| is limited knowledge concerning the history of | | | | types of meditation. The Confucian form of |
| meditation, but some researchers think that | | | | meditation is aimed at realizing virtue and it is |
| meditation could have been discovered when | | | | meant to prevent disease and encourage health. |
| people sat at campsite fires thousands of years | | | | Indian spiritualism involves yoga and mantras |
| ago and looked at the flames. This theory goes | | | | In Christian meditation the word maranatha is |
| well with the known fact that staring at a candle | | | | used and it means the lord comes. Maranatha is |
| flame can induce one type of meditation. As time | | | | an Aramaic word and this is the language that |
| passed different forms of it were developed. | | | | Jesus spoke. Ancient monks started this mantra |
| Books from India called tantras speak of this type | | | | and it is centered on Saint Paul’s writings |
| of prayer as far back as five thousand years ago. | | | | to the Corinthians and the book of Revelation that |
| Archaeologists discovered a statue of a yogi in | | | | Saint John penned. |
| the Indus Valley Civilization and this shows that | | | | In Christianity meditation has become known as |
| meditation in the practice of yoga could be as | | | | contemplation. According to James Finley who |
| ancient as the first Indian civilization. | | | | was a Trappist monk for twenty years Christian |
| Buddha was a big advocate of meditation. He | | | | meditation or contemplation began with the early |
| became established as a teacher about 500 B.C. | | | | Christians. They comprehended that when Jesus |
| His ideas were stretched into various Asian | | | | said that he and the father were one that they |
| countries and in other places people created | | | | could experience something of this meaning by |
| different forms of meditation based on his | | | | contemplation. |
| teachings. In Islam the Sufi tradition of meditation | | | | With the Protestant Reformation meditation or |
| was purported and the leaders (Sufis) think that | | | | contemplative prayer was rejected along with |
| when Mohamed began Islam that is when | | | | other practices. But it is still understood as apart |
| meditation started with that religion. Meditation is | | | | of the Christian tradition by the Catholic and |
| part of Christianity, Jainism, Judaism, and aboriginal | | | | Episcopal traditions. Actually, within the evangelical |
| religions. | | | | form of Christianity contemplation is a practice, |
| Zen Buddhism is a philosophy that advocates | | | | but it isn’t thought of or described as |
| meditating to discover the meaning of life. Zen | | | | such. Though when deep contemplative prayer is |
| came from Buddhism and it has spawned Taoism, | | | | practiced and the practitioner inners into |
| Confucianism, and Indian spiritualism. Taoism | | | | surrendering to the lord or prayer with serious |
| basically means the way. It began as a philosophy | | | | surrender to the Lord, they are experiencing |
| but ended up as a religion. Taoist meditation | | | | meditation in the Christian sense. |
| concentrates on stopping outward sensory | | | | Meditation has a long history and is culturally |
| information from coming into your mind. It utilizes | | | | diverse. It is part of many religious or philosophical |
| breathing techniques. It has ideas that are like | | | | traditions and it has become a part of the |
| those of Hindu and Buddhist kinds of meditative | | | | western secular culture. |
| thought. But it isn’t abstract like those | | | | |