{"id":6183,"date":"2019-06-27T21:50:47","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T20:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?p=6183"},"modified":"2019-06-27T21:50:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T20:50:47","slug":"meditation-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/","title":{"rendered":"MEDITATION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6192\" src=\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/04094215\/meditation.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/04094215\/meditation.jpg 225w, https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/04094215\/meditation-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because of the complexity of various forms of meditation, the text is broken up into two main areas, although it could be broken down much further.<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judeo\/Christian<\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"font-weight: 400\">Buddhist<\/h1>\n<h4 style=\"font-weight: 400\"><u>CHRISTIAN MEDITATION<br \/>\n<\/u>This seems to take the form of prayer in order to appreciate the revelations of god.\u00a0\u00a0This can be done by concentrating on a passage in the bible and considering its meaning in the context of a love of god.\u00a0\u00a0It is also a tool used to increase knowledge and cognisance of Christ.<\/h4>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The main distinction between Christian and perhaps the more mystic forms of meditation is that the former is focused on the revelations provided by god in the bible and through the life of Christ: whereas the latter is more focused on technique and mantras, though they are not mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, god is central to the Christian form of meditation.<!--more-->\u00a0\u00a0But with Christian meditation the mind has to be filled with thoughts of god and his message; whereas in eastern, non-Christian forms of meditation the mind is much more passive and observant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although I\u2019m using the word\u00a0<em>meditation<\/em>, the practice in Christianity can really be defined as\u00a0<em>contemplation<\/em>, in that there is a conscious attempt to praise god through appreciating and understanding the words of the old and new testaments and the life and deeds of Christ in the latter.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia Carrington in\u00a0<em>The Book of Meditation\u00a0<\/em>writes:<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\n<\/em><em>Some forms of Christian meditation, particularly those practiced in monasteries, are true &#8216;meditation&#8217; in the sense in which we are using that word in this book. \u00a0Other Christian practices loosely termed &#8216;meditaton&#8217; are, however, actually forms of &#8216;contemplation&#8217;.\u00a0<\/em>[p.30]<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is an organisation called\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christian-meditation.org.uk\/\">The World Community for Christian Meditation<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>They declare that the practice of meditation has become suspect and marginalised and talks about\u00a0<em>a great recovery of the contemplative dimension<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0Again the word\u00a0<em>contemplation\u00a0<\/em>is used as a synonym for\u00a0<em>meditation.\u00a0<\/em>A mantra is also suggested,\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marana_tha\">maranatha\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 our Lord is.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>You can make up your own minds about that.\u00a0\u00a0The recommended posture is similar to that for Buddhist meditation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">I won\u2019t say much about the Jewish tradition of meditation except to say that it is a highly complicated affair and that it is based on\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kabbalah\">Kabbalah<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0As I understand it, the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zohar\">Zohar\u00a0<\/a>is at the foundation of Jewish mystical thought informing the Kabbalah.\u00a0\u00a0The meditative practices are based on the tradition of visualisation and intuitive methods which should lead into some kind of insight brought about by a\u00a0<em>contemplation\u00a0<\/em>of god.\u00a0\u00a0Wikipedia defines it as a\u00a0<em>conceptually directed intellectual method of meditation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><u>BUDDHIST MEDITATION<br \/>\n<\/u>Core meditation techniques are basically methods of meditation that are transmitted from a teacher, usually of a particular tradition, passed on to a practitioners.\u00a0\u00a0However, in the west, many people have adopted the Buddhist model of meditation without declaring that they are Buddhists.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rather than go into detail about other methods of meditation, I\u2019ll list the main types and be brief about them as the subject is quite exhaustive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dhamma.org\/en\/about\/goenka\">Goenka<\/a>, who recently died, taught the\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vipassanadhura.com\/whatis.htm\">vipassana\u00a0<\/a><\/em>method of meditation which he learned in Myanmar. All participants follow the role of a monk for ten-days, arising at 4 am, not eating after mid-day, having no contact with the outside world and remaining silent.\u00a0\u00a0There is in excess of 10-hours of sitting and walking meditation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Practitioners are free to discuss any problems with a mentor.\u00a0\u00a0The focus is mainly on the breath; and the word,\u00a0<em>vipassana<\/em>, literally means\u00a0<em>insight meditation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www1.robnairn.net\/about\">Rob Nairn<\/a>\u00a0is trained in both Buddhism and psychology and became a teacher in the Kagyu Tibetan lineage, mainly in South Africa. His teaching is based on\u00a0<em>mindfulness<\/em>, being present in the moment and thus accomplishing tranquillity leading to compassion for all sentient beings and acquired wisdom.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The word\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zen\">zen\u00a0<\/a><\/em>derives originally from the Sanskrit word\u00a0<em>dhyana<\/em>\u00a0which can roughly be defined as a meditative state.\u00a0\u00a0As with other Buddhist meditations, the ultimate goal is enlightenment through direct insight.\u00a0\u00a0There is a de-emphasis on knowledge and a focus on\u00a0<em>zazen<\/em>, similar to other methods of meditation, by letting thoughts pass by without becoming involved with them but being mindful of them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lastly, I would like to draw your attention to a couple of books which I found interesting in the context of modern, western life:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><u><br \/>\n<\/u><\/em><em><u>The Quantum and the Lotus<br \/>\n<\/u><\/em>This book is a synthesis of Buddhist thinking and recent theories of scientific thought.\u00a0\u00a0Although it is a bit dated now, there are some insights into the nature of reality from different points of view:\u00a0\u00a0from<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Matthieu_Ricard\">Matthieu Ricard<\/a>\u00a0who began life as a researcher into cellular genetics and became a Buddhist; and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trinh_Xuan_Thuan\">Trinh Xuan Thuan<\/a>\u00a0who began as a\u00a0\u00a0Buddhist and later taught astronomy at the University of Virginia.\u00a0\u00a0He is the founding member of the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.issr.org.uk\/\">\u00a0International Society for Science and Religion.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><u><br \/>\n<\/u><\/em><em><u>The Book of Meditation<br \/>\n<\/u><\/em>This is described as\u00a0<em>The Complete Guide to Modern Meditation.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MGAK_Qicl5k\">Patricia Carrington<\/a>\u00a0is a clinical psychologist, researcher and psychotherapist specialising in stress management techniques.\u00a0\u00a0She uses meditation with many of her patients and has published many papers on the subject.\u00a0\u00a0She calls her methods\u00a0<em>EFT\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0<em>emotional freedom techniques<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0I find the way she blends science and meditation quite fascinating and widely, researched.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carrington uses scientific methods to verify the advantages of meditation using a wide variety of studies concerned with the physiological advantages, stress management, dreaming, the use of mantras, creativity, education and many mores areas.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lastly, I would like to recommend the book\u00a0<em>Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Daniel_Kahneman\">Daniel Kahneman<\/a>\u00a0won the Nobel Prize in Economics and is a senior scholar at Princeton University.<em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>There is no direct reference to meditation, but concerning how the mind works, his insights are invaluable.\u00a0\u00a0He writes about two systems of thought:\u00a0\u00a0<em>System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little effort and no sense of voluntary control; System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations.\u00a0\u00a0The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice and concentration.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">System one, I believe, is the precursor and nearer to a meditative state.\u00a0\u00a0The reason I\u2019ve included Kahneman in this talk is because I think it\u2019s important to know as much about thought processes in order to identify what is being dealt with in meditation.\u00a0\u00a0An analogous situation might be the learning processes involved in cycling, driving a car or swimming.\u00a0\u00a0At first, there is a conscious effort to transfer the skills into habit-forming actions which eventually become \u2018second nature\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0We are not consciously aware of changing gears and avoided obstacles:\u00a0\u00a0rather, they become automatic or intuitive and we are able to \u2018let go\u2019 of a conscious effort to drive, swim or ride a bike.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think the best example I\u2019ve come across in the distinction of these two states and how system 1 can exist as an automative function of the mind whilst system 2 is in operation.<\/p>\n<p>See\u00a0 Andy Puddicombe describing <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/andy_puddicombe_all_it_takes_is_10_mindful_minutes\">mindfulness<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on TED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because of the complexity of various forms of meditation, the text is broken up into two main areas, although it could be broken down much further. Judeo\/Christian Buddhist CHRISTIAN MEDITATION This seems to take the form of prayer in order to appreciate the revelations of god.\u00a0\u00a0This can be done by concentrating on a passage in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[162,163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-features"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MEDITATION - Many Roads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Albert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Albert\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#\/schema\/person\/d65113da84d62fbc945e6ee35f823e2a\"},\"headline\":\"MEDITATION\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-27T20:50:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/\"},\"wordCount\":1155,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/files\/2019\/04\/meditation.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\",\"Features\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/meditation-3\/\",\"name\":\"MEDITATION - 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Currently \"recovering\" from culture shock from having re-entered the UK after travelling for the past year in various countries. Now spending most of my time raising funds for destitute children in the northern part of Nepal - Helambu region - and editing Many Roads for the Bodhicharya website.","sameAs":["http:\/\/blowthegaff.blogspot.co.uk"],"url":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/author\/avrom108\/"}]}},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"shareaholic-thumbnail":false,"gform-image-choice-sm":false,"gform-image-choice-md":false,"gform-image-choice-lg":false,"mailchimp":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Albert","author_link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/author\/avrom108\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Because of the complexity of various forms of meditation, the text is broken up into two main areas, although it could be broken down much further. Judeo\/Christian Buddhist CHRISTIAN MEDITATION This seems to take the form of prayer in order to appreciate the revelations of god.\u00a0\u00a0This can be done by concentrating on a passage in&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}