Noun

Singular meditation

Plural countable and uncountable; plural meditations

meditation (countable and uncountable; plural meditations)

1. A devotional exercise of, or leading to contemplation
2. A contemplative discourse, often on a religious or philosophical subject.

Related terms

• meditate
• meditative
• meditativeness
• premeditation

Danish

Meditation is used here as a broad term for practices done by a sole practitioner without much, if any, external aid, often for the purpose of self-transformation. Often, though not at all necessarily, meditation is done as part of a religious tradition.

Practices founded in spirituality and religion

There are many specific ways of meditating; even in a specific religious tradition there are lots of different ways of meditating. Some have also pointed to similarities between the various ways of meditating.

Bahá'í Faith

The Bahá'í Faith teaches that meditation is necessary for spiritual growth, alongside obligatory prayer and fasting. `Abdu'l-Bahá is quoted as saying:

"Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries to your mind. In that state man abstracts himself: in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves."

Although the founder of the Faith, Bahá'u'lláh, never specified any particular forms of meditation, some Bahá'í practices are meditative. One of these is the daily repetition of the Arabic phrase Alláhu Abhá (Arabic: الله ابهى‎) (God is Most Glorious) 95 times preceded by ablutions. Abhá has the same root as Bahá' (Arabic: بهاء "splendor" or "glory") which Bahá'ís consider to be the "Greatest Name of God".

Contents

• 1 Meditation
  • 1.1 Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
• 2 Unsourced
• 3 External links

Meditation

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• Meditation is the soul's perspective glass, whereby, in her long remove, she discerneth God, as if He were nearer at hand.
  • Owen Feltham, p. 406.

• Profound meditation in solitude and silence frequently exalts the mind above its natural tone, fires the imagination, and produces the most refined and sublime conceptions. The soul then tastes the purest and most refined delight, and almost loses the idea of existence in the intellectual pleasure it receives. The mind on every motion darts through space into eternity; and raised, in its free enjoyment of its powers by its own enthusiasm, strengthens itself in the habitude of contemplating the noblest subjects, and of adopting the most heroic pursuits.
  • John G. Zimmerman, p. 406.

• It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most on Divine truth, that will prove the choicest, wisest, strongest Christian.
  • Bishop Joseph Hall, p. 406.

• For with all our pretension to enlightenment, are we not now a talking, desultory, rather than a meditative generation?
  • John Campbell Shairp, p. 406.

• It is an excellent sign, that after the cares and labors of the day, you can return to your pious exercises and meditations with undiminished attention.
  • Hannah More, p. 406.

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Thu Oct 22 04:18:07 2009