ABSTRACT This paper examines two issues. The first is the apparent lack of auto/biographical composition within Southern Buddhism. Various reasons are suggested for this absence, such as monastic rulings, recent customs on public declaration of mental state and attainment, and the lack of the formal lineage transmissions that characterise some other forms of Buddhist practice. The paper then...
Background: This research aims to develop new methods to investigate the cardiorespiratory interaction of Zen-meditation practitioners (Zen-meditation group) and healthy ordinary young people (control group) by quantitatively evaluating respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) behavior. Methods: Twenty-five voluntary controls and seven Zen-meditation practitioners were recruited. The experimental...
The article examines Allen Ginsberg’s cultural and spiritual journeys, and traces the poet’s paths as foreshadowing those of many American Jews of the last generation. Ginsberg was a unique individual, whose choices were very different other men of his era. However, it was larger developments in American society that allowed him to take steps that were virtually unthinkable during his parents’...
In contemporary Western society, meditation techniques that were previously taught within the context of Eastern religious traditions are now increasingly being practiced in secular settings. While the boundary between the secular and the religious is blurred, popular meditation techniques such as Transcendental Meditation, vipassana, and mindfulness are generally promoted as being derived from...
The achievement of independence in 1948 was in many ways a watershed in Burma’s history. At this time, a variety of Buddhist movements emerged that were part not only of a ‘Burmese Buddhist revival’, in which even the government was involved, but also a general re-enchantment of Asia. In the period following World War II, projects of nation-building and further modernization were implemented in...
The article focuses on the practice of mindfulness, which has migrated from being part of a religion, Buddhism, to being an integral part of Western psychology. Mindfulness is especially used in cognitive behavioural therapy, but also in, e.g., dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). In Sweden several doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists use and...
This book offers an engaging philosophical overview of Tibetan Buddhist thought. It shows the way that Buddhist theory informs Buddhist practice across various Tibetan traditions in ways that integrate competing and complimentary perspectives on the nature of mind and reality. The book draws upon a contrast between phenomenology and ontology to highlight distinct starting points of inquiries...
Buddhism has traditionally focused on epistemological and psychological causes of suffering in individuals: deluded perception, greed, and ill will.Buddhist compassionate action seeks to free people from those inner causes of suffering, through contemplative, ritual and ethical practices.Christian liberation theology focuses on oppressive social systems as main causes of suffering, and on...
The purpose of this paper is to familiarize researchers, scholars, and interested readers with the historical influence of Japanese Buddhist Zen meditation techniques on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) research and practice. The role of D.T. Suzuki is discussed as one of the most influential scholars to transmit information to the West. MBSR techniques, format, and evidence are also...
философия и медитация В китайском БуддизмеСтатья посвящена проблеме отношения философии и медитации в учении школ китайского буддизма.Рассматриваются место и роль философии как теоретического обоснования путей и методов спасения, а также медитации как центрального звена в сотериологии буддизма.В этой связи дается анализ теории двух истин школы саньлунь, в которой делается упор на вневербальном...