I can only say I wish this project had been completed when I was writing The Distraction Addiction: a three-volume comparative study of meditation in global religions.

I did okay without it, but it would have made the brief comparative historical section of the book much richer:

Meditation is practiced everywhere – with or without a religious purpose – and with a wealth of different techniques. It has been performed for several thousand years, and appears in all the major religions.

But what is meditation? What role does it play in various cultures? And how is it practiced in different parts of the world?

These are some of the questions addressed by Professor Halvor Eifring at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo….

The professor is the editor of three books on meditation.

The first, about Eastern Asiatic meditation techniques, was published in Chinese in 2012. Book number two is about meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The third book addresses meditation practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.

“Gathering texts on different traditions in one volume gives us a wider perspective and a more holistic understanding of what meditation is and how it is practised,” he says.

A pretty substantial portion of volume on meditation in the Abrahamic religions is available on Google Books.