Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of contents -- Editorial board -- Figures -- Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- A note on terms and translations -- Part I Introduction to yoga and meditation studies -- 1 Reframing yoga and meditation studies -- Introduction -- Defining meditation and yoga: the challenges -- Shifting discussions and emerging areas of research -- Concluding remarks -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 2 Decolonising yoga -- Why decolonise? -- Knowledge, body, empire -- Travel, positionality and power -- Nationalism, decolonisation, recolonisation -- Conclusion: towards yoga as critique -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 3 Meditation in contemporary contexts: Current discussions -- Introduction -- Challenges of definition -- Historical and comparative approaches -- Research positions -- Critical discourses -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 4 The scholar-practitioner of yoga in the western academy -- Introduction -- Varieties of scholar-practitioner -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 5 Neoliberal yoga -- Introduction -- Selling yoga -- Neoliberal yoga -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Part II History of yoga and meditation in South Asia -- 6 How yoga became yoga: Yoga and meditation up to the classical period -- Introduction -- Pre-classical period -- Prehistoric: the Indus Valley Civilization -- Early history: yoga in the Vedas -- What was the praxis of the Buddha called? -- Mahabharata and Bhagavadgita: sam.khya and yoga (theory and practice) -- The terms yogavacara and yogacara in Buddhist sources -- Hiran.yagarbha's Yogasastra -- Pasupatayoga -- Classical period -- The Patañjalayogasastra -- Classical period after the Patañjalayogasastra -- Conclusion -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 7 Buddhist meditation in South Asia: An overview -- Introduction -- Key terms.

Meditation subjects -- Main meditative techniques and paths of spiritual cultivation -- Early and mainstream Buddhism -- Tranquillity and insight -- The path of spiritual cultivation in Sarvastivada Buddhism -- Mahayana Buddhism -- Emptiness and compassion -- The path of spiritual cultivation in Yogacara Buddhism -- Tantric Buddhism -- Visualisations and energy control -- The path of spiritual cultivation in the noble lineage of the esoteric community -- In lieu of conclusion -- Original sources and abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 8 Tantric transformations of yoga: Kun.d.alini in the ninth to tenth century -- Introduction -- Ṣaṭka 1 -- Ṣaṭka 2 -- Ṣaṭka 3 -- Ṣaṭka 4 -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 9 Early haṭhayoga -- Introduction -- Textual criticism and haṭhayoga -- Precursors of haṭhayoga -- Early haṭha's textual corpus -- Goals of haṭhayoga -- Haṭhayoga after the Haṭhapradipika -- Haṭhayoga in contemporary ascetic culture -- Haṭhayoga in modern global yoga -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 10 Yoga and meditation in modern esoteric traditions -- Introduction -- Mesmerism -- Spiritualism and early occultism -- The Theosophical Society -- Later Occultism and New Thought -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 11 Hindu ascetics and the political in contemporary India -- Introduction -- The social involvement of modern Hindu ascetics -- Contemporary configurations -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 12 Yoga and meditation as a health intervention -- Introduction -- Yoga and meditation in AYUSH -- Historical entanglements of yoga, meditation and health -- Contemporary experiences of yogic health interventions in India -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Part III Doctrinal perspectives -- 13 Yoga and meditation in the Jain tradition -- Introduction -- The term yoga in early Jain texts.

Bhāvanā-yoga -- Dhyāna-yoga -- Mahāvīra's meditation -- The four dhyānas -- The two meditations: worldly (saṃsārika) psychological states -- Ārtta- dhyāna (anguished meditation) -- Raudra-dhyāna (wrathful meditation) -- The two meditations: liberating psychological states -- Dharma-dhyāna (virtuous meditation) -- Śukla-dhyāna (pure meditation) -- Digambara meditation on the soul -- Contemplation (anuprekṣā) -- Āsana -- Medieval Jain yoga -- Ācārya Haribhadra -- Ācārya Śubhacandra -- Ācārya Hemacandra -- Modern Jain yoga -- Conclusion -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 14 Daoist meditation -- Introduction -- On meditation and so-called 'Taoist yoga' -- The Daoist tradition and types of Daoist meditation -- 'Guarding the One' -- Visualising the dipper -- Forming the elixir -- Sitting in the modern Daoist tradition -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 15 Islam, yoga and meditation -- Introduction: the issue of permissibility -- Muslim engagement with yoga -- When all breaths are not commensurable: `ilm-i dam and zikr, svarodaya and prāṇāyāma -- Meditation -- Contemporary issues -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 16 Sikhi(sm): Yoga and meditation -- Introduction -- Medieval background: Indian renaissance and Gur-Sikh Enlightenment -- Guru Granth Sahib's critique of yoga and meditation -- Aasan (spiritual yoga) -- True yoga as sahaj-jog -- Takhat (political yoga): raaj-jog -- Splitting raaj-jog in the conversion to western modernity -- Contemporary scene: Sikh yoga and meditation movements -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 17 Christianity: Classical, modern and postmodern forms of contemplation -- Introduction -- Contemplation within the context of Christian prayer -- Classics of Christian contemplation -- John Cassian -- The Cloud of Unknowing -- Recollection: St. Teresa of Avila.

Recollection: Evelyn Underhill -- Eastern Orthodox recollection: the Jesus Prayer -- Popular contemporary Christian contemplation -- Centering Prayer -- Christian Meditation -- Postmodern Christian contemplation: non-Christian influences and religious hybridity -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 18 Secular discourse as a legitimating strategy for mindfulness meditation -- Introduction -- Research method -- Science, scientism and neuroscientism -- Academisation as other sources of legitimacy -- Rhetoric of universality -- Buddhist discourse of suffering -- Ethics of rebranding: participants' position -- Mental health and resilience -- OMC history and mission statement -- Concluding remarks -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Part IV Global and regional transmissions -- 19 Yoga and meditation traditions in insular Southeast Asia -- Introduction -- The earliest literary evidence: the old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa -- Old Javanese Śaiva sources on aṣṭāṅgayoga and ṣaḍaṅgayoga -- Old Javanese Buddhist sources on yoga -- Classical Malay literature from Sumatra -- Yoga in modern Bali -- Modern Javanese mystical movements -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 20 Yoga in Tibet -- Introduction: yoga comes to Tibet -- Buddhist philosophy as the foundation of tantra and yoga -- Tibetan yoga in the three main canons -- Yoga as a doxographical category: the four-fold and six-fold classes of tantra -- The Ancient tradition: six classes of tantra culminating in 'Supreme Yoga' -- The New orders of Tibetan Buddhism and the four classes of tantra -- Naljor in ancillary branch systems -- Kālacakra's six yogas -- Mahāmudrā's four yogas -- Nāropa's six doctrines -- Niguma's six dharmas -- Tibetan yogis -- Milarepa, Tibet's most famous yogi -- Case study: monastic yogins at Namdroling Monastery and Nunnery in South India -- The annual retreats -- It begins with empowerment -- Motivation setting.

The yoga practice -- The sequences -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 21 The political history of meditation and yoga in Japan -- Introduction -- Buddhism and meditation from the ancient to medieval periods -- Transformations in the early modern era -- Confucianism and the imperial family line in Japan -- Kokugaku and Daoism -- Meditation and yoga in the modern period -- Psychologisation and universalisation of meditation -- Political theology on meditation -- Postmodern meditation and yoga -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 22 Yoga and meditation in Korea -- Introduction -- Traditions of practice and meditation in Korea -- Confucianism in Korea -- Daoism in Korea -- Buddhism in Korea -- Won Buddhism as a new religion in Korea -- Yoga in Korea -- Current status of academic study of yoga in Korea -- Bibliography -- 23 Yoga in Latin America: A critical overview -- Introduction -- Understandings of 'yoga' -- Forerunners and diffusors -- Typologies 1: yoga, meditation and bodywork -- Typologies 2: Latin American yoga -- Concluding remarks -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 24 Anglophone yoga and meditation outside of India -- Introduction -- Early modern and nineteenth-century networks and translations -- The Theosophical Society -- Early twentieth-century publications -- Anglophone physical culture and yoga -- Immigration, English and empire -- Adult education and mass media -- Movement of gurus and the counter-culture -- The arrival of scientific meditation -- Early 1980s to the present -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 25 The yogic body in global transmission -- Introduction -- Context and terms -- Yogic body -- Cakras -- Kuṇḍalinī and kuṇḍalinī yoga -- Behind the veil -- Public kuṇḍalinī -- Concluding remarks -- Note -- Bibliography -- Part V Disciplinary framings -- 26 Philology and digital humanities -- Introduction.

Reconstructing an ancient text.

The Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary resource, which frames and contextualises the rapidly expanding fields that explore yoga and meditative techniques.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.