While meditation research has primarily focused on mental health outcomes and immediate cognitive and affective benefits, little is known about its influence on higher-order beliefs, such as views on free will and personal agency. Despite substantial references to free will and related concepts in Buddhist philosophy, to our knowledge, there has been no empirical work investigating the...
Meditation practices have demonstrated numerous psychological and physiological benefits, but capturing the neural correlates of varying meditative depths remains challenging. In this study, we aimed to decode self-reported time-varying meditative depth in expert practitioners using electroencephalography (EEG). Expert Vipassana meditators ( n = 34) participated in 2 separate sessions....
This essay is intended to present introductory contributions to the problem of time by putting into dialogue two thinkers: Heidegger and D?gen. The strategy for both will show a continuum of three modes of human habitation, taken as ways of being human, from three modes of possible interpretation of the time problem. The initial two are presented under the perspective of Heidegger's thought:...
Walking meditation or mindful walking is a widely performed form of Buddhist practice that focuses on mind-body interactions. We have found that this particular form of exercise was highly effective in eliciting improvements in cardiometabolic and functional fitness measures in a number of clinical populations. In some key measures, the magnitudes of benefits were greater than the traditional...
This paper explores the Vedic foundations of secular mindfulness, particularly examining the influences of Advaita Vedānta, Patañjali Yoga, and Haṭha Yoga systems on the development of contemporary mindfulness practices, specifically as popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn through his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. While mindfulness is often recognized for its Buddhist origins,...
Background: The academic development and widespread adoption of meditation practices for well-being and therapy have predominantly focused on secularised adaptations of Buddhist and Hindu techniques. This study aims to expand the field by investigating Christian and Islamic meditation that emphasize the spiritual significance of the heart through elements of visualisation and recitation. It...
ABSTRACT This essay delves into Antoni Tàpies’s profound engagement with non-dualism, a philosophical stance encapsulated in the aphorism “samsara is nirvana and nirvana is samsara.” Tàpies’s exploration of non-dualism, which integrates diverse spiritual and philosophical traditions, profoundly shaped his artistic practice and worldview. Drawing from Western hermeticism and Eastern philosophies...
Alleged practices of magical assault and vampirism are a recurrent feature of popular explanations of misfortune in Tuva, South Siberia. Based on a field study of healing practices in an “Association of Shamans”, this article analyses rituals of redressing curse afflictions in the context of Russian political domination. A central purpose of this discussion is to foreground the centrality of...
The paper concentrates on the philosophical discourses of four thinkers – Soren Kierkegaard, M. K. Gandhi, R. D. Ranade and B. R. Ambedkar on Ethics and Religion. Soren Kierkegaard, whose journey in philosophy made him pass through the aesthetic stage to ethical stage and ultimately religious stage landing in the realm of “faith”; where an individual arrives at without any rational commitment....
Guifeng Zongmi 圭峯宗密 (780-841) was a prominent Chinese Buddhist scholar who lived during the Tang Dynasty. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of Chinese Buddhism, particularly the Huayan (Flower Garland) and the Chan school. Within his own philosophical framework, Zongmi introduced the concept of the “True Mind of original enlightenment” (benjue...