Rethinking Meditation
September 14, 2023
David L. Mcmahan
Abstract: Contemplations of the insides of bodies and of corpses in early meditation literature show that seeing the body “as it is” was not bare, nonconceptual, value-neutral awareness but a matter of highlighting the body’s vulnerability and foulness and creating a sense of detachment and distaste toward it. Other meditations in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta present Buddhist taxonomies through which...
Rethinking Meditation
September 14, 2023
David L. Mcmahan
Abstract: In classical Buddhist literature, meditative practices were usually geared toward transcendent freedom, but they also served immanent purposes. In the West, the freedom that meditation leads to is often interpreted along lines of western theories of autonomy. There is a tension between the “inner citadel” model, in which meditation creates an interior space of invulnerability to...
Rethinking Meditation
September 14, 2023
David L. Mcmahan
Abstract: The ethic of authenticity in modern western thought envisions individuals in their uniqueness in an antagonistic relationship to the surrounding cultural norms. One’s unique, authentic self is discovered or created by transcending cultural conditioning. As Buddhist meditation became intertwined with western thought, it came to be seen as a method for overcoming alienation and social...
British Journal of Educational Studies
September 14, 2023
Francis Jonathan Gilbert
5 citations
This article explores a case study of a mindfulness teacher, Beth, and her experiences of teaching mindfulness to 11- to 16-year-olds in several English schools. It shows why Beth was drawn to teaching mindfulness, which was both to alleviate the stress amongst her pupils and improve her own mental health. It illustrates how and why she became a confident, successful mindfulness teacher: she...
Rethinking Meditation
September 14, 2023
David L. Mcmahan
Abstract Rather than understanding meditation as an objective ascertainment of private internal contents of consciousness, this chapter theorizes meditative experiences as a systemic part of the ecology of a sociocultural system. Like patients and their doctors, meditators negotiate the significance of their experiences with teachers, texts, and traditions. This dialogue shapes not only the...
Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
September 14, 2023
Jinan He
In recent years, people's lives have changed dramatically due to COVID-19, and in many places people have been forced to stay at home, keep social distance from friends, or be forcibly quarantined in order to comply with outbreak control policies. This has made anxiety a psychological problem that people have to deal with. However, many people have little knowledge of the causes of anxiety or...
Rethinking Meditation
September 14, 2023
David L. Mcmahan
Abstract This chapter brings early Buddhist meditation literature—especially the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta—into conversation with ideas in phenomenology and cognitive science that address the distinction between conscious, effortful activity and habitual activity rooted in the tacit assumptions, dispositions, and categories of a particular cultural context. Some meditation practices disrupt the tacit...
Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being
September 14, 2023
Renae M. Stevenson
The setting of policing exposes its officers to a host of negative health outcomes physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually. Policing mindsets around accessing mental health are far from fixing the epidemic of its mental health crisis or being able to sustain a healthy workforce. Policing is losing the battle with a misguided and a scientifically misinformed war on drugs. Canadian...
Aging & Mental Health
September 13, 2023
Ekaterina Denkova, Jordan Barry, Anthony P Zanesco et al.
Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic drastically accelerated the need for studies examining the effectiveness of programs to bolster psychological well-being, particularly for at-risk groups, such as older adults (OAs). Mindfulness Training (MT) has been suggested as a well-suited program for this purpose. The present study examined the impact of a 4-week online, trainer-led MT course tailored for...
Schizophrenia
September 13, 2023
Bo-Mi Lee, Sung-Wan Kim, Bong Ju Lee et al.
Virtual reality (VR) technology can be a supporting tool to enhance mindfulness. Recently, many research using VR-based mindfulness (VBM) has been carried out in various psychiatric disorders but not in psychosis. We investigated safety and effects of virtual reality-based mindfulness (VBM) in patients with psychosis as a pilot study. Sixty-four patients were randomly assigned to VBM or to VR...