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Meditation, a very important part in many eastern religions, has been practiced for over 5,000 years. From Hinduism and Buddhism to Judaism and even Christianity, many use meditation to search for God within themselves, and to also find the meaning of life.

Hinduism is considerably the oldest religion, and therefore one of the oldest religions to use meditation. Hinduism focuses only Yoga, which is one of its six School’s of Philosophy. Yoga in terms of meditation is a path towards the spiritual experience and insight and understanding into human existence. To obtain this, one has to clear the mind, and once the mind is still, inner clarity reveals the true nature of one’s self.

Meditation is one of the central practices in Buddhism. Buddha himself is said to have achieved enlightenment through meditation. Buddhism distinguishes meditation into two classes; both are essential for achieving enlightenment. The first class, Shamatha, consists of practices aimed at developing focus single pointedly. The second, Vipassana, consists of practices aimed at developing insight and wisdom by seeing the true natural reality.

Judaism is another religion that has been known to use mediation. While not as obvious as the previous, meditation was central to the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The two words for meditation in Hebrew are hāgâ; which means murmur or sigh, and sîḥâ; meaning to muse or rehearse one’s mind. In current Judaism practices, the most well known meditative practice is hisbodedu, meaning the process of making oneself understand the concept well through analytical study.

Christianity even uses mediation, although it is as evident. Pray is a huge for of mediation in the Christian religion. In Catholicism, the use of prayer and a rosary is often compared to eastern ways of meditation. In the Old Testament of the Bible, the book of Joshua states that a form of mediation is to meditate on the scriptures, and is seen to be the main reason why evangelical Christians memorizes verses in the bible.

The use of mediation is widely seen as something only found in most of the eastern philosophies and religions. However, many religions use religion in some form or another. Hinduism and Buddhism use meditation as the very base for their religions. It’s a way to understand one’s self and the world around them, and to also achieve enlightenment. Judaism and Christianity use mediation as a part of their religion, often related to prayer. No matter what form of mediation is used, it’s a method people practice to get closer to their idea of god.

(c) D.C. Wartenberger