Oxford Handbook of Meditation

Meditation 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.

List of contents

• Foreword


• Part I. Overview


• 1: Miguel Farias, David Brazier, and 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 and Inti Brazil: Individual differences in meditation outcomes


• 23: Peter Sedlmeier and Kunchapudi Srinivas_: 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 t

  About the author

  Miguel Farias, BSc (Lisbon), MA (Wales), DPhil (Oxford) is the founding director of the Brain, Belief, & Behaviour Lab at Coventry University. After his doctorate in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University (2000-2004), he was a Research Fellow at Cambridge University and Oxford University (2005-2007) and a Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University (2008-2013). His work focuses on the psychobiology of spiritual practices and beliefs, and in 2017 he won the William Bier award, given by the American Psychological Association, Division 36, for his outstanding contribution to research in the psychology of religion and spirituality. He is a regular speaker at Science festivals, and his popular book with Catherine Wikholm, 'The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?', has been translated into various languages.
  
  David Brazier, MA, PhD (Keele University) is president of the International Zen Therapy Institute, author of a dozen books and many chapters, monographs and articles on Buddhism, psychology and culture, a Buddhist priest, and head of a religious order. He holds professional qualifications in psychotherapy, social work and management and is an authority on Buddhist psychology. In the past he has practised as a psychotherapist and previously in social work, setting up rehabilitation schemes in the fields of mental health, respite care for the mentally handicapped, and juvenile delinquency, as well as aid projects for refugees. He lectures on Buddhism and Buddhist psychology in Europe, Asia and North & South America and supervises educational programmes in English and Spanish. He has practised meditation for over fifty years.
  
  Mansur Lalljee BA (Bombay); BA, MA, DPhil. (Oxon.). Until his retirement, Mansur Lalljee was a University Lecturer in Social Psychology and Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. After graduating with a degree in philosophy from the University of Bombay, he moved to Oxford to complete his studies in psychology, and stayed on the faculty at Oxford for the rest of his career. He has published work on a wide range of psychological issues including the psychology of respect; the psychology of explanation; religion; social and political attitudes; and interpersonal communication; and has been invited to talk about these issues at conferences and in Universities in several parts of the world. He has also held visiting appointments at Trinity College, Dublin, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and Yale University, New Haven.

  Summary

  The Oxford Handbook of Meditation covers the development of meditation across the world and the varieties of its practices and experiences. It includes approaches from psychology, neuroscience, history, anthropology, and sociology and explores its potential for therapeutic and social change.

  Additional text

  The Oxford Handbook of Meditation serves as an excellent introductory-level course handbook for religious studies. It strikes a balance between academic rigor and accessibility, making it valuable to a broad audience, including scholars of medicine, psychology, and religious studies, as well as individuals interested in exploring the subject or deepening their knowledge of meditation practices.

  Report

  The 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

Product details

• Authors: David Brazier, Miguel Farias, Miguel (Director of the Brain Farias, Farias Miguel, Mansur Lalljee
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 21.10.2021
• EAN: 9780198808640
• ISBN: 978-0-19-880864-0
• No. of pages: 1038
• Series: Oxford Library of Psychology
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; SELF-HELP / Meditations, RELIGION / Meditations, Anthropology, PSYCHOLOGY / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition, Buddhism, Religion: general, Psychology: states of consciousness, Psychology: emotions, Hinduism, Phenomenology & Existentialism, States Of Consciousness, Phenomenology and Existentialism