Similar conclusions have been reached by Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, who have studied the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation on stress and outlook.
Followers of the Sikh religion also believe that love comes through meditation on the lord's name since meditation only conjures up positive emotions in oneself which are portrayed through our actions.
Several forms of meditation have developed in Hinduism, which are closely associated with the practice of Yoga as a means to both physiological and spiritual mastery.
One major advance has been in the acknowledgment of meditation as an effective technique for modifying mental states, improving outlook, regulating autonomic bodily processes, and managing pain.
Meditation is the road to enlightenment.- Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.
Many Daoist martial arts are thought of as "moving meditations," such that the practical ideal is "stillness in movement."
The Bahб'н Faith teaches that meditation is necessary component of spiritual growth, when practiced alongside obligatory prayer and fasting.
The Muslim prophet Muhammad, whose deeds provide a moral example for devout Muslims, spent long periods in meditation and contemplation.
Similarly, there are indications throughout the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) that meditation was central to the prophets.
Sufi meditation captures time by drawing eternity from its edges in pre- and post-existence into the moment of mystical experience.
To this end, most forms of Buddhism distinguish between two classes of meditation practices, shamatha and vipassana, both of which were thought to be necessary for attaining enlightenment.
Given these findings, meditation has entered the mainstream of health care as a method of stress management and pain reduction.
Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world that professes meditation as a spiritual and religious practice.
New Age meditations are often ostensibly grounded in Eastern philosophy and mysticism such as Yoga, Hinduism and Buddhism, though they are typically equally influenced by the social mores and material affluence of Western culture.
Raja Yoga as outlined by Patanjali, which describes eight "limbs" of spiritual practices, half of which might be classified as meditation.
The centrality of meditation can be tied to the tradition's founding myth, which describes the historical Buddha attaining enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree.
Concentration meditation, on the other hand, requires the participant to hold attention on a particular object (e.g., a repetitive prayer) while minimizing distractions; bringing the mind back to concentrate on the chosen object.
The popularity of meditation in the mainstream West is largely attributable to the hippie-counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, when many of the day's youth rebelled against traditional belief systems.
Kabbalistic meditation is often a deeply visionary process, based on the envisioning of various significant cosmic phenomena (including the emanations of G-d (Sefirot), the ultimate Unity (Ein Sof), and the Divine Chariot (Merkabah)).
Archaeologists have discovered carved images of figures who appear to be practicing meditation at ancient Indian archaeological sites.
Similarly, there are indications throughout the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) that meditation was central to the prophets.
More specifically, the practices recommended in the Philokalia, which stress prayer/meditation as an "attitude of the heart," are more stereotypically meditative, as they involve acquiring an inner stillness and ignoring the physical senses.