Asian Traditions of Meditation

by Halvor Eifring

  14. Kabat-Zinn, “Outpatient Program”; Kabat-Zinn et al., “Clinical Use of Mindfulness.”

  15. Davanger, “Natural Science of Meditation.”

  16. See, for example, Goleman, Varieties of Meditative Experience; Goleman, Healing Emotions.

  17. Lazar et al., “Functional Brain Mapping.”

  18. Callard et al., “Era of the Wandering Mind?”

  19. Sometimes loving-kindness meditation, insight meditation, and Tibetan Buddhist meditation are subsumed under the broader category of Mindfulness practices.

  20. Lounsbery, Méditation bouddhique; Lounsbery, Buddhist Meditation.

  21. “Ich glaube nicht, daß viele dem Verfasser auf diesem Wege folgen werden”; Vroklage, “Buddhist Meditation.”

  22. Anonymous, “Buddhist Meditation.”

  23. Winterstein, “Psychoanalysis and Yoga.”

  24. Eliade, Yoga, 78–79.

  25. See DeMartino, “Karen Horney.”

  26. Horney, Our Inner Conflicts, 163.

  27. Shapiro and Giber, “Meditation and Psychotherapeutic Effects”; Shapiro and Zifferblatt, “Zen Meditation.”

  28. Lesh, “Zen Meditation.”

  29. Seeman et al., “Influence of Transcendental Meditation.”

  30. Schwartz et al., “Patterning”; Bahrke and Morgan, “Anxiety Reduction.”

  31. Cf. Smith, “Meditation as Psychotherapy.”

  32. Behanan, “Yoga.” Cf. Murphy and Donovan, Physical and Psychological Effects, 33.

  33. Lagopoulos et al., “Increased EEG Activity”; Nesvold et al., “Increased Heart Rate Variability”; Xu et al., “Nondirective Meditation”; Davanger et al., “Meditation-Specific Prefrontal Cortical Activation.”

  34. Kasamatsu and Hirai, “Electroencephalographic Study.”

  35. The frequency of alpha waves is 7.5–12.5 Hz, and that of theta waves, 4–7 Hz.

  36. The frequency of gamma waves is 25–90 Hz, usually hovering around 40 Hz.

  37. Cf. Lutz et al., “Long-Term Meditators”; Fell et al., “From Alpha to Gamma.”

  38. Killingsworth and Gilbert, “Wandering Mind.”

  39. McMillan et al., “Ode to Positive Constructive Daydreaming.”

  40. Buckner et al., “Brain’s Default Network.”

  41. Sood and Jones, “On Mind Wandering.”

  42. Travis et al., “Self-Referential Default Brain State,” 28. The study uses EEG rather than fMRI. Other studies showing increased default-mode network activity during meditation include Holzel et al., “Differential Engagement” (Vipassana); Jang et al., “Increased Default Mode Network Connectivity” (“brain-wave vibration meditation”); and Xu et al., “Nondirective Meditation” (Acem Meditation).

  43. Xu et al., “Nondirective Meditation.”

  44. Hersoug, “Battle for Realism.”

  Bibliography

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  Bahrke, M. S., and W. P. Morgan. “Anxiety Reduction Following Exercise and Meditation.” Cognitive Therapy and Research 2 (1978): 323–333.

  Behanan, Kovoor T. Yoga: A Scientific Evaluation. New York: Macmillan, 1937.

  Benson, Herbert. “Decreased Alcohol Intake Associated with Practice of Meditation: Retrospective Investigation.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 233 (1974): 174–177.

  ———. The Relaxation Response. New York: Morrow, 1975.

  ———. “Transcendental Meditation: Science or Cult?” Journal of the American Medical Association 227 (1974): 807.

  Benson, H., B. A. Rosner, B. R. Marzetta, and H. P. Klemchuk. “Decreased Blood-Pressure in Borderline Hypertensive Subjects Who Practiced Meditation.” Journal of Chronic Diseases 27 (1974): 163–169.

  Benson, H., B. P. Malvea, and J. R. Graham. “Physiologic Correlates of Meditation and Their Clinical Effects in Headache: Ongoing Investigation.” Headache 13 (1973): 23–24.

  Benson, Herbert, and Richard Friedman. “A Rebuttal to the Conclusions of David S. Holmes’s Article ‘Meditation and Somatic Arousal Reduction.’” American Psychologist 40 (1985): 725–728.

  Benson, H., and R. K. Wallace. “Decreased Blood-Pressure in Hypertensive Subjects Who Practiced Meditation.” Circulation 46 (1972): 130.

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  Callard, F., J. Smallwood, J. Golchert, and D. S. Margulies. “The Era of the Wandering Mind? Twenty-First Century Research on Self-Generated Mental Activity.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 891.

  Davanger, Svend. “The Natural Science of Meditation: A ‘Black Box’ Perspective.” In Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Cultural Histories, edited by Halvor Eifring, 227–236. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.

  Davanger, Svend, Anne Grete Hersoug, and Halvor Eifring, eds. Fighting Stress: Reviews of Meditation Research. Oslo: Acem Publishing, 2008.

  Davanger, Svend, Are Holen, Øyvind Ellingsen, and Kenneth Hugdahl. “Meditation-Specific Prefrontal Cortical Activation during Acem Meditation: An fMRI Study.” Perceptual and Motor Skills 111 (2010): 291–306.

  Davidson, R. J., and D. J. Goleman. “Attentional and Affective Concomitants of Meditation: Cross-Sectional Study.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 85 (1976): 235–238.

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  ———. “Implications of Experimentally Induced Contemplative Meditation.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 142 (1966): 101.

  ———. The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy. Boston: Beacon Press, 1982.

  DeMartino, Richard J. “Karen Horney, Daisetz T. Suzuki, and Zen Buddhism.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis 51 (1991): 267–283.

  Eliade, Mircea. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. Translated by Willard R. Task. 2nd ed. 1954; repr., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.

  Fell, Juergen, Nikolai Axmacher, and Sven Haupt. “From Alpha to Gamma: Electrophysiological Correlates of Meditation-Related States of Consciousness.” Medical Hypotheses 75 (2010): 218–224.

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  Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ. New York: Bantam Books, 1995.

  ———, ed. Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health. Boston: Shambhala, 1997.

  ———. The Varieties of the Meditative Experience. Manchester, NH: Irvington, 1977.

  Goleman, D. J., and G. E. Schwartz. “Meditation as an Intervention in Stress Reactivity.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 44 (1976): 456–466.

  Hersoug, Anne Grete, Nina Aarhus Smeby, Morten Wærsted, and Are Holen. “Stress Management with Acem Meditation.” In Davanger et al., Fighting Stress, 139–145.

  Hersoug, Tor. “The Battle for Realism: Schisms in the Early Meditation Movement.” The Meditation Blog, August 21, 2010. http://themeditationblog.com/the-battle-for-realism-schisms-in-the-early-meditation-movement/#more-105 (accessed May 1, 2014).

  Holmes, David S. “Meditation and Somatic Arousal Reduction: A Review of the Experimental Evidence.” American Psychologist 39 (1984): 1–10.

  ———. “To Meditate or Rest? The Answer Is Rest.” American Psychologist 40 (1985): 728–731.

  ———. “To Meditate or to Simply Rest, That Is the Question: A Response to the Comments of Shapiro.” American Psychologist 40 (1985): 722–725.

&nbs
p; Holzel, B. K., U. Ott, H. Hempel, A. Hackl, K. Wolf, and R. Stark. “Differential Engagement of Anterior Cingulate and Adjacent Medial Frontal Cortex in Adept Meditators and Non-Meditators.” Neuroscience Letters 421 (2007): 16–21.

  Horney, Karen. Our Inner Conflicts. New York: W. W. Norton, 1945.

  Houtman, Gustaaf. “Vipassanā in Burma: Self-Government and the Ledi Ānāpāna Tradition.” In Hindu, Buddhist and Daoist Meditation: Cultural Histories, edited by Halvor Eifring, 91–115. Oslo: Hermes, 2014.

  Jang, J. H., W. H. Jung, D. H. Kang, M. S. Byun, S. J. Kwon, and C. H. Choi. “Increased Default Mode Network Connectivity Associated with Meditation.” Neuroscience Letters 487 (2011): 358–362.

  Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. New York: Delacorte Press, 1990.

  ———. “An Outpatient Program in Behavioral Medicine for Chronic Pain Patients Based on the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation: Theoretical Considerations and Preliminary Results.” General Hospital Psychiatry 4, no. 1 (April 1982): 33–47.

  ———. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life. New York: Hyperion, 1994.

  Kabat-Zinn, J., L. Lipworth, and R. Burney. “The Clinical Use of Mindfulness Meditation for the Self-Regulation of Chronic Pain.” Journal of Behavioral Medicine 8 (1985): 163–190.

  Kasamatsu, Akira, and Tomio Hirai. “An Electroencephalographic Study on the Zen Meditation (Zazen).” Folia Psychiatrica et Neurologica Japonica 20 (1966): 315–336.

  Killingsworth, Matthew A., and Daniel T. Gilbert. “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind.” Science 330 (2010): 932.

  Kohn, Livia. “Quiet Sitting with Master Yinshi: Medicine and Religion in Modern China.” Zen Buddhism Today 10 (1993): 79–95.

  ———. The Taoist Experience: An Anthology. Albany: State University of New York Press.

  Lagopoulos, Jim, Jian Xu, Inge Rasmussen, Alexandra Vik, Gin S. Malhi, Carl F. Eliassen, Ingrid E. Arntsen, Jardar G. Sæther, Stig Hollup, Are Holen, Svend Davanger, and Øyvind Ellingsen. “Increased Theta and Alpha EEG Activity during Nondirective Meditation.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 15 (2009): 1187–1192.

  Lazar, Sara W., George Bush, Randy L. Gollub, Gregory L. Fricchione, Gurucharan Khalsa, and Herbert Benson. “Functional Brain Mapping of the Relaxation Response and Meditation.” Neuroreport 11 (2000): 1581–1585.

  Lesh, T. V. “Zen Meditation and Development of Empathy in Counselors.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 10 (1970): 39–74.

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  ———. La méditation bouddhique: Etude de sa théorie, et de sa pratique selon l’Ecole du Sud. Paris: Adrian-Maisonneuve, 1935.

  Lutz, A., L. L. Greischar, N. B. Rawlings, M. Ricard, and R. J. Davidson. “Long-Term Meditators Self-Induce High-Amplitude Gamma Synchrony during Mental Practice.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101 (2004): 16369–16373.

  Mahesh Yogi, His Holiness Maharishi. The Science of Being and Art of Living. New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1963.

  McMillan, Rebecca L., Scott Barry Kaufman, and Jerome L. Singer. “Ode to Positive Constructive Daydreaming.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 626.

  Murphy, Michael, and Steven Donovan. The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: A Review of Contemporary Research with a Comprehensive Bibliography 1931–1996. 2nd ed. Sausalito, CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences, 1997.

  Nesvold, Anders, Morten W. Fagerland, Svend Davanger, Øyvind Ellingsen, Erik E. Solberg, Are Holen, Knut Sevre, and Dan Atar. “Increased Heart Rate Variability during Nondirective Meditation.” European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 19 (2012): 773.

  Ospina, Maria B., Kenneth Bond, Mohammad Karkhaneh, Lisa Tjosvold, Ben Vandermeer, Yuanyuan Liang, Liza Bialy, Nicola Hooton, Nina Buscemi, Donna M. Dryden, and Terry P. Klassen. “Meditation Practices for Health: State of the Research.” Evidence Report / Technology Assessment no. 155. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

  Schwartz, G. E., R. J. Davidson, and D. J. Goleman. “Patterning of Cognitive and Somatic Processes in Self-Regulation of Anxiety: Effects of Meditation versus Exercise.” Psychosomatic Medicine 40 (1978): 321–328.

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  Shapiro, D. H., and D. Giber. “Meditation and Psychotherapeutic Effects: Self-Regulation Strategy and Altered State of Consciousness.” Archives of General Psychiatry 35 (1978): 294–302.

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  ———. “Meditation, Biofeedback, and the Relaxation Controversy: A Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective.” American Psychologist 41 (1986): 1007–1009.

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  Xu, Jian, Alexandra Vik, Inge R. Groote, Jim Lagopoulos, Are Holen, Øyvind Ellingsen, Asta K. Håberg, and Svend Davanger. “Nondirective Meditation Activates Default Mode Network and Areas Associated with Memory Retrieval and Emotional Processing.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8 (2014): article 86.

  CONTRIBUTORS

  Johannes Bronkhorst, PhD, is professor emeritus of Sanskrit and Indian studies at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

  Edwin F. Bryant, PhD, is professor of Hindu religion and philosophy in the Department of Religion, Rutgers University, United States.

  Halvor Eifring, PhD, is professor of Chinese i
n the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at University of Oslo, Norway.

  Are Holen, MD, PhD, is professor of behavioral medicine in the Department of Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.

  Madhu Khanna, PhD, is professor of Indic religion at the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religion and Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia, India.

  Masaya Mabuchi, PhD, is professor of Chinese philosophy at the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Centre, Gakushūin University, Japan.

  Kristina Myrvold, PhD, is associate professor of religious studies at Linnaeus University, Sweden.

  Harold D. Roth, PhD, is professor of religious studies and director of Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown University, United States.

  Geoffrey Samuel, PhD, is emeritus professor at the School of History, Archaeology, and Religion at Cardiff University, UK, and an honorary associate in the Department of Indian Subcontinental Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia.

  Morten Schlütter, PhD, is associate professor of Chinese religions in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Iowa, United States.

  Sarah Shaw, PhD, is a member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University, United Kingdom.

  INDEX

  Page numbers in boldface type refer to illustrations.

  abhidhamma, 66n.13, 123, 129–130

  Abhinavagupta, 97

  absorption, 14–17, 29, 31–32, 48, 53–56, 59, 62, 64, 67nn.19, 21, 83, 90, 235.

  See also samādhi; vicāra; vitarka

  Acem Meditation, 14, 16, 35, 40n, 230, 236–237, 239n.42

  Ādi Granth, 105.

  See also Gurū Granth Sāhib

  afflictions, 115, 218.

  See also dhyān(a): afflicted (ārta)

  agency, 6–7, 10–11, 18, 41n.7

  agni, 82–83

  ahaṁkāra, 51, 52, 58, 59, 61–63

  ahwāl, 13

  akhaṇḍ jāp, 113

  ālaṁbana, 54–56, 62, 65, 67n.19, 96