A revolutionary, science-based approach to meditation from a neuroscientist turned meditation master, The Mind Illuminated is an accessible, step-by-step toolkit for anyone looking to start—or improve—their daily meditation practice.

The book that bestselling meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg raves “brings the path of meditation to life,” The Mind Illuminated is the first how-to meditation guide from a neuroscientist who is also an acclaimed meditation master. This innovative book offers a 10-stage program that is both deeply grounded in ancient spiritual teachings about mindfulness and holistic health, and also draws from the latest brain science to provide a roadmap for anyone interested in achieving the benefits of mindfulness. Dr. John Yates offers a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, including steps to overcome mind wandering and dullness, extending your attention span while meditating, and subduing subtle distractions.

This groundbreaking manual provides illustrations and charts to help you work through each stage of the process, offering tools that work across all types of meditation practices. The Mind Illuminated is an essential read, whether you are a beginner wanting to establish your practice or a seasoned veteran ready to master the deepest state of peace and mindfulness.

Diversity is a buzzword of our times and yet the extent of religious diversity in Western societies is generally misconceived. This ground-breaking research draws attention to the journey of one migrant religious institution in an era of religious superdiversity. Based on a sociolinguistic ethnography in a Tamil Saivite temple in Australia, the book explores the challenges for the institution in maintaining its linguistic and cultural identity in a new context. The temple is faced with catering for devotees of diverse ethnicities, languages, and religious interpretations; not to mention divergent views between different generations of migrants who share ethnicity and language. At the same time, core members of the temple seek to continue religious and cultural practices according to the traditions of their homelands in Sri Lanka, a country where their identity and language has been under threat. The study offers a rich picture of changing language practices in a diasporic religious institution. Perera inspects language ideology considerations in the design of institutional language policy and how such policy manifests in language use in the temple spaces. This includes the temple's Sunday school where heritage language and religion interplay in second-generation migrant adolescents' identifications and discourse.

This book is the first in-depth study of the Saiva oeuvre of the celebrated polymath Appaya Diksita (1520-1593). Jonathan Duquette documents the rise to prominence and scholarly reception of Sivadvaita Vedanta, a Sanskrit-language school of philosophical theology which Appaya single-handedly established, thus securing his reputation as a legendary advocate of Saiva religion in early modern India. Based to a large extent on hitherto unstudied primary sources in Sanskrit, Duquette offers new insights on Appaya's early polemical works and main source of Sivadvaita exegesis, Srikantha's Brahmamimamsabhasya; identifies Appaya's key intellectual influences and opponents in his reconstruction of Srikantha's theology; and highlights some of the key arguments and strategies he used to make his ambitious project a success. Centred on his magnum opus of Sivadvaita Vedanta, the Sivarkamanidipika, this book demonstrates that Appaya's Saiva oeuvre was mainly directed against Visistadvaita Vedanta, the dominant Vaisnava school of philosophical theology in his time and place. A far-reaching study of the challenges of Indian theism, this book opens up new possibilities for our understanding of religious debates and polemics in early modern India as seen through the lenses of one of its most important intellectuals.

The Shoshinge is a gatha of particular importance from The Kyogyoshinso by Shinran (1173-1262). Living in Nenbutsu is a translation of, and commentary on the Shoshinge, which means Hymn on the Right Faith in Nenbutsu. In the teaching of Pure Land Buddhism, the term is usually understood as a particular 'practice' by virtue of which we attain birth in the Pure Land and ultimately the 'realisation' of Supreme Enlightenment. The Shin Buddhist notion of Nenbutsu, however, is something entirely different. In Shin Buddhism the Nenbutsu is actually seen as the working of Amida Buddha's great love and compassion, his call to all of us sentient beings to come to him just as we are without any reservation. This new translation and commentary will explore the Shoshinge in all its depth and meaning.

This collection of multi/inter-disciplinary essays explores the transformative potential of Ashwani Kumar's work on meditative inquiry - a holistic approach to teaching, learning, researching, creating, and living - in diverse educational contexts. Aspiring to awaken awareness, intelligence, compassion, collaboration, and aesthetic sensibility among students and their teachers through self-reflection, critique, dialogue, and creative exploration, this volume: Showcases unique ways in which scholars from diverse disciplinary, cultural, and geographic contexts have engaged with meditative inquiry in their own fields. Provides a space where African, Asian, Buddhist, Indigenous, and Western scholars engage with the idea of meditative inquiry from their own cultural, philosophical, and spiritual traditions, perspectives, and practices. Explores a variety of themes in relation to meditative inquiry including arts-based research, poetic inquiry, Africentricity, Indigenous thinking, martial arts, positive psychology, trauma, dispute resolution, and critical discourse analysis. Offers insights into how the principles of meditative inquiry can be incorporated in classrooms and, thereby, contributes to the growing interest in mindfulness, meditation, and other holistic approaches in schools and academia. The diverse and rich contributions contained in this volume offer valuable perspectives and practices for scholars, students, and educators interested in exploring and adopting the principles of meditative inquiry in their specific fields and contexts.

This book addresses the recent transformations of popular Hinduism by focusing upon the religious cum artistic practice of Ramkatha, staged narratives of the Ramcharitmanas. Focusing on the sensory and media experiences, the author examines the aesthetics and dynamics of the Ramkatha ethnoscape through participant-observation in everyday practices, and how it particularly, translates politics from the realm of religion. Besides being socially constructed, the Ramkatha heavily relies on technologies for its production and continuation. Negotiated through a telling of Hindu religious stories, the mediated voice of Morari Bapu, a former school-teacher turned narrator, is a major medium of performance transposed into multiple media such as theatre, stage, music and spectacle. The book engages with voice as a vehicle of meaning to scrutinize its discursive production, imagination and re-production across mobile contexts. It investigates how the transnationally disseminated practices re-contextualize religious subjectivities of an affective community enmeshed in spatio-sensorial modes. The book will be of interest to academic audiences in the fields of South Asian Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, as well as Performance Studies and Religious Studies.

This book offers an original phenomenological description of mindfulness and related phenomena, such as concentration (samadhi) and the practice of insight (vipassana). It demonstrates that phenomenological method has the power to reanimate ancient Buddhist texts, giving new life to the phenomena at which those texts point. Beginning with descriptions of how mindfulness is encountered in everyday, pre-philosophical life, the book moves on to an analysis of how the Pali Nikayas of Theravada Buddhism define mindfulness and the practice of cultivating it. It then offers a critique of the contemporary attempts to explain mindfulness as a kind of attention. The author argues that mindfulness is not attention, nor can it be understood as a mere modification of the attentive process. Rather, becoming mindful involves a radical shift in perspective. According to the author's account, being mindful is the feeling of being tuned-in to the open horizon, which is contrasted with Edmund Husserl's transcendental horizon. The book also elucidates the difference between the practice of cultivating mindfulness with the practice of the phenomenological epoche, which reveals new possibilities for the practice of phenomenology itself. Phenomenological Reflections on Mindfulness in the Buddhist Tradition will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in phenomenology, Buddhist philosophy, and comparative philosophy.

In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, and those glorifying the Sun, Surya, found in the Marka??eya Pura?a, this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the Marka??eya Pura?a privileging worldly values, of which Indian kings, the Goddess (Devi), the Sun (Surya), Manu and Marka??eya himself are paragons. This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the Marka??eya Pura?a houses the Devi Mahatmya glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, it also houses a Surya Mahatmya, glorifying the supremacy of the Sun, Surya, in much the same manner. This book argues that these mahatmyas were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the Marka??eya Pura?a, while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the Saura-Sakta symbiosis found in these mirrored mahatmyas. Moreover, the author explores what he calls the "dharmic double helix" of Brahmanism, most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between prav?tti (worldly) and niv?tti (other-worldy) dharmas. As the first narrative study of the Surya Mahatmya, along with the first study of the Marka??eya Pura?a (or any Pura?a), as a narrative whole, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Religion, Hindu Studies, South Asian Studies, Goddess Studies, Narrative Theory and Comparative Mythology.

Buddhism is essentially a teaching about liberation - from suffering, ignorance, selfishness and continued rebirth. Knowledge of 'the way things really are' is thought by many Buddhists to be vital in bringing about this emancipation. This book is a philosophical study of the notion of liberating knowledge as it occurs in a range of Buddhist sources. Buddhism, Knowledge and Liberation assesses the common Buddhist idea that knowledge of the three characteristics of existence (impermanence, not-self and suffering) is the key to liberation. It argues that this claim must be seen in the context of the Buddhist path and training as a whole. Detailed attention is also given to anti-realist, sceptical and mystical strands within the Buddhist tradition, all of which make distinctive claims about liberating knowledge and the nature of reality. David Burton seeks to uncover various problematic assumptions which underpin the Buddhist worldview. Sensitive to the wide diversity of philosophical perspectives and interpretations that Buddhism has engendered, this book makes a serious contribution to critical and philosophically aware engagement with Buddhist thought. Written in an accessible style, it will be of value to those interested in Buddhist Studies and broader issues in comparative philosophy and religion.

Originating in India, Mahayana Buddhism spread across Asia, becoming the prevalent form of Buddhism in Tibet and East Asia. Over the last twenty-five years Western interest in Mahayana has increased considerably, reflected both in the quantity of scholarly material produced and in the attraction of Westerners towards Tibetan Buddhism and Zen.

Paul Williams Mahayana Buddhism is widely regarded as the standard introduction to the field, used internationally for teaching and research and has been translated into several European and Asian languages. This new edition has been fully revised throughout in the light of the wealth of new studies and focuses on the religion 's diversity and richness. It includes much more material on China and Japan, with appropriate reference to Nepal, and for students who wish to carry their study further there is a much-expanded bibliography and extensive footnotes and cross-referencing. Everyone studying this important tradition will find Williams book the ideal companion to their studies.

The demolition of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 was an event as significant as it was unexpected. In this book, nine scholars (Theodore P. Wright, Jr., John J. Carroll, Matthew A. Cook, Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Subhas C. Kashyap, Steven A. Hoffman, Srinivas Tilak, Koenraad Elst, and Vasudha Narayanan) explore the myriad significances of this event for the Hindu and Muslim communities, and for the relations between them, in India.

Japanese film is enduringly fascinating, challenging and rewarding. This book provides a cultural, historical and philosophical study of Japanese film, from the silent era to the present, focusing on its expansive consciousness. The author examines masterpieces by Yasujir? Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Nagisa Oshima and many other directors, discussing their influence on the Japanese culture of esoteric Zen Buddhism and relating them to recent neuroscientific theories of brain trauma.

Drawing on evidence from a wide range of classical Chinese texts, this book argues that xingershangxue, the study of "beyond form", constitutes the core argument and intellectual foundation of Daoist philosophy. The author presents Daoist xingershangxue as a typical concept of metaphysics distinct from that of the natural philosophy and metaphysics of ancient Greece since it focusses on understanding the world beyond perceivable objects and phenomena as well as names that are definable in their social, political, or moral structures. In comparison with other philosophical traditions in the East and West, the book discusses the ideas of dao, de, and "spontaneously self-so", which shows Daoist xingershangxue's theoretical tendency to transcendence. The author explains the differences between Daoist philosophy and ancient Greek philosophy and proposes that Daoist philosophy is the study of xingershangxue in nature, providing a valuable resource for scholars interested in Chinese philosophy, Daoism, and comparative philosophy.

The Routledge International Handbook of Charisma provides an unprecedented multidimensional and multidisciplinary comparative analysis of the phenomenon of charisma - first defined by Max Weber as the irrational bond between deified leader and submissive follower. It includes broad overviews of foundational theories and experiences of charisma and of associated key issues and themes. Contributors include 45 influential international scholars who approach the topic from different disciplinary perspectives and utilize examples from an array of historical and cultural settings. The Handbook presents up-to-date, concise, thought-provoking, innovative, and informative perspectives on charisma as it has been expressed in the past and as it continues to be manifested in the contemporary world by leaders ranging from shamans to presidents. It is designed to be essential reading for all students, researchers, and general readers interested in achieving a comprehensive understanding of the power and potential of charismatic authority in all its varieties, subtleties, dynamics, and current and potential directions.

An examination of the contemporary practices, beliefs, and issues of one of the world's oldest and most enduring religions, both within its Indian homeland and throughout the world. Contemporary Hinduism: Ritual, Culture, and Practice illuminates the modern-day ritual, range, and reach of this ancient and diverse religion. A brief historical overview is followed by discussions of the oral and written origins of Hinduism that give context for the main emphasis-contemporary thought, practice, and key issues. Unique to this work is the consistent attention given to the practice of Hinduism for both men and women. What roles do caste and gender play in modern Hinduism? How are issues like ethics and the environment approached? What are the differences between urban and rural Hinduism, fundamental and secular Hinduism? To what countries has this religion spread, and how do the beliefs and practices of their people compare and contrast? Essays written by Indian and Western scholars answer these and other intriguing questions, introducing readers to the whole world of "living Hinduism" rather than the perspectives and traditions of a small elite. Ten essays explore the history, modern practice, and contemporary issues of Hinduism Maps including ancient and contemporary India and the Hindu diaspora, as well as illustrations within individual essays The book includes a glossary of terms and a guide to pronouncing words from Indian languages A comprehensive introductory essay provides a basic historical overview and addresses the development of the definition and study of Hinduism

Originally published in 1916. Author: Ananda Coomaraswamy D.Sc. Language: English Keywords: Religion Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Freedom of religion is an issue of universal interest and scope. However, in the last two centuries at least, the philosophical, religious and legal terms of the question have been largely defined in the West. In an increasingly global world, widening our knowledge of this right's roots in different cultural and legal systems becomes a priority. This Handbook seeks to attain this goal through a better understanding of the historical roots and expressions of the right to freedom of religion on the one hand and, on the other, of its theological background in different religious traditions. History and theology provide the setting for the analysis of the politics of freedom of religion, that is, how this right is used in the context of the dialogue/confrontation between countries placed in different cultural regions of the world, and of the legal strategies and tools that have been developed and are employed to protect and foster the right to freedom of religion. Behind these legal and political strategies, there is an ongoing debate about the nature of this right, whose main features are explored in the final section. Global, historical and interdisciplinary in approach, this book studies the new relevance of freedom of religion worldwide and develops suitable categories to analyze and understand the role that freedom of religion can play in managing religious and cultural diversity in our societies. Authored by experts, through the contributions collected in these chapters, scholars and students will be able to broaden and deepen their knowledge of the right to freedom of religion and to develop the ability to go beyond the borders of the different cultural environments in which this right took shape and developed.

This book analyzes the contemporary global revival of Nondual Saivism, a thousand-year-old medieval Hindu religious philosophy. Providing a historical overview of the seminal people and groups responsible for the revival, the book compares the tradition's medieval Indian origins to modern forms, which are situated within distinctively contemporary religious, economic and technological contexts. The author bridges the current gap in the literature between "insider" (emic) and "outsider" (etic) perspectives by examining modern Nondual Saivism from multiple standpoints as both a critical scholar of religion and an empathetic participant-observer. The book explores modern Nondual Saivism in relation to recent scholarly debates concerning the legitimacy of New Age consumptive spirituality, the global spiritual marketplace and the contemporary culture of narcissism. It also analyzes the dark side of the revived tradition, and investigates contemporary teachers accused of sexual abuse and illegal financial activities in relation to unique features of Nondual Saivism's theosophy and modern scholarship on new religious movements (NRMs) and cults. This book shows that, although Kashmir Saivism has been adopted by certain teachers and groups to market their own brand of "High Tantra," some contemporary practitioners have remained true to the system's fundamental tenets and teach authentic (albeit modern) forms of Nondual Saivism. This book will be of interest to academics in the fields of religion and Asian philosophies, especially South Asian, tantric, neo-tantric and yoga philosophies, alternative and New Age spiritualities, religion and consumerism, and NRMs and cults. Winner of the inaugural 2021 New Zealand Asia Society Book Award, second prize.

This work contains almost everything written by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, his inspired compositions, and a number of translations from ancient Advaitic texts, representing the essence of his teachings. They fall into two categories-those which exemplify the path of surrender through love and devotion to the Divine, and those which are more doctrinal. The first group included the Five Hymns to Sri Arunachala, of which the first poem, The Marital Garland of Letters, "is among the most profound and moving poems in any language" and expressses the attitude of the soul aspiring for union with God. Sri Bhagavan has affirmed that seekers who study these works are certain to attain the Bliss of Liberation.

Ideal for anyone with an interest in Hindu temple dance, Manipur dance, cross-cultural collaborations, and the globalising of Indian Classical Dance Comprehensive study of how an exceptional Hindu dance form developed on the global stage. Provides insight into the globalisation of Manipuri dance

This volume of Sangharakshita's Complete Works includes Facing Mount Kanchenjunga, the second in the series of his memoirs, and, in Dear Dinoo, some very personal letters.Facing Mount Kanchenjunga covers the period 1950-1953, beginning with Sangharakshita's arrival in Kalimpong as a twenty-four-year-old sramanera, and his response to his teacher's injunction to 'stay here and work for the good of Buddhism!' In the pages that follow we are drawn into a deeply committed Dharma life lived in unusual circumstances and among some very colourful characters.As he recalls the significant events of those years - the setting up of the Kalimpong Young Men's Buddhist Association; the creation of a new Buddhist journal, whose contributors included Conze, Guenther, Govinda and other leading Buddhist writers of the time; accompanying the Sacred Relics of the Buddha's chief disciples; advising on the making of a Buddhist film; giving lectures; discovering Dharmapala; meeting Dhardo Rimpoche; in fact, working in every way to spread the Dharma - Sangharakshita also affords the reader glimpses of his inner life, his struggles and disappointments, his aspirations and inspirations, his responses to the beauties of nature, and his feeling for friendship. The twenty-nine letters collected together in Dear Dinoo span the period 1955-1974, giving a sighting of Sangharakshita's life as he experienced it at the time, including what happened on the day of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's untimely death in 1956. We are also afforded a glimpse of the unusual friendship that sprung up between the young English monk and the Montessori teacher.Kalyanaprabha's Introduction highlights some of the significances of the correspondence, including reflections on Sangharakshita, Women, and Friendship. A friend who often appears in the letters, Dr Dinshaw Mehta, Servant of God, and one time naturopath to Gandhi, is the subject of the appendix.