Meditation

Generally, meditation means to concentrate the mind on a single point of focus or to contemplate.  "Meditation involves putting something into the mind, either an image or a sacred word that is visualized or a concept that is thought about or reflected on, or both." Philip Kapleau The Three Pillars of Zen  The practice is endorsed by all major religions but to vastly different purposes.  And, it is the purpose to which meditation is applied which determines its character and validity.  As a spiritual exercise it is generally intended, in eastern religions,  to result in "satori" or a state of enlightenment with the hoped for result of deliverance from "samsara", or the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.  As a mental exercise, it's purpose is to achieve control of the intellect and, for some, the attainment of human potential.

Biblically, meditation is expressed as a mental and spiritual practice where the mind is focused on the attributes of God and on his written word.  The result of this meditation on the written word (the Bible) is peace and mental stability.  "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3  However, there is no saving merit in meditation, since no man merits God's salvation.  Meditation is reserved for Christian practice as a form of communion with God subsequent to the application of saving grace.  For the Christian, this is meditation in its highest form, it is the clear perception of reality as it is revealed in scripture--this is true enlightenment.  "In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."  John 1:4,5 Meditation with other, non-spiritual ends, may serve useful purposes in honing the ability of the mind to concentrate and to manipulate physical capability.  But, meditation in any of its various forms, cannot save the human soul from ultimate judgement.  

Zazen, the practice of zen Buddhist sitting, involves the attainment of "bare attention" which is a state of mind where the mind merely perceives.  "In what is seen there must be just the seen; in what is heard there must be just the heard; in what is sensed (as smell, taste or touch) there must be just what is sensed; in what is thought there must be just the thought." Philip Kapleau The Three Pillars of Zen  This "bare attention" is also to be applied throughout one's daily activities.  In martial practice, I can appreciate the value of this naked perception as one experiences "kuden" from the teacher.  In this way, the student is free to receive without preconception and free to perform technique and experience feeling without the interference of ego.  In the dojo, one of the greatest impediments to training is performing technique the way you think you see it, clouded by your own preconceptions and hampered by your own fears, instead of merely doing.  To simply "do" one must see clearly, in a sense "with the eyes of God."  That is, to perceive reality unclouded.