Meditation is the process of maintaining attention for a longer period of time. This is a well known definition of meditation. But if we think and investigate deeply into the system and technique of meditation, we can find so much more to know about it. Meditation is an ancient wisdom, as ancient as the human intellect is origin from nature and come to the modern days of scientific mind. Oldest civilizations around the world, like Sind civilization, Mayan civilization, have sculptures resembling meditative postures. Meditation and its spiritual practice mentioned in Vedas and in Upanishads elaborately. Yoga sutras of Patanjali was written in between 2nd century BCE to 4th century CE by maharishi Patanjali, and the whole book is dedicated to the ultimate practice of yoga ; that is Dhyana (Meditation) and Samadhi (total absorption to self). Meditation is a medicine of stressful mind and exhausted body. It has two very different dimensions, one of it is religious and another is psychic. Patanjali defined meditation in the chapter three, second sutra as, “Tatra pratyayaikatanata dhyanam”. It translate as –That mental effort, or cognition, continuous flow dhyanam or meditation. The interpretation of the sutra could be –‘Dhyana is the state where this focus become unbroken, continuous, and uninterrupted flow of awareness’.
There are lot of ancient scriptures are dedicated to the formulation and description of meditation. It has a very important part in the research of psychology and mental illness where it described many times as mindfulness. In the consultation therapy of psychology and cognitive behavior therapy, meditation is an intervention process to observe the changes to the practitioners. Although meditation is an uniform activity of mental focus, but to achieve this skill of continuous attention, there are many varieties of technique in meditation practice and also many school of thought of the process of meditation. Matter and mind-which is the ultimate truth – this endless debate is also exist in the theory and practice of meditation. But undoubtedly, meditation is a universal accepted system of endeavor which can improve intelligence, calm down the mind, and bring the peace and joy of life.
