International Journal of Dharma Studies
November 21, 2016
Andrew O. Fort
4 citations
In this article, I offer a brief history of the Contemplative Studies initiative at Texas Christian University, then discuss some of the theoretical underpinning for our program, indicating the value of contemplative pedagogy in academia and Religious Studies in particular. I argue that such pedagogy addresses central concerns of liberal arts education, that is, enhancing insight into and...
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature
November 19, 2016
Swati Samantaray
2 citations
Cosmic mysticism is an immediate experience of oneness with God by means of ecstatic and wordless contemplation. The Indian Renaissance poets Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo are spiritual humanists who believe that the entire creation is pervaded by the presence of God. Their exceptional minds have an instinctive urge to synthesize and transform, transmute and transcend the aspects of...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
November 15, 2016
Arturo Tozzi, Colin James, James F Peters
1 citation
preprint
Experimental procedures in neuroscience rely on the standpoints that the mind is a functional state of the brain and a clear subdivision among different mental faculties does exist in the cortex. According to cognitive neuroscientists, the term "mind" encompasses just the "cognitive" faculties, such as consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, memory, leaving apart the "emotional" states....
Scientific Reports
November 14, 2016
Goldy Yadav, P. Mutha
Paced deep breathing practices, a core component of a number of meditation programs, have been shown to enhance a variety of cognitive functions. However, their effects on complex processes such as memory, and in particular, formation and retention of motor memories, remain unknown. Here we show that a 30-minute session of deep, alternate-nostril breathing remarkably enhances retention of a...
Religions
November 14, 2016
Jeffrey S. Lidke
8 citations
This paper is a call for the development of a neuroscientific research protocol for the study of the impact of Tantric practice on the autonomic nervous system. Tantric texts like Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka map out a complex meditative ritual system in which inward-gazing, apophatic, sense-denying contemplative practices are combined with outward-gazing, kataphatic sense-activating ritual...
Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews
November 11, 2016
Olga Valieva, Leah M Welsh, Betty J. Amuzu et al.
Background: Patients with chronic pain are often crippled by psychological distress, depression and fear. These patients also can develop altered pain perception, with enhanced brain activity in pain-responsive regions and those associated with anxiety/depression. Exercise and meditation can impact pain-reducing brain areas and positively influence pain characteristics. Purpose: To alter pain...
Synthese
November 8, 2016
Hasen Khudairi
This paper challenges the soundness of the two-dimensional conceivability argument against the derivation of phenomenal truths from physical truths (cf. Chalmers in The conscious mind, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996; The character of consciousness, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010) in light of a hyperintensional regimentation of the ontology of consciousness. The regimentation...
Psychology Press eBooks
November 7, 2016
Christopher C. French
13 citations
A good case can be made that human beings are naturally intuitive dualists. For a number of reasons, we find it hard to believe that our subjective self-awareness is nothing more than complex patterns of neural activity and easy to believe, along with the great mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, that mind-stuff is irreducibly different to matter. This dualist position raises as many...
Walisongo: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Keagamaan
November 3, 2016
Muhammad Amin Syukur
This study reveals the Sufi healing, a therapy in the literature of Sufism. This study focuses on behaviors associated with the Sufi healing or prevention of disease, both physically and mentally, and then determines the aspects that support a system of rational and empirical therapy. The result achieved through this research is the discovery of an alternative treatment or prevention of...
Citizen Subject
November 1, 2016
Étienne Balibar
This chapter examines Descartes's references to the biblical sum qui sum and Ego sum in Descartes's Meditations, specifically from the Second Meditation onward, and how, “[b]y the idea of God,” Descartes might really not have meant “anything other than all men usually mean when they speak.” It posits that these references do not point to God, and that furthermore it was never God who designates...