isbell@marvin.DEC (Chris Isbell ) (05/03/84)
[] Extract from "Buddhist Meditation" by Dr. Irmgard Schloegl. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Meditation is not a technique for becoming healthy or wealthy, not is it a kind of super sausage-machine which, when a bag of mixed ingredients is put in at one end, will automatically deliver a desired end-product. In fact, there is nothing mechanical about meditation. But the word has acquired so many connotations that we are in danger of forgetting its true purpose and place. Meditation is a religious exercise, or a series of religious exercises geared to the context of the doctrinal formulation of the religion to which they belong. Thus all the developed or major religions have their specific meditations. And the purpose of meditation is to help the serious and devout trainee to gain insight into (or make alive for him) the teachings of his religion. In its furthest reaches meditation opens into religious insight per se, a quality the pertains to the human heart rather than me, and in which all religious formulations are reverently perceived as but so many cloaks to render perceptible what is imperceptible and ineffable. It is in that that the developed religions unmistakably differ from short-lived but fashionable cults and trends. And because of this quality of insight, it has been said that when the theoreticians meet, there is great argument - but when the practicers/mystics meet, they nod in agreement! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chris Isbell. (...decvax!decwrl!rhea!marvin!isbell)
crm@duke.UUCP (Charles R. Martin) (05/04/84)
This is an interesting article... An interesting thing to note about meditation is that, while it is not a "sausage machine", it IS a repeatable phenomenon. If someone carefully follows the meditation instructions given by practically *any* reliable teacher, they will see an effect, usually in about two weeks. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's "Orange Book" is a collection of many many traditional meditations, all of which have much the same sorts of effects after practice. In addition, most non-Eastern religions have also had some meditative practice in their background. (Cf. the "Cloud of Unknowing" or the "kyrie eleison" practice of Christianity. In fact, it seems to be so repeatable, I'm surprized religious people get invloved with it at all... no faith involved... (mutter mumble)