History of Meditation: From Ancient Practices to Modern Science

Meditation has many histories, not one. Different traditions developed different practices in different places and periods, and some of the most repeated origin stories are hard to document. This page sticks to what the sources read for this library support, and it says where the record is thin. For the basics first, see what meditation and mindfulness are.

Why the early history is hard to pin down

NCCIH says meditation has a history that goes back thousands of years. [1] That is a broad statement, and it does not tell you when, where or in which tradition a given practice started. Even for Buddhism, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that knowledge of the Buddha's teachings comes from texts that were not written down until several centuries after his death. [2] For that reason, this page avoids dates for individual techniques and avoids "first" or "oldest" claims.

A Buddhist textual background

Within Buddhism, the Stanford Encyclopedia describes the Buddha as having attained enlightenment (bodhi) through a combination of insight and meditational practice. [2] A university journal essay on the secularization of mindfulness places the central role of mindfulness in Buddhist thought since the compilation of the Pāli Theravāda Canon around the turn of the common era. [3] That essay is a student-journal source, so treat it as a pointer to the scholarship it cites, not as a final word. For the schools and practices themselves, see Buddhist meditation traditions.

Buddhism spreads and changes

Buddhist schools disagreed about what meditation is for and how much it matters. The Stanford Encyclopedia notes, for example, that Ch'an is based on the premise that enlightenment can be attained through meditation alone. [2] It also describes how, after Buddhism came to China, interpretations of Buddhism and Daoism converged into a distinctive Chinese Buddhism, Zen (chan, meaning meditation) Buddhism. [4] See Zen and zazen and Taoist and qigong meditation.

Other traditions

Hindu, Christian, Islamic and other traditions have their own contemplative practices. I did not read a source this session that supports a dated history for them, so this page does not give one. Each has its own page: Vedic and Hindu meditation traditions, Christian contemplative practice and Islamic and Sufi contemplative practice.

Into medicine and science (20th century)

The clearest documented chapter is the move into health care. Researchers describe mindfulness as having its historical footing in Buddhism, then reaching psychology and medicine through mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a training package introduced in the late 1970s as a complementary therapy for medically ill people. [5] Details are on the Jon Kabat-Zinn page.

Meditation in use and in the trials

Use has grown. In the US National Health Interview Survey, the share of adults who practiced meditation more than doubled between 2002 and 2022, from 7.5 to 17.3 percent. [1] A 2014 review of 47 randomized trials (3,515 participants) found moderate evidence of improved anxiety, depression and pain, and no evidence that meditation programs were better than active treatments. [8]