meditation
Pluralmeditations (some meanings)
- 1The practice of reaching an altered state of consciousness through relaxed or focused mental or physical activity, such as emptying the mind or dwelling at length on a single sensation or thought.
After ten minutes of meditation, her racing thoughts finally settled.
He attends a weeklong meditation retreat in the mountains every summer.
Note
A sense defined by the state of mind it reaches, not by any object of devotion. Two limits mark its edges: the activity is not strenuous, and no substance is used to get there, which sets it apart from drug-induced trance. Where the devotional exercise is directed toward the sacred, this sense can be wholly secular. It also works readily as a modifier: a meditation retreat, a meditation class.
- 2Careful and thorough thought; the sustained, deliberate consideration of a question or subject.
Only after long meditation did the committee announce its decision.
Her conclusion was the product of months of meditation on the evidence.
Similarthought, reflection, contemplation, deliberation, pondering
Note
The sense closest to the word's origin: Latin meditari meant "to think over, consider," from a root meaning "to measure, limit, consider, advise." It keeps company with depth and absorption, as in deep meditation, in meditation and lost in meditation. It usually names thinking that leads toward a decision, which is how it differs from the mind-calming practice, where the stillness is pursued for its own sake.
- 3A devotional exercise of contemplation, or one intended to lead the practitioner toward contemplation.
Before taking vows, the novice spent forty days in prayer and meditation.
The retreat alternates scripture reading with periods of silent meditation.
Similarcontemplation, reflection
- 4A written or spoken discourse of a contemplative character, often on a religious or philosophical subject.
His latest book is a meditation on grief and memory.
The service closed with a brief meditation delivered by the chaplain.
Similarreflection, musing, essay
Note
Here the word names a piece of writing or speech, so it is countable: a meditation, usually followed by on and its subject. The frame "less an X than a meditation on Y" is a common way to say that a work has outgrown its genre, as when a cookbook becomes a reflection on the craft of cookery. The subject is often religious or philosophical, but it can just as well be worldly.
- 5A musical theme or composition treated in a slow, reflective, meditative manner.
The orchestra's encore was a meditation for solo violin and harp.
The composer inserted a brief meditation between the symphony's stormy movements.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Old French meditacion, from Latin meditatio, based on meditārī ("to meditate, think over, consider"), which itself traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to measure, consider, advise."