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I have never encountered a form of meditation that wasn’t heavily inspired by a religious context, most often Vedic traditions or Buddhism. Can you give an exam

• JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  Our earliest written records mention meditation within religious contexts. Both predate history. All modern organised practices of meditation derive from religious sources, but organised practices of meditation is a subset of meditation—mindfully training attention and awareness to achieve “a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state” [1]. (Seen another way: almost all our historical sources about medicine mention it in a religious context. That doesn’t mean medicine comes from religion.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
  • bowsamic 3y ago
    This contradicts your singing example, since not all singing derives from religious sources, so why bring it up? You are making the same point as me right now: all modern meditation comes from religious sources
    • JumpCrisscross 3y ago
      > not all singing derives from religious sources If you look for the oldest written songs, they’re invariably religious. The evidence used to establish meditation as religiously derived is sufficient to prove the same for song. In fact, with the evidence at hand, I could just as easily argue that all religion derives from meditation. Secularly speaking, that is a simpler hypothesis than the inverse. > all modern meditation comes from religious sources I said modern organised practices of meditation come from religious sources. That caveat is as big as the difference between organised religion and sprituality, generally.