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Title Meditation and culture : the interplay of practice and context / edited by Halvor Eifring
Edition 1 [edition]
Published New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2015

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- List of Contributors -- Introduction -- 1 Meditative Practice and Cultural Context -- Section 1: Traveling Practices -- 2 The Daoist Adaptation of Buddhist Insight Meditation -- 3 Ignatian Visual Meditation in Seventeenth-Century China -- 4 Modern Meditation in the Context of Science -- Section 2: Competing Practices -- 5 Mindfulness and Mindlessness in Early Chán -- 6 Reverence and Quietude in Neo-Confucianism -- 7 Meditative Pluralism in Hanshan Déqing -- Section 3: Competing Cultures -- 8 The Hindi Sants' Two Yogic Paths to the Formless Lord -- 9 Inner Islamization in Java -- 10 Cinnabar-field Meditation in Korea -- Section 4: Cultural Mosaics -- 11 Tibetan Chöd as Practiced by Ani Lochen Rinpoche -- 12 Vedic Chanting as a Householder's Meditation Practice in the Tamil Saiva Siddhanta Tradition -- 13 Spontaneous Thoughts in Meditative Traditions -- Notes -- References
Summary Behind the stereotype of a solitary meditator closing his eyes to the world, meditation always takes place in close interaction with the surrounding culture. Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context explores cases in which the relation between meditative practice and cultural context is particularly complex. The internationally-renowned contributors discuss practices that travel from one culture to another, or are surrounded by competing cultures. They explore cultures that bring together competing practices, or that are themselves mosaics of elements of different origins. They seek to answer the question: What is the relationship between meditation and culture? The effects of meditation may arise from its symbolic value within larger webs of cultural meaning, as in the contextual view that still dominates cultural and religious studies. They may also be psychobiological responses to the practice itself, the cultural context merely acting as a catalyst for processes originating in the body and mind of the practitioner. Meditation and Culture gives no single definitive explanation, but taken together, the different viewpoints presented point to the complexity of the relationship
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Meditation.
Religion and culture.
Mind, body, spirit: meditation & visualisation.
Educational: Religious studies.
Educational: Religious studies: Buddhism.
History of religion.
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT -- Inspiration & Personal Growth.
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT -- Spirituality -- General.
RELIGION -- Christianity -- General.
RELIGION -- Devotional.
RELIGION -- Spirituality.
Meditation
Religion and culture
Form Electronic book
Author Eifring, Halvor, editor
ISBN 9781472579911
1472579917
1472579925
9781472579928
9781474220088
1474220088