Why do we choose to meditate?

During my research I was particularly interested in the daily life of those choosing to meditate at the Kwan Um Buddhist school and how the practice which originated in another part of the globe has taken hold on Polish soil. I wondered why my Polish interlocutors decided to take up Korean meditation and what it gives them. The research I conducted was essentially an intensive sojourn (Clifford 2004) and the terrain was not limited to the place studied. Rather it was defined by the conversations and activities undertaken (including at the request of the subjects). Meditating with the group I shared the social experience with the subjects (Hastrup 2004 2008). In turn the branches of the Kwan Um school to which I traveled became the practiced place that Kirsten Hastrup (2008) wrote about.The analytical base for me became modernity defined in various ways which is a sign of our times and the irrevocable context of all social activities (Berman 2006 Giddens).