Kapaphatic Meditation: The Last Supper Or The Christmas Story

Another state of consciousness is meditation. Meditation is the focusing of ones attention to clear the mind and produce relaxation. There are three major approaches to meditation. The first approach is Transcendental meditation. Transcendental meditation involves the repetition of a mantra, usually a Sanskrit phrase. The participant sits with his or her eyes closed and meditate for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day. The second approach, mindfulness meditation, was developed from a Buddhist tradition. Mindfulness meditation focuses on the present moment. For example, the participant might move his or her focus throughout the body, from the tip of their toes to the top of their head, and paying very close attention to areas that cause pain. The third approach is breath meditation. Breath meditation is when a participant focuses his or her respiration-the process of inhaling and exhaling in a rhythmic pattern. Most people believe that proper breathing can help one self to be stress free. Researchers agree that most people can benefit from some sort of systematic relaxation

Meditation is very difficult to describe and can only truly be explained once experienced. It is the practice of mental concentration leading ultimately through a sequence of stages to the final goal of spiritual freedom, nirvana. The purpose of Buddhist meditation is to free ourselves from the delusion and thereby put an end to both ignorance and craving. The Buddhists describe the culminating trance-like state as transient; final Nirvana requires the insight of wisdom. The exercises that are meant to develop wisdom involve meditation on the true nature of reality or the conditioned and unconditioned elements that make up all phenomena. The goal of meditation is to develop a concept in the mind.

There were a few techniques that I found very interesting and that I plan on using. The first is deep breathing relaxation, first you find out what scripture is most comforting to the client so that they are able to exhale it during the exercise, in George’s case it was “Psalm 23, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’” (Garzon 2005. Pg. 116). The exercise involves the client inhaling deeply, holding to a count of five, and then while exhaling slowly they repeat

Let's start with music. While working with the meditation in silence can work, I find that it tends to work better with some gentle music in the background. I have a few rules I use when I'm selecting such

Meditation: Doesn’t have to take a lot of time. You can sit down and relax for a few minutes. You don’t need to attend classes you can enjoy it in the comfort of your own home. Even just focusing on your breathing or listening to relaxing music is

Some of the earliest confirmed written records found detailing meditation come from Vedantism, a hindu tradition at around 1500 BCE. The religous writers or "Vedas" talk about the ancient indian tradition of meditation. From this point in history forward, meditation is said to have spread through out China and India.

Buddhist meditation is very different from all other forms preached by other religions. To understand their meditation one must first learn about the Esoteric Buddhist beliefs and teachings. Esoteric Buddhism is a large sect that is also known as Shingon, which translates to true word, and Mikkyo Buddism. Esoteric Buddhism rose to popularity during the Tang dynasty. This rise was due to the rich liturgy that an esoteric buddhist had to study. It became popular amongst the intellectual who wanted to learn more about the teachings. Esoteric Buddhist also are required to meditate in order to advance in their spiritual progress. Esoteric Buddhism is based primarily on the

When I practice meditation I try to have a comfortable seat and a good posture. The most important feature of the posture is to keep my back straight. When I settled down comfortably on my meditation seat I begin by becoming aware of the thoughts and distractions that are arising in my mind. Then I gently turn attention to my breathing, letting its rhythm remain normal. Now I have a month of meditation behind and I'm very satisfied with the achieved success. I feel like a researcher who does not know what's going to come along and eager to see the final results, but is ready for serious work in order to reach these results. It takes just ten minutes per day to simply breathe and focus on your breath going in and out. Doing so I trained my mind to focus, reduce stress, and this helped me to be more present in the moment. Meditation helps us to be more effective in their daily lives by increasing our intellectual capacity, concentration, perception, memory, self-control, empathy, self-esteem, reduces

Next up is meditation, which defined is to engage in mental exercise for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness. There are many techniques when it comes to meditation. All methods share a common thread: they focus on a peaceful repetitive stimulus that is used to help one relax and or sleep. Some Studies have found that it helps some lower their blood pressure. Even though it is not scientifically proven, some claim that it helps them achieve a “Oneness with the universe”, pleasure, or some great

The Fifth Meditation opens with Descartes claiming that he can distinctly imagine extension, size, shape, position, and local motion, in relationship with duration. Thus, Descartes postulates that there are non-corporeal intangible geometrical objects that still exist, such as triangles. Since, triangles have a determinate essence dependent on Descartes mind, his knowledge of the nature of triangles is not dependent on the senses. Descartes can imagine shapes he has never seen but can still perceive their properties clearly and distinctly, thus properties must be true. Concludes that a triangle must carry all ascribed properties as the triangle exists as an idea in which he can clearly and distinctly perceive its properties. Even if the property

However, kapaphatic does a bit more, when Buddhist monks mediate doing their form of kataphatic meditation it does something different then in western kataphatic meditation when monks and nuns do theirs. In the Buddhist brain you see more of an activation in the anterior cingulate cortex in the limbic system specifically the amygdala causing a visual activation to happen in the cortex of the Buddhist while in the monks and nuns your see an activation in the left temporal lobe. The reason is when Buddhist mediate they focus more on images and picture. Rather than the monks and nuns who focus more on words causing more of an activation in the left temporal lobe then the Buddhist. This causes the increase of language and comprehension and emotion

Buddha was a big advocate of meditation. He became established as a teacher about 500 B.C. His ideas were stretched into various Asian countries and in other places people created different forms of meditation based on his teachings. In Islam the Sufi tradition of meditation was purported and the leaders (Sufis) think that when Mohamed began Islam that is when meditation started with that religion. Meditation is part of Christianity, Jainism, Judaism, and aboriginal religions.

Citing "advice from some of the world's leading meditation instructors," Lefkowitz provides a detailed and practical guide on the importance and method of meditation, "a tried and true way to calm your mind" (68). In fact, the article reads like a manual, complete with the question-answer style of a teacher instructing a class. The author does not treat the topic of meditation in a simplistic way, as if there were only one way to meditate for one type of person, but outlines several ways to meditate for people of different abilities and tastes. For example, Lefkowitz tellsmulti-taskers who find prolonged periods of concentration difficult to "find a practice style that's right for you" (68). These practice styles, including their goals and method, are the substance of this article, and include basic breathing meditation, mindfulness meditation, listening meditation, mantra meditation, and walking meditation (Lefkowitz 2010, 68-72). The goal for meditation in general is to focus on "one thing in order to deepen your awareness of the present moment" (68). Lefkowitz argues for the medical benefits of meditation, particularly that it can "boost the immune system, improve circulation, lower cholesterol, ease chronic pain, end insomnia, counter anxiety, relieve gastrointestinal distress and actually extend your lifespan" (68).

After a discussion about mindfulness, then explained that meditation is an exercise for the brain that increases the ability to be mindful. Baird explained that first you get in a comfortable position. It can be sitting in a chair, sitting on the floor, laying down (just be careful not to fall asleep), or even walking. During meditation an individual works to focus

- Quiet environment - if you are a beginner, meditation will be easier if you are in a quiet place, where no one and nothing will disturb, including off the TV, radio and mobile phone. As you become more adept at meditation, you can do that anywhere, especially in very stressful situations, where you meditation most used, for example, in a traffic jam, at a stressful business meeting or in a long line at the