I just found this wonderful essay on the etymology of meditation at answers.com

Meditation: Etymology and history

Main article:
History of meditation

Caravans on the Silk Road helped spread meditative practices from India.

The word meditate stems from the Latin root meditatum, i.e. to ponder.[5] In the Old Testament hāgâ (Hebrew: הגה‎), means to sigh or murmur, but also to meditate. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, hāgâ became the Greek melete. The Latin Bible then translated hāgâ/melete into meditatio.[6] The use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to the 12th century monk Guigo II.[7]

Apart from its historical usage, the term
meditation was introduced as a translation for Eastern spiritual practices, generally referred to as dhyāna, which comes from the Sanskrit root dhyai, meaning to contemplate or meditate.[2][8] The term "meditation" in English may also refer to practices from Islamic Sufism,[9] or other traditions such as Jewish Kabbalah and Christian Hesychasm.[10] A recent edited book about "meditation", for example, included chapter contributions by authors describing Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Taoist traditions.[11][12] Scholars have noted that "the term 'meditation' as it has entered contemporary usage" is parallel to the term "contemplation" in Christianity.[13]

It is difficult to trace the history of meditation without considering the religious context within which it was practiced.
[14] Data suggest that even at prehistoric times older civilizations used repetitive, rhythmic chants and offerings to appease the gods.[15] Some authors have even suggested the hypothesis that the emergence of the capacity for focused attention, an element of many methods of meditation,[16] may have contributed to the final phases of human biological evolution.[17] References to meditation with Rishabha in Jainism go back to the prehistoric age with the Acaranga Sutra dating to 500 BC.[18][19]. Some of the earliest written records of meditation date to 1500BC in Hindu Vedantism. Around 500-600BC Taoists in China and Buddhists in India began to develop meditative practices.[14]

In the west, by 20BCE
Philo of Alexandria had written on some form of "spiritual exercises" involving attention (prosoche) and concentration[20] and by the 3rd century Plotinus had developed meditative techniques, which however did not attract a following among Christian meditators.[21]

Pāli Canon, which dates to 1st century BCE considers Indian Buddhist meditation as a step towards salvation.[22] By the time Buddhism was spreading in China, the Vimalakirti Sutra which dates to 100CE included a number of passages on meditation, clearly pointing to Zen.[23] The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism introduced meditation to other oriental countries, and in 653 the first meditation hall was opened in Japan,.[24] Returning from China around 1227, Dōgen wrote the instructions for Zazen.[25][26]

Islamic practice of Dhikr had involved the repetition of the 99 Names of God in the Qur'an since the 8th or 9th century.[27][28] By the 12th century, the practice of Sufism included specific meditative techniques, and its followers practiced breathing controls and the repetition of holy words.[29] Interactions with Indians or the Sufis may have influenced the Eastern Christian meditation approach to hesychasm, but this can not be proved.[30][31] Between the 10th and 14th centuries, hesychasm was developed, particularly on Mount Athos in Greece, and involves the repetition of the Jesus prayer.[32]


By the 18th century, the study of
Buddhism in the West was a topic for intellectuals. The philosopher Schopenhauer discussed it[37], and Voltaire asked for toleration towards Buddhists.[38] The first English translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead was published in 1927.[39]

[40][41] Both spiritual and secular forms of meditation have been subjects of scientific analyses. Research on meditation began in 1931, with scientific research increasing dramatically during the 1970s and 1980s.[42] Since the beginning of the '70s more than a thousand studies of meditation in English-language have been reported.[42] However, after 60 years of scientific study, the exact mechanism at work in meditation remains unclear.[4]