Bill: > The key word here is therapy... > All meditation is 'therapy' - yoga (meditation) is the original 'self-help' program.
Some informants here are fond of making simple things, complicated, and even some topics, seem like 'secret' teachings, techniques only they know anything about. Go figure. Simply put, the spiritual path is the freeing of the individual from suffering. The question is, is man bound or free? If he is free, there is no need for a therapy. If, bound, by what means can he free himself? Yoga (meditation mind fullness) is that technique! > ...it is not meditation nor is the purpose of > the two practices similar. > Meditation simply means 'to think something over'. In that sense, 'mindfullness' and 'meditation' are the same thing. Meditation is based on thinking and there is hardly a person on the planet that doesn't think. Mindfullness is simply thinking about things in a particular way. Everyone is 'meditating' and almost everyone is practicing 'mindfullness' to a certain extent' - we all pause at least once or twice a day to take stock of our own mental contents. And, everyone is transcending all the time, even without a technique or a therapy! The historical Buddha practiced and taught meditation minfullness. Shakya the Muni was the first historical yogin in India. Apparently the Shakya got enlightened when he learned to relax and sit down to meditate. "Once when his father was performing a ritual plowing ceremony, the boy, effortlessly and without any training, became absorbed in a deep meditative state, which would later be called the First Meditation (dhyana)..." Work cited: 'The life of Buddha' By Edward J. Thomas Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969 Definition of meditation: med·i·ta·tion noun 1. the act of meditating. 2. continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation. 3. transcendental meditation. 4. devout religious contemplation or spiritual introspection. Origin: 11751225; < L medita-tio-n- (s. of medita-tio-) a thinking over Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meditation
