Ancient history of meditation

Womenscorner Desk
June 27, 2020

Much like pinning down how long meditation has been around for, pinpointing where exactly it originates is equally tricky.

The earliest written records come from Hindu traditions, in India, of Vendatism from around 1500 BCE. Vendatism is a school of philosophy and is one of the earliest known Indian paths for spiritual enlightenment. Other forms of meditation are then cited around the 6th and 5th centuries BCE within Taoist China and Buddhist India.

The precise origins are heavily debated, especially around Buddhist meditation (Wynne, 2007). Some early written accounts of the different states of meditation in Buddhism in India can be found in the sutras of the Pāli Canon, which dates back to the 1st century BCE. The Pāli Canon is a collection of scriptures from the Theravada Buddhist tradition.

Some evidence has also connected meditative practices with Judaism, thought to be inherited from its earlier traditions. The Torah (the first five books of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible) contains a description of the patriarch Isaac going to ‘lasuach’ in a field. This term is generally understood as being some form of meditation (Kaplan, 1985).

There are many others who were equally prominent in sharing and spreading the practice of meditation. Here are some -

The Buddha (India) : The Buddha, known by other names including Siddhārtha Gautama in Sanskrit or Siddhattha Gotama in Pali, was a prince who became a monk, sage, philosopher and religious leader. It is his teachings on which Buddhism was founded.

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Because of this, it might be easy to assume that the Buddha created or invented meditation but this is not true. Buddhism texts refer to many different practices of meditation and the Buddha sought out other enlightened teachers to learn the practice and ways of self-fulfillment from. Although he was instrumental in spreading the value of meditation as a practice, the Buddha himself did not invent it.

Lao-Tze (China) : Lao-Tze, also known by Lao-Tzu and Laozi, was an ancient Chinese philosopher whose name is essentially an honor title meaning ‘Old Teacher’ or ‘Old Master’.

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He is credited as the author of the Tao-te-Ching, a work of text that exemplifies his thoughts and teachings that founded the philosophical system of Taoism, which references meditative practices and the idea of wisdom in silence. There is much speculation as to whether Lao-Tze actually existed as a single man, or whether the name refers to a collection of individuals and philosophers who shared the same ideas.

Dosho (Japan) : Dosho was a Japanese monk who, in the 7th century, traveled to China and studied Buddhism under Hsuan Tsang, a great master at the time. It was during this journey that Dosho learned all about the process of Zen, which he then returned to Japan with.

When he returned, he opened his first meditation hall dedicated to the practice of Zazen, a sitting meditation. He created a community of monks and students with a primary focus on teaching this form of meditation in Japan.

Information Source : Google