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There are many types of meditation; a particular Zen Buddhist meditation may teach the practitioner to become what you are doing, become the car you are driving, or the meal you are preparing, etc., basically becoming one with what you are doing.
Guided imagery is another form of meditation, where you have a reverie of thoughts and you let the thoughts take you where they may go. There are structured guided imagery CD’s a person can buy. Some people meditate with their eyes wide open, concentrating on a flame or a picture of some “holy” person.
The Sanskrit word “yoga” means union, and meditation is a way that we achieve union. Meditation originated more than 5,000-years ago with yogis who did not follow any particular religion. There are documents about meditation that go back to 1500 B.C., but meditation was being practiced long before those documents were written.
At the same time that yogis were developing meditation in India it was also being developed, in a different way, in China, and later in Japan. Hinduism, and subsequently Buddhism, incorporated meditation, as well as a number of religions in Asia and the Orient. Today meditation is more widespread than it has ever been, and it is practiced in more different ways than it has ever been.
Most Americans never heard of meditation, or yoga, until the late-1960’s, when meditation in various forms became more prevalent in the U.S. and Europe. I think people should practice what they are comfortable with because what works for one person may not work for another person. Spiritual group-think usually ends up becoming a rigid religion. Meditation can be a spiritual practice; it can also be a way to relieve stress without any spiritual focus, a way to become more creative, artistic, or insightful, or just a way to explore consciousness.
A person can meditate on what they are reading from a book, they can meditate on clouds up in the sky. There is no limit to the types of meditation or the different forms one may practice, as well as the reasons why a person may want to meditate in the first place. The thing is to find what works for you, and there are people who don’t care for meditation at all; they see it as “cult-like,” or something else that they reject.
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