Climate engineering (or geoengineering, climate intervention) is the intentional large-scale alteration of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change. The term has been used as an umbrella term for both carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification when applied at a planetary scale. However, these two processes have very different characteristics, and are now often discussed separately. Carbon dioxide removal techniques remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and are part of climate change mitigation. Solar radiation modification is the reflection of some sunlight (solar radiation) back to space to cool the earth. Some publications include passive radiative cooling as a climate engineering technology. The media tends to also use climate engineering for other technologies such as glacier stabilization, ocean liming, and iron fertilization of oceans. The latter would modify carbon sequestration processes that take place in oceans.
Some types of climate engineering are highly controversial due to the large uncertainties around effectiveness, side effects and unforeseen consequences.
Interventions at large scale run a greater risk of unintended
disruptions of natural systems, resulting in a dilemma that such
disruptions might be more damaging than the climate damage that they
offset. However, the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of the trajectory of climate change without them.
The Union of Concerned Scientists
warns that solar radiation modification could become an excuse to slow
reductions in fossil fuel emissions and stall progress toward a
low-carbon economy, as the technology does not address these root causes
of climate change.
Terminology
Climate engineering (or geoengineering) has been used as an umbrella term for both carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management, when applied at a planetary scale. However, these two methods have very different geophysical characteristics, which is why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change no longer uses this term. This decision was communicated in around 2018, see for example the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C.
According to climate economist Gernot Wagner the term geoengineering
is "largely an artefact and a result of the term's frequent use in
popular discourse" and "so vague and all-encompassing as to have lost
much meaning".
Specific technologies that fall into the climate engineering umbrella term include:
Mirrors in space
(MIS): satellites that are designed to change the amount of solar
radiation that impacts the Earth as a form of climate engineering. Since
the conception of the idea in 1923, 1929, 1957 and 1978 (Hermann
Oberth) and also in the 1980s, space mirrors have mainly been theorized
as a way to deflect sunlight to counter global warming and were seriously considered in the 2000s.
The following methods are not termed climate engineering in the latest IPCC assessment report in 2022 but are included under this umbrella term by other publications on this topic:
Ground-level albedo modification: a process of increasing Earth's
albedo through the means of altering things on the Earth's surface.
Examples include planting light-colored plants to help with reflecting sunlight back into space.
Ocean geoengineering (adding material such as lime or iron to the ocean to affect its ability to sequester carbon dioxide).
Technologies
Carbon dioxide removal
Planting trees is a nature-based way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, however the effect may only be temporary in some cases.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process in which carbon dioxide (CO2)
is removed from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities and
durably stored in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in
products.
This process is also known as carbon removal, greenhouse gas removal or
negative emissions. CDR is more and more often integrated into climate policy, as an element of climate change mitigation strategies. Achieving net zero emissions
will require first and foremost deep and sustained cuts in emissions,
and then—in addition—the use of CDR ("CDR is what puts the net into net zero emissions").
In the future, CDR may be able to counterbalance emissions that are
technically difficult to eliminate, such as some agricultural and
industrial emissions.
Scientific studies, based on evidence from climate models, have generally shown that some forms of SRM could in theory reduce global warming and therefore many effects of climate change.However, because warming from greenhouse gases and cooling from SRM would operate differently across latitudes and seasons,
a world where global warming would be offset by SRM would have a
different climate from one where this warming did not occur in the first
place. Furthermore, confidence in the current projections of how SRM
would affect regional climate and ecosystems is low. SRM would therefore pose environmental risks.
Passive daytime radiative cooling
Enhancing the solar reflectance and thermal emissivity
of Earth in the atmospheric window through passive daytime radiative
cooling has been proposed as an alternative or "third approach" to
climate engineering that is "less intrusive" and more predictable or reversible than stratospheric aerosol injection.
PDRC
can lower temperatures with zero energy consumption or pollution by
radiating heat into outer space. Widespread application has been
proposed as a solution to global warming.Passive daytime radiative cooling
(PDRC) (also passive radiative cooling, daytime passive radiative
cooling, radiative sky cooling, photonic radiative cooling, and
terrestrial radiative cooling) is the use of unpowered, reflective/thermally-emissive surfaces to lower the temperature of a building or other object.
It has been proposed as a method of reducing temperature increases caused by greenhouse gases by reducing the energy needed for air conditioning, lowering the urban heat island effect, and lowering human body temperatures.
Ocean
geoengineering involves modifying the ocean to reduce the impacts of
rising temperature. One approach is to add material such as lime or iron
to the ocean to increase its ability to support marine life and/or
sequester CO 2. In 2021 the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) requested $2.5 billion funds for research in the following decade, specifically including field tests.
Another idea is to reduce sea level rise by installing underwater "curtains" to protect Antarctic glaciers from warming waters, or by drilling holes in ice to pump out water and heat.
Enriching seawater with calcium hydroxide (lime) has been reported to lower ocean acidity, which reduces pressure on marine life such as oysters and absorbs CO 2. The added lime raised the water's pH, capturing CO 2 in the form of calcium bicarbonate or as carbonate deposited in mollusk shells. Lime is produced in volume for the cement industry. This was assessed in 2022 in an experiment in Apalachicola, Florida in an attempt to halt declining oyster populations. pH levels increased modestly, as CO 2 was reduced by 70 ppm.
A 2014 experiment added sodium hydroxide (lye) to part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It raised pH levels to nearly preindustrial levels.
However, producing alkaline materials typically releases large amounts of CO 2,
partially offsetting the sequestration. Alkaline additives become
diluted and dispersed in one month, without durable effects, such that
if necessary, the program could be ended without leaving long-term
effects.
Enhancing the natural marine sulfur cycle by fertilizing a small portion with iron—typically considered to be a greenhouse gas remediation method—may also increase the reflection of sunlight. Such fertilization, especially in the Southern Ocean, would enhance dimethyl sulfide production and consequently cloud reflectivity. This could potentially be used as regional SRM, to slow Antarctic ice from melting. Such techniques also tend to sequester carbon, but the enhancement of cloud albedo also appears to be a likely effect.
Another 2022 experiment attempted to sequester carbon using giant kelp planted off the Namibian coast. Whilst this approach has been called ocean geoengineering
by the researchers it is just another form of carbon dioxide removal
via sequestration. Another term that is used to describe this process is
blue carbon management and also marine geoengineering.
Glacier stabilization
A
proposed "underwater sill" blocking 50% of warm water flows heading for
the glacier could have the potential to delay its collapse and the
resultant sea level rise by many centuries.
Some engineering interventions have been proposed for Thwaites Glacier and the nearby Pine Island Glacier
to physically stabilize its ice or to preserve it. These interventions
would block the flow of warm ocean water, which currently renders the
collapse of these two glaciers practically inevitable even without
further warming. A proposal from 2018 included building sills at the Thwaites' grounding line
to either physically reinforce it, or to block some fraction of warm
water flow. The former would be the simplest intervention, yet
equivalent to "the largest civil engineering projects that humanity has
ever attempted". It is also only 30% likely to work. Constructions
blocking even 50% of the warm water flow are expected to be far more
effective, yet far more difficult as well. Some researchers argued that this proposal could be ineffective, or even accelerate sea level rise. The authors of the original proposal suggested attempting this intervention on smaller sites, like the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland, as a test. They also acknowledged that this intervention cannot prevent sea level rise from the increased ocean heat content, and would be ineffective in the long run without greenhouse gas emission reductions.
In 2023, it was proposed that an installation of underwater curtains, made of a flexible material and anchored to the Amundsen Sea
floor would be able to interrupt warm water flow. This approach would
reduce costs and increase the longevity of the material (conservatively
estimated at 25 years for curtain elements and up to 100 years for the
foundations) relative to more rigid structures. With them in place,
Thwaites Ice Shelf and Pine Island Ice Shelf would presumably regrow to a
state they last had a century ago, thus stabilizing these glaciers. To achieve this, the curtains would have to be placed at a depth of around 600 metres (0.37 miles) (to avoid damage from icebergs
which would be regularly drifting above) and be 80 km (50 mi) long. The
authors acknowledged that while work on this scale would be
unprecedented and face many challenges in the Antarctic (including polar night
and the currently insufficient numbers of specialized polar ships and
underwater vessels), it would also not require any new technology and
there is already experience of laying down pipelines at such depths.
Problems
Interventions
at large scale run a greater risk of unintended disruptions of natural
systems, resulting in a dilemma that such disruptions might be more
damaging than the climate damage that they offset.
Ethical aspects
Climate engineering may reduce the urgency of reducing carbon emissions, a form of moral hazard. Also, most efforts have only temporary effects, which implies rapid rebound if they are not sustained. The Union of Concerned Scientists
points to the danger that the use of climate engineering technology
will become an excuse not to address the root causes of climate change,
slow our emissions reductions and start moving toward a low-carbon
economy.
However, several public opinion surveys and focus groups reported
either a desire to increase emission cuts in the presence of climate
engineering, or no effect.
Other modelling work suggests that the prospect of climate engineering
may in fact increase the likelihood of emissions reduction.
If climate engineering can alter the climate, then this raises
questions whether humans have the right to deliberately change the
climate, and under what conditions. For example, using climate
engineering to stabilize temperatures is not the same as doing so to
optimize the climate for some other purpose. Some religious traditions
express views on the relationship between humans and their surroundings
that encourage (to conduct responsible stewardship) or discourage (to
avoid hubris) explicit actions to affect climate.
Society and culture
Public perception
A
large 2018 study used an online survey to investigate public
perceptions of six climate engineering methods in the United States,
United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Public awareness of climate engineering was low; less than a fifth of
respondents reported prior knowledge. Perceptions of the six climate
engineering methods proposed (three from the carbon dioxide removal
group and three from the solar radiation modification group) were
largely negative and frequently associated with attributes like 'risky',
'artificial' and 'unknown effects'. Carbon dioxide removal methods were
preferred over solar radiation modification. Public perceptions were
remarkably stable with only minor differences between the different
countries in the surveys.
Some environmental organizations (such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace)
have been reluctant to endorse or oppose solar radiation modification,
but are often more supportive of nature-based carbon dioxide removal
projects, such as afforestation and peatland restoration.
In 2009, the Royal Society in the UK reviewed a wide range of
proposed climate engineering methods and evaluated them in terms of
effectiveness, affordability, timeliness, and safety (assigning qualitative estimates in each assessment). The key recommendations reports were that "Parties to the UNFCCC
should make increased efforts towards mitigating and adapting to
climate change, and in particular to agreeing to global emissions
reductions", and that "[nothing] now known about geoengineering options
gives any reason to diminish these efforts".
Nonetheless, the report also recommended that "research and development
of climate engineering options should be undertaken to investigate
whether low-risk methods can be made available if it becomes necessary
to reduce the rate of warming this century".
In 2009, a review examined the scientific plausibility of
proposed methods rather than the practical considerations such as
engineering feasibility or economic cost. The authors found that "[air]
capture and storage shows the greatest potential, combined with afforestation,
reforestation and bio-char production", and noted that "other
suggestions that have received considerable media attention, in
particular, "ocean pipes" appear to be ineffective". They concluded that "[climate] geoengineering is best considered as a potential complement to the mitigation of CO2 emissions, rather than as an alternative to it".
The IMechE report examined a small subset of proposed methods (air capture, urban albedo and algal-based CO2
capture techniques), and its main conclusions in 2011 were that climate
engineering should be researched and trialed at the small scale
alongside a wider decarbonization of the economy.
In 2015, the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and
Medicine concluded a 21-month project to study the potential impacts,
benefits, and costs of climate engineering. The differences between
these two classes of climate engineering "led the committee to evaluate
the two types of approaches separately in companion reports, a
distinction it hopes carries over to future scientific and policy
discussions." The resulting study titled Climate Intervention was released in February 2015 and consists of two volumes: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth and Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration.
In June 2023 the US government released a report that recommended
conducting research on stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud
brightening.
As of 2024 the Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement (CAARE) project was launching sea salt into the marine sky in an effort to increase cloud "brightness" (reflective capacity). The sea salt is launched from the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum (based on the project's regulatory filings).
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a
technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive,
"discursive thinking," achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditation process itself.
Techniques are broadly classified into focused (or concentrative)
and open monitoring methods. Focused methods involve attention to
specific objects like breath or mantras, while open monitoring includes mindfulness and awareness of mental events.
Meditation is practiced in numerous religious traditions, though
it is also practised independently from any religious or spiritual
influences for its health benefits. The earliest records of meditation (dhyana) are found in the Upanishads, and meditation plays a salient role in the contemplative repertoire of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Meditation-like techniques are also known in Judaism, Christianity and
Islam, in the context of remembrance of and prayer and devotion to God.
Asian meditative techniques have spread to other cultures where
they have found application in non-spiritual contexts, such as business
and health. Meditation may significantly reduce stress, fear, anxiety,
depression, and pain, and enhance peace, perception, self-concept, and well-being. Research is ongoing to better understand the effects of meditation on health (psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular) and other areas.
Etymology
The English meditation is derived from Old Frenchmeditacioun, in turn from Latinmeditatio from a verb meditari, meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder". In the Catholic tradition, the use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to at least the 12th-century monk Guigo II, before which the Greek word theoria was used for the same purpose.
Apart from its historical usage, the term meditation was introduced as a translation for Eastern spiritual practices, referred to as dhyāna in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, which comes from the Sanskrit root dhyai, meaning to contemplate or meditate. The greek word theoria actually derives from the same root.
The term "meditation" in English may also refer to practices from Islamic Sufism, or other traditions such as Jewish Kabbalah and Christian Hesychasm.
Definitions
Difficulties in defining meditation
No universally accepted definition for meditation
Meditation
has proven difficult to define as it covers a wide range of dissimilar
practices in different traditions and cultures.
In popular usage, the word "meditation" and the phrase "meditative
practice" are often used imprecisely to designate practices found across
many cultures. These can include almost anything that is claimed to train the attention of mind or to teach calmness or compassion.
There remains no definition of necessary and sufficient criteria for
meditation that has achieved widespread acceptance within the modern scientific community.
Separation of technique from tradition
Some of the difficulty in precisely defining meditation has been in recognizing the particularities of the many various traditions; and theories and practice can differ within a tradition. Taylor noted that even within a faith such as "Hindu" or "Buddhist", schools and individual teachers may teach distinct types of meditation.
Ornstein noted that "Most techniques of meditation do not exist as
solitary practices but are only artificially separable from an entire
system of practice and belief."
For instance, while monks meditate as part of their everyday lives,
they also engage in the codified rules and live together in monasteries
in specific cultural settings that go along with their meditative
practices.
Dictionary definitions
Dictionaries give both the original Latin meaning of "think[ing] deeply about (something)", as well as the popular usages of "focusing one's mind for a period of time", "the act of giving your attention to only one thing, either as a religious activity or as a way of becoming calm and relaxed", and "to engage in mental exercise (such as concentrating on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness."
Scholarly definitions
In modern psychological research, meditation has been defined and characterized in various ways. Many of these emphasize the role of attention and characterize the practice of meditation as attempts to detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking," not judging the meditation-process itself ("logical relaxation"), to achieve a deeper, more devout, or more relaxed state.
Bond et al. (2009) identified criteria for defining a practice as
meditation "for use in a comprehensive systematic review of the
therapeutic use of meditation", using "a 5-round Delphi study
with a panel of 7 experts in meditation research" who were also trained
in diverse but empirically highly studied (Eastern-derived or clinical)
forms of meditation:
three main criteria ... as essential to any meditation practice: the use of a defined technique, logic relaxation, and a self-induced state/mode.
Other criteria deemed important [but not essential] involve a
state of psychophysical relaxation, the use of a self-focus skill or
anchor, the presence of a state of suspension of logical thought
processes, a religious/spiritual/philosophical context, or a state of
mental silence.
Several other definitions of meditation have been used by influential
modern reviews of research on meditation across multiple traditions:
Walsh & Shapiro (2006): "Meditation refers to a family of
self-regulation practices that focus on training attention and awareness
in order to bring mental processes under greater voluntary control and
thereby foster general mental well-being and development and/or specific
capacities such as calm, clarity, and concentration"
Cahn & Polich (2006): "Meditation is used to describe
practices that self-regulate the body and mind, thereby affecting mental
events by engaging a specific attentional set.... regulation of
attention is the central commonality across the many divergent methods"
Jevning et al. (1992): "We define meditation... as a stylized mental
technique... repetitively practiced for the purpose of attaining a
subjective experience that is frequently described as very restful,
silent, and of heightened alertness, often characterized as blissful"
Goleman (1988): "the need for the meditator to retrain his
attention, whether through concentration or mindfulness, is the single
invariant ingredient in... every meditation system"
Classifications
Focused and open methods
In
the West, meditation techniques have often been classified in two broad
categories, which in actual practice are often combined: focused (or
concentrative) meditation and open monitoring (or mindfulness)
meditation:
Direction of mental attention... A practitioner can focus intensively on one particular object (so-called concentrative meditation), on all mental events that enter the field of awareness (so-called mindfulness meditation), or both specific focal points and the field of awareness.
The Buddhist tradition often divides meditative practice into samatha, or calm abiding, and vipassana, insight. Mindfulness of breathing, a form of focused attention, calms down the mind; this calmed mind can then investigate the nature of reality,
by monitoring the fleeting and ever-changing constituents of
experience, by reflective investigation, or by "turning back the
radiance," focusing awareness on awareness itself and discerning the
true nature of mind as awareness itself.
Matko and Sedlmeier (2019) "call into question the common
division into 'focused attention' and 'open-monitoring' practices." They
argue for "two orthogonal dimensions along which meditation techniques
could be classified," namely "activation" and "amount of body
orientation," proposing seven clusters of techniques: "mindful
observation, body-centered meditation, visual concentration,
contemplation, affect-centered meditation, mantra meditation, and
meditation with movement."
Jonathan Shear argues that transcendental meditation is an
"automatic self-transcending" technique, different from focused
attention and open monitoring. In this kind of practice, "there is no
attempt to sustain any particular condition at all. Practices of this
kind, once started, are reported to automatically 'transcend' their own
activity and disappear, to be started up again later if appropriate."
Yet, Shear also states that "automatic self-transcending" also applies
to the way other techniques such as from Zen and Qigong are practiced by
experienced meditators "once they had become effortless and automatic
through years of practice."
Technique
Posture
Young children practicing meditation in a Peruvian school
Asanas or body postures such as padmasana(full-lotus, half-lotus), cross-legged sitting, seiza, and kneeling positions are popular meditative postures in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism,
although other postures such as sitting, supine (lying), and standing
are also used. Meditation is also sometimes done while walking, known as
kinhin, while doing a simple task mindfully, known as samu, or while lying down, known as shavasana.
Frequency
The Transcendental Meditation technique recommends practice of 20 minutes twice per day. Some techniques suggest less time, especially when starting meditation, and Richard Davidson has quoted research saying benefits can be achieved with a practice of only 8 minutes per day. Research shows improvement in meditation time with simple oral and video training. Some meditators practice for much longer, particularly when on a course or retreat. Some meditators find practice best in the hours before dawn.
Supporting aids
Use of prayer beads
Some religions have traditions of using prayer beads as tools in devotional meditation. Most prayer beads and Christian rosaries consist of pearls or beads linked together by a thread.
The Roman Catholic rosary is a string of beads containing five sets
with ten small beads. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox have traditions of
using prayer ropes called Comboschini or Meqetaria as an aid to prayerful meditation. The Hindu japa mala has 108 beads. The figure 108 in itself having spiritual significance as the energy of the sounds equivalates to Om, as well as those used in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Hare Krishna tradition, and Jainism. Buddhist prayer beads also have 108 beads, but hold a different meaning. In Buddhism, there are 108 human passions that impede enlightenment. Each bead is counted once as a person recites a mantra until the person has gone all the way around the mala. The Muslim misbaha has 99 beads. There is also quite a variance when it comes to materials used for beads. Beads made from seeds of rudraksha trees are considered sacred by devotees of Shiva, while followers of Vishnu revere the wood that comes from the Tulsi plant, also known as Holy Basil.
Striking the meditator
The Buddhist literature has many stories of Enlightenment being attained through disciples being struck by their masters. T. Griffith Foulk recounts how the encouragement stick was an integral part of the Zen practice when he trained:
In the Rinzai monastery where I
trained in the mid-1970s, according to an unspoken etiquette, monks who
were sitting earnestly and well were shown respect by being hit
vigorously and often; those known as laggards were ignored by the hall
monitor or given little taps if they requested to be hit. Nobody asked
about the 'meaning' of the stick, nobody explained, and nobody ever
complained about its use.
Using a narrative
Neuroscientist and long-time meditator Richard Davidson has expressed the view that having a narrative can help the maintenance of daily practice. For instance, he himself prostrates to the teachings, and meditates "not primarily for my benefit, but for the benefit of others".
Psychedelics
Studies suggest the potential of psychedelics, such as psilocybin and DMT, to enhance meditative training.
Meditation traditions
Man meditating in a garden setting (19th century)
Origins
The history of meditation is intimately bound up with the religious context within which it was practiced.
Rossano suggested that the emergence of the capacity for focused
attention, an element of many methods of meditation, may have
contributed to the latest phases of human biological evolution. Some of the earliest references to meditation, as well as proto-Samkhya, are found in the Upanishads of India. According to Wynne, the earliest clear references to meditation are in the middle Upanishads and the Mahabharata (including the Bhagavad Gita). According to Gavin Flood, the earlier Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is describing meditation when it states that "Having become calm and concentrated, one perceives the self (Ātman) within oneself" (BU 4.4.23).
There are many schools and styles of meditation within Hinduism. In pre-modern and traditional Hinduism, Yoga and Dhyana
are practised to recognize 'pure awareness', or 'pure consciousness',
undisturbed by the workings of the mind, as one's eternal self. In Advaita Vedantajivatman, individual self, is recognized as illusory, and in Reality identical with the omnipresent and non-dualĀtman-Brahman. In the dualistic Yoga school and Samkhya, the Self is called Purusha, a pure consciousness undisturbed by Prakriti, 'nature'. Depending on the tradition, the liberative event is named moksha, vimukti or kaivalya.
One of the most influential texts of classical Hindu Yoga is Patañjali's Yoga sutras (c. 400 CE), a text associated with Yoga and Samkhya and influenced by Buddhism, which outlines eight limbs leading to kaivalya ("aloneness") or inner awareness. The first four, known as the "outer limbs," include ethical discipline (yamas), rules (niyamas), physical postures (āsanas), and breath control (prāṇāyama). The fifth, withdrawal from the senses (pratyāhāra), transitions into the "inner limbs" that are one-pointedness of mind (dhāraṇā), meditation (dhyāna), and finally samādhi.
Later developments in Hindu meditation include the compilation of Hatha Yoga (forceful yoga) compendiums like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the development of Bhakti yoga as a major form of meditation, and Tantra. Another important Hindu yoga text is the Yoga Yajnavalkya, which makes use of Hatha Yoga and Vedanta Philosophy.
Mantra Meditation
The Bhagavata Purana
emphasizes that mantra meditation is a key practice for achieving
liberation; practitioners can achieve a direct vision of the divine. The
text integrates both Vedic and tantric elements, where mantras are not
only seen as sacred sounds but as embodiment of the deity. This approach
reflects a shift from the impersonal meditation on the sound-form of
Brahman (Om) in the Upanishads to a personal, devotional focus on Krishna in the Bhagavata Purana.
Jainism
Lord Mahavir attaining omniscience in shukla dhyana, the highest level of meditation
Jainism has three elements called the Ratnatraya ("Three Jewels"): right perception and faith, right knowledge and right conduct.
Meditation in Jainism aims to reach and to remain in the pure state of
soul which is believed to be pure consciousness, beyond any attachment
or aversion. The practitioner strives to be just a knower-seer (gyata-drashta). Jain meditation can be broadly categorized into Dharma dhyana and Shukla dhyana. Dharma dhyana is discriminating knowledge (bheda-vijñāna) of the tattvas (truths or fundamental principles), while shukla dhyana is meditation proper.
Jainism uses meditation techniques such as pindāstha-dhyāna, padāstha-dhyāna, rūpāstha-dhyāna, rūpātita-dhyāna, and savīrya-dhyāna. In padāstha dhyāna, one focuses on a mantra,
a combination of core letters or words on deity or themes. Jain
followers practice mantra regularly by chanting loudly or silently in
mind.
The meditation technique of contemplation includes agnya vichāya, in which one contemplates on seven facts – life and non-life, the inflow, bondage, stoppage and removal of karmas, and the final accomplishment of liberation. In apaya vichāya, one contemplates on the incorrect insights one indulges, which eventually develops right insight. In vipaka vichāya, one reflects on the eight causes or basic types of karma. In sansathan vichāya, one thinks about the vastness of the universe and the loneliness of the soul.
While most classical and contemporary Buddhist meditation guides are school-specific, the root meditative practices of various body recollections and breath meditation have been preserved and transmitted in almost all Buddhist traditions, through Buddhist texts like the Satipatthana Sutta and the Dhyana sutras,
and through oral teacher-student transmissions. These ancient practices
are supplemented with various distinct interpretations of, and
developments in, these practices.
The Theravāda tradition stresses the development of samatha and vipassana, postulating over fifty methods for developing mindfulness based on the Satipatthana Sutta, and forty for developing concentration based on the Visuddhimagga.
The Tibetan tradition incorporated Sarvastivada and Tantric practices, wedded with Madhyamaka philosophy, and developed thousands of visualization meditations.
The Zen
tradition incorporated mindfulness and breath-meditation via the Dhyana
sutras, which are based on the Sarvastivada-tradition. Sitting
meditation, known as zazen, is a central part of Zen practice. Downplaying the "petty complexities" of satipatthana and the body-recollections (but maintaining the awareness of immanent death), the early Chan-tradition developed the notions or practices of wu nian ("no thought, no fixation on thought, such as one's own views, experiences, and knowledge") and fēi sīliàng (非思量, Japanese: hishiryō, "nonthinking"); and kanxin ("observing the mind") and shou-i pu i (守一不移, "maintaining the one without wavering,"
turning the attention from the objects of experience, to the nature of
mind, the perceiving subject itself, which is equated with Buddha-nature.
The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism introduced Buddhist meditation to other Asian countries, reaching China in the 2nd century CE, and Japan in the 6th century CE. In the modern era, Buddhist meditation techniques have become popular in the wider world, due to the influence of Buddhist modernism on Asian Buddhism, and western lay interest in Zen and the Vipassana movement, with many non-Buddhists taking-up meditative practices. The modernized concept of mindfulness (based on the Buddhist term sati) and related meditative practices have in turn led to mindfulness based therapies.
Dhyana
Dhyana, while often presented as a form of focused attention or concentration, as in Buddhagosa's Theravada classic the Visuddhimagga
("Path of purification", 5th c. CE), according to a number of
contemporary scholars and scholar-practitioners, it is actually a
description of the development of perfected equanimity and mindfulness,
apparently induced by satipatthana, an open monitoring of the breath,
without trying to regulate it. The same description, in a different
formula, can be found in the bojjhanga, the "seven factors of awakening," and may therefore refer to the core program of early Buddhist bhavana.
According to Vetter, dhyana seems to be a natural development from the
sense-restraint and moral constrictions prescribed by the Buddhist
tradition.
Samatha and vipassana
The Buddha identified two paramount mental qualities that arise from wholesome meditative practice or bhavana, namely samatha ("calm," "serenity" "tranquility") and vipassana (insight). As the developing tradition started to emphasize the value of liberating insight, and dhyana came to be understood as concentration, samatha and vipassana were understood as two distinct meditative techniques. In this understanding, samatha steadies, composes, unifies and concentrates the mind, while vipassana enables one to see, explore and discern "formations" (conditioned phenomena based on the five aggregates).
According to this understanding, which is central to Theravada orthodoxy but also plays a role in Tibetan Buddhism, through the meditative development of serenity, one is able to weaken the obscuring hindrances and bring the mind to a collected, pliant, and still state (samadhi). This quality of mind then supports the development of insight and wisdom (Prajñā) which is the quality of mind that can "clearly see" (vi-passana)
the nature of phenomena. What exactly is to be seen varies within the
Buddhist traditions. In Theravada, all phenomena are to be seen as impermanent, suffering, not-self and empty. When this happens, one develops dispassion (viraga)
for all phenomena, including all negative qualities and hindrances and
lets them go. It is through the release of the hindrances and ending of
craving through the meditative development of insight that one gains
liberation.
In Sikhism, simran (meditation) and good deeds are both necessary to achieve the devotee's spiritual goals; without good deeds meditation is futile. When Sikhs meditate, they aim to feel God's presence and emerge in the divine light. It is only God's divine will or order that allows a devotee to desire to begin to meditate. Nām japnā involves focusing one's attention on the names or great attributes of God.
Taoist meditation has developed techniques including concentration, visualization, qi cultivation, contemplation, and mindfulness
meditations in its long history. Traditional Daoist meditative
practices influenced Buddhism creating the unique meditative practices
of Chinese Buddhism that then spread through the rest of east Asia from around the 5th century.Traditional Chinese medicine and the Chinese martial arts were influenced and influences of Taoist meditation.
Livia Kohn distinguishes three basic types of Taoist meditation: "concentrative", "insight", and "visualization". Ding定 (literally means "decide; settle; stabilize") refers to "deep concentration", "intent contemplation", or "perfect absorption". Guan觀 (lit. "watch; observe; view") meditation seeks to merge and attain unity with the Dao. It was developed by Tang dynasty (618–907) Taoist masters based upon the Tiantai Buddhist practice of Vipassanā "insight" or "wisdom" meditation. Cun存
(lit. "exist; be present; survive") has a sense of "to cause to exist;
to make present" in the meditation techniques popularized by the Taoist Shangqing and Lingbao Schools.
A meditator visualizes or actualizes solar and lunar essences, lights,
and deities within their body, which supposedly results in health and
longevity, even xian 仙/仚/僊, "immortality".
The Guanzi essay (late 4th century BCE) Neiye "Inward training" is the oldest received writing on the subject of qi cultivation and breath-control meditation techniques.
For instance, "When you enlarge your mind and let go of it, when you
relax your vital breath and expand it, when your body is calm and
unmoving: And you can maintain the One and discard the myriad
disturbances. ... This is called "revolving the vital breath": Your
thoughts and deeds seem heavenly."
The Taoist Zhuangzi (c. 3rd century BCE) records zuowang or "sitting forgetting" meditation. Confucius asked his disciple Yan Hui
to explain what "sit and forget" means: "I slough off my limbs and
trunk, dim my intelligence, depart from my form, leave knowledge behind,
and become identical with the Transformational Thoroughfare."
Taoist meditation practices are central to Chinese martial arts (and some Japanese martial arts), especially the qi-related neijia "internal martial arts". Some well-known examples are daoyin ("guiding and pulling"), qigong ("life-energy exercises"), neigong ("internal exercises"), neidan ("internal alchemy"), and tai chi
("great ultimate boxing"), which is thought of as moving meditation.
One common explanation contrasts "movement in stillness" referring to
energetic visualization of qi circulation in qigong and zuochan ("seated meditation"), versus "stillness in movement" referring to a state of meditative calm in tai chi forms. Also the unification or middle road forms such as Wuxingheqidao that seeks the unification of internal alchemical forms with more external forms.
Judaism has made use of meditative practices for thousands of years. For instance, in the Torah, the patriarch Isaac is described as going "לשוח" (lasuach) in the field – a term understood by all commentators as some type of meditative practice (Genesis 24:63). Similarly, there are indications throughout the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) that the prophets meditated. In the Old Testament, there are two Hebrew words for meditation: hāgâ (Hebrew: הגה), to sigh or murmur, but also to meditate, and sîḥâ (Hebrew: שיחה), to muse, or rehearse in one's mind.
Classical Jewish texts espouse a wide range of meditative practices, often associated with the cultivation of kavanah or intention. The first layer of rabbinic law, the Mishnah, describes ancient sages "waiting" for an hour before their prayers, "in order to direct their hearts to the Omnipresent One" (MishnahBerakhot 5:1). Other early rabbinic texts include instructions for visualizing the Divine Presence (B. TalmudSanhedrin 22a) and breathing with conscious gratitude for every breath (Genesis Rabba 14:9).
One of the best-known types of meditation in early Jewish mysticism was the work of the Merkabah, from the root /R-K-B/ meaning "chariot" (of God). Some meditative traditions have been encouraged in Kabbalah, and some Jews have described Kabbalah as an inherently meditative field of study. Kabbalistic meditation often involves the mental visualization of the supernal realms. Aryeh Kaplan has argued that the ultimate purpose of Kabbalistic meditation is to understand and cleave to the Divine.
Meditation has been of interest to a wide variety of modern Jews.
In modern Jewish practice, one of the best known meditative practices
is called "hitbodedut" (התבודדות, alternatively transliterated as "hisbodedus"), and is explained in Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and Mussar writings, especially the Hasidic method of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav. The word derives from the Hebrew word "boded" (בודד), meaning the state of being alone. Another Hasidic system is the Habad method of "hisbonenus", related to the Sephirah of "Binah", Hebrew for understanding.
This practice is the analytical reflective process of making oneself
understand a mystical concept well, that follows and internalises its
study in Hasidic writings. The Musar Movement, founded by Rabbi Israel Salanter in the middle of the nineteenth-century, emphasized meditative practices of introspection and visualization that could help to improve moral character. Conservative rabbi Alan Lew has emphasized meditation playing an important role in the process of teshuvah (repentance). Jewish Buddhists have adopted Buddhist styles of meditation.
Christianity
Saint Pio of Pietrelcina stated: "Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds Him."
Christian meditation
is a term for a form of prayer in which a structured attempt is made to
get in touch with and deliberately reflect upon the revelations of God. In the Roman Empire, by 20 BCE Philo of Alexandria had written on some form of "spiritual exercises" involving attention (prosoche) and concentration and by the 3rd century Plotinus had developed meditative techniques. The word meditation comes from the Latin word meditatum, which means to "concentrate" or "to ponder". Monk Guigo II
introduced this terminology for the first time in the 12th century AD.
Christian meditation is the process of deliberately focusing on specific
thoughts (e.g. a biblical scene involving Jesus and the Virgin Mary) and reflecting on their meaning in the context of the love of God.
Christian meditation is sometimes taken to mean the middle level in a
broad three-stage characterization of prayer: it then involves more
reflection than first level vocal prayer, but is more structured than the multiple layers of contemplation in Christianity.
Between the 10th and 14th centuries, hesychasm was developed, particularly on Mount Athos in Greece, and involves the repetition of the Jesus prayer. Interactions with Indians or the Sufis may have influenced the Eastern Christian meditation approach to hesychasm, but this is unproven.
Western Christian
meditation contrasts with most other approaches in that it does not
involve the repetition of any phrase or action and requires no specific
posture. Western Christian meditation progressed from the 6th century
practice of Bible reading among Benedictine monks called Lectio Divina, i.e. divine reading. Its four formal steps as a "ladder" were defined by the monk Guigo II in the 12th century with the Latin terms lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio (i.e. read, ponder, pray, contemplate). Western Christian meditation was further developed by saints such as Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila in the 16th century.
On 28 April 2021, Pope Francis, in an address to the General Audience, said that meditation is a need for everyone.
He noted that the term "meditation" has had many meanings throughout
history, and that "the ancients used to say that the organ of prayer is
the heart."
In Catholic Christianity, the Rosary is a devotion for the meditation of the mysteries of Jesus and Mary.
"The gentle repetition of its prayers makes it an excellent means to
moving into deeper meditation. It gives us an opportunity to open
ourselves to God's word, to refine our interior gaze by turning our
minds to the life of Christ. The first principle is that meditation is
learned through practice. Many people who practice rosary meditation
begin very simply and gradually develop a more sophisticated meditation.
The meditator learns to hear an interior voice, the voice of God. Similarly, the chotki of the Eastern Orthodox denomination, the Wreath of Christ of the Lutheran faith, and the Anglican prayer beads of the Episcopalian tradition are used for Christian prayer and meditation.
According to Edmund P. Clowney, Christian meditation contrasts with Eastern forms of meditation as radically as the portrayal of God the Father in the Bible contrasts with depictions of Krishna or Brahman in Indian teachings. Unlike some Eastern styles, most styles of Christian meditation do not rely on the repeated use of mantras,
and yet are also intended to stimulate thought and deepen meaning.
Christian meditation aims to heighten the personal relationship based on
the love of God that marks Christian communion. In Aspects of Christian meditation, the Catholic Church warned of potential incompatibilities in mixing Christian and Eastern styles of meditation. In 2003, in A Christian reflection on the New Age the Vatican announced that the "Church avoids any concept that is close to those of the New Age".
Dhikr (zikr)
is a type of meditation within Islam, meaning remembering and
mentioning God, which involves the repetition of the 99 Names of God
since the 8th or 9th century. It is interpreted in different meditative techniques in Sufism or Islamic mysticism. This became one of the essential elements of Sufism as it was systematized traditionally. It is juxtaposed with fikr (thinking) which leads to knowledge.
By the 12th century, the practice of Sufism included specific
meditative techniques, and its followers practiced breathing controls
and the repetition of holy words.
Sufism uses a meditative procedure like Buddhist concentration, involving high-intensity and sharply focused introspection. In the Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi Sufi order, for example, muraqabah takes the form of tamarkoz, "concentration" in Persian.
Tafakkur or tadabbur in Sufism literally means reflection upon the universe: this is considered to permit access to a form of cognitive and emotional
development that can emanate only from the higher level, i.e. from God.
The sensation of receiving divine inspiration awakens and liberates
both heart and intellect, permitting such inner growth that the
apparently mundane actually takes on the quality of the infinite. Muslim teachings embrace life as a test of one's submission to God.
Dervishes of certain Sufi orders practice whirling, a form of physically active meditation.
Baháʼí Faith
In the teachings of the Baháʼí Faith,
which derives from an Islamic context but is universalist in
orientation, meditation is a primary tool for spiritual development, involving reflection on the words of God.
While prayer and meditation are linked, where meditation happens
generally in a prayerful attitude, prayer is seen specifically as
turning toward God, and meditation is seen as a communion with one's self where one focuses on the divine.
In Baháʼí teachings
the purpose of meditation is to strengthen one's understanding of the
words of God, and to make one's soul more susceptible to their
potentially transformative power, more receptive to the need for both prayer and meditation to bring about and maintain a spiritual communion with God.
Bahá'u'lláh,
the founder of the religion, never specified any particular form of
meditation, and thus each person is free to choose their own form. However, he did state that Baháʼís should read a passage of the Baháʼí writings
twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening, and meditate
on it. He also encouraged people to reflect on one's actions and worth
at the end of each day. During the Nineteen Day Fast,
a period of the year during which Baháʼís adhere to a sunrise-to-sunset
fast, they meditate and pray to reinvigorate their spiritual forces.
Meditation
has spread in the West since the late 19th century, accompanying
increased travel and communication among cultures worldwide. Most
prominent has been the transmission of Asian-derived practices to the
West. In addition, interest in some Western-based meditative practices
has been revived, and these have been disseminated to a limited extent to Asian countries.
Ideas about Eastern meditation had begun "seeping into American
popular culture even before the American Revolution through the various
sects of European occult Christianity",
and such ideas "came pouring in [to America] during the era of the
transcendentalists, especially between the 1840s and the 1880s." The following decades saw further spread of these ideas to America:
The World Parliament of Religions,
held in Chicago in 1893, was the landmark event that increased Western
awareness of meditation. This was the first time that Western audiences
on American soil received Asian spiritual teachings from Asians
themselves. Thereafter, Swami Vivekananda [...] [founded] various Vedanta ashrams [...] Anagarika Dharmapala lectured at Harvard on Theravada Buddhist meditation in 1904; Abdul Baha [...] [toured] the US teaching the principles of Bahai [sic], and Soyen Shaku toured in 1907 teaching Zen.
More recently, in the 1960s, another surge in Western interest in
meditative practices began. The rise of communist political power in
Asia led to many Asian spiritual teachers taking refuge in Western
countries, oftentimes as refugees.
In addition to spiritual forms of meditation, secular forms of
meditation have taken root. Rather than focusing on spiritual growth,
secular meditation emphasizes stress reduction, relaxation and
self-improvement.
The 2012 US National Health Interview Survey of 34,525 subjects found that 8% of US adults used meditation, with lifetime and 12-month prevalence of meditation use of 5.2% and 4.1% respectively. Meditation use among workers was 10% (up from 8% in 2002).
New Age meditations are often influenced by Eastern philosophy, mysticism, yoga, Hinduism and Buddhism, yet may contain some degree of Western influence. In the West, meditation found its mainstream roots through the social revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when many of the youth of the day
rebelled against traditional religion as a reaction against what some
perceived as the failure of Christianity to provide spiritual and
ethical guidance.
New Age meditation as practised by the early hippies is regarded for
its techniques of blanking out the mind and releasing oneself from
conscious thinking. This is often aided by repetitive chanting of a
mantra, or focusing on an object.
New Age meditation evolved into a range of purposes and practices, from
serenity and balance to access to other realms of consciousness to the
concentration of energy in group meditation to the supreme goal of samadhi, as in the ancient yogic practice of meditation.
Guided meditation is a form of meditation which uses a number of
different techniques to achieve or enhance the meditative state. It may
simply be meditation done under the guidance of a trained practitioner
or teacher, or it may be through the use of imagery, music, and other
techniques. The session can be either in person, via media comprising music or verbal instruction, or a combination of both. The most common form is a combination of meditation music and receptive music therapy, guided imagery, relaxation, mindfulness, and journaling.
Because of the different combinations used under the one term, it
can be difficult to attribute positive or negative outcomes to any of
the various techniques. Furthermore, the term is frequently used
interchangeably with "guided imagery" and sometimes with "creative
visualization" in popular psychology and self-help literature. It is less commonly used in scholarly and scientific
publications. Consequently, guided meditation cannot be understood as a
single technique but rather multiple techniques that are integral to
its practice.
Research on the processes and effects of meditation is a subfield of neurological research. Modern scientific techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography, were used to observe neurological responses during meditation. Concerns have been raised on the quality of meditation research, including the particular characteristics of individuals who tend to participate.
Meditation lowers heart rate, oxygen consumption, breathing frequency, stress hormones, lactate levels, and sympathetic nervous system activity (associated with the fight-or-flight response), along with a modest decline in blood pressure.
However, those who have meditated for two or three years were found to
already have low blood pressure. During meditation, the oxygen
consumption decrease averages 10 to 20 percent over the first three
minutes. During sleep for example, oxygen consumption decreases around 8
percent over four or five hours.
For meditators who have practiced for years, breath rate can drop to
three or four breaths per minute and "brain waves slow from the usual beta (seen in waking activity) or alpha (seen in normal relaxation) to much slower delta and theta waves".
Studies demonstrate that meditation has a moderate effect to reduce pain. There is insufficient evidence for any effect of meditation on positive mood, attention, eating habits, sleep, or body weight.
Luberto er all (2017), in a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of meditation on empathy, compassion, and prosocial
behaviors, found that meditation practices had small to medium effects
on self-reported and observable outcomes, concluding that such practices
can "improve positive prosocial emotions and behaviors". However, a meta-review published on Scientific Reports
showed that the evidence is very weak and "that the effects of
meditation on compassion were only significant when compared to passive
control groups suggests that other forms of active interventions (like
watching a nature video) might produce similar outcomes to meditation".
Throughout
East Asia the detrimental and undesirable effects of incorrect
meditation and mindfulness practice are well documented due to the long
varied history of cultivation in these fields. Many traditional herbal,
intentional and manual treatments have been prescribed from the past to
present day for what is diagnosed as zouhuorumo (Chinese: 走火入魔).
Meditation may induce "challenging" and "unwanted" experiences, and adverse effects to physical and mental health. Some of these experiences and effects are documented in the contemplative traditions,
but can be quite perplexing and burdensome when the outcomes of
meditation are expected to result in more advantageous and beneficial
health outcomes than detrimental ones. By extension this problem is
compounded with little or no support or explanatory framework publicly
for novice or laity that is easily accessible for a practitioner to know
when it is appropriate to self manage or when it is advisable to seek
professional advice on the adverse symptomatology that may arise in this
field of self-cultivation .
According to Farias et al. (2020), the most common adverse effects are in people with a history of anxiety and depression. Other adverse psychological symptoms may include narcissistic, sociopathic behaviour and depersonalization or altered sense of self or the world,
distorted emotions or thoughts, a mild form of psychosis including
auditory and visual hallucinations. In extreme cases in patients with
underlying undiagnosed or historical emotional conditions there have
been instances of self-harm.
According to Schlosser et al. (2019), "preliminary findings
suggest that their occurrence is highly dependent on a complex
interaction of contextual factors." For instance, meditation-related psychosis has been linked to sleep deprivation, preceding mental dispositions,
and meditation without sufficient social support or any explanatory
framework. However, according to Farias et al. (2020), "minor adverse
effects have been observed in individuals with no previous history of
mental health problems")
Farias et al. (2020) further note that "it is also possible that
participants predisposed to heightened levels of anxiety and depression
are more likely to begin or maintain a meditation practice to manage
their symptoms."
According to Farias et al. (2020) there is a prevalence of 8.3%
adverse effects, "similar to those reported for psychotherapy practice
in general."
Schlosser et al. (2019) reported that of 1,232 regular meditators with
at least two months of meditation experience, about a quarter reported
having had particularly unpleasant meditation-related experiences which
they thought may have been caused by their meditation practice.
Meditators with high levels of repetitive negative thinking and those
who only engage in deconstructive meditation (vipassana/insight
meditation) were more likely to report unpleasant side effects.
The appraisal of the experiences may be determined by the framework used to interpret these experiences.
Schlosser et al. "found strong evidence that religious participants
have lower odds of having particularly unpleasant meditation-related
experiences," and "found weak evidence that female participants were
less likely to have unpleasant meditation-related experiences,"
and note the importance of "understanding when these experiences are
constitutive elements of meditative practice rather than merely negative
effects."
Difficult experiences encountered in meditation are mentioned in
traditional sources, and some may be considered to be an expected part
of the process. According to Salguero,
Problematic experiences such as
strange sensations, unexplained pains, psychological instability,
undesired hallucinations, sexual anomalies, uncontrollable behaviors,
demonic possession, suicidality, and so forth seem to be quite
well-known and well-documented across traditions.
The Visuddhimagga mentions various unpleasant stages, and possible "unwholesome or frightening visions" are mentioned in Practical Insight Meditation: Basic and Progressive Stages, a practical manual on vipassanā meditation by Mahāsi Sayādaw. Classical sources mention makyō, Zen sickness (Chinese and Japanese: 禪病; pinyin: Chánbìng; rōmaji: Zenbyō) and related difficulties, such as zouhuorumo (走火入魔; 'fire possession'), and mojing (魔境; 'demonic states'). Traditional sources also precribe cures against these experiences, for example Hakuin Ekaku's treatment of Zen-sickness.
Mindfulness
Both
the soundness of the scientific foundations of mindfulness, and the
desirability of its social effects, have been questioned. Hafenbrack et al. (2022), in a study on mindfulness with 1400
participants, found that focused-breathing meditation can dampen the
relationship between transgressions and the desire to engage in
reparative prosocial behaviors. Poullin et al. (2021) found that mindfulness can increase the trait of selfishness.
The study, consisting of two interrelated parts and totaling 691
participants, found that a mindfulness induction, compared to a control
condition, led to decreased prosocial behavior. This effect was
moderated by self-construals such that people with relatively
independent self-construals became less prosocial while people with
relatively interdependent self-construals became more so. In the western
world where independent self-construals generally predominate (self
centric orientated) meditation may thus have potentially detrimental
effects.
These new findings about meditations socially problematic effects imply
that it can be contraindicated to use meditation as a tool to handle
acute personal conflicts or relational difficulties; in the words of
Andrew Hafenbrack, one of the authors of the study, "If we
'artificially' reduce our guilt by meditating it away, we may end up
with worse relationships, or even fewer relationships".
Carl Jung (1875–1961) was an early western explorer of eastern religious practices. He clearly advocated ways to increase the conscious awareness
of an individual. Yet he expressed some caution concerning a
westerner's direct immersion in eastern practices without some prior
appreciation of the differing spiritual and cultural contexts. Erich Fromm (1900–1980) later explored spiritual practices of the east.
Since the 1970s, clinical psychology and psychiatry have developed meditation techniques for numerous psychological conditions.
Mindfulness practice is employed in psychology to alleviate mental and
physical conditions, such as affecting the endocrine system therefore
reducing depression, and helping to alleviate stress, and anxiety. Mindfulness is also used as a form of interventional therapy in the treatment of addiction including drug addiction, although the quantity and quality of evidence based research has been poor.
The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states that "Meditation
and mindfulness practices may have a variety of health benefits and may
help people improve the quality of their lives. Recent studies have
investigated if meditation or mindfulness helps people manage anxiety,
stress, depression, pain, or symptoms related to withdrawal from
nicotine, alcohol, or opioids." However, the NCCIC goes on to caution that, "results from the studies have been difficult to analyze and may have been interpreted too optimistically."
A 2014 review found that practice of mindfulness meditation for two to six months by people undergoing long-term psychiatric or medical therapy could produce moderate improvements in pain management, anxiety, depression. In 2017, the American Heart Association issued a scientific statement that meditation may be a reasonable adjunct practice and intervention to help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, with the qualification that meditation needs to be better defined in higher-quality clinical research of these disorders.
Recent findings have also found evidence of meditation affecting
migraines in adults. Mindfulness meditation may allow for a decrease in
migraine episodes, and a drop in migraine medication usage.
Early low-quality and low- quantity evidence indicates that the mechanism of meditation may help with irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, cognitive decline in the elderly, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sitting in silence, body scan meditation and concentrating on breathing
was shown in a 2016 review to moderately decrease symptoms of PTSD and depression in war veterans and creating resilience to stresses in active service.
Researchers have found that participating in mindfulness meditation can
aid insomnia patients by improving sleep quality and total wake time. Mindfulness meditation is a supportive therapy that aides in the treatment for patients diagnosed with insomnia.
In the workplace
A 2010 review of the literature on spirituality and performance in organizations found an increase in corporate meditation programs.
As of 2016 around a quarter of U.S. employers were using stress reduction initiatives. The goal was to help reduce stress and improve reactions to stress. Aetna now offers its program to its customers. Google
also implements mindfulness, offering more than a dozen meditation
courses, with the most prominent one, "Search Inside Yourself", having
been implemented since 2007. General Mills
offers the Mindful Leadership Program Series, a course which uses a
combination of mindfulness meditation, yoga and dialogue with the
intention of developing the mind's capacity to pay attention.
Many military organizations around the world have found
meditation and mindfulness practice can support a range of benefits
related to combat, including support for mental health, mental clarity,
focus and stress control.
In school
A
review of 15 peer-reviewed studies of youth meditation in schools
indicated transcendental meditation a moderate effect on wellbeing and a
small effect on social competence. Insufficient research has been done
on the effect of meditation on academic achievement. Evidence has also shown possible improvement to stress, cognitive performance in school taught meditation.
Positive effects on emotion regulation, stress and anxiety can also be seen in students in university and nursing.
Relaxation response and biofeedback
Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School conducted a series of clinical tests on meditators from various disciplines, including the Transcendental Meditation technique and Tibetan Buddhism. In 1975, Benson published a book titled The Relaxation Response where he outlined his own version of meditation for relaxation.
Also in the 1970s, the American psychologist Patricia Carrington
developed a similar technique called Clinically Standardized Meditation
(CSM). In Norway, another sound-based method called Acem Meditation developed a psychology of meditation and has been the subject of several scientific studies.
Biofeedback has been used by many researchers since the 1950s in an effort to enter deeper states of mind.
