Halvor Eifring, "Hindu, Buddhist and Daoist
Meditation: Cultural Histories"
Dear members,
My edited book "Hindu, Buddhist and Daoist
Meditation: Cultural Histories"
has recently been published by Hermes Academic
Publishing.
Large waves of global interest in meditation over the
last half century have all focused on techniques stemming from Hinduism,
Buddhism and Daoism. This collection of essays explores selected topics from
the historical traditions underlying such practices. The book ventures far
beyond the well-known Hindu repetition of sounds, Buddhist attention to breath
and body, and Daoist movement of limbs and bodily energies. A picture emerges
of meditative traditions that are much richer and more diverse than our modern
viewpoint typically acknowledges. Many of the practices are also shown to be of
greater cultural relevance than commonly recognized.
Contents
The Uses of Attention: Elements of Meditative Practice ●
Halvor Eifring and Are Holen Can There Be a Cultural History of Meditation?
With Special Reference to India ● Johannes Bronkhorst Words for “Meditation” in
Classical Yoga and Early Buddhism ● Jens Braarvig “Creative Contemplation”
(Bhāvanā) in the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra ● Bettina Bäumer ‘Sharada’
The First Absorption (Dhyāna) in Early Indian Buddhism: A
Study of Source Material from the Madhyama-āgama ● Bhikkhu Anālayo Vipassanā in
Burma: Self-government and the Ledi Ānāpāna Tradition ● Gustaaf Houtman
Contemplation of the Repulsive: Bones and Skulls as Objects of Meditation ●
Bart Dessein Red Snakes and Angry Queen Mothers: Hallucinations and Epiphanies
in Medieval Daoist Meditation ● Stephen Eskildsen Daoist Clepsydra-Meditation:
Late Medieval Quánzhēn Monasticism and Communal Meditation ● Louis Komjathy
The book is available for purchase at
tories_of_meditation/hindu_buddhist_and_daoist_meditation_cultural_histories
Libraries may also buy the book online, or contact the
publisher at hermesac@online.no.
Kind regards,
Halvor Eifring
