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*This is a fairly deep dive into the history of discursive meditation. If you'd like to skip the history and get started, see the how-to page for complete instructions on the [posture and breathing of discursive meditation](/discursive-meditation-how-to) so you can get started in your own practice.*
There's a common misconception in the United States these days that meditation is something from another culture, something *exotic*. The exact meaning of "exotic" depends on speaker and listener, but the images conjured usually include dark robes, incense, and possibly some secret knowledge.
The premise is that meditation is something that arrived here recently, from non-Western cultures who had been doing it for centuries[^1]. This is patently false. And it's sad that we've completely lost our own wonderfully rich tradition of meditation to the point we think we never had it.
From what I can tell, nearly every culture on earth has something akin to discursive meditation.
There's a rich history of meditation running throughout western culture. It was once so common it was taught to school children, and clear up until WWI book stores would nearly always have meditation theme books available. These consisted of a quick intro to meditation and then some themes or topics to meditate on. They are the inspiration for this website.
Much of the rich history of meditation in the west takes place within a religious context, particularly Christian contemplation, which was a very common practice from medieval Europe onward. Given that the word "meditation" comes from Latin it seems safe to assume the history stretches back further than that. The Greeks did it. And there are more than a few Egyptian statues that depict a pose identical to what has been commonly used in discursive meditation more or less throughout its recorded history. Did the Pharoahs practice discursive meditation? Possibly? Probably?
I think part of the reason discursive meditation has been swept under the rug of history has to do with the religious context, which, as we pass through our culture's dogmatic materialist phase, is something that gets lumped under the heading "false ideas of the past."
That's too bad because first of all religion is a thing of tremendous value to most people (whatever their religion may be), and because discursive meditation need not be religious if you don't want it to be, particularly it need not be Christian.
Of course you needn't dive deep into the history of discursive meditation to practice it, but I think it's worth putting another definition of meditation out into the world. Not all meditation tries to empty the mind[^2].
The word meditation used to mean something roughly like "thinking deeply." In fact my favorite dictionary, the 1913 Webster's unabridged, almost defines the practice of discursive meditation in its definition of meditation:
> Meditation \Med`i*ta"tion\, n. [OE. meditacioun, F.
> m['e]ditation, fr. L. meditatio.]
> 1. The act of meditating; close or continued thought; the
> turning or revolving of a subject in the mind; serious
> contemplation; reflection; musing.
> 2. Thought; -- without regard to kind. [Obs.]
This describes almost precisely what the practice of discursive meditation entails, though in the opposite order. First you have "thoughts without regard to kind" (drawn from a pre-selected theme), then when one of those thoughts grabs you, you start on the "close or contined thought", turning a subject in the mind, reflecting, musing, studying it.
### Where Did It Go?
If discursive meditation used to be such a common part of western culture, and a central practice in the spiritual and philosophical lives of all kinds of people until the early part of the 20th century, what happened to it?
Well, on one hand, it is still around. I first came across it reading writer and Trappist Monk Thomas Merton. It's also a major part of several religions, as well as modern esotericism and occultism.
That said, those little pamphlets full of discursive meditation topics and courses aren't in every bookstore any more. In my experience they aren't even in the very fringe religious bookstores most of the time. So what did happen?
According to Druid and occultist John Michael Greer, most [Christian traditions abandoned their discursive meditation](https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/65232.html) "very early [in the] 20th century, when most denominations discarded their remaining methods of personal spiritual practice and embraced notions of spirituality that focused on collective salvation, either by sheer faith and nothing else (the fundamentalist approach) or by charitable works (the social gospel approach)."
This strikes me as highly likely, since if you aren't interested in personal growth, spiritual or otherwise, there's no reason to practice discursive meditation. And if no one is passing the tradition down to the next generation, it dies.
I also wonder how much the shift to consumptive entertainment was a factor here. While I can't really line up the history exactly, it strikes me as interesting at least that, as personal spiritual practice, and the notion of personal growth fade out of culture, it just so happens that entertainment explodes. Would we have had one without the other? It's impossible to say, but I would encourage you to meditate on it.
### Bring Back Discursive Meditation
I don't know if discursive meditation will catch on again, but I do know you can get all the benefits of it today whether anyone else does it or not. If you're curious, head on over the [discursive meditation instructions page](/discursive-meditation-how-to) and get started today.
[^1]: Like all good myths this has a kernel of truth -- so-called *mindfulness* meditation did arrive relatively recently, having been purloined from cultures that have been doing it (and other forms of meditation) for centuries.
[^2]: I'm not trying to imply there's one right form of meditation. There's anything wrong with other forms of meditation. That said, I would be cautious taking religious and cultural practices and stripping them of their (potentially very important) cultural and religious context. Kundalini Yoga is a good cautionary tale in what happens to eager westerners who play with things they don't (and can't) fully understand.
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