Meditation

Origin

Meditative practices appear in virtually every major religious and contemplative tradition. The Indian tradition is the most systematically developed: the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (c. 400 CE) describe an eight-limbed path culminating in dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption). The Buddha (c. 5th century BCE) made meditation the heart of his teaching, distinguishing shamatha (calm abiding) from vipassana (insight). Chinese Buddhism produced the Chan school, which became Zen in Japan and emphasised zazen, sitting meditation. Daoist meditation focused on circulation of qi and the cultivation of inner stillness.

In the West, contemplative practice flourished in the Christian monastic tradition. The Desert Fathers and Mothers of fourth-century Egypt developed hesychasm, the practice of inner silence, which evolved into the Jesus Prayer of Eastern Orthodoxy. Western monasticism, especially the Benedictine and Carthusian orders, cultivated lectio divina and contemplative prayer. Jewish merkavah mysticism, kabbalistic meditation on the divine names, and Sufi dhikr are parallel developments. The twentieth century saw the secularisation of meditation through Transcendental Meditation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1958), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Jon Kabat-Zinn, 1979), and the migration of Vipassana through Goenka, Mahasi Sayadaw, and the Insight Meditation Society.

Families of practice

Concentrative practices train the mind to rest on a single chosen object: the breath, a mantra, a visualisation, a candle flame, a sacred image. As distraction arises, you notice and return. Over time, the mind becomes increasingly stable, and states of one-pointed absorption (jhana in Pali, dhyana in Sanskrit) become accessible. Mantra meditation and Transcendental Meditation are concentrative practices, as are the early stages of most contemplative paths. Concentrative practice develops shamatha, calm abiding, the foundation on which all other meditation rests.

Open-awareness practices, by contrast, do not select a single object. You sit with bare attention to whatever arises in consciousness, neither pursuing nor pushing away. Vipassana and the mindfulness tradition derived from it work in this mode, training the observer to notice sensations, thoughts, and emotions as they arise and pass. Dzogchen and Mahamudra in the Tibetan tradition are the most refined open-awareness practices. Devotional practices (bhakti, the Sufi dhikr, Christian contemplative prayer) engage the heart through love and surrender. Active meditations (walking meditation, tai chi, the whirling of the Mevlevi dervishes) bring the contemplative state into movement.

In practice

Begin with the breath. Sit in a stable posture, either cross-legged on a cushion or upright in a chair, with your spine elongated and your shoulders relaxed. Close your eyes or lower your gaze. Bring your attention to the sensation of the breath, either at the nostrils or in the belly. When the mind wanders, notice this without judgment and return. Begin with ten minutes a day and increase gradually to twenty or thirty. Consistency matters far more than length: ten minutes every day will transform your relationship to your own mind within weeks. A timer set at the start removes the temptation to check.

Common difficulties include physical discomfort, sleepiness, restlessness, doubt, and emotional release. All are normal and pass with practice. If you experience disturbing material, contact a qualified teacher or a therapist familiar with meditative experience. Combine sitting practice with mantra work, with pranayama breath practices, and with study of the broader contemplative tradition. For tarot, the Hermit is the archetypal meditator: the inward-turning lamp-bearer who has withdrawn from the world to seek the light at the centre of his own being.

Symbolic depth

The English word "meditation" derives from Latin meditari, "to ponder, to reflect," with cognates throughout the Indo-European family. The deeper resonance is with the Sanskrit medha (wisdom) and the Greek medesthai (to attend to). To meditate, in its etymological root, is to attend with care to the depths of mind. Every contemplative tradition discovers that this sustained attention is itself transformative: the mind that attends fully to its own movement is no longer the mind of ordinary distraction. This is the fundamental wager of contemplative practice, and the discovery on which the entire tradition rests.

In tarot, meditation is symbolised most directly by the Hermit (IX), the High Priestess (II) who guards the veil of inner mystery, and the Hanged Man (XII) suspended in the still point. In astrology, Saturn governs the disciplined sustained effort that meditation requires, while Neptune governs the dissolution of ego boundaries. In numerology, the practices map to different vibrations: solitude to 7, devotion to 6, transformation to 13. In Kabbalah, meditation on the Tree of Life and on the divine names is central. Continue with mantra, mandala, and the complete glossary.

Also known as

• contemplation
• mindfulness
• dhyana
• inner silence
• centring prayer