It was not till the 20th century that a need for the creation of
secular forms of popular meditative techniques began to be felt.
But for the most part these New Age meditative systems were
little more than rehashed versions of older techniques, which
had been extracted from their religious contexts. Transcendental
Meditation (TM), as propagated by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is one
such version, which grew out of the Hindu practice of `naam
japa` or `yoga japa` during the 1960`s. Existent techniques of
meditation can be categorized under two fairly broad sections
—Zen-based forms, which are more "insight"-oriented and
Hinduism-based forms, which are largely
"concentration"-oriented. Most New Age techniques fall into
either of these categories. Concentrative meditation focuses the
attention on the breath, an image, or a sound (mantra), in order
to still the mind and allow a greater awareness and clarity to
emerge. The simplest form of concentrative meditation is to sit
quietly and focus the attention on the breath