ABSTRACT
THERE are critics of the practice of concentration and meditation among the religious groups as well as among those who are outside the field of religion. Some of the religious people seem to think that it makes one passive and negative. They are almost afraid of even the name of meditation, thinking that it will take initiative away from their minds and make them vague or negative. They, no doubt, advocate doing good to others through social service and philanthropic work; yet in a peculiar way, they are critical of and antagonistic to the practice of meditation. We often hear it said that Occidental people should not follow the so-called Oriental practice of meditation because it will make them other-worldly and passive. The implication is that they are aggressive, dynamic, and intellectual and, therefore, not suited to habits of contemplation. Some persons even go to the extent of saying that the Occidental mind is fitted only for scientific methods of observation and experiment, or, in other words, that the people of the West are best suited to the study of the objective world in an objective sense.
