The Relevance of Alan Watts in Contemporary Culture
October 2, 2015
S. Gordon
Alan Watts (1915–1973) was a religious philosopher and interpreter of Zen Buddhism and Indian and Chinese philosophy to the West. Francisco Varela (1946–2001) was a biologist, a neuroscientist, and practitioner-scholar of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Watts and Varela share common interest in Buddhist and phenomenological approaches to human experience. In this article, I explore intersections of...
Ilu Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones
October 1, 2015
A.M. Gutiérrez
3 citations
Music can affect the individual in all its physical, mental and spiritual levels. This article focuses on the role that it plays in the development of spiritual and transcendental life. To do this, we will make a historical review of its aesthetic and social development, will address this phenomenon physiologically and present their clinical and social applications. Then and as an example of...
Geriatrics & gerontology international
October 1, 2015
Márcia De Fátima Rosas Marchiori, Elisa Harumi Kozasa, Roberto Dischinger Miranda et al.
The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of Zen meditation on blood pressure (BP) and quality of life in elderly subjects. A total of 59 volunteers (21 men and 38 women), aged ≥60 years with systolic BP between 130 and 159 mmHg and diastolic BP between 85 and 99 mmHg, were randomly divided into a meditation group (MG), n = 28 and a control group (CG), n = 31. The MG meditated twice a day...
Girasol/Revista humanidades
September 13, 2015
Katherine M. Iverson
Este ensayo destaca la importancia del sujeto en los estudios de la conciencia. Inicia con el “problema duro” del nexo psicofísico según David Chalmers, Thomas Nagel y Colin McGinn. Luego se exponen el materialismo y el dualismo en contraste con la ontología budista, seguido de una breve descripción de la neurofenomenología de Francisco Varela. Finalmente, se presenta la meditación budista como...
Journal of Anatomical Society of India
September 1, 2015
Biju Urumese Pallatty, Asha Joselet Mathew, T.s. Tintu
Food is medicine and vice versa. In Hindu and Ayurvedic medicine, and among human cultures of the Indian subcontinent in general, the perception of the food-medicine continuum is especially well established. The preparation of the exhilarating, gold-coloured Soma, Amrita or Ambrosia, the elixir and food of the 'immortals'–the Hindu pantheon–by the ancient Indo-Aryans, is described in the...
Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria
August 29, 2015
Guaraci Ken Tanaka, Caroline Peressutti, Silmar Teixeira et al.
Acute and long-term effects of mindfulness meditation on theta-band activity are not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate frontal theta differences between long- and short-term mindfulness practitioners before, during, and after mindfulness meditation. Twenty participants were recruited, of which 10 were experienced Buddhist meditators. Despite an acute increase in the theta activity...
Routledge eBooks
August 27, 2015
Sheldon Z. Kramer
1 citation
This chapter establishes Kabbalistic concepts and methods and demonstrates how these teachings are used to heal psychological discord and spiritual deprivation. The mystical dimension can be integrated into everyday life when one follows an inner and outer discipline reflecting these teachings. The chapter explains combining mindfulness-based cognitive therapy which helps to decrease anxiety...
Scientific Reports
August 27, 2015
Sebastian T Philipp, Tobias Kalisch, Thomas Wachtler et al.
Bodily training typically evokes behavioral and perceptual gains, enforcing neuroplastic processes and affecting neural representations. We investigated the effect on somatosensory perception of a three-day Zen meditation exercise, a purely mental intervention. Tactile spatial discrimination of the right index finger was persistently improved by only 6 hours of mental-sensory focusing on this...
Transcultural Psychiatry
August 1, 2015
Chikako Ozawa-de Silva
Mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition involves a variety of practices, and contemporary secular forms of mindfulness practices, therapies, and interventions can similarly be broadened to include more of these forms. The Japanese practice of Naikan takes one mindfulness practice from the Buddhist tradition--that of recollecting the kindness of others--and asks clients to engage in this practice...
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions
August 1, 2015
Natasha L. Mikles, Joseph P. Laycock
Since the 1970s, tulpas have been a feature of Western paranormal lore. In contemporary paranormal discourse, a tulpa is a being that begins in the imagination but acquires a tangible reality and sentience. Tulpas are created either through a deliberate act of individual will or unintentionally from the thoughts of numerous people. The tulpa was first described by Alexandra David-Néel...