Varieties of definitions of meditation: approaches, challenges and perspectives

Abstract

One of the strengths of the scientific worldview is the ability to create research environments that constantly interact with each other, even belonging to different fields of knowledge. The concept of meditation is an example of how the attention of researchers from different scientific disciplines focuses on one topic, on one subject, but the approaches make different definitions. Although it is intuitively clear to many that meditation refers to certain mental practices that help a person to learn about himself and his capabilities, a closer look at the topic shows a rather complex situation with a clear definition. The article examines the main existing approaches to the concept of meditation and highlights the main ones: neuroscientific (A. Lutz, J. Dunne, R. Davidson), participatory (L. Komjaty, H. Roth, K. Matko, P. Sedlmeier), disciplinary (R. Walsh, S. Shapiro) and interdisciplinary (F. Varela, E. Thompson). A preliminary systematization of approaches to the definition of the concept of meditation has been carried out in view of the difficulties associated with the contexts, interpretations and requests of the modern world for contemplative practices. In the case of meditation, science demonstrates at the same time the problem of specialization, the tendency to reduce the studied phenomenon according to its own methodologies, to explain local cultural environments through the prism of post-colonial heritage. Humanities (philosophy, religious studies, psychology) whose methodology is more focused on people, human practices and the importance of subjective knowledge play a special role in this debate. One of the key areas where discussions about meditation take place in a philosophical way are contemplative studies, presented as a discipline and research program in a number of leading universities in the USA and Western Europe.