- Judeo-Christian traditions
- Prayer: direct address to a spiritual entity
- Contemplation: prolonged period of conscious thought on a specific topic
- Both practices concentration
- Results: calm, slowing of metabolism, sense of peace and well being
- Hindu traditions
- Yogic meditation: focus mind on a single object, stone, candle flame, syllable, etc and not allow it to wander → progress to more complex object
- Remains purely an exercise of concentration
- Buddhist meditation: added awareness in addition to concentration
- Zen
- First tack: sit down, direct plunge into awareness by tossing out of mind anything but awareness of sitting
- Second tack used in Rinzai school(临济宗): Koan (公案)
- trick the mind into awareness by giving students unsolvable riddles
- Tantra: obtain awareness by destroying ego image
- Ego is the you that you think that you are
- Given an image of a tantric deity, visualizing becoming that entity, recognize the arbitrary nature of all egos including self, escape bondage to the ego
- Vipassana meditation: gradual cultivation of mindfulness over years by exercises to be more aware of life experiences (active listening, seeing, smelling, touching, observing thoughts without being caught up)
- Pali term vipassana bhavana: vi: in a specific way, passana: seeing or perceiving, bhavana: cultivate (the mind)
- Training to see reality as it is (which has pain and danger) and ignore impulses to be more comfortable and drop the pursuit of gratification, real peace, fulfillment, freedom and security will arise
next: attitude of meditation
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