Meditation and its types

Meditation is a practice of using certain methods or procedures that can cause the “trophotropic” condition in awake person. Although, there are many types of meditation, the presence of some stimulus or object, which the meditating person is focusing on, is common to all of its forms. Meditation techniques can therefore be classified according to the nature of the object of concentration. According to this criterion, there are four types of meditation.

Repetition in the mind.
In this case the object for concentration is some mental stimulus. A classic example of the mental facility to focus is the "mantra". Mantra is the word or phrase repeated over and over again, usually to oneself. Singing can also be included into this category. Mantra can be selected from a number of Sanskrit words. Herbert Bacon used the word "one" as a mantra for patients with hypertension. Repetition of poetic passages can also be considered a kind of mantra. Sometimes they use the text of folk songs as a mantra.

Repetition of physical action.
This object of concentration is related to focusing one's attention on any physical action. In ancient yoga (Hindu) way of meditation the attention is focused on recurring respiratory movements. Various forms of respiratory control of breaths and exhales counting (called pranayama) are the basis of one of the Hatha yoga forms. The public better knows another version of Hatha yoga that uses various postures (called Asanas). Some people use the East practice: round dances with repetitive movements. Ancient artists of the round dance are known as "dancing dervishes." Finally, the spread of jogging in the United States gave impetus to study this activity. One of the effects reported by some of these runners are experiences similar to meditative ones. The reason for this may be the regular breathing set during the jogging or monotonous sounds of feet touching the ground.

Focusing on the problem.
This object of concentration is an attempt to solve the problem including the paradoxical components. A classic example is dzen "koans”. In this case, one is given a paradoxical problem to solve. One of the most famous koan is: "How does the clap of one hand sound?

Visual concentration.
Here the object of concentration is the visual image. This may be a picture, candlelight, tree leaf, relaxing scene, or something else. "Mandala" is a geometric figure, a square inside a circle, symbolizing the unity of man and the universe. In eastern cultures, it is often used for visual concentration.