John Michael Talbot has pointed out that “the word ‘meditation’ means somewhat different things to different traditions.” He then points out that what a Hindu or Buddhist means by the word meditation is different from what Christians traditionally meant by the word.
Traditionally, in Christianity, meditation has referred to discursive meditation. That means meditation has always referred to thinking about or pondering on something, whether a scripture or an attribute or work of God.
The mosern meaning of meditation is quite different. Wikipedia says it well, “Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, “discursive thinking”, achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.”
This detachment from discursive thinking has been referred to as recollection. St. Teresa calls this the prayer of recollection. And when one is recollected, they enter into the prayer of quiet. In Hesychasm this is called stillness, and the Jesus Prayer is used to achieve this.
But as much as we may complain, the Buddhist definition of meditation is the one that is usually best known today. This is because mindfulness meditation has been incorporated into psychotherapy.
At first, I thought I would buck the convention and go with the traditional meaning of meditation. But my second thought has been to go ahead and follow the modern understanding of meditation.
All that to say that from this point on, unless indicated otherwise, by meditation, I’ll be meaning a practice which trains attention and awareness to detach from reflexive, discursive thinking. In this, I’ll be following Benedictine Monk, John Main, who says that “meditation is in essence the art of concentration.”