meditation meditation meditation is a practice in which 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. not to be confused with mediation or medication. various depictions of meditation (clockwise starting at the top left): the hindu swami vivekananda, the buddhist monk hsuan hua, taoist baduanjin qigong, the christian st francis, muslim sufis in dhikr, and social reformer narayana guru meditation is practiced in numerous religious traditions. the earliest records of meditation (dhyana) are found in the upanishads, and meditation plays a salient role in the contemplative repertoire of hinduism, jainism and buddhism. 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, and enhance peace, perception, self-concept, and well-being. research is ongoing to better understand the effects of meditation on health (psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular) and other areas. etymology the english meditation is derived from old french meditacioun, in turn from latin meditatio from a verb meditari, meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder". in the catholic tradition, the use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to at least the 12th century monk guigo ii, before which the greek word theoria was used for the same purpose. 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. the term "meditation" in english may also refer to practices from islamic sufism, or other traditions such as jewish kabbalah and christian hesychasm. definitions no universally accepted definition 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. these can include almost anything that is claimed to train the attention of mind or to teach calm or compassion. 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.": 6 a 2009 study noted a "persistent lack of consensus in the literature" and a "seeming intractability of defining meditation". separation of technique from tradition some of the difficulty in precisely defining meditation has been in recognizing the particularities of the many various traditions; and theories and practice can differ within a tradition. taylor noted that even within a faith such as "hindu" or "buddhist", schools and individual teachers may teach distinct types of meditation.: 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.": 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. dictionary definitions dictionaries give both the original latin meaning of "think deeply about (something)"; as well as the popular usage of "focusing one's mind for a period of time", "the act of giving your attention to only one thing, either as a religious activity or as a way of becoming calm and relaxed", and "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." scholarly definitions in modern psychological research, meditation has been defined and characterized in various ways. many of these emphasize the role of attention and characterize the practice of meditation as attempts to get beyond the reflexive, "discursive thinking" or "logic" mind 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: three main criteria ... as essential to any meditation practice: the use of a defined technique, logic relaxation, and a self-induced state/mode. other criteria deemed important 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. ... 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." several other definitions of meditation have been used by influential modern reviews of research on meditation across multiple traditions: walsh & shapiro (2006): "meditation 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" cahn & polich (2006): "meditation 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" 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" 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" focused and open methods in the west, meditation techniques have often been classified in two broad categories, which in actual practice are often combined: focused (or concentrative) meditation and open monitoring (or mindfulness) meditation: 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. 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. open monitoring methods include mindfulness, shikantaza and other awareness states. other possible typologies another typology divides meditation approaches into concentrative, generative, receptive and reflective practices: concentrative: focused attention, including breath meditation, tm, and visualizations; generative: developing qualities like loving kindness and compassion; receptive: open monitoring; reflective: systematic investigation, contemplation. the buddhist tradition often divides meditative practice into samatha, or calm abiding, and vipassana, insight. mindfulness of breathing, a form of focused attention, calms down the mind; this calmed mind can then investigate the nature of reality, by monitoring the fleeting and ever-changing constituents of experience, by reflective investigation, or by "turning back the radiance," focusing awareness on awareness itself and discerning the true nature of mind as awareness itself. matko and sedlmeier (2019) "call into question the common division into “focused attention” and “open-monitoring” practices." they argue for "two orthogonal dimensions along which meditation techniques could be classified," namely "activation" and "amount of body orientation," proposing seven clusters of techniques: "mindful observation, body-centered meditation, visual concentration, contemplation, affect-centered meditation, mantra meditation, and meditation with movement." jonathan shear argues that transcendental meditation is an "automatic self-transcending" technique, different from focused attention and open monitoring. in this kind of practice, "there is no attempt to sustain any particular condition at all. practices of this kind, once started, are reported to automatically “transcend” their own activity and disappear, to be started up again later if appropriate." yet, shear also states that "automatic self-transcending" also applies to the way other techniques such as from zen and qigong are practiced by experienced meditators "once they had become effortless and automatic through years of practice." technique posture young children practicing meditation in a peruvian school asanas or body postures and positions such as padmasana (full-lotus, half-lotus), burmese, seiza, and kneeling positions are popular in buddhism, jainism and hinduism, 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. postures involve focus attention and move body coordinately or hold still with rhythmic inhalation and exhalation. frequency the transcendental meditation technique recommends practice of 20 minutes twice per day. some techniques suggest less time, especially when starting meditation, and richard davidson has quoted research saying benefits can be achieved with a practice of only 8 minutes per day. research shows improvement in meditation time with simple oral and video training. some meditators practice for much longer, particularly when on a course or retreat. some meditators find practice best in the hours before dawn. use of prayer beads some religions have traditions of using prayer beads as tools in devotional meditation. most prayer beads and christian rosaries consist of pearls or beads linked together by a thread. 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. each bead is counted once as a person recites a mantra until the person has gone all the way around the mala. 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 shiva, while followers of vishnu revere the wood that comes from the tulsi plant. striking the meditator 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. using a narrative neuroscientist and long-time meditator richard davidson has expressed the view that having a narrative can help the maintenance of daily practice. for instance he himself prostrates to the teachings, and meditates "not primarily for my benefit, but for the benefit of others". meditation traditions man meditating in a garden setting origins the history of meditation is intimately bound up with the religious context within which it was practiced. rossano has suggested that the emergence of the capacity for focused attention, an element of many methods of meditation, may have contributed to the latest phases of human biological evolution. some of the earliest references to meditation, as well as proto-samkhya, are found in the upanishads of india. the earliest clear references to meditation are in the middle upanishads and the mahabharata (including the bhagavad gita). 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" (bu 4.4.23). jainism 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. meditation in jainism aims at realizing the self, attaining salvation, and taking the soul to complete freedom. it aims to reach and to remain in the pure state of soul which is believed to be