Meditation Symbols

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Roman Catholics and Anglicans have long used the image of Christ on the cross as a symbol in visualization meditation. Christians who belong to the 'low' Churches often meditate on the empty cross, while many people who belong to the Orthodox Church use small painted panels bearing an image of Christ or the Virgin Mary or any of the saints as visualization symbols.

Buddhists may meditate on a mental image of Buddha himself or one of the other Buddhas, especially Tara, the liberator, the mother of all Buddhas. They see her as the manifestation of all that is positive. Bathed in radiant emerald-green light, swathed in silk and bedecked with jewels, she smiles lovingly at those who focus their meditations on her.

Jewish meditators might visualize the Tree of Life that represents the Sefirot, or ten divine energies. The Visuddhimagga, a fourth-century Buddhist text, lists ten different subjects for visual meditation. These are known as kasinas and comprise air, earth, fire and water (the four elements), blue, yellow, red and green (the four colours of nature), light and space.

To meditate on any of the elements, the meditator simply stares at an appropriate object, a pot filled with earth, for example, or a bowl of water. To visualize any of the four colours, simply gaze at an object of that colour-a flower, a piece of fabric, anything at all. To meditate on light, focus the attention on the light cast by a lightbulb, and any empty container can be used as a focus when meditating on space.

Buddhists, in common with Hindus, also use mandalas, the most famous of which is probably the Buddhist wheel of life, and Hindus commonly meditate on yantras (see below).

Chinese meditators often use the famous yin-yang symbol. It looks like a white tadpole with a black eye and a black tadpole with a white eye, curled up against each other, their outline forming a perfect circle representing tai chi (supreme ultimate).