@Eudaimon,
It does go back a long way, probably to the shamans in hunter-gatherer society. Shamans had many techniques for divining where the herds were, what the sources of power were for the tribe, magic and sorcery and the like. For this they needed to go into trance states and other planes of being. This certainly goes back far beyond any recorded history, probably more than 30,000 years. The best book on this is Mircea Eliade
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstacy.
As far as Indian civilization is concerned, there are engravings suggestive of meditation and yoga in the Mohenjo-Daro excavations. This was the civilzation that existed before the Sanskrit-speaking peoples arrived. We are talking 3,000-6000 years ago; they are very ancient. The Vedic (i.e. Sanskrit) traditions talked of meditation and higher states, and they go back many thousands of years also. So these practises are very ancient indeed. Again, the best insight into the roots of yoga is another book by Mircea Eliade,
Yoga: Immortality and Freedom.
I believe the whole yoga-shamanism stream is quite separate from the worship of deities and the social aspects of religion. Nobody is much aware of this stream and what it means. It is actually different to much of 'religion' as it has come down to us in the West. I don't think there is an English word for this stream as Western culture generally evolved without this perspective. Hence it is very misleading to judge these traditions through Western eyes.
In fact many mainstream Yoga schools are non-theistic, so there is no question of these being 'given by God'. Among these are Sahmkya, Jain and Buddhist. In India, you can believe in thousands of dieties, or none, and still be a 'sadhaka' (practitioner of spiritual discipline).
Key to all of them, though, is the idea of 'spiritual practise', of the inner work of meditation and changing the mind through 'restraints and observance' and gaining insight. This is the essence of yoga. It may or may not involve 'asanas', the postures which yoga is known for in the West, but it will always involve 'dhyana' which is learning to be still and watching the mind.
---------- Post added 09-09-2009 at 09:42 PM ----------
I read the first part of your post second. The point I was making about 'meditation' as being 'considering a religious subject' is that this just refers to the action of thinking about something. Thinking about something in this sense is not 'meditation'. Sure the Greeks had a similar understanding, but it is kind of buried in the mists of time. I do know, however, that the Sceptics practised 'epoche', suspension of all judgement, which sounds very like Dhyana.
---------- Post added 09-09-2009 at 09:48 PM ----------
Eudaimon;89147 wrote:By the way, many ch'an philosophers were also skeptical of any training, they taught that it is only when we forget both religious and householding life, both sansara and Nirvana, about freedom, that we shall become free. That is to say only when everything is loosed, everything is abandoned, and this includes any practice, only then we are free. Krishnamurti said the same, some sufis said the same. Were they all fools?
I am perfectly aware of that. Most of those who spoke thus were monks and wanderers. I know Krishnamurti used to criticize practise but I read him for 20 years and could never really understand him till I learnt to practise.
You can criticize everything and anything and in the end what do you learn?
