Home›Meditative Practices›Obligation›Undertaken only with authorisation or transmissionBrowse ByUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionThis page groups practices by whether they are a required duty or a voluntary devotion. Wikipedia notes that cultus "implies the necessity of active maintenance beyond passive adoration," a distinction between merely believing and actually being obliged to act. Browsing this way lets a visitor separate a commanded practice from one an adherent may take up or leave off freely.FactsLearn MoreUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionSourcesComments (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.Undertaken only with authorisation or transmissionFilter Results12 entriesOrigin Period Start YearAll400 (2)600 (1)700 (1)1050 (4)1100 (1)1150 (1)Solitary or CommunalAllPerformed alone (9)Performed alone or together (2)Performed by an officiant for a recipient (1)TraditionAllChurch of Cyprus (1)Church of Greece (1)Eastern Orthodoxy (1)Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (1)Georgian Orthodox Church (1)Greek Orthodox Church (1)Haredi Judaism (1)Quanzhen (Complete Reality) (1)Romanian Orthodox Church (1)Russian Orthodox Church (1)Serbian Orthodox Church (1)Shaivism (1)Shaktism (1)Tibetan Buddhism (5)Ukrainian Orthodox Church (1)Vajrayana (3)Category of PracticeAllMeditative (1)Who Performs ItAllInitiates only (11)Monastics: monks and nuns (1)Practice StatusAllLiving tradition, practised today (11)Scholarly StandingAllA standard analytic category in the study of religion (12)CadenceAllContinuous: a standing discipline, not an event (2)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 12ChodUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionDeity yoga and visualizationUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionDream Yoga (Milam)Undertaken only with authorisation or transmissionHesychasm (the Jesus Prayer)Undertaken only with authorisation or transmissionInternal alchemy (neidan)Undertaken only with authorisation or transmissionKyerim and DzogrimUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionPhowaUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionSix Yogas of NaropaUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionStudy of KabbalahUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionTantraUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionTrekcho and TogalUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionTummoUndertaken only with authorisation or transmissionSources1. 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.