Publish at February 28 2024 Updated February 28 2024
"Meditation gives birth to perseverance, and perseverance results in perception, and what is accomplished with perception cannot be easily extirpated."
Saint Teresa of Avila
Meditation is well known to the Western Christian religious world, for example through the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Meditation, originally from Asia, was introduced to the West in the 18th century by the missionary Jean Joseph Surin. At the time, there was little interest in its practice. The story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, was perceived as an exotic religious tradition whose notions of mindfulness and spiritual awakening were foreign to the times.
It was probably in the 1950s and 1960s (Garnoussi, 2011) that meditation gained popularity in the West, thanks to Zen Buddhism. Intellectuals such as Carl Jung and Alan Watts were influenced by Zen master D.T. Suzuki and helped popularize meditation.
In the 1960s, meditation became a key element of the counter-culture movement. The Beatles popularized transcendental meditation after meeting Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In the 1970s, meditation continued to gain popularity thanks to Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa, who founded the Naropa Institute, the first higher education institution to offer meditation programs in the West.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, played a major role in popularizing mindfulness in the West. He founded the Village des Pruniers community in France, which has become a major center for the study and practice of mindfulness. The Dalai Lama, as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, has greatly contributed to the spread of meditation in Europe through his teachings and writings.
Several personal development currents have contributed to the popularization of Asian meditation practices in the West. Here are just a few of them:
Meditation began to be used in vocational training in Europe during the 20th century, but it is difficult to pinpoint a precise date. However, we do know that interest in meditation has grown significantly in recent decades with the appeal of alternative medicine.
For example, in 2012, rheumatologist Jean-Gérard Bloch created the first university diploma (DU) in "Meditation and neuroscience", at the Strasbourg Faculty of Medicine . Most university hospitals in France now offer mindfulness-based treatments. It's also worth noting that the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine has created one of the first university meditation diplomas in France, entitled "Meditation and Health" .
Somewhere between a health practice and a quest for spiritual well-being, meditation is becoming an integral part of collective intelligence facilitation practices, helping to make group exchanges and communications more fluid. In the world of education, however, it remains suspect of aberrations and subject to debate...
Illustration: SergeyNivens - DepositPhotos
Sources
en.wikipedia.org Mathieu Ricard https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthieu_Ricard
The Art of Meditation - Why meditate? on what? how? - Matthieu Ricard
https:// www.decitre.fr/livres/l-art-de-la-meditation-9782841113958.html
Mindfulness meditation, according to Kabat-Zinn - Le point.fr https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/texte-commente-jon-kabat-zinn-et-la-pleine-conscience-19-01-2016-2011193_23.php
Metapsychie Meditation for beginners complete guide
https://metapsychie.com/meditation-pour-debutant-guide-complet/
Wikipedia Mindfulness https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleine_conscience
Garnoussi, N. (2011). Mindfulness or meditation for healing and personal growth: psychospiritual bricolages in mental medicine. Sociologie, 2, 259-275. https://doi.org/10.3917/socio.023.0259
Weiss, A. & Berghmans, C. (2021). Engagement in a therapeutic meditation practice: the key role of spirituality as a compliance factor. Hegel, 1, 29-36. https://doi.org/10.3917/heg.111.0029
André, C. (2018). Meditation, medicine and neuroscience. Studies, , 49-60. https://doi.org/10.3917/etu.4255.0049
Faculty of Medicine, University of Montpellier. The benefits of meditation
https://facmedecine.umontpellier.fr/2020/communication/meditation-sante-3-bienfaits-de-la-meditation/
La dépêche. Matthieu Ricard, monk of happiness and meditation scientist https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2012/10/30/1478205-matthieu-ricard-moine-du-bonheur-et-scientifique-de-la-meditation.html
Wikipedia Mathieu Ricard https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthieu_Ricard
The art of meditation - Matthieu Ricard - https://www.decitre.fr/livres/l-art-de-la-meditation-9782841113958.html
Garnoussi, N. (2011). Mindfulness or meditation for healing and personal growth: psychospiritual bricolages in mental medicine. Sociologie, 2, 259-275. https://doi.org/10.3917/socio.023.0259
Slate. Does mindfulness meditation have a place in school https://www.slate.fr/story/234232/meditation-ecole-pleine-conscience-debat-pour-contre-danger-enfant-apprentissage
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