Did Socrates Meditate? On Some Traces of Contemplative Practices in Early Greco-Latin Philosophy

Following insights by Pierre Hadot, I suggest that although explicit discussions of practices breath control and other psychosomatic techniques contemplative attention management are conspicuously absent in early Greek thought, there some signs analogous did exist, perhaps as Socrates. The combined evidence Aristophanes Plato suggests Socrates may have engaged a practice has key features common with meditative experiences attested Zen Buddhism. This technique consists two stages: an initial top-down, voluntary, egocentric focused meditation resulting state “absorption” or abstraction from all sensory input, followed the more bottom-up, open, other-centered (allocentric) form meditation, intended to provide global universal perspective, which practitioner situates herself part cosmos. paper includes discussion “withdrawal” into oneself Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Evagrius Ponticus, Gregory Palamas.