John Derbyshire’s novel depicts a Tibetan guy who lives in post 1959 Tibet, dislikes the government and has a medallion with the photo of his favorite Buddhist teacher. Does this reflect a common religious practice over there and/or maybe other Buddhist communities? Or is the author here balancing between characterizing him as a weirdo and just plain ethnographic ignorance?
i’ve seen small medallions with photos in Nepal, India and Thailand so it is an actual practice. Mostly seems to be buddhist, but I’ve seen some medallions of Hindu Baba’s, eg “sai baba” medallions.
It’s important to keep in mind that “meditation” isn’t a single vague activity in Tibetan Buddhism: there are a bunch of different types of meditation, as well as numerous yogic and tantric practices which are often mistaken for meditation in the west.
Generally speaking, if you say “meditation” with no qualifiers, in the Tibetan tradition you’re looking at two practices: analytical meditation (Vipassana), and point meditation, commonly called “tranquil abiding”, or “zhine” in Tibetan. The teachings generally consider it best to practice both techniques, as they are likened to the two wings of a bird, with one holding you aloft but both being necessary to maneuver. Tranquil abiding is typically practiced and attained first, and one of the major benefits of practicing it is said to be stability. Vipassana is then practiced to take advantage of that mental stability by using it to inquire into your own nature, typically through logical analysis quite similar to the dialectal debate which is practice daily, and which represents an essential pedagogic method in the tradition.
Going back to tranquil abiding, the essential practice involves visualizing an image in front of you, and maintaining a stable focus on that so-called “object of observation” until the parts of the mind that the five senses stimulate are drawn inward, leaving the object of observation as the only perceived phenomenon. Physical focuses are often recommended for beginners, but as the physical image is eventually supposed to be replaced by the mental one, most seasoned practitioners typically use a visualization without the physical support.
Anything can be used as an object of observation, and many Hindu practitioners tend to take things from nature (trees, flowers, rocks, etc) as an object of observation. In the Tibetan tradition, however, it is vastly more common to use images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, or deities. These images tend to be extremely complex, and each component of the image will have some symbolic meaning or quality. Beginners often start with a very simple version of the figure, and as they become more confident and experienced they’ll begin to add detail (clothes, jewelry, ritual implements, and so forth) until they can easily maintain the complete image as their object of observation.
While buddhas and other mytho-historic figures are commonly used, it is unusual to use the image of a living teacher or recent saint/religious figure as an object of observation when practicing tranquil abiding. What is more common is to use the image of either your personal teacher, the “root” teacher of your lineage, the current living head of your branch, or someone like the current dalai lama in the practice of Guru Yoga. Essentially, guru yoga is intended to assist a practitioner in perceiving and connecting to the primordial qualities of all spiritual teachers, and if you take Buddhist reasoning out far enough, the assertion is that because existence at its subtlest level is nondual, it is possible to use images of one teacher to connect with the qualities of all. It is possible to do guru yoga with any image, and the important thing is that it means something to the practitioner: for the practice to be effective it is necessary to identify and sympathize with various beneficial qualities of the teacher, and if it isn’t someone you respect or already feel gratitude for, the practice is largely mechanical and of very little benefit. Many western students are consequently encouraged to visualize a figure from the Abrahamic religions if they believe in one of them, or of a teacher that founded or greatly influenced a field that they are practitioners of-dance, physics, medicine, or really anything else. The important thing is that whatever figure a practitioner uses has personal meaning. Since Buddhism is so heavily integrated into Tibetan society, most modern Tibetans who grew up with Buddhism find it most natural to use either an image of the dalai lama or of the root teacher in their lineage.
So those are the two main things I can think of that fit the bill. I apologize for rambling, though. 
Ackk!! I totally misread your OP and thought it said “meditation”, not “medallion”. >_< Anyway, it’s fairly common for practitioners to carry medallions with mantras or pictures of personal teachers or important figures in their lineage, either as specific protection or as a general charm for good luck and the like.
Anyway, I enjoyed reading about meditation. But nobody raised Catholic would consider the OP’s man with a medallion a “weirdo.” Catholics carry images of saints on medallions & honor them in other ways. (Barlaam and Josaphat, supposedly Christian Hermits in India, were popular saints in Medieval Europe; their legend has been studied & discovered to be derived from the life of Gautama Buddha!)
The Church is more formal about declaring saints now; there’s a long process of canonization. But people also honor some unofficial “saints.” Most grocery stores in Houston sell candles, usually in the “Mexican” section; they have pictures of Jesus, Mary & various saints–like these. There are also candles honoring some African spirits–and the definitely non-saintly Pancho Villa.
No, not a weirdo at all. Many belief systems use images. But a few find them appalling…
Lots of Hindus I know will have one or, more usually, several, images of their personal guru and other gurus in his line, from photos to paintings to medallions. Unfortunately, sometimes this is Sai Baba.
My grandmother has a commemorative medallion with Pope John Paul II on it, so I’m not sure why people think this is a Buddhist thing.
Yes, medallions with photos of monks who are believed to be especially powerful are commonly worn in Thailand. These medallions are presumed to have strong magical powers. This does not sync with Westerners’ notions of Buddhism, but believe me, the locals regard it as a Buddhist practice.
A few pictures from the album Love, Devotion, Surrender by a young Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin. Both were devotees of the guru Sri Chinmoy at the time and as you can see, both wore buttons with his image - one, two, three.
By the way, for a devotional album ( they cover John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” among other pieces ), it is incredibly LOUD :).
One thing kind of cool about the Tibetan medallions is that a lot of the common uses are based on your knowing about it, and not its display- for protection, for instance, a lot of people will actually fold the photo inside a small bag or amulet, and while anybody looking at it would have no idea there’s a photo in it, the belief is that it works just as well as an obvious and recognizable photo in a similar amulet.
Meditation needs anything that can help you in gaining concentration so you may use pics even
Meditation is more close to budhism as it is most practiced in this religion. Well Muslims also claims that their prayer, called i guess Namaz or Salah is also a form of meditation. It may be as if you read the deeply about Salah or Namaz, whatever, the old practitioners were totally lost when they used to offer their prayer and that’s called meditation i.e. to concentrate.
Well When you people be online normally so we may have quicker responses as I want to learn without wasting any more time. And Forums are great source of information sharing
This thread was last active 9 months ago and you waited 17 minutes from your first post to complain about response time? It’s OK to revive old threads on this forum with new information, but you shouldn’t expect a lot of additional dialogue unless you have specific questions or comments that you wish to raise.
Stay here for a while and learn about the board culture. Rushing to judgment isn’t a great way to introduce yourself.