While meditation is most often associated with Eastern religious traditions, most religions encourage the practice of silent contemplation through meditation or prayer. The Oxford American College Dictionary defines the word meditate as to “think deeply or focus for a time for spiritual purposes…” Whether you sit in the lotus position or in a chair, kneel or lie on the floor, chant mantras or use a rosary or other prayer beads, your purpose is the same – to connect with the guiding spirit in your life.

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• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Judaism
• Sufism

Buddhism

Buddhist meditation techniques include sitting, walking, prostrating, chanting, and bringing mindfulness to every act. The intention is to observe the mind and the way one’s thoughts, emotions, judgments, and desires affect it. This experience brings self-awareness and the realization that nothing in life is permanent and so attachment to anything is futile. The ultimate aim is to control actions and thoughts and cultivate compassion and loving kindness to bring about the cessation of one’s own suffering and to extend inner peace and love to others.

Forms of Buddhist meditation differ in different parts of the world. The Zen Buddhist practice aims to conduct every activity in a state of awareness. In China, Taoism is founded on living in a state of effortless stillness by sitting in meditation and living according to the Tao, the “truth” and “way.” The Tibetan Vajrayana tradition uses mantras.

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Christianity

The early Christian tradition of silent contemplation was discouraged for hundreds of years, but in the early 20th century several movements of centering or quieting prayer arose.

The most common method involves the recitation of a holy word or phrase, sometimes using a rosary. This repetition of sacred words allows one to enter into a space of deep silence and inner peace to unite with God.

Quaker meetings center around shared silent meditation, or “silent waiting.”

Catholics say the rosary to still the mind.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Jesus Prayer is repeated, sometimes with the breath and prostration, to engrave it on the heart and mind.

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Hinduism

Hindu traditions urge acceptance of life as it is – full of hardship, pain and suffering. It says that everyone is born divine, and that we are limited by hatred, greed, selfishness, and anger which result from ignorance of our true state. Meditation and prayer are a means of returning to the divine self.

Hindu meditation methods include sitting motionless in silence, practicing yoga, withdrawing from the senses, and the chanting of mantras, often with a mala (prayer beads.) The intention is to understand the correlation between all things and to bring the self into union with the divine essence in everything.

In 1957, Maharishi Mahesh introduced Transcendental Meditation (T.M.) which today is practiced by millions of people throughout the world.

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Islam

Islamists pray five times daily in order to bring themselves into unity with God, or Allah. According to The Koran, reflection on the universe awakens the mind to a more spiritual plane. The prophet Mohammad said that such contemplation was like a ladder to God’s presence.

Muslim methods employ chanting of the divine name Allah, of sacred formulas, or of verses revealed by God through the prophet Muhammad. These repetitions are executed while standing, bowing, and prostrating and allow the practitioner to be unified with all of creation.

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Judaism

Through prayer and contemplation, the Jewish mystical tradition envisions contemplative spiritual transformation. Kabbalah references a variety of meditative practices with the intent to connect with God in daily life, but also to seek stillness within from time to time.

Jewish practices include meditation on portions of the Torah, visualization of the Hebrew letters “Ribbono shel Olam” (Master of the Universe,) chanting mantras from the Torah or Talmud, and contemplating the names of God.

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Sufism

Sufism is the Islamic mystical tradition that teaches the concept of relinquishment of the ego and surrender to God in love. Repetition of the divine name, Allah, and meditation on verses from the Koran lead the practitioner to focus on the center of the heart where heaven and earth, body and soul join to transform into the spiritual. The heart is truth and leads to self discovery.

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