Table of Contents
NEW BOOK> Asian Traditions of Meditation, ed. by Halvor Eifring
by Charles Muller
University of Hawai'i Press272pp. October 2016
Cloth - Price: $65.00ISBN:
978-0-8248-5568-0
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-9673-9780824855680.aspxTable of Contents
1 What Is Meditation?
HALVOR EIFRING
2 Types of Meditation
HALVOR EIFRING
3 Samādhi in the Yoga Sūtras
EDWIN F. BRYANT
4 Yantra and Cakra in Tantric Meditation
MADHU KHANNA
5 The History of Jaina Meditation
JOHANNES BRONKHORST
6 Nām Simran in the Sikh Religion
KRISTINA MYRVOLD
7 Meditation Objects in Pāli Buddhist Texts
SARAH SHAW
8 Tibetan Longevity Meditation
GEOFFREY SAMUEL
9 Kànhuà Meditation in Chinese Zen
MORTEN SCHLÜTTER
10 Meditation in the Classical Daoist Tradition
HAROLD D. ROTH
11 “Quiet Sitting” in Neo-Confucianism
11 “Quiet Sitting” in Neo-Confucianism
MASAYA MABUCHI
12 The Science of Meditation
12 The Science of Meditation
ARE HOLEN
Book Description (from UHP web site)
Meditation has flourished in different parts of the world
ever since the foundations of the great civilizations were laid. It played a
vital role in the formation of Asian cultures that trace much of their heritage
to ancient India and China. This volume brings together for the first time
studies of the major traditions of Asian meditation as well as material on
scientific approaches to meditation. It delves deeply into the individual
traditions while viewing each of them from a global perspective, examining both
historical and generic connections between meditative practices from numerous
historical periods and different parts of the Eurasian continent. It seeks to
identify the cultural and historical peculiarities of Asian schools of
meditation while recognizing basic features of meditative practice across
cultures, thereby taking the first step toward a framework for the comparative
study of meditation.
The book, accessibly written by scholars from several fields, opens with chapters that discuss the definition and classification of meditation. These are followed by contributions on Yoga and Tantra, which are often subsumed under the broad label of Hinduism; Jainism and Sikhism, Indian traditions not usually associated with meditation; Buddhist approaches found in Southeast Asia, Tibet, and China; and the indigenous Chinese traditions, Daoism and Neo-Confucianism. The final chapter explores recent scientific interest in meditation, which, despite its Western orientation, remains almost exclusively concerned with practices of Asian origin.
Until a few years ago a major obstacle to the study of specific meditation practices within the traditions explored here was a widespread scholarly orientation that prioritized doctrinal issues and sociocultural contexts over actual practice. The contributors seek to counter this bias and supplement concerns over doctrine and context with the historical study of meditative practice.
Asian Traditions of Meditation will appeal broadly to readers interested in meditation, mindfulness, and spirituality and those in the emerging field of contemplative education, as well as students and scholars of Asian and religious studies. It is the fourth and last volume in the series of books within the Cultural Histories of Meditation project, the other three volumes being Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), Hindu, Buddhist and Daoist Meditation (Hermes Academic, 2014), and Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), all edited by Halvor Eifring. In addition comes a volume in Chinese, 東亞的靜坐傳統 (National Taiwan University Press, 2012), edited by Rur-bin Yang, Masaya Mabuchi and Halvor Eifring.
The book, accessibly written by scholars from several fields, opens with chapters that discuss the definition and classification of meditation. These are followed by contributions on Yoga and Tantra, which are often subsumed under the broad label of Hinduism; Jainism and Sikhism, Indian traditions not usually associated with meditation; Buddhist approaches found in Southeast Asia, Tibet, and China; and the indigenous Chinese traditions, Daoism and Neo-Confucianism. The final chapter explores recent scientific interest in meditation, which, despite its Western orientation, remains almost exclusively concerned with practices of Asian origin.
Until a few years ago a major obstacle to the study of specific meditation practices within the traditions explored here was a widespread scholarly orientation that prioritized doctrinal issues and sociocultural contexts over actual practice. The contributors seek to counter this bias and supplement concerns over doctrine and context with the historical study of meditative practice.
Asian Traditions of Meditation will appeal broadly to readers interested in meditation, mindfulness, and spirituality and those in the emerging field of contemplative education, as well as students and scholars of Asian and religious studies. It is the fourth and last volume in the series of books within the Cultural Histories of Meditation project, the other three volumes being Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), Hindu, Buddhist and Daoist Meditation (Hermes Academic, 2014), and Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), all edited by Halvor Eifring. In addition comes a volume in Chinese, 東亞的靜坐傳統 (National Taiwan University Press, 2012), edited by Rur-bin Yang, Masaya Mabuchi and Halvor Eifring.
