Meditation
Recognition that meditation played apart within Buddhism emerged only gradually
in the century. Among the early writers, it is again Davy and Upham who mention
it. Davy states almost in passing, that one of the 'rules' for the laity is 'meditating
on the uncertainty of human affairs' (Davy l82l 227). Upham links it in a derogatory way with abstraction.
scholarly.
One normative non-scholarly reaction is to caricature, as Sirr does when speaking
of the Buddha slumbering under the Bo Tree (Sirr 1850, I: 170). But Gogerly,
the scholar, advances little beyond this. Mesmerism and insensibility are his key
words. Spence Hardy is the one who deals with meditation in the greatest detail.
But although he sees positive elements in the brahmavihdra, he makes meditation