Meditation is the practice of deeply thinking about some thing or some body; while thinking about various considerations of certain important aspects. A person can meditate on the virtues of a holy person or great humanitarian or fabulous statesman. There are all sorts of styles of meditation, such as religious, philosophical, occult, and alleged magical. Meditation can involve deep mental reflection on philosophical reasoning, ethics, knowledge, logic, politicalism that benefits the people; society, etc.
For thousands of years, there have been certain individuals who have devoted themselves to doing much meditation, especially daily meditation; which have included writers, saints, teachers, and lecturers. In religious meditation, as in Christian meditation; monks, priests, and nuns have contemplated answers to questions that have been greatly wondered about. Such questions include: “While does God allow good people to suffer, especially by wicked people?” “Why does God kill many, many innocent people by droughts, famines, earthquakes, and pestilence?” “Why did God create The Devil?” To obtain answers, Christian laity would deeply read and study The Holy Bible and then meditate upon these questions.
Over the many centuries, priests came to believe that they discovered the answers, and preached them in sermons in Sunday morning church services. The laity also wrote into notes and books these alleged answers. The writings of ancient Christian writer Saint Augustine (born Nov. 13, 354 A.D. died August 28, 430 A.D. and medieval Saint Thomas Aquinias (born in 1225.A.D. died March 7, 1274 A.D.) claim to answer such questions from a Christian point of view. And in Hinduism and Buddhism, there has been much meditation for answers to these questions and similar questions, trying to find the answers from a Hinduism or Buddhist analysis. For many, many years, the Western Hemisphere nations would have a strong interest in the Oriental religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Hindu gurus(spiritual teachers) would come from India to teach meditation. The meditation was to bring enlightenment on dealing with life’s daily problems and being able to relax the mind and body without the use of illicit drugs which also have detrimental side effects and to find inner peace and harmony.
The gurus taught a philosophy of non violence as in the case of dealing with civil rights issues and the establishment ( the government). In the 1960’s and 1970’s, many gurus came to Western nations, especially to very big and populous USA touting the benefits of meditation. A guru from India named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born Mahesh Prasad Varma on January 12, 1918, died on February 5, 2008) was the spiritual mentor and meditation instructor for The Beatles in 1967.
He also seemed to and taught The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, actress Mia Farrow, and other high profile celebrities. This Hindu yogi created what we called “Transcendental Meditation”(“TM”) which is a form of meditation, while seated in The Lotus Position, after taking a few deep breaths in and out, and meditating on various Hindu Sanskrit mantras which deal with Vedic Hindu philosophy on spiritual attainment, mental reflection, etc.
Pupils of his meditation would keep paying thousands and thousands of dollars every week out of sessions that would last for a 3 or 4 months for tuition and board at the ashram(religious school of native Indian religions and/or sacred yoga practice) . Critics claimed the meditation school was really based on developing great wealth for itself more than anything else. On the internet, a great deal information will appear regarding Transcendental Meditation and its founder and famous wealthy devotees.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a guru who came from India and to the West, especially to the USA, teaching the Hinduistic Hare Krishna religion which used a meditative chant that was used as prayer to the God Krishna. Millions of Westerners were once part of The Hare Krishna Movement and there were thousands of Temples and ashrams in the West to Krishna.
Their form of meditation is called “Krishna Consciousness” and made all the beneficial claims for their meditation that all the other meditation schools claimed. The founder of the Hare Krishna Consciousness Movement was A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who was born on September 1, 1896 and died on November 14, 1977. Unlike Transcendental Meditation, Hare Krishna religion and meditation was taught for free at their spiritual centers. Former Beatle George Harrison (born February 25, 1943 and died November 29, 2001), wrote and made the song “My Sweet Lord” Not John Lennon. In general meditation, not “TM”, one technique will be revealed to relax the body and mind.To temporarily “take a break” from one’s problems in life With eyes closed, while sitting or lying down, the meditator visualizes being in a very pleasant place, as at a campground area deep in a beautiful, dense forest in warm sunny weather.
The person is told to also smell the fresh scent of the grass, shrubbery, and tree leaves, and to feel the warmth of the sunlight. The same thing can apply if a person, with eyes closed, visualizes being a beach near the ocean in warm sunny weather and to hear the sound of the waves of water slowly moving in and then out, feeling the warmth of the sun. A person can meditate on anything. There have been individuals who have meditated on being receptive to extra sensory perception (ESP) and spiritualistic mediumship. The meditation involves being able to obtain a higher state of consciousness to try to “link up” with the higher forces, but only with good, morally upright supernatural forces that are credit to the benefit and progression of the human race. Here, the meditator is trying to achieve a very deep state of meditation which has been called ” a trance”.
