User:Vale6674/meditation classifications sandbox

Meditation definitions and classifications produced by psychological researchers
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[ notes/questions marked with **]

Definitions
The main article lists some of the commonly used definitions. The listed definitions mention attention, with the exception of the one from Jevning et al. (1992), which describes the intended result. Defining meditation in terms of attention leaves out much that traditional approaches would include, but has the advantage of being measurable with current scientific methods (Fox & Cahn, forthcoming).

[** Can I use a review by a well-cited author if the review has not yet been published?]

A contemporary review says that "Meditation can be defined as a form of mental training that aims to improve an individual’s core psychological capacities, such as attentional and emotional self-regulation".

Difficulties
Meditation, with its many techniques and goals, can be hard to define. Still, a definition is a necessary step in studying something scientifically. The lack of agreement on a clear definition in terms of measurable items slows progress.

A meditation researcher who focuses on Zen, Austin, began his 1999 overview of the brain and Zen with a simple definition of meditation in general: "It becomes a way of not thinking, clearly, and then of carrying this clear awareness into everyday living." [italics original]. By 2006, he began his new effort with a Gide quote: "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." He is not alone in the struggle. Given the diversity of methods, it is no wonder that introductions to overviews of the field begin, year after year, with noting "the lack of a clear definition", or that "To grasp what meditation is has proven to be no easy task". Even current researchers continue to say "that it seems necessary, yet impossible, to properly define [meditation]." (Fox & Cahn, forthcoming as of 2018).

Sampling history: Definitions from different years
[** Add list or table of definitions pulled from highly cited texts and journal reviews]

1971

"All meditation is a _dwelling upon_ something" (italics original)

-- Naranjo, cited 419 times in Google Scholar as of September 4, 2018.

1982

"Using attentional mechanisms as the basis for the definition, we may state that _meditation refers to a family of techniques which have in common a conscious attempt to focus attention in a nonanalytical way and an attempt not to dwell on discursive, ruminating thought_" (italics original).

--   pg 6

--Shapiro, D. H., Jr., "Overview: Clinical and physiological comparison of meditation with other self-control strategies"  (in Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives), reprinted from 1982 journal publication -- American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 267-274 which was cited 258 times in Google Scholar

[** If a journal article is not freely available, but is reprinted in a book which can be previewed in Google Books, would it be better to cite the book?]

[** For articles reprinted in a book, add note on journal article's citation count.]

Classifications
dual and other

Sampling history: Classifications from different years
[** Google scholar is more accessible than pay-walled citation counts. Is that acceptable?

With Google Scholar a link can be included in the note so that the reader can check on current citation counts. ]

insert cites for:

Fox, K. C. R., & Cahn, B. Rael. (forthcoming as of 2018). Meditation and the brain in health and disease. In Farias, Brazier, & Lalljee (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Meditation. New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press.

Murphy, M., & Donovan, S. (1999). The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: A review of Contemporary Research with a Comprehensive Bibliography 1931 - 1996. Sausalito, CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences.

** Naranjo, C., & Ornstein, R. E. (1971). On the psychology of meditation. New York: Viking.

page 8:  "... the task of the meditator is essentially the same, as if the many forms of practice were nothing more than different occasions for the same basic exercise."

Shapiro, D. H., & Walsh, R. N. (1984). Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives. New York City, NY: Aldine.