Meditation is a practice of stilling the mind through thought detachment, focusing the mind on a particular object, idea, or activity. Through doing so, meditation allows a person achieve a mentally clear, emotionally calm and thought-balancing state.

Meditation, or 'dhyana' in Sanskrit, is an unbroken stream of concentration leading towards a still, peaceful, inner experience.

One of the 8 limbs of Ashtanga, meditation guides each person towards 'samadhi' (enlightenment), allowing an individual to control the fluctuation of our thoughts in order to still the mind. Through meditation, we are able to transcend the material plane and achieve a unified sense of non-attachment and oneness.

The practice of meditation has existed all throughout history. Ancient flame gazing and Shamanic meditation existed long before written documents. The first signs of collated practices were written in the Hindu Vedas, written between 7000-150 BCE.

In the Torah, it was told that Isaac went into the field 'lesuach' / לָשׂוּחַ, to meditate (Genesis 24:63). - 2000–1700 BCE

Around 600 and 400 BCE, in ancient China, early Taoist texts such as the Tao Te Ching describe practices of emptiness, quietude, non-striving, and inward awareness, such as 'zuowang' (sitting and forgetting).

In India, meditation became central within the emerging traditions of Buddhism following the teachings of Gautama Buddha during the 5th century BCE. After attaining enlightenment through deep meditation beneath the Bodhi tree, the Buddha taught practices designed to cultivate mindfulness, concentration, and insight into the nature of consciousness and suffering.

In the Qur’an, Dhikr (also spelled Zikr) - centred around the intentional repetition of sacred words, names of God, or short phrases - can be understood as a form of mantra-based meditation. - 610 CE – 632 CE

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