memorycontemplation and finally absorption (samādhi), a non-dualistic experi-
ence of absorption and identity with Brahman, the lone reality.
As with the sixfold yoga of ancient Hinduism, meditation is the central
practice in Buddhism for attaining enlightenment. The formative Buddhist
tradition understands meditation (dhyāna) as a process of shaping, train-
ing, and controlling the body, senses, feelings, mind, and unconscious-
ness. A monk uses meditation to control his mind and to free him from
the four cankers of sensual desire, craving for becoming or life, false
views, and ignorance. Meditation also helps a monk overcome the latent
dispositions of the unconscious and their unwholesome roots (greed,
hatred, and delusion). Within the context of meditation, the calming of
the mind (śamatha), a process that is necessary because of the normal
state of flux of the mind caused by desires, delusions, and senses, frees
the mind from distractions and mental impurities. Once the mind is calm,
the meditator can achieve insight (vipaśyanā), which leads to an aware-
ness of the truth of the Buddhist path and the three marks of existence:
suffering, impermanence, and non-self.
Further reading: Eliade (1969); Olson (2005, 2007); Schimmel (1975)MEMORY
A mental mechanism that enables humans to recall their past experi-
ences. Memory is both collective and individual. The collective mem-
ory is a set of recollections that people share with others, which gives
people access to past events and actions that are reconstructed, told to
them, and held in common. Collective memories antedate individual
memories of a childhood, family, and friends. Individual memories take
shape against the backdrop of a collective memory. Memory is an
essential attribute of human nature because without it there can be no
history involving people. Memory not only possesses implications for
history but is essential for interpretation and discerning collective and
individual identities.
The collective and individual memories of religious traditions depend
on their preservation and transmission from one generation to another.
Memories die when there is no one to perpetuate them, but they can be
restored to life if they have been preserved by a person or a text.
Hagiographical accounts of holy people in the East and West are tradi-
tional forms of perpetuating memory of religiously paradigmatic people.