The results of public opinion polls conducted by Newsweek show that more and more Americans consider themselves to be spiritual, but not necessarily religious. In other words, they have given up on the faith their parents chose for them as children, yet are interested in spiritual issues and practices. Formal religion seems to them to be too limited, archaic, and not supportive of their spiritual experience.
Religions usually begin with some vital spiritual impulse - even remember the stories of Jesus, Mohammed or Buddha - but over the centuries they often lose their life's juices, like an old tree, and lose touch with their original spiritual essence. However, in each of the religions, the true spirituality from time to time comes to the surface in the form of an esoteric underwater current. Official religion can be very skeptical of such currents, or even condemn them, without interfering, however, with their development, as long as they do not pose a threat to the status quo. Thus, in Judaism there is a place for Kabbalists and Hasidim, in Islam - for Sufis, in Buddhism - for teachers of Zen Buddhism and forest monks, and in Christianity - for Franciscans and Carmelites.
If you want to understand the meaning of your existence and feel that you have something important to do, you need to consider your life in a broad metaphysical and historical context. Here you quite enough traditional, official religion. But if you want to find meaning in life and seek the inner transformation that can be achieved through meditation or some other spiritual discipline, then you'd better find something more suitable for you among the many esoteric underwater currents that exist within the framework of the main religious direction - or just follow some meditation practice that provides the opportunity for direct spiritual experience, but does not have a "propiska" in the traditional religion.
Meditation today
In the 1960s, a unique combination of several events created the conditions for the widespread dissemination of meditation. Many of the generation of baby boomers who were then adults began to experiment with altered states of mind. The Vietnam War provoked a sharply negative reaction among a large part of American society and contributed to the formation of a counter-culture against the current state of affairs. Popular music ignited a fire of discontent in young people and praised the virtues of "achieving harmony, living for your own pleasure and going into the world of dreams". And the political instability in Asia (caused, among other things, by the consequences of the Vietnam War and the capture of Tibet by China), combined with the trends of the new time, led to the emergence of another wave of spiritual teachers in the New World.
In terms of meditation, the Beatles' passion for Transcendental Meditation (TM) was a landmark event, leading to the meditation of thousands of young fans. (Over the years, the TM movement has become a meditation school for millions of Westerners and has led researchers to recognize that meditation is good for human spiritual and physical health.) Psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs have gradually lost their appeal to the younger generation, and young people have turned to the real world, with some of them taking refuge in yoga communities and zen centers created by new teachers.
Starting in the 1970s, local graduates of Eastern spiritual disciplines have been trained in the Western world, able to bring the basics of Eastern teachings to their brothers and sisters. As Alan Watts predicted in his book Psychotherapy East and West, the field of psychotherapy is particularly open to the influence of oriental teachings - perhaps because psychotherapy, like meditation, tries to alleviate human suffering.
At the same time, researchers such as Herbert Benson. Yon Kabat-Zinn and Dean Ornish have made a significant contribution to the popularization of meditation, and books on meditation and related topics regularly appear on the New York Times bestseller lists. Undoubtedly, meditation is beginning to enjoy great popularity among Americans!