Christian meditation. Contemplative prayer
The Christian equivalent of meditation, known as prayer, dates back to Jesus himself, who fasted and prayed in the desert for forty days and nights. Since times of Jesus, the first great Christian meditators were the desert fathers living in Egypt and Palestine in III-I centuries. Their direct spiritual heirs-monks, nuns and mystics of medieval Europe have developed a contemplative practice of repetition of any text from the sacred scripture and meditation over this text until the consciousness will not be available deep sense of this text.
The monks of the Orthodox Church also practiced something similar. Their practice combined deep, earthly bowing and repetition of the appeal to Jesus ("Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, sinful").
Meditation in Judaism: Closer to God
According to Rami Shapiro, rabbi of the Beth Up Temple in Miami, Wash. Florida, and the author of Wisdom of the Jewish Sage, mystical interpreters of the Bible found evidence of meditation dating back to the time of the prophet Abraham, the founder of Judaism. The Old Testament prophets were undoubtedly familiar with the altered states of consciousness they achieved through severe fasting and ascetic living.
However, Shapiro argues that the first formal Jewish meditation focused on the Hebrew alphabet, which was considered the sacred language through which God created the world. If you could comprehend the alphabet," explains Shapiro, "you would be able to understand the source of creation and merge with the Creator of all things.
Like meditators in all religions with one God at their center, Jewish meditators have traditionally used sacred phrases or scripture verses as mantras to get closer to God. One great Hasidic teacher argued that by constantly repeating the R'bono phrase, Olam ("teacher of all things") could be united with God. This is the unity with God that Jewish meditation intends to achieve.
Like Christianity, in recent years Judaism has been strongly influenced by Eastern influences, leading to the revival of its own meditation traditions. Rabbis like Rami Shapiro (who practises Zen meditation) and David Cooper (who studied Buddhist meditation) are creators of the Jewish "meditation renaissance", creating before our eyes a new synthesis of ancient methods borrowed from Eastern and Western traditions.
Sufi Meditation: Subordination to the divine
Since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, who lived in the 7th century A.D., Sufis have been carriers of the Islamic religion. But according to Shabda Kanu, a Sufi teacher of American descent, Sufis have much deeper roots that go back to times farther away from us than those of the prophet Muhammad, Buddha or other famous teachers of the past - they date back to the times of the first awakened man. Sufis claim to be a brotherhood of mystical seekers whose sole purpose is to comprehend the divine in their own souls. The forms of Sufism have changed over time and depending on the geographical region. At the same time, the basis of their teaching remained unchanged: there is nothing but God.
Meditation in Sufism usually takes the form of pronunciation of a sacred phrase (mental pronunciation is allowed). Breathe deeply and rhythmically. This method is called zikr, i.e. "the memory of the divine". Shabda Kan explains that Sufis interpret the famous biblical statement "Blessed are the poor in spirit" as "Blessed are those who have improved their breath".
The contemplation of the stars
In his book Jewish Meditation, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan describes the traditional method based on the biblical verse: "Behold your eyes to heaven and see the One who created these [stars], the One who created the unimaginable number of them, and the One who named each of them..." (Isaiah 40:26).
1. On a clear, cloudless night, sit comfortably on your balcony or in the courtyard of your house and raise your eyes to heaven.
2. 2 When repeating a mantra, focus on the stars as if you were studying them, trying to solve the mystery behind their serene, silent shimmering.
You can take advantage of R'bono's traditional Jewish mantra of walking the odam, which will help you to increase your concentration and evoke a sense of divine in yourself. (However, you can use any mantra you like,) Rabbi Arieu Kaplan says, "You are crying out to God, who is hiding in the distant heavens, trying to see his face behind the most distant constellations, where the laws of time and space no longer apply.
3 Stay immersed in the contemplation of the stars as long as you wish.