Background: The practice of mantra chanting, especially in the Indian contemplative schools, has attracted the interest of its putative cognitive and psychological benefits. Nevertheless, few empirical studies have been conducted on specific Tantric mantras like Guru Mantra and Baglamukhi Mantra in particular with comparative designs utilizing broadly practitioners and non-practitioners....
The study of consciousness has been a key focus in both Eastern contemplative traditions and modern science. Yogic texts such as the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā (HYP) describe psychophysiological states and experiential phenomena that resemble concepts in parapsychology and neuropsychology. This review aimed to develop a theoretical framework explaining how yogic practices influence consciousness,...
Meditation has gained significant attention as a non-invasive approach for improving cognitive and emotional well-being through measurable changes in brain activity. This study presents a structured review of meditationbased neurophysiological research, focusing on electroencephalography (EEG), neuroimaging, and brain– computer interface (BCI) approaches. Unlike conventional descriptive...
This paper examines the discourse surrounding the relationship between meditation and psychological well-being from a historical perspective. While both Buddhist practitioners and psychotherapists aspire to a state of health, they appear to diverge on what this goal entails and how to achieve it. Influential voices such as Conze and Jung have argued that psychotherapy and Buddhist meditation...
CureusMay 1, 2026Anupinder Thind, Pravin M Pisudde, Sonia Kochhar
Medical education has long been acknowledged as a very stressful career path that exposes students to greater chances of anxiety and burnout. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the overall impact of yoga-based volitional breathing (pranayama) interventions on self-perceived stress and anxiety among medical students worldwide. The review analysis was...
This paper introduces the concept of egostasis (self-based goal-directed persistence behaviour) and proposes a novel neurophenomenological theory of the experience of suffering, grounded in the framework of active inference. We argue that psychological suffering is a transmodal, aversive state arising from prediction errors being attributed to a self-model. Chronic suffering is proposed to...
Mental health issues are rapidly increasing in India and around the world. Depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia—these words no longer sound alien. But when it comes to treatment, most people think only of medications and psychiatrists. This is where yoga and meditation come into play—not just as a traditional practice, but also as a scientifically proven treatment method. This chapter attempts...
This study examines the Vajra Exorcism Dance—commonly known as “Beating the Devils” (tiao buzha)—as performed at Yonghegong Lamasery in Beijing, positioning it as a quintessential example of monastic Nuoxi in which ritual form serves as the active embodiment of doctrinal content. By situating the performance within its historical, religious, and socio-political contexts, this paper argues that...
Ancient contemplative traditions offer sophisticated technologies for cultivating stable states of consciousness underlying sustainable well-being. This integrative review synthesizes empirical and theoretical literature on Patañjali’s Sanyam—the integrated practice of Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditative absorption), and Samadhi (non-dual awareness)—and its Zen parallel, Joriki...
The field of contemplative neuroscience has spent three decades building a sophisticated apparatus for operationalizing Buddhist phenomenological categories — producing mechanism-specific taxonomies, neurophenomenological methods, and tradition-specific psychometrics. The Eastern Christian hesychast tradition contains an equally systematic — and in certain respects scientifically more tractable...