Meditation

Meditation is practiced as part of many religious rites or rituals including but not limited to Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Native American traditions.  Some of the earliest references to mediation are found in the Hindu Vedas.  From the Vedic mantra 'Gayatri' "We meditate on that desirable light of the divine Savitri, who influences our pious rites" (Rgveda : Mandala-3, Sukta-62, Rcha-10 Translator: Wilson).  These practices are meant to connect one to something greater than the daily self -- providing (in Buddhist terms) serenity (samatha which steadies, composes, unifies, and concentrates the mind) and insight (vipassana which enables one to see, explore, and discern).

Different religions employ different meditative practices.  Taoist or Daoist meditation involved techniques of concentration, visualization, contempation, and mindfulness.  They were influenced by Buddhism, and they, in turn, influenced traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese martial arts.  Hinduism gave birth to multiple different types of meditation including yoga.  Native American practices involve using the connection between humanity and nature to transcend the material world and gain divine wisdom.  In the Jewish Bible the words for meditate are used over 50 times mostly in the Psalms.  The Islamic practice of Dhikr, begun in the 8th or 9th century involves the repetition of the 99 names of God.  And by the 12th century, Islamic Sufis practiced specific breath control and repetition of holy words.

Eastern Christianity began using a meditative prayer over short phrases called hesychasm between the 10th and the 14th centuries.  Most use some translation of the words "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me".  The Catholic Church has multiple schools of meditation including using the rosary or divine contemplation described by St. Teresa of Avila as "prolonged reasoning with the understanding, in this way: We begin by thinking of the favor which God bestowed upon us by giving us His only Son; and we do not stop there but proceed to consider the mysteries of His whole glorious life. "  Although removed from much of the more mystical practices, meditation is also found within the Protestant tradition.  In the 19th century, Charles Spurgeon wrote, "The Spirit has taught us in meditation to ponder its message."  Modern meditation without direct religious connotations has also been used for reported health benefits (which are not well studied in a solid peer-reviewed way) and increased mindfulness.

Most meditative practices; however, come back to a greater understanding of the world/universe/self/divine.  This is shown through the history of the words used to describe the action.  The Latin verb meditatio means to think, contemplate, devise, or ponder.  In Sanskrit dhyai means to contemplate or meditate.  The Tibetan word for meditation gom means to become familiar with one's Self.  The Hebrew hāgâ (Hebrew: הגה) means to sigh or murmur, and also, to meditate indicating the practice of repetition or having a verbal component to the meditation.

Thus, meditation appears to be a component widely used in ritual practices.  It, then, is something to consider from a scientific point of view.  What I'm not going to do is talk about the research about the benefits of meditation.  While interesting, that area contains a lot of wishy-washy science that makes me want to scream (on both sides of the issue).  Let's put aside there being an overarching statistically measurable benefit to meditation and just say it is widely associated with ritual practices and therefore is something that needs to take on new meaning with new science - not as a health benefit, but as a form of ritual practice.

And here is where I go off into where people from both sides might see me as crazy.  Neil Shubin, the researcher who found and described the Tiktaalik - a fish with feet - from the fossil record writes "Do the facts of our ancient history mean that humans are not special or unique among living creatures?  Of course not.  In fact, knowing something about the deep origins of humanity only adds to the remarkable fact of our existence: all of our extraordinary capabilities arose from basic components that evolved in ancient fist and other creatures.  From common parts came a very unique construction.  We are not separate from the rest of the living world; we are part of it down to our bones and even our genes."  Therefore, I propose looking at this history, these deep origins of our genes through guided body meditation - focusing on each part of our body, where it comes from and how it relates us to the rest of our universe.

Over the next few weeks then, I'm going to describe some of these connections and propose a way to meditate on them.  For now, if anyone is interested, do you meditate?  How?  Why?