ABSTRACT
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. The book analyses yoga and meditation studies in a variety of religious, historical and geographical settings. The chapters, authored by an international set of experts, are laid out across five sections:
- Introduction to yoga and meditation studies
- History of yoga and meditation in South Asia
- Doctrinal perspectives: technique and praxis
- Global and regional transmissions
- Disciplinary framings
In addition to up-to-date explorations of the history of yoga and meditation in the Indian subcontinent, new contexts include a case study of yoga and meditation in the contemporary Tibetan diaspora, and unique summaries of historical developments in Japan and Latin America as well as an introduction to the growing academic study of yoga in Korea. Underpinned by critical and theoretical engagement, the volume provides an in-depth guide to the history of yoga and meditation studies and combines the best of established research with attention to emerging directions for future investigation. This handbook will be of interest to multidisciplinary academic audiences from across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.
PART I: INTRODUCTION TO YOGA AND MEDITATION STUDIES 1. Reframing Yoga and Meditation Studies, Karen O’Brien-Kop and Suzanne Newcombe 2. Decolonising Yoga, Shameem Black. 3. Meditation in Contemporary Contexts, Ville Husgafvel 4. The Scholar-Practitioner of Yoga in the Western Academy, Mark Singleton and Borayin Larios 5. Neoliberal Yoga, Andrea Jain PART II: HISTORY OF YOGA AND MEDITATION IN SOUTH ASIA 6. How Yoga Became Yoga: Yoga and Meditation up to the Classical Period, Kengo Harimoto 7. Buddhist Meditation in South Asia, Florin Deleanu 8. Tantric Transformations of Yoga, Olga Serbaeva 9. Early Hathayoga, Mark Singleton 10. Yoga and Meditation in Modern Esoteric Traditions, Julian Strube 11. Hindu Ascetics and the Political in Contemporary India, Raphaël Voix 12. Yoga and Meditation as a Health Intervention, Suzanne Newcombe PART III: DOCTRINAL PERSPECTIVES: TECHNIQUE AND PRAXIS 13. Yoga and Meditation in the Jain Tradition, Samani Pratibha Pragya 14. Daoist Meditation, Louis Komjathy 15. Islam, Yoga and Meditation, Patrick D’Silva 16. Sikhi(sm), Balbinder S. Bhopal 17. Christianity: Classical, Modern, and Post-Modern Forms of Contemplation, Michael Stoeber and Jaegil Lee 18. Secular Discourse as a Legitimating Strategy for Mindfulness Meditation, Masoumeh Rahmani PART IV: GLOBAL AND REGIONAL TRANSMISSIONS 19. Yoga and Meditation Traditions in Insular Southeast Asia, Andrea Acri 20. Yoga in Tibet, Naomi Worth 21. The Political History of Meditation and Yoga in Japan, Hidehiko Kurita 22. Yoga and Meditation in Korea, Kwangsoo Park and Younggil Park 23. Yoga in Latin America: A Critical Overview, Adrián Muñoz 24. Anglophone Yoga and Meditation Outside of India, Suzanne Newcombe and Philip Deslippe 25. The Yogic Body in Global Transmission, Sravana Borkataky-Varma PART V: DISCIPLINARY FRAMINGS 26. Philology and Digital Humanities, Charles Li 27. Observing Yoga: The Use of Ethnography to Develop Yoga Studies, Daniela Bevilacqua 28. Yoga and Philosophy, Mikel Burley 29. On ‘Meditational Art’ and Mandalas as Objects of Meditation, Gudrun Bühnemann 30. The Psychophysiology of Yoga, Laura Schmalzl, Pamela Jeter and Sat Bir Khalsa 31. Meditation and the Cognitive Sciences, Asaf Federman 32. Inclusive Identities – The Lens of Critical Theory, Karen-Ann Wong 33. Yoga: Between Meditation and Movement, Matylda Ciołkosz 34. Sound and Yoga, Finnian M.M. Gerety
