Practical Theology
May 3, 2019
Darren Cronshaw
The attraction of this book for me was multi-layered. Breathing is central to meditation and prayer. It is a foundation for mental health and managing anxiety. I have to keep breathing (and keep my breathing calm and under control) for endurance sport and especially the rhythm of swimming. And my yoga teacher consistently reminds me to breathe through my exercises while stretching. I have...
Language and Psychoanalysis
April 29, 2019
Robert Beshara
If emotions are the link between the body and the mind, it makes sense why unregulated negative emotions (e.g., fear and anger), particularly when repressed by those who are suffering from trauma, understood as dukkha, can make them feel dissociated. The practice of mindfulness can serve as a bridge between the body and the mind; in combination with other holistic approaches, mindfulness can...
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation
April 4, 2019
Gavin Flood
1 citation
Abstract Meditation has been integral to Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions, in particular involving visualization or visual contemplation, practiced as part of ritual and also in its own right in order to achieve the goals of liberation from the cycle of reincarnation and also to achieve pleasure or power in this and other worlds. Visual contemplation is particularly focused on the body...
Studies in Art Education
April 3, 2019
J. Dalton
2 citations
Can art heal? Can art bring laughter, good cheer, wholeness, wisdom? From what depth does art arise? In the foreword to Art as Contemplative Practice: Expressive Pathways to the Self, these questions direct the reader to the foundation of this book, which is an exploration of the ways in which art as a contemplative practice offers transformational growth and healing. In Art as Contemplative...
Global Political Review
March 30, 2019
Muhammad Imran, Adil Khan
This paper aims at juxtaposing the Buddhist notion of enlightenment with the Jungian concept of individuation. It attempts to explore how the dissolving of ego and approaching the subliminal consciousness in the path of self-realization stand parallel to Jung's idea of dismantling one's persona and connecting with the self, respectively. Siddhartha's journey towards enlightenment offers a...
Mind Cure
March 28, 2019
Wakoh Shannon Hickey
This chapter explores the far-reaching influences in American religion and medicine of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist and mystic, and Franz Anton Mesmer, who developed Mesmerism, the forerunner of hypnosis. Swedenborg’s theology filtered into homeopathy and the religious movements of Shakerism, Transcendentalism, Unitarianism, Mormonism, modernist Buddhism, Theosophy, Spiritualism, and...
Religions
March 28, 2019
Veena R. Howard
This paper focuses on the branch of Santmat (thus far, unstudied by scholars of Indian religions), prevalent in the rural areas of Bihar, India. Santmat—literally meaning “the Path of Sants„ or “Point of View of the Sants„—of Bihar represents a unique synthesis of the elements of the Vedic traditions, rural Hindu practices, and esoteric experiences, as recorded in the poetry of the medieval...
Mind Cure
March 28, 2019
Wakoh Shannon Hickey
This chapter considers the early, community-oriented wing of New Thought movement and the Mindfulness movement side by side and identifies several characteristics they have in common, as well as significant differences between them. The Mindfulness movement is similar in various ways to Individualist New Thought. This analysis reveals some of the problems and limitations inherent in the...
Mind Cure
March 28, 2019
Wakoh Shannon Hickey
This chapter considers whether Mindfulness can reasonably be considered a kind of religion, despite proponents’ claims to the contrary. If so, what kind? Is it Buddhist? If so, what kind of Buddhism? The rhetoric of Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the modern Mindfulness movement, is tested against several different theories of religion, as well as critiques by specialists in both Theravāda and...
Mind Cure
March 28, 2019
Wakoh Shannon Hickey
This chapter asks whether mindfulness is as broadly effective and powerful as proponents claim and considers methodological and other critiques of clinical research on mindfulness. Neuroscientists have produced vivid images of meditators’ brains, using functional MRI and PET scans, which seem to show clear, positive changes attributed to meditation. Such images are effective rhetorically but...