Stanford scholar tracks meditation's migration from ancient Buddhist monasteries to your local yoga class

For many Americans, "yoga" conjures up mental images of athletic-minded people engaging in a simultaneous "warrior pose" while being told to focus on their breathing.

What many yoga enthusiasts may not realize is that this athletic practice represents only one of the various ways in which aspects of Buddhism have infiltrated the secular American culture.

From its start, Buddhism has emphasized the achievement of a state of liberation and enlightenment, which can be achieved through a variety of methods, including meditation.  Historically, this mentally challenging practice has been limited to monasteries and not even utilized by the typical Buddhist.   Over time, however, the less technical forms of meditation have become popular in the United States – a glimpse of which can be seen in the athletic practice of yoga and its focus on counting one's measured breaths. 

Religious Studies Professor Carl Bielefeldt has dedicated his academic career to the study of 13^thcentury Japanese Zen, a tradition of Buddhism that emphasizes the practice of meditation. As Bielefeldt describes it, the deep visualization of more technical meditation could not realistically play a role in modern American life.  "I am not going to get up in the morning and enter into a deep state of trance and visualize something because then I will be late for work, so instead I will get up in the morning and watch my breath in and out."...

Read the full article from The Stanford Report.