The Ritualizing Body-Mind
Patricia Q. Campbell
Oxford University Press eBooks September 2, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793822.003.0006 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Meditation students |
| Key findings | Argues that meditation involves affective and psychomotor learning akin to physical practice, with one participant's experience showing that ritual performance can lead to discovery without cognitive understanding. Proposes that learning cycles through multiple domains. |
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the specific ritual practices that meditation students learned and performed. Learning through devotional practices like chanting, prostrations and offerings is discussed, as is the example of one participant who decided to take on an offering rite without insisting on prior cognitive understanding. His experience of discovery through doing is a rare but illuminating example of the affective changes that may come about through ritual performance. But the main focus of this chapter is on the affective and psychomotor changes that took place through meditation practice. Participants' reflections suggest that, beyond its physical postures and gestures, the mental practices of meditation are akin to physical activities, and the mind thus learns in much the same way that the body does. From their reflections emerges a pattern of learning that cycles through the three—and possibly four—domains discussed in chapter four.