Bennet Bergmann gives a working paper on 'Why do people meditate?'

This paper is supposed to give a first impression of the research project and should therefore retrace the research leading interest. The conceptual procedure is to be reconstructed so that the reader is able to get an impression of the forthcoming research.

At the beginning it is pointed out that meditation practices nowadays appear in a wide variety and that it is necessary for meditation research to focus on practicing subjects. Furthermore possibilities are discussed to find a comprehensive model in which meditation practices can be categorized. Rosas resonance theory (2016) is presented as such a model and the research questions are formulated in a resonance theoretical perspective. Concluding, the project is to be related to previous approaches of the study of Buddhism and meditation.

The three main questions of this project are: 1. (How) is the self becoming a source of resonance through meditation? 2. (How) is the world becoming a harbor of resonance through meditation? 3. (How) is meditation itself becoming an oasis of resonance? The assumption which is to be surveyed is that different meditation practices lead to varying effects regarding these three questions. In that it is especially interesting to compare meditation practices with an individual orientation and those with a collective/religious orientation.