The Art of Meditation
Huiling Lim
Routledge eBooks October 7, 2026 DOI: 10.4324/9781003772972-4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that Thích Nhất Hạnh presents meditation not as withdrawal from the world but as an art of inhabiting it without reactivity, ideology, or self-fixation, integrating body, feelings, mind, and phenomena. The chapter contends that practices such as mindful walking, gāthā recitation, reconciliation rituals, and communal living are sites where insight matures into compassion. |
Abstract
Chapter 4 explores how Thích Nhất Hạnh translates insight into lived practice through meditation, Zen sensibility, and mindful engagement with everyday activities. Grounded in foundational suttas—including the Ānāpānasati, Satipaṭṭhāna, Bhaddekaratta, and Alagaddupama Suttas—the chapter presents meditation as a holistic discipline of stopping, looking deeply, and ethical responsiveness. It analyses Thích Nhất Hạnh&s;s critique of later concentration-centred systems and his insistence on mindfulness as an integrated practice involving body, feelings, mind, and phenomena. The chapter further examines Zen as a mode of direct realization rather than a sectarian identity, highlighting poetry, calligraphy, and ordinary actions as extensions of meditation. Practices such as mindful walking, gāthā recitation, reconciliation rituals, and communal living are analysed as sites where insight matures into compassion. Meditation is shown not as withdrawal from the world, but as an art of inhabiting it without reactivity, ideology, or self-fixation.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |