During the era of the Republic of China, a number of Buddhists rediscovered early meditation techniques. These practices were mainly revived from canonical scriptures, following a modern text-based approach to Buddhism. Within this framework, specific attention was devoted to the ‘visualization of the impure’ (bujing guan 不淨觀, Sk. aśubhabhāvanā), particularly in the form of the visualization of...
Interventional yoga studies with an active control group remain scarce and are important to clarify the underlying neurobiology. We conducted an interventional study in healthy controls using simultaneous positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) imaging and psychometric scales. Thirty healthy, female volunteers (28.4 ± 8.4 years) participated and were randomly assigned to a...
Archiv EuromedicaOctober 17, 2021Lavinia-Alexandra Moroianu, Marius Moroianu, Anamaria Ciubară3 citations
Marijuana is the most widely used psychoactive substance after coffee and it is used for both medical and recreational purposes. It has been known since ancient times and it seems to have been part of the mixture that was put in the pipe of “peace” by Native Americans. Marijuana is psychically addictive, but in its case, there is no physical addiction as in the case of high-risk drugs (heroin)...
Abstract This article argues that the Indian philosopher-mystic Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) espoused a sophisticated form of cosmopsychism that has great contemporary relevance. After first discussing Aurobindo’s prescient reflections on the “central problem of consciousness” and his arguments against materialist reductionism, I explain how he developed a panentheistic philosophy of “realistic...
Beginning with a study of the basic components of the physical world, Almada is developing an explanation of the emergence of the conscious mind. In order to recognize and publicize this enterprise, which is not yet finished, this note (i) offers an overview of Almada’s approach; (ii) challenges his optimism with the well-known hard problem of consciousness; and (iii) argues that his research...
Purpose: the aim of this study is to introduce and enable research at the intersection of information behaviour studies and contemplative studies by proposing yoga as a research context in everyday life.Methodology: This conceptual paper builds on discussions of the everyday information behaviour, transcendental Information, and pleasure and profound in information science. First, contemplation...
Consciousness is multi-dimensional but is most often portrayed with a two-dimensional (2D) map that has global levels or states on one axis and phenomenal contents on the other. On this map, awareness is conflated either with general alertness or with phenomenal content. This contributes to ongoing difficulties in the scientific understanding of consciousness. Previously, I have proposed that...
ABSTRACT While teaching a secondary gender studies course, high school teacher “Eleanor” found that though most students identified as queer and expressed interest in disrupting normative understandings of genders and sexualities, their classroom contributions often reified problematic norms. She implemented what she termed a Queer Contemplative Pedagogy to challenge students to think more...
As a recent survey of religious artifacts in the British Museum attests (MacGregor, 2018), religions exist in enormous varieties and have been ubiquitous globally and throughout history. This observation has led to the creation of the subdiscipline of psychology focused on religion which, although not as well-established as older subdisciplines such as social, cognitive and developmental...
Evidence suggests that substantial and robust community engagement is essential to local urban governance. In this paper, we reflect on the importance of a more comprehensive approach to community engagement that values both the cognitive and the affective, the technical and the relational, and the outer and inner dimensions of human experiences. The intangible and inner dimensions receive...