meditation
nature by taking land and transforming it by means of roads, trees,
houses, and churches. Landscapes are thus shaped by human intention in
order to manipulate nature to express communal and personal values.
Because people interact with the material world, it is possible for this
realm to communicate messages that include religious values, norms,
actions, and attitudes. When studying objects for their significance it is
import to pay attention to their form, function, mode of distribution, and
the changes to the objects and their environment. How a sacred text is
used and treated by people is instructive about their religion. It is also
important for researchers to know how people interact with the material
world and allow it to communicate its messages. It is possible, for
instance, for religious objects to shape and to reflect religious beliefs and
values. Although the materials are objective, they are not static because
their meaning may change over time or people may alter their meaning.
Further reading: Lang (1997); McDannell (1995)
MEDITATION
A mental and subjective practice that is employed by a person to shape,
control, and train their body, senses, emotions, and conscious and uncon-
scious states of mind by means of an inward process of discipline.
Christian and Jewish mystics use meditation to enhance their spiritual
progress. Christian mystics meditate, for instance, on prayer, whereas
Jewish Kabbalists meditate on the merkabah (chariot of God) with the
purpose of having a vision of it. In Sufi Islamic mysticism, there is a
twofold distinction on the path between stations (maqām) that are
obtained by human effort, which represent the ascetic and ethical disci-
pline of a Sufi, and the six states that are conferred by God that begins
with meditation (muraqaba) and is followed by nearness to God, love,
fear of God, contemplation, and certitude. The Sufi is instructed to redi-
rect his thinking by the method of dhikr, which means thinking only of
God.
Similar to the later Indian classical yoga system compiled by Patañjali,
the Maitri Upanishad (6.18) promotes a sixfold path of yoga, involving
breath control, withdrawal of the senses, and meditation, which enables
a person to penetrate objects. This is followed by concentration on a
single point in order to quiet and calm the mind. The meditator reaches a
point of becoming conscious of consciousness before moving on to