Meditation. Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique-such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought or activity-to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.
Scholars have found meditation difficult to define, as practices vary both between traditions and within them. Meditation has been practiced since antiquity in numerous religious traditions, often as part of the path towards enlightenment and self realization.
Some of the earliest written records of meditation, come from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism. Since the 19th century, Asian meditative techniques have spread to other cultures where they have also found application in non-spiritual contexts, such as business and health.
Meditation may be used with the aim of reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and increasing peace, perception, self-concept, and well-being. Meditation is under research to define its possible health and other effects.
The English meditation is derived from Old French meditacioun, in turn from Latin meditatio from a verb meditari, meaning to think, contemplate, devise, ponder. The use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to the 12th century monk Guigo II. The term meditation in English may also refer to practices from Islamic Sufism, or other tradition