Movement Meditation

Q: I read a lot about t'ai-chi, yoga, and chi-kung. Are all movement meditation practices Eastern? Are there any that are Judeo-Christian or Islamic?

A: I'd like to give you a definitive yes or no, but the answer to both questions is not so simple. The practices you mention have come to represent the sine qua non of movement meditation. At first glance, there doesn't appear to be anything equivalent in the Abrahamic religions. I know of no standard Christian, Jewish, or Islamic movement meditations that truly resemble the Eastern versions in either style or content.

At second glance, there might be such disciplines in the West and Middle East after all. It depends on how we define the term "movement meditation." Consider that until we Westerners became interested in Eastern forms of meditation, we generally did not use this word to describe Western spiritual practice. We were more likely to refer to prayer or contemplation. But once "meditation" entered our vocabulary and experience from Asian philosophies and religions, we discovered it in Western traditions as well. For example, Jews and Christians who had experimented with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism began to search for and unearth "lost" or hidden meditation methods in their own religions. Today, there is a groundswell of interest in the Jewish mystical meditations of Kabbalah.

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