts, however, don’t support this reading, and practical experience would seem to back them up. 

As MN 101 points out, individual meditators will discover that, 

• in some cases, they can develop dispassion for a particular cause of stress simply by watching it with equanimity; but 
• in other cases, they will need to make a conscious exertion to develop the dispassion that will provide an escape. 

The discourse is vague—perhaps deliberately so —as to which approach will work where. This is something each meditator must test for him or herself in practice.

The Sabbāsava Sutta expands on this point by listing seven approaches to take in developing dispassion. Vipassanā, as a quality of mind, is related to all seven, but most directly with the first: “seeing,” i.e., seeing events in terms of the four noble truths and the duties appropriate to them. 

The remaining six approaches cover ways of carrying out those duties: 

1. restraining the mind from focusing on sense data that would provoke unskillful states of mind; 
2. reflecting on the appropriate reasons for using the requisites of food, clothing, shelter, and medicine; 
3. tolerating painful sensations; 
4. avoiding obvious dangers and inappropriate companions; 
5. destroying thoughts of sensual desire, ill will, harmfulness, and other unskillful states; and 
6. developing the seven factors for awakening: 
1. mindfulness, 
2. analysis of qualities, 
3. persistence, 
4. rapture, 
5. calm, 
6. concentration, and 
7. equanimity.

Each of these approaches covers a wide subset of approaches. 

Under “destroying,” for instance, you can eliminate an unskillful mental state by replacing it with a skillful one, focusing on its drawbacks, turning one’s attention away from it, relaxing the process of thought-fabrication that formed it, or suppressing it with the brute power of your will (MN 20). 

Many similar examples could be drawn from other discourses as well. The overall point is that the ways of the mind are varied and complex. Different fermentations can come bubbling up in different guises and respond to different approaches. Your skill as a meditator lies in mastering a variety of approaches and developing the sensitivity to know which approach will work best in which situation.

On a more basic level, however, you need strong motivation to master these skills in the first place. Because appropriate attention requires abandoning dichotomies that are so basic to the thought patterns of all people—“being/not being” and “me/not me”— meditators need strong reasons for adopting it. 

This is why the Sabbāsava Sutta insists that anyone developing appropriate attention must first hold the noble ones (here meaning the Buddha and his awakened disciples) in high regard. 

In other words, you have to see that those who have followed the path are truly exemplary. You must also be well-versed in their teaching and discipline. According to MN 117, “being well-versed in their teaching” begins with having conviction in their teachings about karma and rebirth [!!], which provide intellectual and emotional context for adopting the four noble truths as the basic categories of experience. Being well-versed in the discipline of the noble ones would include, in addition to observing the precepts, having some skill in the seven approaches mentioned above for abandoning the fermentations.

Without this sort of background, meditators might bring the wrong attitudes and questions to the practice of watching arising and passing away in the present moment. For instance, they might be looking for a “true self” and end up identifying—consciously or unconsciously—with the vast, open sense of awareness that embraces all change, from which it all seems to come and to which it all seems to return. Or they might long for a sense of connectedness with the vast interplay of the universe, convinced that—as all things are changing—any desire for changelessness is neurotic and life-denying.

For people with agendas like these, the simple experience of events arising and passing away in the present won’t lead to fivefold knowledge of things as they are. They’ll resist recognizing that the ideas they hold to are a fermentation of views, or that the experiences of calm that seem to verify those ideas are simply a fermentation in the form of a state of becoming. As a result, they won’t be willing to apply the four noble truths to those ideas and experiences. Only a person willing to see those fermentations as such, and convinced of the need to transcend them, will be in a position to apply the principles of appropriate attention to them and thus get beyond them.

So, to answer the question with which we began: 

• Vipassanā is not a meditation technique. 
• It’s a quality of mind—the ability to see events clearly in the present moment. 

Although mindfulness is helpful in fostering vipassanā, it’s not enough for developing vipassanā to the point of total release. 

Other techniques and approaches are needed as well. In particular, vipassanā needs to be teamed with samatha—the ability to settle the mind comfortably in the present—so as to master the attainment of strong states of absorption, or jhāna. 

Based on this mastery, you then apply samatha and vipassanā to a skillful program of questioning, called appropriate attention, directed at all experience: exploring events not in terms of me/not me, or being/not being, but in terms of the four noble truths. 

You pursue this program until it leads to a fivefold understanding of all events: in terms of 

1. their arising, 
2. their passing away, 
3. their drawbacks,
4. their allure, and 
5. the escape from them. 

Only then can the mind taste release.

This program for developing vipassanā and samatha, in turn, needs the support of many other attitudes, mental qualities, and techniques of practice. This was why the Buddha taught it as part of a still larger program, including respect for the noble ones, mastery of all seven approaches for abandoning the mental fermentations, and all eight factors of the noble path. To take a reductionist approach to the practice can produce only reduced results, for meditation is a skill like carpentry, requiring a mastery of many tools in response to many different needs. To limit ourselves to only one approach in meditation would be like trying to build a house when our motivation is uncertain and our tool box contains nothing but hammers. 

마음챙김 - 나무위키

마음챙김 - 나무위키

마음챙김

최근 수정 시각: 2020-10-08 21:16:56

위빳사나에서 넘어옴

분류

 

• 심리학

심리치료와 상담

[ 펼치기 · 접기 ]

1. 개요2. 하는 법3. 이론적 바탕4. 장점5. 마음챙김과 비슷한 개념들6. 관련 문서

1. 개요[편집]

Mindfulness

마음챙김 명상은 불교의 전통적 수행방법인 사티의 위빠사나를 현대 심리학/정신의학과 결합해서 만든 치료법이다. 서구에서 유행하는 방법이기도 하며, 많은 정신과 의사/상담사들에 의해서도 환자/내담자들에게 추천되는 방법이기도 하다. 

마음챙김 명상은 종교적 요소를 현대심리학과 결합해서 의미 있는 결과를 낳을 수 있다는 것을 증명한 사례이기도 하고, 아직 초창기인 목회상담에 자극을 주고 있기도 한다.

보통 우리는 먼저 1차로 자극을 느끼고 그것에 대한 2차적인 반응을 하는것으로 이어지는데(1차 자극 → 2차 반응) 마음챙김 명상은 1차 자극(감각, 생각 등)을 그대로 느끼되 거기에 대하여 불필요한 2차 반응을 보이지 않도록(필요한 2차 반응만 하는 방향으로), 노력하고자 하는 명상이라고 할 수 있다.

석가모니 부처가 수행했다고 알려졌으며, 현재 불교 중에서는 상좌부 불교의 주된 수행방법이다. 위파사나(Vipassanā)라고 하며, 관(觀)으로 번역하기도 한다. 영어로는 Mindfulness이다. 참조

어느 리뷰에 따르면[1] 코르티졸 수치를 조절하는데도 마음챙김이 효과가 있다는 논문이 나왔다고 한다. 다만 이 경우는 참여 희망자를 대상으로 한 실험이고, 무작위 대조군을 통한 실험에서는 효과가 없다고 나왔다고 하니 약간 주의할 필요가 있다.

오늘날 서구권에서는, 단순히 특정 종교의 수행을 넘어서, 마음챙김을 활용하여 범죄예방, 식생활, 행동중독, 삶의 만족, 정서적 자기조절, 학업적 성취, 노인문제 등 다양한 심리사회적 문제들에 접목될 만한 가치가 재발견되고 있다. 이와 관련하여 마음챙김의 권위자로 하버드 대학교의 엘렌 랭어(E.Langer)가 있다. 그 외에 텍사스 대학교 오스틴의 심리학자 크리스틴 네프(C.Neff)는 마음챙김을 확장하여 자기연민(self-compassion)의 중요성을 역설한 바 있다.

2. 하는 법[편집]

아래 적힌 대부분은 마음 챙김으로 들어서기 위한 방편일 뿐이며, 절대 정답이 아니다. 굵게 표시한 부분이 마음챙김을 수행하고 알리는 사람들이 공통적으로 말하는 마음챙김 명상의 핵심이다. 나머지는 사람마다 방법론이 다르며, 수행하는 개인마다 적합한 것 또한 다르다. 명상을 하며 자신의 방법을 찾아보자

• 편한 자세를 취한다.
  • 전통적으로는 가부좌를 틀고, 손바닥이 하늘로 향하도록 해서 무릎에 가볍게 놓는 것을 권하나, 중요하진 않다.
  • 보통은 바닥에 앉거나, 의자에 앉는다.
  • 단, 상체를 많이 기대거나, 눕는 자세는 잠으로 이어지기 쉬우므로 피하는 것이 좋다. 자세가 맞는 사람은 누워서도 잘만 한다

• 1~3회 가량 천천히 심호흡을 한다.
  • 명상을 시작하는 신호 역할. 생략해도 무방
  • 싱잉볼, 띵샤 등을 활용하기도 한다.

• 이후 일반적인 호흡을 하며, 자신의 호흡에 집중한다.
  • 말 그대로 호흡에 집중하고, 호흡함을 느낀다. 들숨과 날숨, 인중과 구강을 스치는 바람, 폐가 늘어나고 줄어드는 느낌, 배의 볼록해짐 등 내가 호흡하고 있음을 알 수 있다면 무엇이든 괜찮다.
  • 처음에는 호흡에 집중한다는 것이 어색하고 잘 안 느껴질 수 있다. 그럴 땐 숨소리를 조금 내어도 괜찮다.

• 자극이나, 생각 혹은 어떤 감정이 들어 주의를 빼앗길 때마다, 내가 그것을 느끼고 생각했다는 것을 알아차리고, 호흡에 집중하는 상태로 돌아온다.
  • 뇌가 적극적인 활동(어떤 행동을 한다던가, 외부 자극에 대해 집중해서 적극적으로 받아들이는 등)하지 않을 땐, 기억을 떠올리거나, 미래를 생각하는 등의 활동을 하게 되고(신경 과학에서 DMN(Default Mode Network) 으로 부르는 뇌 활동에 의해서 발생), 미세한 외부 자극에도 쉽게 주의를 빼앗긴다.
  • '~~한 정신 활동을 내가 했구나~' 알아차리고, 다시 호흡에 내 주의를 돌린다.

• 이상의 방법으로 꾸준히 명상한다.
  • 마음챙김 명상도, 그 목적인 마음챙김이라는 마음 상태도, 어느날 갑자기 확 늘어나지 않는다. 마음챙김은 운동능력, 근력과 마찬가지로 트레이닝을 할 때마다 늘어나고, 하지않으면 줄어든다. 어느 정도 깊은 명상 상태에 들어설 수 있다고 해도 마찬가지.
  • 반복해서 수행하다 보면, 명상 상태가 조금 씩 깊어지는 것을 느낄 수 있다.
  • 마음챙김 알리는 많은 사람들이 단 5분이라도 매일 하는 것을 권장한다. 오늘 깊게 명상하지 못했다 하더라도, 내일 명상 수련에 도움이 될 것이다.

3. 이론적 바탕[편집]

마음챙김 명상에서는 잡념이나 고통 등은 본래 몸이나 마음에서 일어나는 특정한 감각이나 생각(1차 자극 혹은 1차 감각)을 인간의 뇌와 신체가 본래와는 다른 형태로 특정한 자극(감각, 생각)에 임의로 반응(2차 반응)하면서 구체화된다고 본다.(예: 반사(조건반사, 무조건반사), 행동주의, 고전적 조건형성) 즉, 만물과 세계 그 자체는 가만히 있는데 인간이 스스로 그것에 반응을 보이는 결과가 잡념이나 고통 등이라는 뜻이다. 유명한 격언 중 '산은 산이요 물은 물이로다'[2]가 이런 뜻으로 나온 말이다. 따라서 이 명상은 몸의 모든 육체적 감각과 생각을 계속 관찰하면서, 해당 감각과 생각 등의 자극에 되도록 반응하지 않는 것(무반응)을 목적으로 한다.

일단 생각과 몸의 감각에 대하여 2차적으로 반응하지 않고(특히 스트레스 반응[3]) 그저 관찰하는 능력을 키워야 한다. 야동 같은 야한 생각이 나거나 기타 게임, 유혹, 자극적인 생각, 트라우마, 과거의 안 좋았던 기억 등 떠오르거나 생각하면서도(플래시백, 이불킥 참조) 반사적으로 2차적 신체적 정신적 반응이 일어나지 않고 그저 그러한 생각 조무래기들을 관찰하도록 노력하는 것이다. 혹은 모기에 물려서 가렵다든가 춥다거나 덥다거나 배고프거나 해도 그거에 대해서 심리적, 신체적으로 반응하지 않고 그저 관찰하는 것이다. 꽤나 어렵다.

어떻게 보면 자기 자신을 그러한 2차 반응이 일어나지 않도록 억눌러야(참아야) 한다고도 볼 수 있다. 인간의 뇌와 신체는 기본적으로 1차 자극이 오면 2차 반응이 오도록 설계되어 있기 때문이다. 하지만 그냥 '아 이런 자극이 있구나.'라고 알아차리기만 해도 '자극-반응'의 자동적 전개를 방지할 수 있다. 우리의 마음은 '하얀 코끼리를 생각하지 마시오'라는 말을 듣는 순간 이미 하얀 코끼리를 떠올리게 된다. 단순히 억누르는 것으로는 자극과 반응 사이의 연결고리를 알아차리기 어려울 뿐더러, 억누른다는 것은 어쨌든 거기에 계속 맞닿아 있다는 소리다. 그저 '하얀 코끼리라는 말을 들으니(자극) 하얀 코끼리가 떠오르는구나.(반응)'라고 알아차리고, 그 자체를 매듭짓는다면 더 이상 거기에 마음을 뺏길 이유가 생기지 않는다.

1. 마음챙김의 유래가 된 불교적 관점에서는 
2. 자신의 욕구를 따라가는 것은 쾌락주의고, 욕구를 참는 것은 고행주의라고 본다. 
3. 불교에서는 이 둘을 모두 경계하며 그저 욕구의 '생성-유지-소멸'의 과정을 알아차리는 '중도(中道)'의 길을 추구하기 때문에 단순히 참는 것과는 다르다. 
4. 물론 말이 쉽지, 직접 해보면 초심자는 그냥 참는 게 더 쉬울 정도로 까다롭다. 
5. 하지만 숙련되면 욕구를 억누르는 데에 쓰는 에너지를 절약할 수 있어 장기적으로 볼 때에는 중도적 관점이 효과적이니, 꾸준하게 연습해 보도록 하자.

조금 더 관심이 있다면 위파사나 수행법에 대해 찾아볼 것을 추천한다.

4. 장점[편집]

특히 이 명상이 좋은 점이 하나 있는데, 우리가 보통 어떤 유혹을 이기지 못하여 특정 행동을 하거나 금단증상 등을 느껴 컴퓨터나 담배 등에 다시 손대게 되는데, 이러한 마음챙김 명상을 통해 그러한 욕구에 대해 2차 반응을 보이지 않고 그 욕구를 지금 느끼고 있다고 '알아차림'하고 있을 뿐, 그로 인한 다른 생각이나 직접 행동으로 옮기는 등의 2차 반응을 안하게 되어 무엇을 하려는 욕구나 잡념을 이기는 능력이 강해지게 된다. 즉, 우리는 무엇을 생각하거나 느끼고 그 후에 행동으로 옮기는 등의 2차 반응이 오는데 1차 자극 등에 대해 그저 '그렇구나, 그렇지, 내(혹은 자기의 이름을 넣어서 제3자로 취급하거나)가 지금 그런 생각을 하고 그런 자극을 접하고 있구나.' 식으로 관조할 뿐 2차 행동이나 2차 생각을 만들지 않는 것이다.

또한 집중력이나 항상심, 인내력 같은 능력들을 향상시키고, 무분별한 자극과 반응으로 인한 스트레스 관리에 도움이 된다. 자신이 시험을 앞두고 있는 고시생이라거나 집중력이 약한 사람, 불안감이 심한 사람, 양궁선수나 바둑 기사이세돌 등의 고도의 집중력을 요하는 직업을 가지고 있는 사람이라면 마음챙김을 하는 것이 효과적인 방법이 될 수가 있다.

5. 마음챙김과 비슷한 개념들[편집]

'왓칭, 왓쳐'등의 책에서 강조하는 '왓칭, 즉 자신이 현재 하고 있는 생각'('형형색색의 다양한 크기와 색깔을 띄는 생각덩어리들'이라고 표현한다.)을 제3자의 관점으로 객관적으로 바라보거나 생각덩어리 등으로 상상하여 객관적으로 바라보기'가 사뭇 마음챙김 명상과 비슷하다.

자신의 내면의 상태를 살펴보고 자신의 마음을 인지하고 바라보고 점검하는 특성에서 메타인지(상위인지)와 어느 정도 관련이 있다. 메타인지(Metacognition)는 자신의 의식 상태를 마치 제3자가 바라보는 것처럼 자신을 객관적으로 바라보고(여기서 메타_Meta는 '상위, 위'를 가리키는 영어 접두사로서 자신보다 더 상위의 존재가 자신을 쳐다 보고 있다는 뉘앙스를 지니고 있다.) 자신의 상태(감정, 컨디션, '특정한 것을 잘 알고 있는가 모르는가', '나는 정확히 무엇을 모르는가?', '나는 지금 무엇을 생각하고 있는가', '나는 지금 무엇을 실행하고 있는가' 등)를 점검하고 그러한 의식 상태 등을 자기 스스로 조절하려는 인지 능력을 가리킨다.

게임 용어를 빌려 설명하자면 집중명상이 1인칭 관점(FPS 총 쏘는 게임 등에서 쓰이는 관점)에서 '나'를 중심으로 자연이나 주변 환경에 집중하는 명상이라면(주인공→주변부 시점), 마음챙김 명상은 3인칭 관점(RTS 실시간 전략 게임 등에서 쓰이는 관점[4])에서 자기 자신, 즉 '나'를 거리를 두고 띄어서 마치 타인이 '나'를 살펴보는 것처럼 객관적으로 바라보려고 노력하는 명상에 가깝다고 볼 수도 있다(주변부→주인공 시점). 그런데 '나'를 제3자의 눈으로 바라보며 자기 자신을 객관화시키는 그 느낌을 만드는 게 꽤나 어렵다. 평소에 자신에 대해 강점, 약점, 기회, 위험 등이나 평소에 자신이 하는 생각이나 잡념 등을 자신을 객관적으로 평가하면서 기록하는 방법이 어느 정도 유용할 수 있다[5].

FPS 게임에 익숙하다면, 3인칭 시점으로 놓고 플레이해보면 이를 어느 정도 느껴볼 수 있다. 단순히 1인칭 시점에서 3인칭 시점으로 전환하는 것이지만, 실제 플레이할 때 다가오는 느낌은 완전히 다르다(1인칭 시점은 나의 시점과 완전히 일치하지만, 3인칭 시점은 나의 시점과 일치하지 않아 플레이 중에 생각과 플레이가 일치하지 않게 되는 괴리가 발생한다). 만약 게임이 리플레이(플레이 과정을 그대로 재현하는 것)를 지원하면 플레이가 끝난 후 3인칭 시점으로 놓고 리플레이해 보라. 게임을 플레이할 당시에는 보이지 않던 것이 리플레이 중에는 보일 것이다.

왓칭이니 메타인지니 하면 실제로 3인칭 관점으로 나를 바라보고 있다고 상상하거나 생각덩어리를 상상하면서 마음챙김명상을 하려고 시도할 수 있는데 사실 피곤하고 계속하는 건 힘들기 때문에 만약 시도해 보려고 한다 해도 유용한 참고사항 같은 것으로 가끔 시도하고 평소에는 그냥 1차 자극에 반응을 보이지 않고 관조하자는 것만 해도 된다. 상상을 하는 것(즉 시각화) 자체가 뇌의 에너지를 많이 소모하고 뇌를 피곤하게 만드는 행동이기 때문이다. 그 특유의 객관화의 느낌을 알면서 어느 정도 레벨이 되면 굳이 시각화할 필요도 없고 말이다. 상상은 마음챙김명상, 특히 '자기관찰'을 도와주는 역할을 하는 것일 뿐. 핵심은 어디까지나 온전히 '느낀다'라는 것이다.

마인드풀 이팅은 마음챙김을 식이요법과 접목한것으로 볼수도 있다.

6. 관련 문서[편집]

• 메타인지
• 화두
• 참선
• 명상

 이 문서의 내용 중 전체 또는 일부는 명상 문서의 r191 판에서 가져왔습니다. 이전 역사 보러 가기

[1] Pascoe, M. C., & Bauer, I. E. (2015). A systematic review of randomised control trials on the effects of yoga on stress measures and mood. Journal of psychiatric research, 68, 270-282.[2] 어떤 것에 심리적 프레임, 즉 선입견이나 색안경을 끼고 보지 말고 그대로 보는 것이 중요하다는 말씀으로도 볼 수 있다.[3] 생체에 가해지는 여러 상해(傷害) 및 자극에 대하여 체내에서 일어나는 비특이적인 생물반응[4] 특히 게임 심즈의 시점과 매우 비슷하다. 특히 심즈는 화면 상단에 자신이 하고 있는 생각, 자신이 하고 있는 행동 등을 아이콘 형식으로 올려놓아 더욱 현실감있게 느껴진다.[5] 자각몽상태(마치 꿈에 빠지지 않고, 이것은 꿈에 불과하다. 라고 객관적으로 깨닫는 것)에 도달하고 꿈 상태를 더욱 선명하게 인지하기 위해 평소에 꿈 일기장을 쓰는 것과 비슷하다.

참선 - 나무위키

참선 - 나무위키

참선

최근 수정 시각: 2020-08-07 12:25:31


분류
불교
나무위키 불교 프로젝트

1. 소개

2. 관련 문서

1. 소개[편집]

참선(參禪)

불교의 수행법으로, 가부좌[1] 자세로 앉아 호흡을 깊이 하면서, 숨을 들이쉬고 내쉬는 모습과 마음에서 일어나는 여러 생각들을 끊임없이 관찰하고, 들여다보는 것을 기본으로 하는 수행방법이다. 꾸준히 하면, 마음이 차분해지고 외부 사물에 얽매이지 않게 되며, 완숙한 경지에 이르면 관찰하는 습관과 맞물려 사물의 본질을 파악하는 능력이 매우 강해진다고 한다.

특히 상술된, 호흡과 마음 작용을 살피는 마음 집중 수행은 석가모니 부처님도 수행자 시절부터 "득도 후에도 '꾸준히' 수련"하셨던 방법으로 세간에는 위빠사나(Vipassanā)라 알려져 있다.

여기서 좀 더 높은 단계에 들어서면[2] 화두(話頭)라 하여, 특정한 주제를 정해 좌선을 하면서 끊임없이 궁구(窮究)하는 수행을 하게 된다. 이 단계의 선(禪) 수행을 간화선이라 부른다. 세간에는 위빠사나 수행자들과 간화선 수행자들 간에 커다란 대립이 있는 것처럼 알려지기도 했으나, 기실 그 내면을 살펴보면 백지 상태에서 한 번에 그림을 그릴 수 없듯이 간화선을 수행하는 분들도 시작은 위빠사나 단계부터 시작한다.[3]

초심자들이 이런 과정을 무시하고 무리하게 욕심을 내면, 그만큼 위험부담도 크고, 끈기있게 수행하는 데에 오히려 방해가 될 수도 있다고 한다. 공부 욕심이 나쁜 것은 아니지만, 요는 "어떤 문제집을 푸느냐?"가 아니라, "그 단계를 제대로 성취하였는가?"이며, "꾸준히 하는 일" 또한 매우 중요한 관건이다. 초심자나 일반인들은 위빠사나로 기본을 탄탄히 하는 것만으로도 심신의 건강에 매우 도움되는 만큼, 처음부터 무리하게 질주하는 것에 대해서는 한 번쯤 생각해 볼 필요가 있을 듯.

불교식 수행법이지만, 요즘은 대중들에게도 널리 퍼졌으며, 의학계에서도 해당 분야의 연구가 많이 축적되고 있다. 단, 일본 사람들이 관련 분야를 먼저 알렸기 때문에[4][5] 국제적으로는 '좌선'을 일본식으로 발음한 '자젠'(座禅, zazen)이 많이 쓰인다. 2014년 부처님 오신날 특집으로 SBS에서 취재한 관련 내용. 일반 대중에게 거부감이 없도록 참선을 명상이라 표현한 듯 하다. 또한 108배를 할 때에도 자세 외에, 들이쉬고 내쉬는 호흡과 내려오는 속도에 유념하면 보다 효과가 크며, 무릎에도 무리가 가지 않는다. 방송의 피시험자 정도 수준이면 괜찮은 편인데, 여기서 좀더 익숙해지면 나름 요령이 생겨 10 ~ 20분 내에도 무리없이 108배를 할 수 있게 된다.

삼성의 이건희 회장은 일과 중 짬을 내어 좌선을 하는 것으로 익히 알려졌으며,[6] 나이 들어서도 정정하게 활동 중인 미국 배우 리처드 기어와 해리슨 포드도 참선하는데에 시간을 할애하는 사실이 알려져 화제가 되기도 했다.

가만히 앉아서 눈을 감고 정신을 집중하는 형태라서 잘못하면 졸음이 올 수도 있다. 불교 선방과 같이 참선을 여럿이서 할 때는 이를 감독하는 방장이 조는 사람을 죽비로 살짝 치는 경책을 행한다. 어디까지나 잠을 쫒는 방법이므로 보통은 어깨를 툭 치는 정도. 하지만 일반인이 아닌 승려끼리 참선할 때는 엄청 세게 때리는 예도 많고, 한국과 달리 일본의 경책은 기본이 몽둥이로 패는 수준이다.

2. 관련 문서[편집]

명상

-----

[1] 초심자들은 대개 10분 ~ 50분 동안 이 자세를 유지한 상태로 끊임없이 호흡과 마음작용을 관찰한다. 이렇게 보면 별것 아닌 것 같은데, 이 자세를 유지하는게 생각보다 어렵다. 때문에 한 쪽 발만 걸치는 반가부좌 자세를 취하는 경우도 있는데, 나이가 젊은 초심자들은 대체로 자세를 제대로 취할 것을 권유받는다. 일종의 첫 번째 관문인 셈.

[2] 대개 위빠사나 수련의 기초가 충실히 닦여진 상태. 자세한 부분은 후술 참조.

[3] 애초에 위빠사나 수행법은 북방 불교계에서도 음차한 '비파사나' 혹은 '수식관', '안반수의'등의 이름으로 전래되어 불교 참선수련의 기초를 차지하고 있다. 다만 북방불교 쪽 승려들이 후대에 만들어진 선종 계통의 수행법을 더 우월하게 여기는 시각은 있다. 대등하게 본다면 근본주의항목에 링크글들에 나온 것처럼 간화선 중시파와 남방불교 도입파간의 충돌이나, 선방 수좌들이 간화선을 안 한다는 비판이 나올 수도 없고, 선불교를 놓고 정체성 문제로 갈등을 빚지도 않을 것이다.

[4] 승려들이 교회 목사처럼 결혼생활을 하는 게 주류인 일본 불교계가 그나마 해외에도 목소리를 낼 수 있는 동력이라고 한다. 과거 자산규모 세계 1위 ~ 50위 대부분을 일본 기업이 차지하던 시절, 일본 문화 수출과정에서 일본인들이 자국의 불교 문화 및 용어를 널리 알린 덕분.

[5] ※ 꾸준한 심신 수련 + (자리잡은 사찰의 경우) 안정된 수입 구조 덕분에 90년대만 해도 일본의 승려들은 1등 신랑감으로 각광받았다고 한다. "일본 여성들이 선호하는 남편 직업 2위"에 오른 적도 있다고(이 부분 관련 근황 아시는 분들 추가 바랍니다).[6] 애플의 스티브 잡스도 마찬가지. 재미있게도 스마트폰 시장의 두 맞수가 모두 불교도에 참선을 좋아했다.

Meditation - Wikipedia

Meditation - Wikipedia

Meditation

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This article is about the induction of specific modes or states of consciousness. For other uses, see Meditation (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with mediation or medication.

Various depictions of meditation: The Hindu Swami Vivekananda, the Buddhist monk Hsuan Hua, Taoist Baduanjin Qigong, the Christian St Francis, the Stoic sage Epictetus and Muslim Sufis in Dhikr.

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.^{[1]:228–29[2]:180[3]:415[4]:107[5][6]} Scholars have found meditation elusive to define, as practices vary both between traditions and within them.

Meditation has been practiced since 1500 BCE antiquity in numerous religious traditions, often as part of the path towards enlightenment and self realization. The earliest records of meditation (Dhyana) derive from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism, and meditation exerts a salient role in the contemplative repertoire of Hinduism and Buddhism.^[7] 

Although meditation is popularly associated with Dharmic religions, other types of meditation have also influenced the spiritual dimensions of Abrahamic religions. 

Since the 19th century, Asian meditative techniques have spread to other cultures where they have also found application in non-spiritual contexts, such as business and health.

Meditation may significantly reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and pain,^[8] and enhance peace, perception,^[9] self-concept, and well-being.^{[10][11][12][13]} Meditation is under research to substantiate its health (psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular) benefits and other effects.

Contents

• 1Etymology
• 2Definitions
  • 2.1Dictionary definitions
  • 2.2Scholarly definitions
  • 2.3Separation of technique from tradition
• 3Forms and techniques
  • 3.1Classifications
  • 3.2Frequency
  • 3.3Posture
  • 3.4Use of prayer beads
  • 3.5Striking the meditator
  • 3.6Using a narrative
• 4Religious and spiritual meditation
  • 4.1Indian religions
    • 4.1.1Hinduism
    • 4.1.2Jainism
    • 4.1.3Buddhism
    • 4.1.4Sikhism
  • 4.2East Asian religions
    • 4.2.1Taoism
  • 4.3Abrahamic religions
    • 4.3.1Judaism
    • 4.3.2Christianity
    • 4.3.3Islam
    • 4.3.4Baháʼí Faith
  • 4.4Neo-pagan and occult
  • 4.5Modern spirituality
  • 4.6New Age
• 5Secular applications
  • 5.1Clinical applications
  • 5.2Meditation in the workplace
  • 5.3Sound-based meditation
• 6History
  • 6.1From ancient times
  • 6.2Medieval
  • 6.3Modern dissemination in the West
• 7Research
• 8Criticisms
• 9Potential adverse effects
• 10Meditation, religion and drugs
• 11See also
• 12Notes
• 13References
• 14Bibliography
  • 14.1Further reading
• 15External links

Etymology[edit]

The English meditation is derived from Old French meditacioun, in turn from Latin meditatio from a verb meditari, meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder".^[14][15] The use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to the 12th century monk Guigo II.^[15][16]

Apart from its historical usage, the term meditation was introduced as a translation for Eastern spiritual practices, referred to as dhyāna in Hinduism and Buddhism and which comes from the Sanskrit root dhyai, meaning to contemplate or meditate.^[17][18] The term "meditation" in English may also refer to practices from Islamic Sufism,^[19] or other traditions such as Jewish Kabbalah and Christian Hesychasm.^[4]

Definitions[edit]

Meditation has proven difficult to define as it covers a wide range of dissimilar practices in different traditions. In popular usage, the word "meditation" and the phrase "meditative practice" are often used imprecisely to designate practices found across many cultures.^[4][20] These can include almost anything that is claimed to train the attention of mind or to teach calm or compassion.^[21] There remains no definition of necessary and sufficient criteria for meditation that has achieved universal or widespread acceptance within the modern scientific community. In 1971, Claudio Naranjo noted that "The word 'meditation' has been used to designate a variety of practices that differ enough from one another so that we may find trouble in defining what meditation is."^[22]:6 A 2009 study noted a "persistent lack of consensus in the literature" and a "seeming intractability of defining meditation".^[23]:135

Dictionary definitions[edit]

Dictionaries give both the original Latin meaning of 

1. "think[ing] deeply about (something)";^[6] as well as the popular usage of
2. " focusing one's mind for a period of time",^[6] 
3. "the act of giving your attention to only one thing, either as a religious activity or as a way of becoming calm and relaxed",^[24] and 
4. "to engage in mental exercise (such as concentrating on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness."^[5]

Scholarly definitions[edit]

In modern psychological research, meditation has been defined and characterized in a variety of ways. Many of these 

• emphasize the role of attention^[4][1][2][3] and characterize the practice of meditation as attempts to 
• get beyond the reflexive, "discursive thinking"^{[note 1]} or "logic"^{[note 2]} mind^{[note 3]} 
• to achieve a deeper, more devout, or more relaxed state.

Bond et al. (2009) identified criteria for defining a practice as meditation "for use in a comprehensive systematic review of the therapeutic use of meditation", using "a 5-round Delphi study with a panel of 7 experts in meditation research" who were also trained in diverse but empirically highly studied (Eastern-derived or clinical) forms of meditation^{[note 4]}:

three main criteria [...] as essential to any meditation practice:

 the use of a defined technique, logic relaxation,^{[note 5]} and a self-induced state/mode.

Other criteria deemed important [but not essential] involve a state of psychophysical relaxation, the use of a self-focus skill or anchor, the presence of a state of suspension of logical thought processes, a religious/spiritual/philosophical context, or a state of mental silence.^[23]:135

[...] It is plausible that meditation is best thought of as a natural category of techniques best captured by 'family resemblances' [...] or by the related 'prototype' model of concepts."^{[23]:135[note 6]}

Several other definitions of meditation have been used by influential modern reviews of research on meditation across multiple traditions:^{[note 7]}

• Walsh & Shapiro (2006): "[M]editation refers to a family of self-regulation practices that focus on training attention and awareness in order to bring mental processes under greater voluntary control and thereby foster general mental well-being and development and/or specific capacities such as calm, clarity, and concentration"^[1]:228–29
• Cahn & Polich (2006): "[M]editation is used to describe practices that self-regulate the body and mind, thereby affecting mental events by engaging a specific attentional set.... regulation of attention is the central commonality across the many divergent methods"^[2]:180
• Jevning et al. (1992): "We define meditation... as a stylized mental technique... repetitively practiced for the purpose of attaining a subjective experience that is frequently described as very restful, silent, and of heightened alertness, often characterized as blissful"^[3]:415
• Goleman (1988): "the need for the meditator to retrain his attention, whether through concentration or mindfulness, is the single invariant ingredient in... every meditation system"^[4]:107

Separation of technique from tradition[edit]

Some of the difficulty in precisely defining meditation has been in recognizing the particularities of the many various traditions;^[27] and theories and practice can differ within a tradition.^[28] Taylor noted that even within a faith such as "Hindu" or "Buddhist", schools and individual teachers may teach distinct types of meditation.^[29]:2 Ornstein noted that "Most techniques of meditation do not exist as solitary practices but are only artificially separable from an entire system of practice and belief."^[30]:143 For instance, while monks meditate as part of their everyday lives, they also engage the codified rules and live together in monasteries in specific cultural settings that go along with their meditative practices.

Forms and techniques[edit]

Classifications[edit]

In the West, meditation techniques have sometimes been thought of in two broad categories: focused (or concentrative) meditation and open monitoring (or mindfulness) meditation.^[31]

Direction of mental attention... A practitioner can focus intensively on one particular object (so-called concentrative meditation), on all mental events that enter the field of awareness (so-called mindfulness meditation), or both specific focal points and the field of awareness.^{[23]:130[note 8]}

Focused methods include paying attention to the breath, to an idea or feeling (such as mettā (loving-kindness)), to a kōan, or to a mantra (such as in transcendental meditation), and single point meditation.^[32][33]

Open monitoring methods include mindfulness, shikantaza and other awareness states.^[34]

Practices using both methods^[35][36][37] include vipassana (which uses anapanasati as a preparation), and samatha (calm-abiding).^[38][39]

In "No thought" methods, "the practitioner is fully alert, aware, and in control of their faculties but does not experience any unwanted thought activity."^[40] This is in contrast to the common meditative approaches of being detached from, and non-judgmental of, thoughts, but not of aiming for thoughts to cease.^[41] In the meditation practice of the Sahaja yoga spiritual movement, the focus is on thoughts ceasing.^[42] Clear light yoga also aims at a state of no mental content, as does the no thought (wu nian) state taught by Huineng,^[43] and the teaching of Yaoshan Weiyan.

One proposal is that transcendental meditation and possibly other techniques be grouped as an "automatic self-transcending" set of techniques.^[44] Other typologies include dividing meditation into concentrative, generative, receptive and reflective practices.^[45]

Frequency[edit]

The Transcendental Meditation technique recommends practice of 20 minutes twice per day.^[46] Some techniques suggest less time,^[35] especially when starting meditation,^[47] and Richard Davidson has quoted research saying benefits can be achieved with a practice of only 8 minutes per day.^[48] Some meditators practice for much longer,^[49][50] particularly when on a course or retreat.^[51] Some meditators find practice best in the hours before dawn.^[52]

Posture[edit]

Main article: Asana

Young children practicing meditation in a Peruvian school

Asanas and positions such as the full-lotus, half-lotus, Burmese, Seiza, and kneeling positions are popular in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism,^[53] although other postures such as sitting, supine (lying), and standing are also used. Meditation is also sometimes done while walking, known as kinhin, while doing a simple task mindfully, known as samu or while lying down known as savasana.^[54][55]

Use of prayer beads[edit]

Some religions have traditions of using prayer beads as tools in devotional meditation.^[56][57][58] Most prayer beads and Christian rosaries consist of pearls or beads linked together by a thread.^[56][57] The Roman Catholic rosary is a string of beads containing five sets with ten small beads. The Hindu japa mala has 108 beads (the figure 108 in itself having spiritual significance), as well as those used in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Hare Krishna tradition, Jainism and Buddhist prayer beads.^[59][60] Each bead is counted once as a person recites a mantra until the person has gone all the way around the mala.^[60] The Muslim misbaha has 99 beads. There is also quite a variance when it comes to materials used for beads. Beads made from seeds of rudraksha trees are considered sacred by devotees of Siva, while followers of Vishnu revere the wood that comes from the tulsi plant.^[61]

Striking the meditator[edit]

The Buddhist literature has many stories of Enlightenment being attained through disciples being struck by their masters. According to T. Griffith Foulk, the encouragement stick was an integral part of the Zen practice:

In the Rinzai monastery where I trained in the mid-1970s, according to an unspoken etiquette, monks who were sitting earnestly and well were shown respect by being hit vigorously and often; those known as laggards were ignored by the hall monitor or given little taps if they requested to be hit. Nobody asked about the 'meaning' of the stick, nobody explained, and nobody ever complained about its use.^[62]

Using a narrative[edit]

Richard Davidson has expressed the view that having a narrative can help maintenance of daily practice.^[48] For instance he himself prostrates to the teachings, and meditates "not primarily for my benefit, but for the benefit of others".^[48]

Religious and spiritual meditation[edit]

Indian religions[edit]

Hinduism[edit]

Main article: Hindu meditation

See also: Yoga

A statue of Patañjali practicing dhyana in the Padma-asana at Patanjali Yogpeeth.

There are many schools and styles of meditation within Hinduism.^[63] In pre-modern and traditional Hinduism, Yoga and Dhyana are practised to realize union of one's eternal self or soul, one's ātman. In Advaita Vedanta this is equated with the omnipresent and non-dual Brahman. In the dualistic Yoga school and Samkhya, the Self is called Purusha, a pure consciousness separate from matter. Depending on the tradition, the liberative event is named moksha, vimukti or kaivalya.

The earliest clear references to meditation in Hindu literature are in the middle Upanishads and the Mahabharata (including the Bhagavad Gita).^[64][65] According to Gavin Flood, the earlier Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is describing meditation when it states that "having become calm and concentrated, one perceives the self (ātman) within oneself".^[63]

One of the most influential texts of classical Hindu Yoga is Patañjali's Yoga sutras (c. 400 CE), a text associated with Yoga and Samkhya, which outlines eight limbs leading to kaivalya ("aloneness"). These are ethical discipline (yamas), rules (niyamas), physical postures (āsanas), breath control (prāṇāyama), withdrawal from the senses (pratyāhāra), one-pointedness of mind (dhāraṇā), meditation (dhyāna), and finally samādhi.

Later developments in Hindu meditation include the compilation of Hatha Yoga (forceful yoga) compendiums like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the development of Bhakti yoga as a major form of meditation and Tantra. Another important Hindu yoga text is the Yoga Yajnavalkya, which makes use of Hatha Yoga and Vedanta Philosophy.

Jainism[edit]

Main article: Jain meditation

The āsana in which Mahavira is said to have attained omniscience

Jain meditation and spiritual practices system were referred to as salvation-path. It has three parts called the Ratnatraya "Three Jewels": right perception and faith, right knowledge and right conduct.^[66] Meditation in Jainism aims at realizing the self, attaining salvation, and taking the soul to complete freedom.^[67] It aims to reach and to remain in the pure state of soul which is believed to be pure consciousness, beyond any attachment or aversion. The practitioner strives to be just a knower-seer (Gyata-Drashta). Jain meditation can be broadly categorized to Dharmya Dhyana and Shukla Dhyana.^{[clarification needed]}

Jainism uses meditation techniques such as pindāstha-dhyāna, padāstha-dhyāna, rūpāstha-dhyāna, rūpātita-dhyāna, and savīrya-dhyāna. In padāstha dhyāna one focuses on a mantra.^[68] A mantra could be either a combination of core letters or words on deity or themes. There is a rich tradition of Mantra in Jainism. All Jain followers irrespective of their sect, whether Digambara or Svetambara, practice mantra. Mantra chanting is an important part of daily lives of Jain monks and followers. Mantra chanting can be done either loudly or silently in mind.^[68]

Contemplation is a very old and important meditation technique. The practitioner meditates deeply on subtle facts. In agnya vichāya, one contemplates on seven facts – life and non-life, the inflow, bondage, stoppage and removal of karmas, and the final accomplishment of liberation. In apaya vichāya, one contemplates on the incorrect insights one indulges, which eventually develops right insight. In vipaka vichāya, one reflects on the eight causes or basic types of karma. In sansathan vichāya, one thinks about the vastness of the universe and the loneliness of the soul.^[68]

Buddhism[edit]

Main article: Buddhist meditation

Bodhidharma practicing zazen

Buddhist meditation refers to the meditative practices associated with the religion and philosophy of Buddhism. Core meditation techniques have been preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have proliferated and diversified through teacher-student transmissions. Buddhists pursue meditation as part of the path toward awakening and nirvana.^{[note 9]} The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are bhāvanā,^{[note 10]} jhāna/dhyāna,^{[note 11]} and vipassana.

Buddhist meditation techniques have become popular in the wider world, with many non-Buddhists taking them up. There is considerable homogeneity across meditative practices – such as breath meditation and various recollections (anussati) – across Buddhist schools, as well as significant diversity. In the Theravāda tradition, there are over fifty methods for developing mindfulness and forty for developing concentration, while in the Tibetan tradition there are thousands of visualization meditations.^{[note 12]} Most classical and contemporary Buddhist meditation guides are school-specific.^{[note 13]}

According to the Theravada and Sarvastivada commentatorial traditions, and the Tibetan tradition,^[69] the Buddha identified two paramount mental qualities that arise from wholesome meditative practice:

• "serenity" or "tranquility" (Pali: samatha) which steadies, composes, unifies and concentrates the mind;
• "insight" (Pali: vipassana) which enables one to see, explore and discern "formations" (conditioned phenomena based on the five aggregates).^[70]

Through the meditative development of serenity, one is able to weaken the obscuring hindrances and bring the mind to a collected, pliant and still state (samadhi). This quality of mind then supports the development of insight and wisdom (Prajñā) which is the quality of mind that can "clearly see" (vi-passana) the nature of phenomena. What exactly is to be seen varies within the Buddhist traditions.^[69] In Theravada, all phenomena are to be seen as impermanent, suffering, not-self and empty. When this happens, one develops dispassion (viraga) for all phenomena, including all negative qualities and hindrances and lets them go. It is through the release of the hindrances and ending of craving through the meditative development of insight that one gains liberation.^[71]

In the modern era, Buddhist meditation saw increasing popularity due to the influence of Buddhist modernism on Asian Buddhism, and western lay interest in Zen and the Vipassana movement. The spread of Buddhist meditation to the Western world paralleled the spread of Buddhism in the West. The modernized concept of mindfulness (based on the Buddhist term sati) and related meditative practices have in turn led to mindfulness based therapies.^{[citation needed]}

Sikhism[edit]

Main article: Nām Japō

In Sikhism, simran (meditation) and good deeds are both necessary to achieve the devotee's Spiritual goals;^[72] without good deeds meditation is futile. When Sikhs meditate, they aim to feel God's presence and emerge in the divine light.^[73] It is only God's divine will or order that allows a devotee to desire to begin to meditate.^[74]Nām Japnā involves focusing one's attention on the names or great attributes of God.^[75]

East Asian religions[edit]

Taoism[edit]

Main article: Daoist meditation

"Gathering the Light", Taoist meditation from The Secret of the Golden Flower

Taoist meditation has developed techniques including concentration, visualization, qi cultivation, contemplation, and mindfulness meditations in its long history. Traditional Daoist meditative practices were influenced by Chinese Buddhism from around the 5th century, and influenced Traditional Chinese medicine and the Chinese martial arts.

Livia Kohn distinguishes three basic types of Taoist meditation: "concentrative", "insight", and "visualization".^[76] Ding 定 (literally means "decide; settle; stabilize") refers to "deep concentration", "intent contemplation", or "perfect absorption". Guan 觀 (lit. "watch; observe; view") meditation seeks to merge and attain unity with the Dao. It was developed by Tang Dynasty (618–907) Taoist masters based upon the Tiantai Buddhist practice of Vipassanā "insight" or "wisdom" meditation. Cun 存 (lit. "exist; be present; survive") has a sense of "to cause to exist; to make present" in the meditation techniques popularized by the Taoist Shangqing and Lingbao Schools. A meditator visualizes or actualizes solar and lunar essences, lights, and deities within their body, which supposedly results in health and longevity, even xian 仙/仚/僊, "immortality".

The (late 4th century BCE) Guanzi essay Neiye "Inward training" is the oldest received writing on the subject of qi cultivation and breath-control meditation techniques.^[77] For instance, "When you enlarge your mind and let go of it, when you relax your vital breath and expand it, when your body is calm and unmoving: And you can maintain the One and discard the myriad disturbances. ... This is called "revolving the vital breath": Your thoughts and deeds seem heavenly."^[78]

The (c. 3rd century BCE) Taoist Zhuangzi records zuowang or "sitting forgetting" meditation. Confucius asked his disciple Yan Hui to explain what "sit and forget" means: "I slough off my limbs and trunk, dim my intelligence, depart from my form, leave knowledge behind, and become identical with the Transformational Thoroughfare."^[79]

Taoist meditation practices are central to Chinese martial arts (and some Japanese martial arts), especially the qi-related neijia "internal martial arts". Some well-known examples are daoyin "guiding and pulling", qigong "life-energy exercises", neigong "internal exercises", neidan "internal alchemy", and taijiquan "great ultimate boxing", which is thought of as moving meditation. One common explanation contrasts "movement in stillness" referring to energetic visualization of qi circulation in qigong and zuochan "seated meditation",^[37] versus "stillness in movement" referring to a state of meditative calm in taijiquan forms. Also the unification or middle road forms such as Wuxingheqidao that seeks the unification of internal alchemical forms with more external forms.

Abrahamic religions[edit]

Judaism[edit]

Main article: Jewish meditation

Judaism has made use of meditative practices for thousands of years.^[80][81] For instance, in the Torah, the patriarch Isaac is described as going "לשוח" (lasuach) in the field – a term understood by all commentators as some type of meditative practice (Genesis 24:63).^[82] Similarly, there are indications throughout the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) that the prophets meditated.^[83] In the Old Testament, there are two Hebrew words for meditation: hāgâ (Hebrew: הגה‎), to sigh or murmur, but also to meditate, and sîḥâ (Hebrew: שיחה‎), to muse, or rehearse in one's mind.^[84]

Classical Jewish texts espouse a wide range of meditative practices, often associated with the cultivation of kavanah or intention. The first layer of rabbinic law, the Mishnah, describes ancient sages "waiting" for an hour before their prayers, "in order to direct their hearts to the Omnipresent One (Mishnah Berakhot 5:1). Other early rabbinic texts include instructions for visualizing the Divine Presence (B. Talmud Sanhedrin 22a) and breathing with conscious gratitude for every breath (Genesis Rabba 14:9).^[85]

One of the best known types of meditation in early Jewish mysticism was the work of the Merkabah, from the root /R-K-B/ meaning "chariot" (of God).^[84] Some meditative traditions have been encouraged in Kabbalah, and some Jews have described Kabbalah as an inherently meditative field of study.^[86][87][88] Kabbalistic meditation often involves the mental visualization of the supernal realms. Aryeh Kaplan has argued that the ultimate purpose of Kabbalistic meditation is to understand and cleave to the Divine.^[84]

Meditation has been of interest to a wide variety of modern Jews. In modern Jewish practice, one of the best known meditative practices is called "hitbodedut" (התבודדות, alternatively transliterated as "hisbodedus"), and is explained in Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and Mussar writings, especially the Hasidic method of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav. The word derives from the Hebrew word "boded" (בודד), meaning the state of being alone.^[89] Another Hasidic system is the Habad method of "hisbonenus", related to the Sephirah of "Binah", Hebrew for understanding.^[90] This practice is the analytical reflective process of making oneself understand a mystical concept well, that follows and internalises its study in Hasidic writings. The Musar Movement, founded by Rabbi Israel Salanter in the middle of the nineteenth-century, emphasized meditative practices of introspection and visualization that could help to improve moral character.^[91] Conservative rabbi Alan Lew has emphasized meditation playing an important role in the process of teshuvah (repentance).^[92][93] Jewish Buddhists have adopted Buddhist styles of meditation.^[94]

Christianity[edit]

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina stated: "Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds him."^[95]

Main article: Christian meditation

Christian meditation is a term for a form of prayer in which a structured attempt is made to get in touch with and deliberately reflect upon the revelations of God.^[96] The word meditation comes from the Latin word meditari, which means to concentrate. Christian meditation is the process of deliberately focusing on specific thoughts (e.g. a biblical scene involving Jesus and the Virgin Mary) and reflecting on their meaning in the context of the love of God.^[97] Christian meditation is sometimes taken to mean the middle level in a broad three stage characterization of prayer: it then involves more reflection than first level vocal prayer, but is more structured than the multiple layers of contemplation in Christianity.^[98]

The Rosary is a devotion for the meditation of the mysteries of Jesus and Mary.^[99][100] “The gentle repetition of its prayers makes it an excellent means to moving into deeper meditation. It gives us an opportunity to open ourselves to God’s word, to refine our interior gaze by turning our minds to the life of Christ. The first principle is that meditation is learned through practice. Many people who practice rosary meditation begin very simply and gradually develop a more sophisticated meditation. The meditator learns to hear an interior voice, the voice of God”.^[101]

According to Edmund P. Clowney, Christian meditation contrasts with Eastern forms of meditation as radically as the portrayal of God the Father in the Bible contrasts with depictions of Krishna or Brahman in Indian teachings.^[102] Unlike some Eastern styles, most styles of Christian meditation do not rely on the repeated use of mantras, and yet are also intended to stimulate thought and deepen meaning. Christian meditation aims to heighten the personal relationship based on the love of God that marks Christian communion.^[103][104] In Aspects of Christian meditation, the Catholic Church warned of potential incompatibilities in mixing Christian and Eastern styles of meditation.^[105] In 2003, in A Christian reflection on the New Age the Vatican announced that the "Church avoids any concept that is close to those of the New Age".^{[106][107][108]}

Islam[edit]

Main article: Muraqaba

See also: Sufism, Sema, and Dhikr § Sufi view

Whirling dervishes

Salah is a mandatory act of devotion performed by Muslims five times per day. The body goes through sets of different postures, as the mind attains a level of concentration called khushu.

A second optional type of meditation, called dhikr, meaning remembering and mentioning God, is interpreted in different meditative techniques in Sufism or Islamic mysticism.^[109][110] This became one of the essential elements of Sufism as it was systematized traditionally. It is juxtaposed with fikr (thinking) which leads to knowledge.^[111] By the 12th century, the practice of Sufism included specific meditative techniques, and its followers practiced breathing controls and the repetition of holy words.^[112]

Sufism uses a meditative procedure like Buddhist concentration, involving high-intensity and sharply focused introspection. In the Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi Sufi order, for example, muraqaba takes the form of tamarkoz, "concentration" in Persian.^[113]

Tafakkur or tadabbur in Sufism literally means reflection upon the universe: this is considered to permit access to a form of cognitive and emotional development that can emanate only from the higher level, i.e. from God. The sensation of receiving divine inspiration awakens and liberates both heart and intellect, permitting such inner growth that the apparently mundane actually takes on the quality of the infinite. Muslim teachings embrace life as a test of one's submission to God.^[114]

Dervishes of certain Sufi orders practice whirling, a form of physically active meditation.^[115]

Baháʼí Faith[edit]

In the teachings of the Baháʼí Faith, meditation is a primary tool for spiritual development,^[116] involving reflection on the words of God.^[117] While prayer and meditation are linked, where meditation happens generally in a prayerful attitude, prayer is seen specifically as turning toward God,^[118] and meditation is seen as a communion with one's self where one focuses on the divine.^[117]

In Baháʼí teachings the purpose of meditation is to strengthen one's understanding of the words of God, and to make one's soul more susceptible to their potentially transformative power,^[117] more receptive to the need for both prayer and meditation to bring about and maintain a spiritual communion with God.^[119]

Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the religion, never specified any particular form of meditation, and thus each person is free to choose their own form.^[116] However, he did state that Baháʼís should read a passage of the Baháʼí writings twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening, and meditate on it. He also encouraged people to reflect on one's actions and worth at the end of each day.^[117] During the Nineteen Day Fast, a period of the year during which Baháʼís adhere to a sunrise-to-sunset fast, they meditate and pray to reinvigorate their spiritual forces.^[120]

Neo-pagan and occult[edit]

Movements which use magic, such as Wicca, Thelema, Neopaganism, and occultism, often require their adherents to meditate as a preliminary to the magical work. This is because magic is often thought to require a particular state of mind in order to make contact with spirits, or because one has to visualize one's goal or otherwise keep intent focused for a long period during the ritual in order to see the desired outcome. Meditation practice in these religions usually revolves around visualization, absorbing energy from the universe or higher self, directing one's internal energy, and inducing various trance states. Meditation and magic practice often overlap in these religions as meditation is often seen as merely a stepping stone to supernatural power, and the meditation sessions may be peppered with various chants and spells.^{[citation needed]}

Modern spirituality[edit]

Meditation. Alexej von Jawlensky, oil on cardboard, 1918

Mantra meditation, with the use of a japa mala and especially with focus on the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, is a central practice of the Gaudiya Vaishnava faith tradition and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also known as the Hare Krishna movement. Other popular New Religious Movements include the Ramakrishna Mission, Vedanta Society, Divine Light Mission, Chinmaya Mission, Osho, Sahaja Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Oneness University, Brahma Kumaris and Vihangam Yoga.

New Age[edit]

New Age meditations are often influenced by Eastern philosophy, mysticism, yoga, Hinduism and Buddhism, yet may contain some degree of Western influence. In the West, meditation found its mainstream roots through the social revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when many of the youth of the day rebelled against traditional religion as a reaction against what some perceived as the failure of Christianity to provide spiritual and ethical guidance.^[121] New Age meditation as practised by the early hippies is regarded for its techniques of blanking out the mind and releasing oneself from conscious thinking. This is often aided by repetitive chanting of a mantra, or focusing on an object.^[122] New Age meditation evolved into a range of purposes and practices, from serenity and balance to access to other realms of consciousness to the concentration of energy in group meditation to the supreme goal of samadhi, as in the ancient yogic practice of meditation.^[123]

Secular applications[edit]

See also: Mindfulness § Applications

Clinical applications[edit]

See also: Mindfulness-based stress reduction, Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and Mindfulness-based pain management

The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states that "Meditation is a mind and body practice that has a long history of use for increasing calmness and physical relaxation, improving psychological balance, coping with illness, and enhancing overall health and well-being."^[124][12] A 2014 review found that practice of mindfulness meditation for two to six months by people undergoing long-term psychiatric or medical therapy could produce small improvements in anxiety, pain, or depression.^[125] In 2017, the American Heart Association issued a scientific statement that meditation may be a reasonable adjunct practice to help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, with the qualification that meditation needs to be better defined in higher-quality clinical research of these disorders.^[126]

Low-quality evidence indicates that meditation may help with irritable bowel syndrome,^[124] insomnia,^[124] cognitive decline in the elderly,^[127] and post-traumatic stress disorder.^[128][129]

Meditation in the workplace[edit]

A 2010 review of the literature on spirituality and performance in organizations found an increase in corporate meditation programs.^[130]

As of 2016 around a quarter of U.S. employers were using stress reduction initiatives.^[131][132] The goal was to help reduce stress and improve reactions to stress. Aetna now offers its program to its customers. Google also implements mindfulness, offering more than a dozen meditation courses, with the most prominent one, "Search Inside Yourself", having been implemented since 2007.^[132] General Mills offers the Mindful Leadership Program Series, a course which uses a combination of mindfulness meditation, yoga and dialogue with the intention of developing the mind's capacity to pay attention.^[132]

Sound-based meditation[edit]

Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School conducted a series of clinical tests on meditators from various disciplines, including the Transcendental Meditation technique and Tibetan Buddhism. In 1975, Benson published a book titled The Relaxation Response where he outlined his own version of meditation for relaxation.^[133] Also in the 1970s, the American psychologist Patricia Carrington developed a similar technique called Clinically Standardized Meditation (CSM).^[134] In Norway, another sound-based method called Acem Meditation developed a psychology of meditation and has been the subject of several scientific studies.^[135]

Biofeedback has been used by many researchers since the 1950s in an effort to enter deeper states of mind.^[136]

History[edit]

Main article: History of meditation

Man Meditating in a Garden Setting

From ancient times[edit]

The history of meditation is intimately bound up with the religious context within which it was practiced.^[137] Some authors have even suggested the hypothesis that the emergence of the capacity for focused attention, an element of many methods of meditation,^[138] may have contributed to the latest phases of human biological evolution.^[139] Some of the earliest references to meditation are found in the Hindu Vedas of India.^[137] Wilson translates the most famous Vedic mantra "Gayatri" as: "We meditate on that desirable light of the divine Savitri, who influences our pious rites" (Rigveda : Mandala-3, Sukta-62, Rcha-10). Around the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, other forms of meditation developed via Confucianism and Taoism in China as well as Hinduism, Jainism, and early Buddhism in India.^[137]

In the Roman Empire, by 20 BCE Philo of Alexandria had written on some form of "spiritual exercises" involving attention (prosoche) and concentration^[140] and by the 3rd century Plotinus had developed meditative techniques.

The Pāli Canon from the 1st century BCE considers Buddhist meditation as a step towards liberation.^[141] By the time Buddhism was spreading in China, the Vimalakirti Sutra which dates to 100 CE included a number of passages on meditation, clearly pointing to Zen (known as Chan in China, Thiền in Vietnam, and Seon in Korea).^[142] The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism introduced meditation to other Asian countries, and in 653 the first meditation hall was opened in Singapore.^[143] Returning from China around 1227, Dōgen wrote the instructions for zazen.^[144][145]

Medieval[edit]

The Islamic practice of Dhikr had involved the repetition of the 99 Names of God since the 8th or 9th century.^[109][110] By the 12th century, the practice of Sufism included specific meditative techniques, and its followers practiced breathing controls and the repetition of holy words.^[112] Interactions with Indians or the Sufis may have influenced the Eastern Christian meditation approach to hesychasm, but this can not be proved.^[146][147] Between the 10th and 14th centuries, hesychasm was developed, particularly on Mount Athos in Greece, and involves the repetition of the Jesus prayer.^[148]

Western Christian meditation contrasts with most other approaches in that it does not involve the repetition of any phrase or action and requires no specific posture. Western Christian meditation progressed from the 6th century practice of Bible reading among Benedictine monks called Lectio Divina, i.e. divine reading. Its four formal steps as a "ladder" were defined by the monk Guigo II in the 12th century with the Latin terms lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio (i.e. read, ponder, pray, contemplate). Western Christian meditation was further developed by saints such as Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila in the 16th century.^{[149][150][151][152]}

Modern dissemination in the West[edit]

Meditation has spread in the West since the late 19th century, accompanying increased travel and communication among cultures worldwide. Most prominent has been the transmission of Asian-derived practices to the West. In addition, interest in some Western-based meditative practices has been revived,^[153] and these have been disseminated to a limited extent to Asian countries.^[154]

Ideas about Eastern meditation had begun "seeping into American popular culture even before the American Revolution through the various sects of European occult Christianity",^[29]:3 and such ideas "came pouring in [to America] during the era of the transcendentalists, especially between the 1840s and the 1880s."^[29]:3 The following decades saw further spread of these ideas to America:

The World Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, was the landmark event that increased Western awareness of meditation. This was the first time that Western audiences on American soil received Asian spiritual teachings from Asians themselves. Thereafter, Swami Vivekananda... [founded] various Vedanta ashrams... Anagarika Dharmapala lectured at Harvard on Theravada Buddhist meditation in 1904; Abdul Baha ... [toured] the US teaching the principles of Bahai [sic], and Soyen Shaku toured in 1907 teaching Zen...^[29]:4

Meditating in Madison Square Park, New York City

More recently, in the 1960s, another surge in Western interest in meditative practices began. The rise of communist political power in Asia led to many Asian spiritual teachers taking refuge in Western countries, oftentimes as refugees.^[29]:7 In addition to spiritual forms of meditation, secular forms of meditation have taken root. Rather than focusing on spiritual growth, secular meditation emphasizes stress reduction, relaxation and self-improvement.^[155][156]

Research[edit]

Main article: Research on meditation

Research on the processes and effects of meditation is a subfield of neurological research.^[11] Modern scientific techniques, such as fMRI and EEG, were used to observe neurological responses during meditation.^[157] Concerns have been raised on the quality of meditation research,^{[11][158][159]} including the particular characteristics of individuals who tend to participate.^[160]

Since the 1970s, clinical psychology and psychiatry have developed meditation techniques for numerous psychological conditions.^[161] Mindfulness practice is employed in psychology to alleviate mental and physical conditions, such as reducing depression, stress, and anxiety.^{[11][162][163]} Mindfulness is also used in the treatment of drug addiction, although the quality of research has been poor.^[159][164] Studies demonstrate that meditation has a moderate effect to reduce pain.^[11] There is insufficient evidence for any effect of meditation on positive mood, attention, eating habits, sleep, or body weight.^[11] Moreover, a 2015 study, including subjective and objective reports and brain scans, has shown that meditation can improve controlling attention, as well as self-awareness.^[165]

A 2017 systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of meditation on empathy, compassion, and prosocial behaviors found that meditation practices had small to medium effects on self-reported and observable outcomes, concluding that such practices can "improve positive prosocial emotions and behaviors".^{[166][unreliable medical source?]} However, a meta-review published on Nature showed that the evidence is very weak and "that the effects of meditation on compassion were only significant when compared to passive control groups suggests that other forms of active interventions (like watching a nature video) might produce similar outcomes to meditation".^[167]

The 2012 US National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (34,525 subjects) found 8% of US adults used meditation,^[168] with lifetime and 12-month prevalence of meditation use of 5.2% and 4.1% respectively.^[169] In the 2017 NHIS survey, meditation use among workers was 10% (up from 8% in 2002).^[170]

Criticisms[edit]

The psychologist Thomas Joiner argues that modern mindfulness meditation has been "corrupted" for commercial gain by self-help celebrities, and suggests that it encourages unhealthy narcissistic and self-obsessed mindsets.^[171][172]

Potential adverse effects[edit]

See also: Research on meditation § Potential adverse effects and limits of meditation

Meditation has been correlated with unpleasant experiences in some people.^{[173][174][175][176]}

In one study, published in 2019, of 1,232 regular meditators with at least two months of meditation experience, about a quarter reported having had particularly unpleasant meditation-related experiences (such as anxiety, fear, distorted emotions or thoughts, altered sense of self or the world), which they thought may have been caused by their meditation practice. Meditators with high levels of repetitive negative thinking and those who only engage in deconstructive meditation were more likely to report unpleasant side effects. Adverse effects were less frequently reported in women and religious meditators.^[177]

Difficult experiences encountered in meditation are mentioned in traditional sources; and some may be considered to be just an expected part of the process: for example: seven stages of purification mentioned in Theravāda Buddhism, or possible “unwholesome or frightening visions” mentioned in a practical manual on vipassanā meditation.^[178]

Meditation, religion and drugs[edit]

Further information: Entheogen, Religion and drugs, and Psychedelic psychotherapy

Many major traditions in which meditation is practiced, such as Buddhism^[179] and Hinduism,^[180] advise members not to consume intoxicants, while others, such as the Rastafarian movements and Native American Church, view drugs as integral to their religious lifestyle.

The fifth of the five precepts of the Pancasila, the ethical code in the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions, states that adherents must: "abstain from fermented and distilled beverages that cause heedlessness."^[181]

On the other hand, the ingestion of psychoactives has been a central feature in the rituals of many religions, in order to produce altered states of consciousness. In several traditional shamanistic ceremonies, drugs are used as agents of ritual. In the Rastafari movement, cannabis is believed to be a gift from Jah and a sacred herb to be used regularly, while alcohol is considered to debase man. Native Americans use peyote, as part of religious ceremony, continuing today.^[182]

See also[edit]

• Attention
• Autogenic training
• Hypnosis
• Immanence
• Mechanisms of mindfulness meditation
• Meditation music
• Mushin (mental state)
• Narrative identity
• Philosophy
• Mettā
• Psychonautics
• Sensory deprivation
• ThetaHealing
• Mindfulness-based stress reduction
• Mindfulness-based pain management
• Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy
• Full Catastrophe Living

Notes[edit]

1. ^ An influential definition by Shapiro (1982) states that "meditation refers to a family of techniques which have in common a conscious attempt to focus attention in a nonanalytical way and an attempt not to dwell on discursive, ruminating thought" (p. 6, italics in original). The term "discursive thought" has long been used in Western philosophy, and is often viewed as a synonym to logical thought (Rappe, Sara (2000). Reading neoplatonism : Non-discursive thinking in the texts of plotinus, proclus, and damascius. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65158-5.).
2. ^ Bond, Ospina et al. (2009) report that 7 expert scholars who had studied different traditions of meditation agreed that an "essential" component of meditation "Involves logic relaxation: not 'to intend' to analyze the possible psychophysical effects, not 'to intend' to judge the possible results, not 'to intend' to create any type of expectation regarding the process" (p. 134, Table 4). In their final consideration, all 7 experts regarded this feature as an "essential" component of meditation; none of them regarded it as merely "important but not essential" (p. 234, Table 4). (This same result is presented in Table B1 in Ospina, Bond, et al., 2007, p. 281)
3. ^ This does not mean that all meditation seeks to take a person beyond all thought processes, only those processes that are sometimes referred to as "discursive" or "logical" (see Shapiro, 1982/1984; Bond, Ospina, et al., 2009; Appendix B, pp. 279–82 in Ospina, Bond, et al., 2007).
4. ^ "members were chosen on the basis of their publication record of research on the therapeutic use of meditation, their knowledge of and training in traditional or clinically developed meditation techniques, and their affiliation with universities and research centers. Each member had specific expertise and training in at least one of the following meditation practices: kundalini yoga, Transcendental Meditation, relaxation response, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and vipassana meditation" (Bond, Ospina et al., 2009, p. 131); their views were combined using "the Delphi technique [...] a method of eliciting and refining group judgments to address complex problems with a high level of uncertainty" (p. 131).
5. ^ Bond et al. 2009: "Logic relaxation is defined by the authors as “not ‘to intend’ to analyzing (not trying to explain) the possible psychophysi"cal effects,” “not ‘to intend’ to judging (good, bad, right, wrong) the possible psychophysical [effects],” and “not ‘to intend’ to creating any type of expectation regarding the process.” (Cardoso et al., 2004, p. 59)"
6. ^ The full quotation from Bond, Ospina et al. (2009, p. 135) reads: "It is plausible that meditation is best thought of as a natural category of techniques best captured by 'family resemblances' (Wittgenstein, 1968) or by the related 'prototype' model of concepts (Rosch, 1973; Rosch & Mervin, 1975)."
7. ^ Regarding influential reviews encompassing multiple methods of meditation: Walsh & Shapiro (2006), Cahn & Polich (2006), and Jevning et al. (1992), are cited >80 times in PsycINFO. Number of citations in PsycINFO: 254 for Walsh & Shapiro, 2006 (26 August 2018); 561 for Cahn & Polich, 2006 (26 August 2018); 83 for Jevning et al. (1992) (26 August 2018). Goleman's book has 33 editions listed in WorldCat: 17 editions as The meditative mind: The varieties of meditative experience^[25] and 16 editions as The varieties of meditative experience^[26] Citation and edition counts are as of August 2018 and September 2018 respectively.
8. ^ The full quote from Bond, Ospina et al. (2009, p. 130) reads: "The differences and similarities among these techniques is often explained in the Western meditation literature in terms of the direction of mental attention (Koshikawa & Ichii, 1996; Naranjo, 1971; Orenstein, 1971): A practitioner can focus intensively on one particular object (so-called concentrative meditation), on all mental events that enter the field of awareness (so-called mindfulness meditation), or both specific focal points and the field of awareness (Orenstein, 1971)."
9. ^ For instance, Kamalashila (2003), p. 4, states that Buddhist meditation "includes any method of meditation that has Enlightenmentas its ultimate aim." Likewise, Bodhi (1999) writes: "To arrive at the experiential realization of the truths it is necessary to take up the practice of meditation.... At the climax of such contemplation the mental eye ... shifts its focus to the unconditioned state, Nibbana...." A similar although in some ways slightly broader definition is provided by Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1991), p. 142: "Meditation – general term for a multitude of religious practices, often quite different in method, but all having the same goal: to bring the consciousness of the practitioner to a state in which he can come to an experience of 'awakening,' 'liberation,' 'enlightenment.'" Kamalashila (2003) further allows that some Buddhist meditations are "of a more preparatory nature" (p. 4).
10. ^ The Pāli and Sanskrit word bhāvanā literally means "development" as in "mental development." For the association of this term with "meditation," see Epstein (1995), p. 105; and, Fischer-Schreiber et al.(1991), p. 20. As an example from a well-known discourse of the Pali Canon, in "The Greater Exhortation to Rahula" (Maha-Rahulovada Sutta, MN 62), Ven. Sariputta tells Ven. Rahula (in Pali, based on VRI, n.d.): ānāpānassatiṃ, rāhula, bhāvanaṃ bhāvehi. Thanissaro (2006) translates this as: "Rahula, develop the meditation [bhāvana] of mindfulness of in-&-out breathing." (Square-bracketed Pali word included based on Thanissaro, 2006, end note.)
11. ^ See, for example, Thanissaro (1997); as well as, Kapleau (1989), p. 385, for the derivation of the word "zen" from Sanskrit "dhyāna". Pāli Text Society Secretary Rupert Gethin, in describing the activities of wandering ascetics contemporaneous with the Buddha, wrote:

    [T]here is the cultivation of meditative and contemplative techniques aimed at producing what might, for the lack of a suitable technical term in English, be referred to as "altered states of consciousness". In the technical vocabulary of Indian religious texts such states come to be termed "meditations" ([Skt.:] dhyāna / [Pali:] jhāna) or "concentrations" (samādhi); the attainment of such states of consciousness was generally regarded as bringing the practitioner to deeper knowledge and experience of the nature of the world. (Gethin, 1998, p. 10.)

12. ^ Goldstein (2003) writes that, in regard to the Satipatthana Sutta, "there are more than fifty different practices outlined in this Sutta. The meditations that derive from these foundations of mindfulness are called vipassana..., and in one form or another – and by whatever name – are found in all the major Buddhist traditions" (p. 92). The forty concentrative meditation subjects refer to Visuddhimagga's oft-referenced enumeration. Regarding Tibetan visualizations, Kamalashila (2003), writes: "The Tara meditation ... is one example out of thousands of subjects for visualization meditation, each one arising out of some meditator's visionary experience of enlightened qualities, seen in the form of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas" (p. 227).
13. ^ Examples of contemporary school-specific "classics" include, from the Theravada tradition, Nyanaponika (1996) and, from the Zen tradition, Kapleau (1989).

References[edit]

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71. ^ See, for instance, AN 2.30 in Bodhi (2005), pp. 267–68, and Thanissaro (1998e).
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128. ^ Gallegos, Autumn M.; Crean, Hugh F.; Pigeon, Wilfred R.; Heffner, Kathi L. (December 2017). "Meditation and yoga for posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials". Clinical Psychology Review. 58: 115–124. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.004. PMC 5939561. PMID 29100863.
129. ^ Bisson, Jonathan I; Roberts, Neil P; Andrew, Martin; Cooper, Rosalind; Lewis, Catrin (13 December 2013). "Psychological therapies for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (12): CD003388. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003388.pub4. PMC 6991463. PMID 24338345.
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151. ^ The Oblate Life by Gervase Holdaway, 2008 ISBN 0-8146-3176-2 p. 109
152. ^ After Augustine: the meditative reader and the text by Brian Stock2001 ISBN 0-8122-3602-5 p. 105
153. ^ Gustave Reininger, ed. (1997). Centering prayer in daily life and ministry. New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1041-2.
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156. ^ Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion by David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, Stanton Marlan 2009 ISBN page 559
157. ^ Fox, Kieran C.R.; Nijeboer, Savannah; Dixon, Matthew L.; Floman, James L.; Ellamil, Melissa; Rumak, Samuel P.; Sedlmeier, Peter; Christoff, Kalina (2014). "Is meditation associated with altered brain structure? A systematic review and meta-analysis of morphometric neuroimaging in meditation practitioners". Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 43: 48–73. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.03.016. PMID 24705269. S2CID 207090878.
158. ^ Van Dam, Nicholas T.; van Vugt, Marieke K.; Vago, David R.; Schmalzl, Laura; Saron, Clifford D.; Olendzki, Andrew; Meissner, Ted; Lazar, Sara W.; Kerr, Catherine E.; Gorchov, Jolie; Fox, Kieran C. R.; Field, Brent A.; Britton, Willoughby B.; Brefczynski-Lewis, Julie A.; Meyer, David E. (January 2018). "Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 13 (1): 36–61. doi:10.1177/1745691617709589. PMC 5758421. PMID 29016274.
159. ^ Jump up to:^a b Stetka, Bret (7 December 2017). "Where's the Proof that Mindfulness Really Works?". Scientific American Mind. 29 (1): 20–23. doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind0118-20.
160. ^ Van Dam, Nicholas T.; van Vugt, Marieke K.; Vago, David R.; Schmalzl, Laura; Saron, Clifford D.; Olendzki, Andrew; Meissner, Ted; Lazar, Sara W.; Gorchov, Jolie; Fox, Kieran C.R.; Field, Brent A.; Britton, Willoughby B.; Brefczynski-Lewis, Julie A.; Meyer, David E. (10 October 2017). "Reiterated Concerns and Further Challenges for Mindfulness and Meditation Research: A Reply to Davidson and Dahl". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 13 (1): 66–69. doi:10.1177/1745691617727529. PMC 5817993. PMID 29016240.
161. ^ Harrington, Anne; Dunne, John D. (2015). "When mindfulness is therapy: Ethical qualms, historical perspectives". American Psychologist. 70 (7): 621–631. doi:10.1037/a0039460. PMID 26436312.
162. ^ Strauss, Clara; Cavanagh, Kate; Oliver, Annie; Pettman, Danelle (24 April 2014). "Mindfulness-Based Interventions for People Diagnosed with a Current Episode of an Anxiety or Depressive Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials". PLOS ONE. 9 (4): e96110. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...996110S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096110. PMC 3999148. PMID 24763812.
163. ^ Khoury, Bassam; Sharma, Manoj; Rush, Sarah E.; Fournier, Claude (June 2015). "Mindfulness-based stress reduction for healthy individuals: A meta-analysis". Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 78(6): 519–528. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.03.009. PMID 25818837.
164. ^ Chiesa, Alberto; Serretti, Alessandro (16 April 2014). "Are Mindfulness-Based Interventions Effective for Substance Use Disorders? A Systematic Review of the Evidence". Substance Use & Misuse. 49 (5): 492–512. doi:10.3109/10826084.2013.770027. PMID 23461667. S2CID 34990668.
165. ^ Tang, Yi-Yuan; Hölzel, Britta K.; Posner, Michael I. (April 2015). "The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 16 (4): 213–225. doi:10.1038/nrn3916. PMID 25783612. S2CID 54521922.
166. ^ Luberto, Christina M.; Shinday, Nina; Song, Rhayun; Philpotts, Lisa L.; Park, Elyse R.; Fricchione, Gregory L.; Yeh, Gloria Y. (2017). "A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Meditation on Empathy, Compassion, and Prosocial Behaviors". Mindfulness. 9(3): 708–24. doi:10.1007/s12671-017-0841-8. PMC 6081743. PMID 30100929.
167. ^ Kreplin, Ute; Farias, Miguel; Brazil, Inti A. (5 February 2018). "The limited prosocial effects of meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 2403. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.2403K. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20299-z. PMC 5799363. PMID 29402955.
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Bibliography[edit]

• Austin, James H. (1999) Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999, ISBN 0-262-51109-6
• Azeemi, Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi (2005) Muraqaba: The Art and Science of Sufi Meditation. Houston: Plato, 2005, ISBN 0-9758875-4-8
• Bennett-Goleman, T. (2001) Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart, Harmony Books, ISBN 0-609-60752-9
• Benson, Herbert and Miriam Z. Klipper. (2000 [1972]). The Relaxation Response. Expanded Updated edition. Harper. ISBN 0-380-81595-8
• Bond, Kenneth; Ospina, Maria B.; Hooton, Nicola; Bialy, Liza; Dryden, Donna M.; Buscemi, Nina; Shannahoff-Khalsa, David; Dusek, Jeffrey; Carlson, Linda E. (2009). "Defining a complex intervention: The development of demarcation criteria for 'meditation'". Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. 1 (2): 129–137. doi:10.1037/a0015736. (NB: Bond, Ospina et al., 2009, has substantial overlap with the full report by Ospina, Bondet al., 2007, listed below. Overlap includes the first 6 authors of this paper, and the equivalence of Table 3 on p. 134 in this paper with Table B1 on p. 281 in the full report)
• Craven, John L. (October 1989). "Meditation and Psychotherapy *". The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 34 (7): 648–653. doi:10.1177/070674378903400705. PMID 2680046. S2CID 27930160.
• Goleman, Daniel (1988). The meditative mind: The varieties of meditative experience. New York: Tarcher. ISBN 978-0-87477-833-5.
• Hayes, S. C.; Strosahl, K. D.; Wilson, K. G. (1999) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. New York: Guilford Press.
• Kutz, I; Borysenko, JZ; Benson, H (January 1985). "Meditation and psychotherapy: a rationale for the integration of dynamic psychotherapy, the relaxation response, and mindfulness meditation". American Journal of Psychiatry. 142 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1176/ajp.142.1.1. PMID 3881049.
• Lutz, A.; Greischar, L. L.; Rawlings, N. B.; Ricard, M.; Davidson, R. J. (16 November 2004). "Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (46): 16369–16373. Bibcode:2004PNAS..10116369L. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407401101. PMC 526201. PMID 15534199.
• Metzner, R. (2005) Psychedelic, Psychoactive and Addictive Drugs and States of Consciousness. In Mind-Altering Drugs: The Science of Subjective Experience, Chap. 2. Mitch Earlywine, ed. Oxford University Press.
• MirAhmadi, As Sayed Nurjan (2005) Healing Power of Sufi Meditation. Islamic Supreme Council of America.
• Nirmalananda Giri, Swami (2007) Om Yoga: Its Theory and Practice In-depth study of the classical meditation method of the Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and the Upanishads.
• Ospina, MB; Bond, K; Karkhaneh, M; Tjosvold, L; Vandermeer, B; Liang, Y; Bialy, L; Hooton, N; Buscemi, N; Dryden, DM; Klassen, TP (June 2007). "Meditation practices for health: state of the research". Evidence Report/Technology Assessment (155): 1–263. PMC 4780968. PMID 17764203.
• Perez-De-Albeniz, Alberto; Holmes, Jeremy (2000). "Meditation: Concepts, Effects And Uses In Therapy". International Journal of Psychotherapy. 5 (1): 49–58. doi:10.1080/13569080050020263.
• Shalif, Ilan et al. (1989) Focusing on the Emotions of Daily Life (Tel-Aviv: Etext Archives, 2008)
• Shapiro, D. H. (1982). "Overview: Clinical and physiological comparison of meditation with other self-control strategies". American Journal of Psychiatry. 139 (3): 267–74. doi:10.1176/ajp.139.3.267. PMID 7036760.; Reprinted as chapter 1 (pp. 5–10) in Shapiro, Deane H.; Walsh, Roger N. (1984). Meditation, classic and contemporary perspectives. New York: Aldine. ISBN 978-0-202-25136-3. (the book was republished in 2008: ISBN 978-0-202-36244-1, 0-202-36244-2)
• Shapiro, Deane H. (1992). "Adverse effects of meditation: a preliminary investigation of long-term meditators". International Journal of Psychosomatics. 39 (1–4): 62–7. PMID 1428622. S2CID 52203383.
• Shear, Jonathan, ed. (2006). The experience of meditation: Experts introduce the major traditions. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. ISBN 978-1-55778-857-3.
• Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, ISBN 0-06-250834-2
• Smith, Fritz Frederick (1986): Inner Bridges: A Guide to Energy Movement and Body Structure, Humanics Ltd. Partners, ISBN 978-0-89334-086-5.
• Tart, Charles T., editor. Altered States of Consciousness (1969) ISBN 0-471-84560-4
• Trungpa, C. (1973) Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Shambhala South Asia Editions, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Trungpa, C. (1984) Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Shambhala Dragon Editions, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Erhard Vogel. (2001) Journey Into Your Center, Nataraja Publications, ISBN 1-892484-05-6
• Wenner, Melinda. "Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works." LiveScience.com. 30 June 2007.

Further reading[edit]

• Ajahn Brahm, Mindfulness Bliss and Beyond. ISBN 978-0-86171-275-5
• Meditation & The References From Various Religions – What is Meditation.
• Baba, Meher (1995). Discourses. Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Foundation. ISBN 978-1-880619-09-4.
• Cooper, David. A. The Art of Meditation: A Complete Guide. ISBN 81-7992-164-6
• Easwaran, Eknath. Meditation (see article). ISBN 0-915132-66-4 new edition: Passage Meditation. ISBN 978-1-58638-026-7. The Mantram Handbook ISBN 978-1-58638-028-1
• Glickman, Marshall (2002) Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Whole-Body Vipassana. ISBN 1-58290-043-4
• Goenka, S. N.. Meditation Now: Inner Peace through Inner Wisdom, ISBN 1-928706-23-1, 978-1-928706-23-6
• Hanson, Rick; Mendius, Richard (2009). Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. New Harbinger Publications. ISBN 978-1-57224-695-9.
• Hart, William. Art of Living, Vipassana Meditation, ISBN 0-06-063724-2, ISBN 978-0-06-063724-8
• Krishnamurti, Jiddu. This Light in Oneself: True Meditation, 1999, Shambhala Publications. ISBN 1-57062-442-9
• Heller, Rick. Secular Meditation: 32 Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy – A Guide from the Humanist Community at Harvard, 2015, New World Library. ISBN 978-1-60868-369-7
• Levin, Michal. Meditation, Path to the Deepest Self, Dorling Kindersley, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7894-8333-1
• Long, Barry. Meditation: A Foundation Course – A Book of Ten Lessons. ISBN 1-899324-00-3
• Meditation for Beginners without Religion – Meditation for Beginners.
• Meiche, Michele. Meditation for Everyday Living. ISBN 0-9710374-6-9
• Monaghan, Patricia and Eleanor G. Viereck. Meditation: The Complete Guide. ISBN 1-57731-088-8
• Oldstone-Moore, Jennifer. Understanding Confucianism, Duncan Baird, 2003. ISBN 1-904292-12-7.
• Saraydarian, Torkom (1976). The Science of Meditation. TSG Publishing Foundation. ISBN 978-0-911794-29-8.
• Shankarananda, Swami. Happy For No Good Reason, Shaktipat Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-9750995-1-3
• Vethathiri Maharishi. Yoga for Modern life.
• Wood, Ernest. Concentration – An Approach to Meditation.Theosophical Publishing House 1949. ISBN 0-8356-0176-5.
• Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi.

External links[edit]

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