A Critical Glimpse at the American Appropriation of Asian Meditative Traditions: Confessions of an Unsuccessful Meditator

This paper will focus on the American appropriation of Asian meditative traditions. I will concentrate my attention on the accounts of meditation from two groups of teachers: 1) contemporary American teachers of Yoga and Buddhism (e.g., Cheri Huber, Pema Chodron, and Goswami Kriyananda); 2) Asian te...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gold, Jeffrey B. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Common Ground Publishing 2011
In: The international journal of religion and spirituality in society
Year: 2011, Volume: 1, Issue: 2, Pages: 139-148
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)

MARC

LEADER 00000naa a22000002 4500
001 1840583681
003 DE-627
005 20230330124612.0
007 cr uuu---uuuuu
008 230330s2011 xx |||||o 00| ||eng c
024 7 |a 10.18848/2154-8633/CGP/v01i02/51144  |2 doi 
035 |a (DE-627)1840583681 
035 |a (DE-599)KXP1840583681 
040 |a DE-627  |b ger  |c DE-627  |e rda 
041 |a eng 
084 |a 0  |2 ssgn 
100 1 |a Gold, Jeffrey B.  |e VerfasserIn  |4 aut 
245 1 2 |a A Critical Glimpse at the American Appropriation of Asian Meditative Traditions: Confessions of an Unsuccessful Meditator 
264 1 |c 2011 
336 |a Text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a Computermedien  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a Online-Ressource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
520 |a This paper will focus on the American appropriation of Asian meditative traditions. I will concentrate my attention on the accounts of meditation from two groups of teachers: 1) contemporary American teachers of Yoga and Buddhism (e.g., Cheri Huber, Pema Chodron, and Goswami Kriyananda); 2) Asian teachers who settled and taught in America (e.g., Eknath Easwaran, Parmahansa Yogananda and Suzuki Roshi). My spotlight will be on certain, specific contemporary American expressions of Yogic or Buddhist meditation, i.e., styles which emphasize that meditation is to be conceived of as either taming the mind or watching the mind. The first part of the paper attempts to motivate the popularity and success of meditation in America today. The second part of the paper explains some of the central features of meditation, specifically the concepts of taming and watching the mind. The third part of the paper raises two critical questions with respect to those features of meditation. The first concern focuses on meditating as taming the mind. I will utilize feminist critiques of taming as expressed by Susan Griffin in Woman and Nature. Although she was not concerned with meditative traditions but patriarchy, I use her insights as a tool to examine meditation. The second question focuses on the meditative technique of just watching or just observing the contents of the mind. In this section, I will utilize the insights of Foucault in Discipline and Punish to raise issues about this technique. Once again, Foucault is not interested in meditation but in penal institutions. However, I find his theory relevant and applicable to the meditative technique of "just watching." In the end, I will suggest that there is a more ominous side to contemporary meditation practices in America than is usually recognized. 
773 0 8 |i Enthalten in  |t The international journal of religion and spirituality in society  |d Champaign, Ill. : Common Ground Publishing, 2011  |g 1(2011), 2, Seite 139-148  |h Online-Ressource  |w (DE-627)683370324  |w (DE-600)2646017-8  |w (DE-576)485196581  |x 2154-8641  |7 nnns 
773 1 8 |g volume:1  |g year:2011  |g number:2  |g pages:139-148 
856 4 0 |u https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/a-critical-glimpse-at-the-american-appropriation-of-asian-meditative-traditions  |x Verlag  |z lizenzpflichtig  |3 Volltext 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8633/CGP/v01i02/51144  |x Resolving-System  |z lizenzpflichtig  |3 Volltext 
951 |a AR 
ELC |a 1 
ITA |a 1  |t 1 
LOK |0 000 xxxxxcx a22 zn 4500 
LOK |0 001 4299980697 
LOK |0 003 DE-627 
LOK |0 004 1840583681 
LOK |0 005 20230330124612 
LOK |0 008 230330||||||||||||||||ger||||||| 
LOK |0 040   |a DE-Tue135  |c DE-627  |d DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 092   |o n 
LOK |0 852   |a DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 852 1  |9 00 
LOK |0 935   |a ixzs  |a ixzo  |a rwrk 
ORI |a SA-MARC-ixtheoa001.raw 
REL |a 1 
SUB |a REL