Home›Subcategories›Meditative PracticesSubcategoriesMeditative Practices54 of 330 entries in Practices. Click any to see everything it connects to.Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Meditative Practices." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/subcategories/practice/meditative-practices.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Meditative Practices. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/subcategories/practice/meditative-practicesCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-meditative-practices, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Meditative Practices}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/subcategories/practice/meditative-practices}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXMeditation, contemplation and comparable disciplines of attention, one of the largest practice subcategories and among the most widely shared across otherwise unrelated traditions, though the goal a given tradition assigns to the practice, stillness, insight, union, absorption, varies considerably.FactsLearn MoreSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedDisciplines of sustained, trained attention - calm abiding, insight, recitation of a formula, visualisation, fixed gazing, contemplative reading and prayer. The English word covers techniques with incompatible aims: samatha and vipassana are distinguished within Buddhism itself, and lectio divina, Sufi muraqabah and Daoist internal alchemy are not one thing under different names. 2Contested UseContested or Appropriated Modern UseWell-attestedSeveral of these disciplines now circulate detached from the traditions that transmit them - mindfulness as a secular clinical and corporate technique, yoga as exercise, meditation as a movement in its own right - and the detachment is itself contested by practitioners and by scholars. 3StatusStanding as a Comparative CategoryWell-attestedUsed, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed 5DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedPractices 1OriginsWhose Classification This IsWell-attestedThe modern comparative category owes much to twentieth-century Buddhist modernism, which recast meditation as a technique separable from monastic life and doctrine and presented it in that form to Western audiences; the Burmese insight movement from Ledi Sayadaw onward is the clearest case. 4BrowseCompareSelect all 54AnapanasatiMeditative Practices2 linksAstral projectionMeditative Practices2 linksBhastrikaMeditative Practices2 linksBreathworkMeditative Practices6 linksCentering prayerMeditative Practices2 linksChinkonMeditative Practices1 linkChodMeditative Practices2 linksDeity yoga and visualizationMeditative Practices2 linksDream Yoga (Milam)Meditative Practices4 linksGrounding and CenteringMeditative Practices1 linkHabs-i-Dam (Sufi Breath Practice)Meditative Practices5 linksHesychasm (the Jesus Prayer)Meditative Practices12 linksHitbodedutMeditative Practices3 linksHitbonenutMeditative Practices2 linksIgnatian contemplationMeditative Practices1 linkInternal alchemy (neidan)Meditative Practices3 linksKapalabhatiMeditative Practices2 linksKinhin (walking meditation)Meditative Practices2 linksKoan practiceMeditative Practices2 linksKyerim and DzogrimMeditative Practices3 linksLectio divinaMeditative Practices2 linksLucid dreamingMeditative Practices3 linksMeditationMeditative Practices11 linksMetta-bhavana (loving-kindness meditation)Meditative Practices1 linkMicrocosmic orbitMeditative Practices1 linkMindfulnessMeditative Practices3 linksMuraqabahMeditative Practices10 linksNaam SimranMeditative Practices2 linksNadi ShodhanaMeditative Practices2 linksNoble SilenceMeditative Practices1 linkPhowaMeditative Practices4 linksSamatha (calm abiding)Meditative Practices2 linksSamayikaMeditative Practices1 linkShikantaza (just sitting)Meditative Practices1 linkSix Yogas of NaropaMeditative Practices5 linksSound bathMeditative Practices1 linkStudy of KabbalahMeditative Practices5 linksSungazingMeditative Practices2 linksSusokukan (Zen Breath Counting)Meditative Practices3 linksTai chi (Taijiquan)Meditative Practices4 linksTaixi (Embryonic Breathing)Meditative Practices2 linksTantraMeditative Practices7 linksThe Five Falun Gong ExercisesMeditative Practices2 linksTonglen (giving and taking)Meditative Practices1 linkTranscendental MeditationMeditative Practices1 linkTrataka (fixed gazing)Meditative Practices1 linkTrekcho and TogalMeditative Practices2 linksTummoMeditative Practices3 linksUjjayiMeditative Practices2 linksVipassana (insight meditation)Meditative Practices1 linkYogaMeditative Practices5 linksZazenMeditative Practices4 linksZuowangMeditative Practices2 linksRetreatMeditative Practices3 linksLearn MoreThe Meditative Practices This group holds meditative practices, the disciplines of stilling, focusing or training the mind, from breath awareness and mantra recitation to visualisation and contemplative absorption. Such practices are especially developed in the Indian and Buddhist traditions but appear across many religions. The browser will find meditative practices from various traditions. The entries describe each practice's technique, aim and lineage, noting how differently the traditions understand the goal of meditation.Sources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. Encyclopedia of Religiontier 1Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. MeditationView the Source3. Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religiontier 1Lola Williamson, New York University Press, 20104. The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadawtier 1Erik Braun, University of Chicago Press, 2013View the Source5. Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experiencetier 1Robert H. Sharf, Numen, 1995View the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year