Meditation based intervention such as mindfulness-based therapy, mantra, yoga, Qi Gong and Zen are generally focused on the integration of Buddhism, Hindhuism and Western psychology. However, little is known about Islamic dhikr spiritual meditation. The present article intent to describe the implications of dhikr meditation to recovering drug addicts’ wellbeing and life based on their...
Abstract Mindfulness heavily influenced Dr. Shapiro as she developed EMDR therapy and it constitutes the foundation of the standard EMDR protocol. Many scholars and practitioners also accept that mindfulness, described as the practice of returning to or remaining in the present moment without judgment, is one of the mechanisms of action for successful EMDR. Mindfulness is the heart of Buddhist...
My paper deals with mythological/religious imagery and syncretic soteriologies in Thomas Pynchon’s 2006 novel Against the Day, focusing in particular on the character of Cyprian Latewood, bisexual spy, Orpheus stand-in, and masochist par excellence. Cyprian’s path throughout the novel is specifically an Orphic descent/return myth, but it also deals with issues of mystical transcendence,...
Abstract The primary purpose of the Loving-kindness and Compassion Meditations (LKCM) in Buddhism was the cultivation of kindness, but many modern LKCM trainings focused on happiness, and even used the “kindness for happiness” strategy that advocate cultivation of kindness for the benefit of happiness. This study investigated whether cultivating kindness was lesser desired than enhancing...
This paper aims to contribute to an integrated understanding of what goes missing in adverse meditation experiences and in cases of depersonalization disorder. Depersonalization disorder is characterized by distressing alterations in, and sometimes the complete disappearance of, the 'I'-sense. This paper examines the nature of the 'I'-sense and what it means to lose it from a Buddhist...
Social CompassJune 1, 2024Satoko Fujiwara, Hiroki Miura2 citations
This article discusses the transformation of religious and non-religious practices in contemporary Japanese youth culture. The article employs both western analysis of ‘nones’ and Japanese theories to explain this transformation. Three concepts characterize (non-)religiousness in Japanese youth culture: ‘practicing belonging’, ‘vicarious spirituality’, and ‘gendered fetishism’. These concepts...
Scientific materialism and Eastern monistic ideologies have a complicated relationship, as this study shows. While typically seen as incompatible, these worldviews share surprising similarities and moments of convergence. Both views are used to examine consciousness, reality, and mind-matter connections. Based on seminal works in scientific materialism, quantum physics, and Eastern...
AIMS: (1) Test whether dreaming holds a key to understanding assumptions that tacitly constrain our waking lives. (2) Quantify effects of Dream-Yoga-inspired procedures for exploring and surmounting constraints of the perception box. BACKGROUND: People spend a third of their lives asleep, usually oblivious to the opportunities for enhanced well-being that sleep offers. Over centuries,...
Abstract This chapter investigates the historical shifts, culturally contingent forces, and power-laden dynamics that have enabled the emergence of mindfulness as a therapeutic modality in the context of North America. Engaging with an interdisciplinary body of scholarship, including historical textual literature and ethnography, the chapter traces the multiple historical confluences and...
This special issue collects papers that explore the relationship between phenomenology and mindfulness with the goal of creating a fruitful dialogue between these two traditions, so as to bring into relief the overlaps and incongruities, exploring historical as well as systematic connections. Both phenomenology and mindfulness are inclusively construed: the former (phenomenology) is understood...