Meditation

[beachguy in thongs]

Now Im not religious in the least bit, and I have not be working at this, its just something to do before I fall asleep and it works.

You don't consider yourself "religious", but, you'd be suprised what "religion" can do for you.

* Hinduism - many different schools exist.

- Vedanta is a principle branch of Hindu philosophy, a form of yoga which involves an individual seeking "the path of intellectual analysis or the discrimination of truth and reality.
- Yoga as outlined by Patanjali describes eight "limbs" of spiritual practices, half of which might be classified as meditation. Underlying them is the assumption that a yogi should still the fluctuations of his or her mind: Yoga cittavrrti nirodha.
- Transcendental Meditation (or TM) is the type used most often in clinical studies. Though avowedly secular, it emphasizes the recitation of Hindu mantras. A mantra is a religious syllable or poem.
- Sant Mat (an esoteric religious movement active in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and especially India) teaches "sound and light meditation" (surat shabd yoga)
- Osho (a Zen Buddhist priest) taught a wide variety of meditative techniques, including a "laughing meditation".

*Sikhism (a religion based on the teachings of ten Gurus who lived primarily in 16th and 17th century India) encourages the divine meditation on God's name, through simran (the vocal repetition or recital of the God Names: Naam or of the Holy Text from the Two Granths of the Sikhs: the Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the Dasam Granth).

*Buddhist meditation â?? Meditation has always enjoyed a central place within Buddhism. The Buddha himself was said to have achieved enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree. Most forms of Buddhism distinguish between samatha and vipassana meditation.
- Chinese Chan Buddhism (Sanskrit Dhyana, Japanese Zen) emphasizes ts'o ch'an and kung an meditation practices.
- Tibetan Buddhism famously emphasizes tantra for its senior practitioners; hence its alternate name of Vajrayana Buddhism.

*Taoism â?? includes a number of meditative and contemplative traditions.

*Judaism â?? Although Kabbalah and Hassidic Judaism have the explicit concept of meditation (Hebrew hitbonenut), one can reasonably argue that a good deal of Jewish prayer (tefillah) is meditative.

*Christian traditions have various practices which might be identified as forms of "meditation." Many of these are monastic practices.