Meditation

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that meditation, which is recognized as an element of Eastern religions, originating in Vedic Hinduism, often is formalized into a specific routine including the practice of focusing the mind on a single object, such as a religious statue, one's breath or a mantra and a mental "opening up" to the divine, invoking the guidance of a higher power or reasoned analysis of religious teachings, such as impermanence for Buddhists. The author points out that its psychiatric use is to gain awareness of the unconscious feelings, motives and values so that they can be deal with effectively. The paper relates that, as a method of stress reduction, meditation often is used in hospitals in cases of chronic or terminal illness to reduce complications associated with increased stress, including a depressed immune system.

From the Paper:

"Meditation may have many effects on person. Person may experience greater faith in, or understanding of, one's religion or beliefs, an increase in patience, compassion, and other virtues and morals or the understanding of them, feelings of calm or peace, and/or moments of great joy, consciousness of sin, temptation, and remorse, and a spirit of contrition, sensitivity to certain forms of lighting, such as fluorescent lights or computer screens, and sometimes heightened sense-perception, surfacing of buried memories, possibly including memories of previous lives and those of others, or that of those to come, experience of spiritual phenomena such as kundalini, extra-sensory perception, or visions of deities, saints, demons, and miraculous abilities such as levitation (cf. yogic flying)."

More papers on Meditation:

• Term Paper # 141998 : "Epstein on Buddhist Meditation and Psychoanalysis"
• Book Review # 74276 : "Sadhana Meditation"
• Essay # 36259 : "Meditation, Buddhism and Healing"

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