Play, Theater, and Nondualism: A Philosophical Meditation
Devasia M. Antony
Philosophy East and West 2016 DOI: 10.1353/pew.2016.0004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that nondualism and untouchability are diametrically opposed in theory and practice, and that Theyyam subverts caste hierarchy to lead toward an ethical imaginary. |
Abstract
The attempt here is to meditate philosophically on the nature, meaning, and significance of the conceptions of play, theater, and nondualism and to articulate further the metaphysical interweaving and symphony of these concepts with particular reference to the domain of social ethics. After a brief analysis of the philosophical notion of nondualism and its description of reality as fundamentally nondualistic, the essay dwells on the possibility of play and theater as the epiphany of the Self and its forms and contends that the pluriform images are the apparent other of the nondual self. Then, moving on to the domain of social ethics, the essay ventures to imagine theatricality as an incarnation of social ethics and attempts to show that nondualism and untouchability are diametrically opposed to each other in both theory and practice. Augmenting this discussion, the essay dwells upon Theyyam, the celebratory divine dance form, and indicates how it takes one to the ethical imaginary by radically subverting the socially exclusionary practice of caste hierarchy.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |