Skip to main content

Prayer , Religious and Spiritual Meditation

Prayer Beads

Most of the ancient religions of the world have a tradition of using some type of prayer beads as tools in devotional meditation.Most prayer beads and Christian rosaries consist of pearls or beads linked together by a thread. The Roman Catholic rosary is a string of beads containing five sets with ten small beads. Each set of ten is separated by another bead. The Hindu japa mala has 108 beads (the figure 108 in itself having spiritual significance, as well as those used in Jainism and Buddhist prayer beads. Each bead is counted once as a person recites a mantra until the person has gone all the way around the mala.The Muslim misbaha has 99 beads. Specific meditations of each religion may be different.

Religious and Spiritual Meditation

According to Jainism

Meditation has been a core spiritual practice, one that Jains believe people have undertaken since the teaching of the Tirthankara, Rishabha. All the twenty-four Tirthankaras practiced deep meditation and attained enlightenment. They are all shown in meditative postures in the images or idols. Mahavira practiced deep meditation for twelve years and attained enlightenment. The Acaranga Sutra dating to 500 BCE, addresses the meditation system of Jainism in detail. Acharya Bhadrabahu of the 4th century BCE practiced deep Mahaprana meditation for twelve years.[61] Kundakunda of 1st century BCE, opened new dimensions of meditation in Jain tradition through his books Samayasāra , Pravachansar and others.The 8th century Jain philosopher Haribhadra also contributed to the development of Jain yoga through his Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya, which compares and analyzes various systems of yoga, including Hindu, Buddhist and Jain systems.
Jain meditation and spiritual practices system were referred to as salvation-path. It has three important parts called the Ratnatraya"Three Jewels": right perception and faith, right knowledge and right conduct. Meditation in Jainism aims at realizing the self, attaining salvation, take the soul to complete freedom.It aims to reach and to remain in the pure state of soul which is believed to be pure consciousness, beyond any attachment or aversion. The practitioner strives to be just a knower-seer (Gyata-Drashta). Jain meditation can be broadly categorized to Dharmya Dhyana and Shukla Dhyana.

According to Buddhism

Buddhist meditation refers to the meditative practices associated with the religion and philosophy of Buddhism. Core meditation techniques have been preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have proliferated and diversified through teacher-student transmissions. Buddhists pursue meditation as part of the path toward awakening and nirvana.The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are bhāvanā , dhyāna , and vipassana .
Buddhist meditation techniques have become increasingly popular in the wider world, with many non-Buddhists taking them up for a variety of reasons. There is considerable homogeneity across meditative practices – such as breath meditation and various recollections (anussati) – that are used across Buddhist schools, as well as significant diversity. In the Theravāda tradition alone, there are over fifty methods for developing mindfulness and forty for developing concentration, while in the Tibetan tradition there are thousands of visualization meditations. Most classical and contemporary Buddhist meditation guides are school-specific.











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Effects of Verbal Abuse On Women and Men

Have difficulty forming conclusions and making decisions Feel or accept that there is something wrong with them on a basic level (selfish, too sensitive, "crazy", etc.) Analyze and relive abusive experiences to see where they made mistakes Doubt their ability to communicate Experience self-doubt, low self-confidence, and lose spontaneity and/or enthusiasm.                      Long-Term Effects of Verbal Abuse A study of physical health consequences of physical and psychological abuse concludes: Verbal abuse is strongly associated with chronic pain, migraine and frequent headaches, stammering, ulcers, spastic colon, and frequent indigestion, diarrhea, or constipation along with many stress-related heart conditions. 2 The psychological effects of verbal abuse include: fear and anxiety, depression, stress and PTSD, intrusive memories, memory gap disorders, sleep or eating problems, hyper-vigilance and exaggerated s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Effects of Verbal Abuse

The effects of verbal abuse on children, women, and men follow the same general principle:  verbal abuse  causes people to feel fear. However, victims may deny or not recognize their anxiety and feelings of wanting to get away as fear of the abuser. When the victim feels kindness or love from the abuser, they know that it is short-lived and abuse will reoccur. Victims live in a constant state of hyper-awareness, watching for clues of impending abuse. Victims can't trust the smile of someone they love, and that is a very big deal. Effects of Verbal and Emotional Abuse The effects of verbal abuse and emotional abuse intertwine because  verbally abusive statements  play on the victim's emotions. For example, the simple statement, "You're just looking for a fight!" tells the victim what he's doing and thinking, accuses the victim of attacking the abuser, and diverts the topic to a new problem (avoiding a fight). 3 Emotionally, the victim feels misu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Traditional and Modern Meditation

Traditional Meditation In pre-modern and traditional  Hindu religions ,  Yoga  and  Dhyana  are done to realize union of one's eternal self or  soul , one's  ātman .  In some Hindu traditions, such as  Advaita Vedanta  this is equated with the omnipresent and  non-dua l   Brahman   . In others, such as the dualistic  the Yoga school  and  Samkhya , the Self is referred to as  Purusha , a pure consciousness which is separate from matter. Depending on the tradition, this liberative event is referred to as  moksha , vimukti or  kaivalya . The earliest clear references to meditation in  Hindu  literature are in the middle  Upanishads  and the  Mahabharata , the latter of which includes the  Bhagavad Gita . According to  Gavin Flood , the earlier  Brihadaranyaka Upanishad  refers to meditation when it states that "having become calm and c...
Post a Comment
Read more