History of Meditation

Meditation is a practice that has existed for hundreds of years. Members of religious sects in India and China would use meditation to achieve clarity and focus in their daily lives. In the sixth century, meditation was used by Buddhist practitioners as a method to seek enlightenment (Pirsig, 2000). In this form, it traveled the eastern world as Buddhist monks and missionaries brought their religion and the practice of meditation to new lands. In Japan, the practice was taken to an extreme. Converts to Buddhism began to adapt the religion and created a new variant known as Zen (Lee, 2000). Zen teaches that the way to enlightenment is through meditation and non-action. Individuals subscribing to this religion can spend up to 12-14 hours per day in constant meditation. This meditation often takes the form of focusing on particular phrases designed to reinforce particular aspects of the Buddhist faith. One of the most famous of these saying or koans is “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”. The meditator is expected to focus on the koan and allow it to lead him or her to new ways of thinking and conceiving the world.

More recently, meditation has been adopted by individuals across the world as a method to reduce the stress and strain of daily life (Brannon & Feist, 2005). It is even being prescribed to psychotherapy patients as a method to elevate mood when the patients are either squeamish about taking prescription medication for their psychological problems, or when the problems are not severe enough to warrant medication (Lazar, 2005). Practitioners often describe a sense of focus and calm that continues long after the meditation session has ended (Cahn & Polich, 2006). However, elevated mood could simply be a placebo effect generated because people believe a treatment endorsed by a medical professional must be helpful.

Title Page – History – Practice

Scientific Evidence – Conclusion - References