Anwar-e Ma`rifat

Abstract The present study, aiming at a comparative analysis of meditation techniques in Islamic mysticism and Zen Buddhism, examines the evolution of practical and experiential methods of spiritual wayfaring in these two mystical traditions. Its central question is that meditation methods, despite distinctions in ontological foundations—from tawḥld in Islamic mysticism to śūnyata in Zen Buddhism—at the level of consciousness experience, converge toward a single ultimate goal: pure presence and unmediated intuition. In Islamic mysticism, meditation (muraqabah) as conscious presence in the divine presence and supervision of the soul’s faculties, is considered a principal stage of wayfaring and realization of annihilation in God (fanaʾ fi-llah); as reflected in the works of Ibn Arabl, Imam Khomeini, and Allamah Ṭabaṭabaʾl (may God have mercy on them), meditation is regarded as the practical realization of self-knowledge and transcendence of soul’s determinations. In contrast, meditation in the Zen Buddhist tradition, as expounded in the commentaries of Suzuki, Lu, and Herrigel, focusing on zazen and kōan techniques, emphasizes relinquishing conceptual thought and experiencing satori. Employing an analytical-comparative approach and examining the physical, linguistic, and temporal dimensions of meditation, this study demonstrates that despite differences in theoretical foundations, both systems, through practices of stillness, remembrance (dhikr), and intuition, orchestrate the transformation from mentality to presence; such that meditation manifests as a path from perceptual multiplicity to intuitive unity in both traditions.