The practice of meditation encompasses a range of techniques that can be used by individuals to cause their mind to experience a different level of consciousness. Meditation can be focused on many different goals, including self-regulation, religious experience, building internal energy sources, and relaxation. Typically, meditation is a practice that involves training the mind to engage in a particular habit of reflections. In some traditions, meditation involves attempting to separate the mind from the other experience of the body, whereas others emphasize a physical element of meditation by encouraging repetitive action or vocalizations.
Many religious traditions developed practices taht were intended to move the individual beyond the experience of the immediate self, and all of these can be considered forms of meditation. The earliest recommendations for the use of meditation can be found in the vedas, the oldest sriptures of Hinduism, produced in India between c.1500 and c.500 BCE, and in ancient Buddhist texts, which promote meditation as essential for a path to enlightenment. In Tibetan Buddhism, meditation is both a path toward inner reflection to know onself better and a path ultimately to move beyond the limits of the self.
In several traditions, meditation is intended to have a claiming effect on the mind, which is why the term is often used nowadays to refer to a range of quite relaxation techniques that do not necessarily have religious meaning. Even in the modern world, the idea of meditation usually means more than just relaxation, however. Communication with a reality that goes beyond the typically limited experience of conciousness requires that conciousness be transformed in some way. Thus, most religious include a form of prayer that can be considered a kind of meditation.
"Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awarness"
Swami Sivananda, Hindu spiritual teacher
