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Literary notes about meditation (AI summary)

The term “meditation” in literature is remarkably versatile, serving as a metaphor for deep introspection, spiritual discipline, and even casual contemplation. In many works, such as those by Paramahansa Yogananda, meditation is presented as a sacred practice—a conduit to divine insight and self-realization ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]). At the same time, authors like Mark Twain and Cicero harness the term to describe moments of thoughtful rumination or to underscore the burdens of existential thought ([6], [7], [8]). For figures like Dante and even in classical military treatises like Sunzi’s, meditation bridges philosophy and practical wisdom, suggesting that reflective thought underpins both beauty and strategy ([9], [10]). Moreover, literature occasionally imbues the act with a lighter, even ironic, tone—as when characters become absorbed in their own private reveries or when the deliberate stillness of meditation is intermingled with everyday life ([11], [12]). Overall, “meditation” emerges not only as a spiritual exercise but also as a literary device that deepens character insight and enriches narrative texture.
  1. Often have I seen it in meditation!
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  2. " 3-4: In deep meditation, the first experience of Spirit is on the altar of the spine, and then in the brain.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  3. Directly below the hall, built into the very bluff, two solitary meditation caves confront the infinities of sky and sea.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  4. I sat down and went into a deep meditation, unceasingly thanking God not only for answering my prayer but for blessing me by a meeting with Babaji.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  5. To assume that one can fully know Him by forty-five years of meditation is rather a preposterous expectation.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  6. He was soon deep in meditation, and evidently the longer he thought, the more he was bothered.
    — from The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
  7. For the whole life of a philosopher is, as the same philosopher says, a meditation on death.
    — from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  8. I have now said enough about the effects of exercise, custom, and careful meditation.
    — from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  9. As meditation on death and on life make equally for wisdom, so the expression of sorrow and joy make equally for beauty.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  10. Let them be a subject of meditation.
    — from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi
  11. A dog, a good country dog, black and woolly gray, a dog rich in leisure and in meditation, scratched and grunted and slept.
    — from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
  12. Guess!” Nancy frowned in meditation.
    — from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

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