Talk:Meditation/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: ChrisGualtieri (talk · contribs) 05:37, 6 January 2014 (UTC) I'll take this. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 05:37, 6 January 2014 (UTC) This is a tough article to do. So let me start off with the small things. The lead does not follow WP:LEAD and needs to include a good summary of this page. Some early issues are the lack of inline citations after claims. I will give a few examples now:

• When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, hāgâ became the Greek melete.
• ...but in many cases, practices similar to modern forms of meditation were simply called 'prayer'.
• "Some authors have even suggested the hypothesis" - Who, be specific.
• "Wilson translates the most famous Vedic mantra 'Gayatri' thus : "We meditate on that desirable light of the divine Savitri, who influences our piuous rites" (Rgveda : Mandala-3, Sukta-62, Rcha-10)." MINREF cite
• The table shows several definitions of meditation that have been... - Editorializing
• This article mainly focuses on meditation in the broad sense - Editorializing
• Other typologies have also been proposed,[69][70][additional citations useful] and some techniques shift among major categories.[71]

Evidence from neuroimaging studies suggests that the categories of meditation, defined by how they direct attention, appear to generate different brainwave patterns.[69][70][additional citations useful] Evidence also suggests that using different focus objects during meditation may generate different brainwave patterns.[72] - Two calls for additional citations.

• Thus the English word "meditation" does not exclusively translate to any single term or concept, and can be used to translate words such as the Sanskrit dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi and bhāvanā.[citation needed]
• Meditation may be for a religious purpose, but even before being brought to the West it was used in secular contexts.[citation needed] Beginning with the Theosophists meditation has been employed in the West by a number of religious and spiritual movements, such as Yoga, New Age and the New Thought movement. - Citation needed at end as well.
• "Various postures are taken up in meditation. Sitting, supine, and standing postures are used. Popular in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism are the full-lotus, half-lotus, Burmese, and kneeling positions. Meditation is sometimes done while walking, known as kinhin, or while doing a simple task mindfully, known as samu. - Citation needed and has an issue with layout and paragraph size.
• "Various forms of meditation have been described in popular culture sources. In particular, science fiction stories such as Frank Herbert's Dune, Star Trek, Artemis Fowl, Star Wars, Maskman, Lost Horizon by James Hilton, and Stargate SG-1 have featured characters who practice one form of meditation or another. Meditation also appears as overt themes in novels such as Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums and Herman Hesse's Siddhartha." - Same as well.
• Disamb fix: Ashtanga
• Broken refs:

1. John Dunne's speech (info) [stanford.edu]
2. There has been a dramatic increase in the past 10 or 15 years or so of studies on the impact of meditation upon one's health. Translator for The Dalai Lama, interviewed in a video here (info) [stanford.edu]
3. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/08/local/me-relignewage8/2 (info) [latimes.com] - incomplete ref
4. Mount Athos: History (info) [macedonian-heritage.gr] - Long dead and known deadlink
5. The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: Scientific Studies of Contemplative Experience: An Overview (info) [noetic.org] - same
6. Om Yoga: Its Theory and Practice (info) [atmajyoti.org] - same
7. The organization Contemplative Outreach (info) [contemplativeoutreach.org], which teaches Christian Centering Prayer, has chapters in non-Western locations in Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea (accessed 5 July 2010) - Same
8. Overview: Clinical and physiological comparison of meditation with other self-control strategies (info) [psychiatryonline.org] - Dead
9. Meditation: concepts, effects and uses in therapy (info) [onwww.net] This one too.

All references should be uniform and standard, i.e., not "published in 1970!" Quite a few are questionable sources as well, but that's another matter. I'll place this on hold now. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 22:49, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

quick questions from nominator

The crux of the issue seems to be things which can be solved methodically. Finding citations with Google and fixing broken REFs. Could each "editorializing" item be cut down to size / deleted? That leaves several sentences/paragraphs to create for the Lead, so the whole article is summarized. If these 3 items are addressed in this way, would it then pass? Or have I missed some more work required? Let me know, thanks. CathMontgomery (talk) 01:17, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Well, methodical checking is part of the GA review process. I do suppose some amount of notes are required on such a subject, but the reader should not be aware that Wikipedia is well... lecturing. Its a fine balance, but the tone of "this article" and "this table" in the text goes from it being a bit more off in tone once it is in text - its like a textbook. By itself, its not something I'll really worry over. The deadlinks and some issues with the lead are far more difficult and this comes with the territory - a very broad article is the hardest of all subjects to do. Simply because so much needs to be summarized and so much cannot be easily explained and done in a simple fashion. I'll give you all the time you need, but do ask for some extra eyes and any questions. GAs are not just supposed to be you and me, anything that helps rectify the issues now puts it closer to featured and makes the article stronger. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 06:04, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

textbook error

Haha, I was aiming for the authoritative tone of a textbook. Thanks for your insight, luckily you have put me right. I’ve read a lot of textbooks recently. I need to get my head around a different style. It will take me quite a while to look over a few featured and good articles in this new light to see how they manage it. I appreciate the lack of time pressure. Thanks, CathMontgomery (talk) 13:43, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

No worries. I don't think anyone is going to be on me about the length of this one. This is a really difficult and important article to have at GA. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 15:09, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Just a note, if I don't get some updates on this, I will have to fail this for inactivity. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 16:34, 18 March 2014 (UTC)