Meditation
Meditation
Meditation is increasingly becoming a viable practice for working Americans as opposed to being a way of life only for people living in monasteries. No longer viewed exclusively as an exotic import from the East, meditation is being incorporated into traditional religious practices, and numerous meditation groups have formed. The knowledge that meditation yields has just recently been discovered by scientists in the West, which has legitimated it. For instance, research in the field of particle physics confirmed what Buddhist and Hindu meditators have been asserting for three thousand years: the universe is a vast dance of energy rather than solid materiality. The appeal of meditation is its ability to bring attention to what transcends mundane, transient, and material concerns. It is seminal among a variety of practices gripping mainstream Americans who are on a massive search for meaning in order to counter the stresses of modernity that threaten to cast a veil of meaninglessness on life.
The English word "meditate" is etymologically derived from the Latin meditari, which connotes deep, continued reflection. The practices and goals of the different meditation traditions in the United States share a family resemblance. Apophatic procedures are those that aim to empty the mind of discursive content. Cataphatic practices in contrast purposefully hold an image, idea, or deity in mind and tend to be more heart-centered or devotionally oriented. Meditation can also be prayerful by focusing on scriptural passages in order to gain inspiration and deepen wisdom.
History
The growth of meditation practice in the United States stems from a number of Eastern teachers who introduced their ideas to the West. In 1893 Swami Vivekananda traveled from India to attend the Worlds Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he drew considerable attention. Also from India, Paramahansa Yogananda came to Boston for the 1920 International Congress of Religious Liberals, where he spoke about a yogi's ability to attain self-mastery. Arriving in the United States on his first world tour in 1959, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi planned to bring in the Age of Enlightenment by teaching meditative practices. Originally from Tibet, Tarthang Tulku arrived in the United States in 1969 and founded a meditation center. Swami Muktananda came to the West in 1970 to introduce Siddha Yoga and to inspire what he termed a meditation revolution.
In the 1950s and 1960s the phenomenon known as the Beat way of life incorporated ideas from Zen Buddhism and thereby popularized an incipient interest in the nature of consciousness and meditation. Jack Kerouac wrote about Zen in The Dharma Bums (1958), and Alan Watts discussed Zen and Eastern culture on Pacifica Radio Network in terms that Westerners could understand. Watts explained how to live in the present moment by practicing meditation, which he said is the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time. The whole point is to realize that there is no future and that the real sense of life is an exploration of the eternal now.
Meditation in the United States
Formally known as Siddha Yoga Dham Associates (SYDA), Siddha Yoga was brought to the West in 1970, when Swami Muktananda embarked upon a worldwide mission to inspire a meditation revolution. During the 1970s many residential ashrams and centers for the practice of Siddha Yoga were founded, and currently there are more than six hundred centers worldwide. In 1982, just before Swami Muktananda passed away, he transmitted the full power and knowledge of the Siddha lineage to his disciple, Swami Chidvilasananda, who currently guides Siddha students in their meditation practices. Affectionately called Gurumayi, Swami Chidvilasananda bestows her grace during the sacred initiation known as shaktipat, which awakens the inner kundalini energy and confers a spontaneous ability to meditate. Siddha students use the mantra and breath control to still their minds. Alternatively, they focus on an object or person such as Gurumayi to inspire their meditative practice. Meditation ultimately is said to bring knowledge of the transcendent and eternal Self. Seekers who cultivate yogic discipline may experience a sense of inner freedom and the highest love. The tranquillity acquired during sitting meditation is then to be infused into daily activities. The goal of Siddha Yoga meditation is to become a siddha, a perfected or accomplished human being, and thus realize that God dwells within the Self. Gurumayi has said that meditation is looking within, finding peace, which is a deeply personal treasure.
The vast traditions of Jewish meditation were hidden for centuries because the rabbis feared that meditation was dangerous for uninitiated people and because secularized Jews considered it to be backward and therefore abandoned it. Recently, however, these traditions have been recovered by interested Jews who seek inner silence and equanimity. Practices include sitting silently to empty the mind, focusing on Hebrew letters or words, breath control, chanting, imaging techniques, and contemplating Torah or philosophy. Meditation and prayer complement one another, and the goal is to become closer to God. Chochmat HaLev (Wisdom of the Heart) is a San Francisco Bay area multidenominational center that specializes in Jewish meditation and spirituality training and practice. While balancing the wisdom of the ancient tradition with the insights and demands of modernity, the teachings derive from the belief that the Torah can open the heart and heal the spirit. Founded in 1994 by Dr. Avram Davis, Chochmat HaLev attracts the minority segment of the Jewish population that is drawn to contemplative and meditative practice as a response to the escalation of information flow that leaves people busy but sad, and crowded but lonely. Metivta (from the Aramaic for "academy" and implying spiritual fellowship) is a Los Angeles–based nondenominational center for contemplative Judaism. Founded by Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man in the early 1980s, Metivta emphasizes meditative techniques that empty the mind. Guided imagery or kabbalistic theme meditations are not encouraged. International meditation conferences and retreats bring Jews together from various denominations in order to explore the Jewish contemplative tradition.
For seven centuries the Mevlevi Order has taught the principles of Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam. Adapting itself to changing historical circumstances, the Mevlevi Order has held the light of the religion of love, offering spiritual refuge and enlightenment for those who wished to develop their humanness to the highest level. In North America this order is represented by Dr. Edmund Kabir Helminski, who was appointed to this position by the late Dr. Celaleddin Celebi of Istanbul, Turkey, head of the Mevlevi Tariqu (Order) and direct descendant of the famous Sufi master, Jal?l al-Din R?m?. In 1994 at a conference in Konya, Turkey, the heads of this order declared the Threshold Mevlevi Center in Brattleboro, Vermont, as New Konya. The goal of the Mevlevi Order and the Threshold Society is to spread Rumi's message of universal love and to enable people to merge their hearts with the Divine Will. Shaikh Kabir Helminski, who wrote the book Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self, introduced the Mevlevi Dervishes of Turkey, a spiritual dance group, to more than twenty thousand people during their 1994 tour of North America. Monthly meetings of the Threshold Society encourage members to pause, reflect on their yearning for God, and then remember the capacity for conscious decision to unite people in their common yearning to know divine reality. Seminars and retreats that include contemplative practice, dhikr (remembrance of God), music, dance, and exploration of Rumi's teachings are held at different institutes throughout the United States.
The Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California, was opened in 1973 under the guidance of Tarthang Tulku, a Tibetan lama of the Nyingma tradition. An institute for Buddhist education, it offers classes, workshops, and retreats where Buddhist teachings that derive from a wisdom tradition more than 2,500 years old meet with modern Western life. Known to his students as Rinpoche, a title earned by exceptionally well-qualified Tibetan lamas, Tarthang Tulku arrived in the United States in 1968. He presented meditation and philosophy not as exotic disciplines but as practical ways to negotiate personal experience. Both sitting for meditation and cultivating awareness at work are presented as opportunities for improving a disciplined lifestyle. The goal of these practices is to develop a spontaneous awareness of reality and directly experience an all-knowing understanding. Rinpoche teaches students to absorb themselves in the process until they, in a sense, become the meditation experience. Proper meditation, he suggests, requires concentration, but no sense of striving or strain. When a state of meditative awareness is attained, experiences occur that are pure, not affected or distorted by prior expectations, disappointments, or disillusionments.
Meditation practice in Roman Catholicism is often described under the rubric of prayer: mental prayer, prayerful time, or centering prayer. A revival of the sense of meditation is occurring within Catholicism, and it is particularly prominent in the growing movement of spirituality among women. Women Church, a group founded for women who believe they are called to ordination, draws women who are interested in many practices, including both individual and communal meditation. In Catholicism discursive techniques such as lectio divina (from Latin, "divine reading") and thinking about religious material or devotional reading are common. Focusing one's attention on mental, visual, or auditory objects such as an image of God is another meditative technique, the goal of which is to transform the mind into the object. Deriving from the practice of the Desert Fathers, nondiscursive centering prayer techniques involve repetition of a sacred word in order to develop a loving attitude toward God that leads toward silence. After centering oneself using this method, one might say a prayer. Nonimaging techniques that purify the mind are similar to Therav?dan Buddhist vipassana practice. Among the variety of practices, the ultimate goal is to attain union with God, and lesser benefits include the reduction of emotional turmoil and an increased ability to concentrate.
See alsoBuddhism; Centering Prayer; Enlightenment; Hinduism; Judaism; Prayer; Tibetan Buddhism; Torah; Transcendental Meditation; Yoga; Zen.
Bibliography
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Marcy Braverman