Home›Meditative Practices›All Meditative PracticesBrowse ByAll Meditative PracticesMeditation, contemplation and comparable disciplines of attention, one of the largest practice subcategories and among the most widely shared across otherwise unrelated traditions, though the goal a given tradition assigns to the practice, stillness, insight, union, absorption, varies considerably.FactsLearn MoreAll Meditative PracticesSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedDisciplines of sustained, trained attention - calm abiding, insight, recitation of a formula, visualisation, fixed gazing, contemplative reading and prayer. The English word covers techniques with incompatible aims: samatha and vipassana are distinguished within Buddhism itself, and lectio divina, Sufi muraqabah and Daoist internal alchemy are not one thing under different names. 2OriginsWhose Classification This IsWell-attestedThe modern comparative category owes much to twentieth-century Buddhist modernism, which recast meditation as a technique separable from monastic life and doctrine and presented it in that form to Western audiences; the Burmese insight movement from Ledi Sayadaw onward is the clearest case. 4StatusStanding as a Comparative CategoryWell-attestedUsed, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed 5DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedPractices 1Contested UseContested or Appropriated Modern UseWell-attestedSeveral of these disciplines now circulate detached from the traditions that transmit them - mindfulness as a secular clinical and corporate technique, yoga as exercise, meditation as a movement in its own right - and the detachment is itself contested by practitioners and by scholars. 3Learn MoreThe Meditative Practices This group holds meditative practices, the disciplines of stilling, focusing or training the mind, from breath awareness and mantra recitation to visualisation and contemplative absorption. Such practices are especially developed in the Indian and Buddhist traditions but appear across many religions. The browser will find meditative practices from various traditions. The entries describe each practice's technique, aim and lineage, noting how differently the traditions understand the goal of meditation.All Meditative PracticesFilter Results54 entriesOrigin Period Start YearAll-800 (1)-500 (4)-400 (5)-300 (2)600 (1)700 (5)850 (1)950 (1)1042 (1)1050 (4)1100 (1)1150 (1)1227 (1)1400 (1)1499 (1)1522 (1)1650 (1)1773 (1)1800 (1)1875 (1)1890 (1)1913 (1)1955 (1)1970 (1)1974 (1)1992 (1)Unesco StatusAllInscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2)Solitary or CommunalAllPerformed alone (26)Performed alone or together (23)Performed by a gathered group (1)Performed by an officiant for a recipient (4)TraditionAllBreslov Hasidism (1)Chabad-Lubavitch (1)Church of Cyprus (1)Church of Greece (1)Eastern Orthodoxy (2)Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (1)Georgian Orthodox Church (1)Greek Orthodox Church (1)Haredi Judaism (1)Quanzhen (Complete Reality) (2)Roman Catholicism (1)Romanian Orthodox Church (1)Russian Orthodox Church (1)Serbian Orthodox Church (1)Shaivism (2)Shaktism (1)Shangqing (Highest Clarity) (1)Soto (1)Sufism (3)Theravada (4)Tibetan Buddhism (7)Ukrainian Orthodox Church (1)Vajrayana (3)Zen (6)Category of PracticeAllDevotional (1)Meditative (15)Purificatory (3)Who Performs ItAllAll adherents of the tradition (29)Clergy or ordained officiants (1)Initiates only (16)Lay people (3)Monastics: monks and nuns (3)Trained or authorised specialists (2)Practice StatusAllLiving tradition, practised today (53)Scholarly StandingAllA standard analytic category in the study of religion (54)CadenceAllAs the occasion requires (4)Continuous: a standing discipline, not an event (4)Daily (16)Several times a day (1)ObligationAllObligatory (1)Optional and voluntary (2)Recommended and meritorious, not required (5)Undertaken only with authorisation or transmission (12)Holds ElementAllAir (1)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 54AnapanasatiMeditative PracticesAstral projectionMeditative PracticesBhastrikaMeditative PracticesBreathworkMeditative PracticesCentering prayerMeditative PracticesChinkonMeditative PracticesChodMeditative PracticesDeity yoga and visualizationMeditative PracticesDream Yoga (Milam)Meditative PracticesGrounding and CenteringMeditative PracticesHabs-i-Dam (Sufi Breath Practice)Meditative PracticesHesychasm (the Jesus Prayer)Meditative PracticesHitbodedutMeditative PracticesHitbonenutMeditative PracticesIgnatian contemplationMeditative PracticesInternal alchemy (neidan)Meditative PracticesKapalabhatiMeditative PracticesKinhin (walking meditation)Meditative PracticesKoan practiceMeditative PracticesKyerim and DzogrimMeditative PracticesLectio divinaMeditative PracticesLucid dreamingMeditative PracticesMeditationMeditative PracticesMetta-bhavana (loving-kindness meditation)Meditative PracticesMicrocosmic orbitMeditative PracticesMindfulnessMeditative PracticesMuraqabahMeditative PracticesNaam SimranMeditative PracticesNadi ShodhanaMeditative PracticesNoble SilenceMeditative PracticesPhowaMeditative PracticesRetreatMeditative PracticesSamatha (calm abiding)Meditative PracticesSamayikaMeditative PracticesShikantaza (just sitting)Meditative PracticesSix Yogas of NaropaMeditative PracticesSound bathMeditative PracticesStudy of KabbalahMeditative PracticesSungazingMeditative PracticesSusokukan (Zen Breath Counting)Meditative PracticesTai chi (Taijiquan)Meditative PracticesTaixi (Embryonic Breathing)Meditative PracticesTantraMeditative PracticesThe Five Falun Gong ExercisesMeditative PracticesTonglen (giving and taking)Meditative PracticesTranscendental MeditationMeditative PracticesTrataka (fixed gazing)Meditative PracticesTrekcho and TogalMeditative PracticesTummoMeditative PracticesUjjayiMeditative PracticesVipassana (insight meditation)Meditative PracticesYogaMeditative PracticesZazenMeditative PracticesZuowangMeditative PracticesSources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. Encyclopedia of Religiontier 1Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. MeditationView the Source3. Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religiontier 1Lola Williamson, New York University Press, 20104. The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadawtier 1Erik Braun, University of Chicago Press, 2013View the Source5. Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experiencetier 1Robert H. Sharf, Numen, 1995View the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.