Choosing the Right Meditation Method for You?

Judge Each Practice on Its Merits

Meditation is a universal human behaviour; it’s likely to have been around as long as we have. The fondness we have in the Western scientific world for categorising and generalising, works against the nature of meditation practice. For example, even in the highly regulated world of experimental psychology, we have at least 40 different variants of Western mindfulness in the published literature, and the reality is that figure is closer to 300. In addition, each practitioner is likely to be doing something slightly different to the person sitting next to them. The best advice for anyone wanting to learn to meditate is to find a specific practice that meets their goals and work with a reliable teacher who has achieved the objectives of the meditation practice they are teaching. Many forms of meditation practice are preliminarily accessible to the beginner, but more are not and require both transmission and experience. There is an initial list of known methods further down the page.

Meditation: Between Tradition and Medicalisation

Meditation is not a single practice, but rather a diverse constellation of techniques aimed at cultivating attention, introspection, and often, transformation. Transformation can be both spiritual and non-spiritual; understanding this difference is essential. Rooted in centuries-old spiritual systems including Shamanism, Paganism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and later, mystical Christianity and Sufism—meditation has historically served as a gateway to transcendence, happiness, wellbeing, ethical living, and altered states of consciousness. Yet in today’s landscape, meditation has undergone a striking metamorphosis, rebranded in many contexts as a medical tool for mental hygiene under the umbrella term “mindfulness” or even, more synically,  “McMindfulness”.

The diversity of meditative forms emerges from their embeddedness in distinct cultural and philosophical frameworks. For example, Zen’s seated zazen emphasises silent presence and non-conceptual awareness; Tibetan visualisation practices engage symbolic imagery and deity work; Vipassana focuses on moment-by-moment observation of bodily sensations; while yogic methods often integrate breath control (pranayama), chanting, and movement. These techniques were never generic stress-reduction protocols (although that potential has always been evident to meditators); they were deeply entwined with life experience, metaphysical beliefs and soteriological aims, such as enlightenment or liberation from suffering. We now know that attempts to translate or relocate spiritual meditation practices into scientific contexts generally weaken or even destroy their original nature.

The rise of medicalised meditation, as codified by many, most successfully (in a financial sense) by Herbert Benson (Relaxation Response) and Jon Kabat-Zinn (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction – MBSR) in the 1970s, marked a profound shift in how meditation was understood and deployed. These Western academics, frequently with a preliminary understanding of spiritual practices, made sweeping claims for the benefits of meditation without establishing their original theoretical frameworks.

 Drawing selectively from Western imaginaries of Buddhist vipassana, Zen principles, MBSR stripped away ritual, cosmology, compassion, intention, Buddhist ontology, epistemology and ethical precepts to render meditation palatable to secular audiences and scientific scrutiny. With little or no evidence, mindfulness was promoted as a panacea, able to improve the bottom line of business, the performance of the military, the behaviour of students, the satisfaction of employees and the reduce the costs of treating mental health across society.

These new, ‘improved’ versions of meditation were promoted relentlessly by politicians and the business community. Its success catalysed a burgeoning industry of mindfulness apps, therapies, corporate wellness schemes, and policy interventions, often framed as solutions to everything from sexual dysfunction to workplace burnout. Scientists received unprecedented media coverage for claims of the benefits of mindfulness. Medicalised meditation was promoted as congruent with traditional  Buddhist practices even when used to support unethical business activity or military aggression.

This movement reflects broader trends: the therapeutic turn in Western culture, the ascendancy of neuroplasticity and cognitive science, and neoliberal imperatives that valorise self-regulation and productivity. In this context, meditation becomes less a path of liberation and more a tool for behavioural optimisation. Critics point to a flattening effect—where contemplative depth gives way to quick fixes, and the risk of commodifying suffering under the guise of wellbeing. There’s also growing debate about the ethics of appropriating Buddhist teachings while divorcing them from their social and philosophical roots.

At its best, meditation can still serve both clinical and existential aims, but the tension between its traditional and medicalised forms invites deeper scrutiny. The point is to think carefully about your meditation goals before you choose a practice and a teacher.