Description
Book SynopsisMeditation techniques, including mindfulness, have become popular wellbeing practices and the scientific study of their effects has recently turned 50 years old. But how much do we know about them: what were they developed for and by whom? How similar or different are they, how effective can they be in changing our minds and biology, what are their social and ethical implications?The Oxford Handbook of Meditation is the most comprehensive volume published on meditation, written in accessible language by world-leading experts on the science and history of these techniques. It covers the development of meditation across the world and the varieties of its practices and experiences. It includes approaches from various disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, history, anthropology, and sociology and it explores its potential for therapeutic and social change, as well as unusual or negative effects. Edited by practitioner-researchers, this book is the ultimate guide for all interested in meditation, including teachers, clinicians, therapists, researchers, or anyone who would like to learn more about this topic.
Trade ReviewThe Oxford Handbook of Meditation offers ample resources that provide a useful overview of important questions currently being discussed in the field of meditation studies: the promise and limits of empirical research, the possibility of a transcultural science of meditation (and the risks necessarily involved in such a project), and comparative concerns about "meditation" across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. It can serve as an introduction to the field of meditation studies as well as provide direction for future research. Serious readers will no doubt agree that the Handbook successfully follows through on its promise to feed the wonder and desire to know of a wide audience of specialists and non-specialists alike. * Journal of Contemplative Studies *
Table of ContentsForeword Part I. Overview 1: Miguel Farias, David Brazier, & Mansur Lalljee: Understanding and studying meditation 2: Richard King: Meditation and the Modern Encounter between Asia and the West 3: Doug Oman: Studying the Effects of Meditation: The First Fifty Years Part II. Meditation across the World's Traditions 4: Gavin Flood: Hinduism and Meditation: Tantra 5: Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen: Hinduism and Meditation: Yoga 6: Tomer Persico: Judaism and Meditation 7: Martin Laird: Western Christianity and Meditation 8: Cyril Hovorun: Eastern Christianity and Meditation 9: Scott Kugle: Meditation in the Islamic Tradition 10: Sarah Shaw: Theravada Buddhism and Meditation 11: Caifang Zhu: Chan Buddhism and Meditation 12: Georgios Halkias: Buddhist Meditation in Tibet: Exoteric and Esoteric Orientations 13: Harold Roth: Classical Daoist Meditation: 400-100 B.C.E 14: Louis Komjathy: Daoist Meditation: From 100 CE to the Present Part III. Varieties of Meditative Practices and Experiences 15: Nobuyoshi Yamabe: Concentration and Visualization Techniques in Buddhist Meditation 16: Carlos do Carmo Silva: The Phenomenology of Meditation: Commonalities and Divergences between Christian Meditatio and Hindu Dhy?na 17: Jessica Frazier: The Self in Meditation: The art of self-transformation 18: Ayesha Nathoo: Relaxation and Meditation Part IV. Approaches to the Study of Meditation Biology and Neuroscience 19: Kieran C. R. Fox and B. Rael Cahn: Meditation and the brain 20: Dusana Dorjee: Psychophysiology of Meditation Psychology 21: Tim Lomas: Meditation and emotion 22: Ivana Buric & Inti Brazil: Individual differences in meditation outcomes 23: Peter Sedlmeier and Kunchapudi SrinivasDR: Psychological Theories of Meditation in Early Buddhism and S??khya/Yoga Sociology 24: Michal Pagis: The sociology of meditation 25: Conrad Hackett: The demographics of meditation in the United States Anthropology 26: Manu Bazzano: Meditation and the post-secular condition 27: Douglas E. Christie: Christian Contemplative Thought and Practice in the Contemporary World 28: Masoumeh Rahmani: Goenka's Vipassana Movement: From Conversion to Disaffiliation 29: Caroline Starkey: Meditation in Contemporary Monastic Life Part V. Individual and Social Change through Meditation Therapeutic Applications 30: Patricia Lynn Dobkin and Kaveh Monshat: Mental Illness Through the Lens of Mindfulness 31: Madhav Goyal and Heather L. Rusch: Mindfulness-based interventions in the treatment of physical conditions 32: David Orme-Johnson: Transcendental Meditation in the treatment of mental and physical conditions 33: David Brazier: Zen Therapy Social Change 34: Ann Gleig: Enacting Social Change Through Meditation 35: Candy Gunther Brown: Meditation and Education 36: Katherine M. Auty: Meditation in Prison Part VI. Debates and Controversies in Meditation 37: Jared R. Lindahl, Willoughby B. Britton, David J. Cooper, Laurence J. Kirmayer: Challenging and Adverse Meditation Experiences: Toward A Person-Centered Approach 38: Nathan Fisher: The Dark Nights of the Soul in Abrahamic Meditative Traditions 39: Juhn Y. Ahn: Meditation sickness 40: Brian Victoria: Meditation to kill and be killed by The Use of Sam?dhi Power (???) in Imperial Japan 41: Ron Purser and David Lewis: Neuroscience and meditation: Help or hindrance? 42: Etzel Cardeña: Meditation, Exceptional Psychophysiological Control, and Parapsychology 43: Deane H. Shapiro, Jr.: Reflections on the role of control in meditation
