Quote:
Carsten Möllering wrote:
Yes.
As far as I know the connection of the word "meditatio" to the practice of e.g. za zen and other comparable practices stems from Christians who found the practices they experienced in China or Japan to be similiar to their own spiritual practice that was called "meditatio".
So when they integrated them they were also labeled "meditatio".
It were those christians who brought spiritual practices like za zen to Europe as part of their own christian meditatio long before those practices started their own, independent history in the west.
I think it is important not to narrow the understanding of what meditation means in the context of aikidō too much.
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Yes.
I would like to add, that in my view (like in the practice of aikido where you may prefer tenkan or irimi, flight or fight ) there exist two main streams of meditation. One is to avoid (usually the perceived negatives of) the world. The other is to strengthen yourself to get enabled to accept what lies before you. Both of them can lead you in the long term to throw away seeking and longing (and meditation) and accept and see things as they are. Nothing has changed but, may be, your view of everything has. May be, you have found your inner freedom. You will die anyway. But, may be, you will live up to then another life.
And I'd like to add, that I don't see why a purely humanistic logic approach, without the usual meditation practices, couldn't lead one to equal results.
Best,
Bernd