buddhism research paper

Printing Woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana in Haeinsa Temple, Hapcheon

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Description

In doctoral work in Buddhist Studies at Harvard, it is possible to investigate ideas, practices, experiences, institutions, and life-worlds created by Buddhists in all times and places. Projects in this field can be focused on a single tradition or on interactions among religious groups, in a particular geographical area or across areas, and in either premodern or contemporary settings. The disciplinary range of the field is broad; the faculty welcomes projects in textual and intellectual history, cultural history, anthropology and ethnography, philosophy, literature, the arts, gender studies, and ethics. Comparative work is also welcomed. Projects regarding any corner of the Buddhist world are possible, but the field has particular strength in South Asia, East Asia, Inner Asia, and Tibet. Work in this field requires expertise in the classical and/or modern languages relevant to the specific project. Recent dissertation topics include:

• Patrul Rinpoch on Self-Cultivation: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Spiritual Advice
• The Unlikely Buddhologist: Mou Zongsan (1909-1995)
• Memory, Rhetoric, and Education in the Great Lamp of the Dharma Dhāranī Scripture
• Anarchy in the Pure Land: Tradition, Modernity, and the Reinvention of the Cult of Maitreya in Republican China
• Differentiating the Pearl From the Fish Eye: Ouyang Jingwu (1871-1943) and the Revival of Scholastic Buddhism
• Yogacara Buddhism Transmitted and Transformed? Paramartha (499-569) and His Chinese Interpreters
• How does a Chan Buddhist Practice what he Preaches: A Study of the Works of Layman Ruru
• Logic, Lives and Lineage: Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen's Ascension and the Secret Biography of Khedrup Geleg Pelzang
• Toward a New History of Japanese and Korean Buddhist Relations, 1877-1912
• The Politics of Materiality: Sokdokpa Lodro Gyaltsan’s Literary Representations of Material Religion and the Formation of Tibetan Buddhist Politics in the 17th c
• Recontextualization, Exegesis, and Logic: Kuiji's (632-682) Methodological Restructuring of Chinese Buddhism
• Kakuno and the Making of Shinran and Shin Buddhism
• Secrets of the Vajra Body: Dngos po'I gnas lugs and the Apotheosis of the Body in the Work of Rgyal ba Yang dgon pa

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Buddhism as Philosophy: Fundamental Themes

Jeffery D. Long, Discovering Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Thought (2024)

Andy Karr, Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality (2023)

Tyler Dalton McNabb & Erik Daniel Baldwin, Classical Theism and Buddhism: Connecting Metaphysical and Ethical Systems (2023)

Zhihua Yao, Nonexistent Objects in Buddhist Philosophy: On Knowing What There Is Not (2023)

Haidy Geismar et al (eds.), Impermanence: Exploring Continuous Change Across Cultures (2022)

Roger R. Jackson, Rebirth: A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World (2022)

Harrison J. Pemberton, The Buddha Meets Socrates: A Philosopher's Journal (2022)

Rick Repetti (ed.), Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation (2022)

Avram Alpert, A Partial Enlightenment: What Modern Literature and Buddhism Can Teach Us about Living Well without Perfection (2021)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Superiority Conceit in Buddhist Traditions: A Historical Perspective (2021)

Zane M. Diamond, Gautama Buddha: Education for Wisdom (2021)

C.W. Huntington, What I Don't Know about Death: Reflections on Buddhism and Mortality (2021)

Jianxun Shi, Mapping the Buddhist Path to Liberation: Diversity and Consistency Based on the Pali Nikayas and the Chinese Agamas (2021)

Mark Siderits, How Things Are: An Introduction to Buddhist Metaphysics (2021)

Peter D. Hershock & Roger T. Ames (eds.), Human Beings or Human Becomings? A Conversation with Confucianism on the Concept of Person (2021)

Y. Karunadasa, The Buddhist Analysis of Matter (2020)

Mark Siderits et al (ed.), Buddhist Philosophy of Consciousness: Tradition and Dialogue (2020)

Jan Westerhoff, The Non-Existence of the Real World (2020)

Graham Priest, The Fifth Corner of Four: An Essay on Buddhist Metaphysics and the Catuskoti (2019)

Vajragupta Staunton, Free Time! From Clock-Watching to Free-Flowing: A Buddhist Guide (2019)

David Burton, Buddhism: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation (2017)

Steven M. Emmanuel (ed.), Buddhist Philosophy: A Comparative Approach (2017)

Bryan W. Van Norden, Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto (2017)

Mark Siderits, Studies in Buddhist Philosophy, ed. Jan Westerhoff (2016)

Marcus Boon, Eric M. Cazdyn, & Timothy Morton, Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism (2015)

Jay L. Garfield, Engaging Buddhism: Why It Matters to Philosophy (2015)

JeeLoo Liu & Douglas Berger (eds.), Nothingness in Asian Philosophy (2014)

Steven M. Emmanuel (ed.), A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy (2013)

Cyrus Panjvani, Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach (2013)

Mark Siderits, Evan Thompson, & Dan Zahavi (eds.), Self, No Self? Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions (2013)

Robin Cooper (Ratnaprabha), Finding the Mind: A Buddhist View (2012)

John Danvers, Agents of Uncertainty: Mysticism, Scepticism, Buddhism, Art and Poetry (2012)

Louis de La Vallée Poussin, The Way to Nirvana: Six Lectures on Ancient Buddhism as a Discipline of Salvation (2012)

Musashi Tachikawa, Essays in Buddhist Theology (2012)

Johannes Bronkhorst, Karma (2011)

Alf Hiltebeitel, Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative (2011)

Dhivan Thomas Jones, This Being, That Becomes: The Buddha's Teaching on Conditionality (2011)

Erich Frauwallner, The Philosophy of Buddhism [Die Philosophie des Buddhismus], trans. Gelong Lodro Sangpo & Jigme Sheldron (2010)

Rodney Smith, Stepping Out of Self-Deception: The Buddha's Liberating Teaching of No-Self (2010)

William Edelglass & Jay Garfield (eds.), Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings (2009)

Dan Arnold, Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion (2008)

George Grimm, Buddhist Wisdom: The Mystery of the Self (2008)

Stephen J. Laumakis, An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy (2008)

Sangharakshita, The Meaning of Conversion in Buddhism (2008)

Dharmachari Subhuti, Buddhism and Friendship (2008)

Sangharakshita, The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path (2007)

Mark Siderits, Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction (2007)

Lama Shenpen Hookham, There's More to Dying Than Death: A Buddhist Perspective (2006)

Bruce Matthews, Craving and Salvation: A Study in Buddhist Soteriology (2006)

Sangharakshita, The Three Jewels: The Central Ideals of Buddhism (2006)

Jennifer Crawford, Spiritually-Engaged Knowledge: The Attentive Heart (2005)

John Taber (ed. & trans.), A Hindu Critique of Buddhist Epistemology: Kumarila on Perception (2005)

Fernando Tola & Carmen Dragonetti, On Voidness: A Study of Buddhist Nihilism (2005)

David Burton, Buddhism, Knowledge and Liberation: A Philosophical Study (2004)

Richard H. Jones, Mysticism and Morality: A New Look at Old Questions (2004)

Maitreyabandhu, Thicker Than Blood: Friendship on the Buddhist Path (2004)

Nagapriya, Exploring Karma and Rebirth (2004)

Sangharakshita, Buddha Mind (2004)

Sangharakshita, Living with Kindness: The Buddha's Teaching on Metta (2004)

John W. Schroeder, Skillful Means: The Heart of Buddhist Compassion (2004)

Brook Ziporyn, Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments with Tiantai Buddhism (2004)

Christina Feldman, Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World (2003)

Vincent L. Wimbush & Richard Valantasis (eds.), Asceticism (2002)

Rupert Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening: A Study of the Bodhi-Pakkhiya Dhamma (2001)

David J. Kalupahana, Buddhist Thought and Ritual (2001)

Michael C. Brannigan, The Pulse of Wisdom: The Philosophies of India, China, and Japan (1999)

Duncan Forbes, The Buddhist Pilgrimage, ed. Alex Wayman (1999)

Roger R. Jackson & John J. Makransky (eds.), Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars (1999)

Jamie Hubbard & Paul L. Swanson (eds.), Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism (1997)

Alex Wayman, Untying the Knots in Buddhism: Selected Essays (1997)

Newman Robert Glass, Working Emptiness: Toward a Third Reading of Emptiness in Buddhism and Postmodern Thought (1995)

Kaisa Puhakka, Knowledge and Reality: A Comparative Study of Divine and Some Buddhist Logicians (1994)

Robert E. Buswell & Robert M. Gimello (eds.), Paths to Liberation: The Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought (1992)

Jan Nattier, Once upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline (1992)

John M. Koller & Patricia Koller (eds.), Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy (1991)

Gail Hinich Sutherland, The Disguises of the Demon: The Development of the Yaksa in Hinduism and Buddhism (1991)

Gregory Darling, An Evaluation of the Vedantic Critique of Buddhism (1987)

Martin Willson, Rebirth and the Western Buddhist (1987)

Alphonse Verdu, The Philosophy of Buddhism: A "Totalistic" Synthesis (1981)

John r. carter, dhamma: western academic and sinhalese buddhist interpretations: a study of a religious concept (1978).

W.H. Weeraratne, Individual and Society in Buddhism (1977)

David J. Kalupahana, Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis (1976)

William M. McGovern, A Manual of Buddhist Philosophy (1976)

David J. Kalupahana, Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism (1975)

Francis Story, Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience: Essays and Case Studies (1975)

Junjiro Takakusu, Wing-Tsit Chan & Charles A. Moore (eds.), The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy (1975)

John E. Blofeld, Beyond the Gods: Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism (1974)

Herbert V. Guenther, Buddhist Philosophy in Theory and Practice (1972)

Daigan L. Matsunaga & Alicia Matsunaga, The Buddhist Concept of Hell (1971)

Ven. nyanaponika & maurice walshe (eds.), pathways of buddhist thought: essays from the wheel (1971).

T. Stcherbatsky, The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word "Dharma" (1961)

This book is a collection of essays by Mark Siderits on topics in Indian Buddhist philosophy. The essays are divided into six main systematic sections, dealing with realism and anti-realism, further problems in metaphysics and logic, philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics, and specific discussions of the interaction between Buddhist and classical Indian philosophy. Each of the essays is followed by a postscript Siderits has written specifically for this volume, which make it possible to connect essays of the volume with each other, showing thematic interrelations, or locating them relative to the development of Siderits’s thought. New works have been published, new translations have come out, and additional connections have been discovered. The postscripts make it possible to acquaint the reader with the most important of these developments.

This book is the most comprehensive single volume on the subject available. It offers the very latest scholarship to create a wide-ranging survey of the most important ideas, problems, and debates in the history of Buddhist philosophy. Encompasses the broadest treatment of Buddhist philosophy available, covering social and political thought, meditation, ecology and contemporary issues and applications Each section contains overviews and cutting-edge scholarship that expands readers understanding of the breadth and diversity of Buddhist thought. Broad coverage of topics allows flexibility to instructors in creating a syllabus. Essays provide valuable alternative philosophical perspectives on topics to those available in Western traditions.

This book examines how the Brahmanical tradition of Purva Mimamsa and the writings of the seventh-century Buddhist Madhyamika philosopher Candrakirti challenged dominant Indian Buddhist views of epistemology. Arnold retrieves these two very different but equally important voices of philosophical dissent, showing them to have developed highly sophisticated and cogent critiques of influential Buddhist epistemologists such as Dignaga and Dharmakirti. His analysis—developed in conversation with modern Western philosophers like William Alston and J.L. Austin—offers an innovative reinterpretation of the Indian philosophical tradition, while suggesting that pre-modern Indian thinkers have much to contribute to contemporary philosophical debates.

Buddhism is essentially a teaching about liberation - from suffering, ignorance, selfishness and continued rebirth. Knowledge of 'the way things really are' is thought by many Buddhists to be vital in bringing about this emancipation. This book is a philosophical study of the notion of liberating knowledge as it occurs in a range of Buddhist sources. Burton assesses the common Buddhist idea that knowledge of the three characteristics of existence (impermanence, not-self and suffering) is the key to liberation. It argues that this claim must be seen in the context of the Buddhist path and training as a whole. Detailed attention is also given to anti-realist, sceptical and mystical strands within the Buddhist tradition, all of which make distinctive claims about liberating knowledge.

Ecology, Economics, Globalization, and the Environment

Susan Bauer-Wu, A Future We Can Love: How We Can Reverse the Climate Crisis with the Power of Our Hearts & Minds (2023)

Susan Murphy, A Fire Runs Through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis (2023)

Trine Brox & Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg (eds.), Buddhism and Waste: The Excess, Discard and Afterlife of Buddhist Consumption (2022)

Daniel Capper, Buddhist Ecological Protection of Space: A Guide for Sustainable Off-Earth Travel (2022)

Jeanine M. Canty, Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet (2022)

Daniel Capper, Roaming Free Like a Deer: Buddhism and the Natural World (2022)

David Hinton, Wild Mind, Wild Earth: Our Place in the Sixth Extinction (2022)

Joel Magnuson, The Dharma and Socially Engaged Buddhist Economics (2022)

Christoph Brumann et al (eds.), Monks, Money, and Morality: The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism (2021)

Josep M. Coll, Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation (2021)

Sallie B. King, Buddhist Visions of the Good Life for All (2021)

Gábor Kovács, The Value Orientations of Buddhist and Christian Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Perspective on Spirituality and Business Ethics (2021)

Shantigarbha, The Burning House: A Buddhist Response to the Climate and Ecological Emergency (2021)

Trine Brox & Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg, Buddhism and Business: Merit, Material Wealth, and Morality in the Global Market Economy (2020)

Alex John Catanese, Buddha in the Marketplace: The Commodification of Buddhist Objects in Tibet (2020)

Ernest C.H. Ng, Introduction to Buddhist Economics: The Relevance of Buddhist Values in Contemporary Economy and Society (2020)

Geoffrey Barstow (ed.), The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Buddhist Writings on Vegetarianism (2019)

Geoffrey Barstow, Food of Sinful Demons: Meat, Vegetarianism, and the Limits of Buddhism in Tibet (2019)

Candi K. Cann (ed.), Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife (2019)

Gergely Hidas, A Buddhist Ritual Manual on Agriculture: A Critical Edition (2019)

Stephanie Kaza, Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times (2019)

Belden C. Lane, The Great Conversation: Nature and the Care of the Soul (2019)

Clair Brown, Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science (2018)

Shravasti Dhammika, Nature and the Environment in Early Buddhism (2018)

Karine Gagné, Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas (2018)

Willis J. Jenkins, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2018)

Vajragupta, Wild Awake: Alone, Offline and Aware in Nature (2018)

Whitney Bauman, Richard Bohannon, and Kevin O'Brien (eds.), Grounding Religion: A Field Guide to the Study of Religion and Ecology, 2nd ed. (2017)

Caroline Brazier, Ecotherapy in Practice: A Buddhist Model (2017)

J. Baird Callicott & James McRae (eds.), Japanese Environmental Philosophy (2017)

David E. Cooper & Simon P. James, Buddhism, Virtue and Environment (2017)

Simon P. James, Zen Buddhism and Environmental Ethics (2017)

Bodhipaksa, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View (2016)

Padmasiri De Silva, Environmental Philosophy and Ethics in Buddhism (2016)

Todd LeVasseur et al (eds.), Religion and Sustainable Agriculture: World Spiritual Traditions and Food Ethics (2016)

Daniel P. Scheid, The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics (2016)

J. Baird Callicott & James McRae (eds.), Environmental Philosophy in Asian Traditions of Thought (2015)

Ugo Dessì, Japanese Religions and Globalization (2015)

Vaddhaka Linn, The Buddha on Wall Street: What's Wrong with Capitalism and What We Can Do About It (2015)

Joan Marques, Business and Buddhism (2015)

James Stewart, Vegetarianism and Animal Ethics in Contemporary Buddhism (2015)

Whitney A. Bauman, Religion and Ecology: Developing a Planetary Ethic (2014)

James Mark Shields (ed.), Buddhist Responses to Globalization (2014)

Susan M. Darlington, The Ordination of a Tree: The Thai Buddhist Environmental Movement (2013)

Tariq Jazeel, Sacred Modernity: Nature, Environment and the Postcolonial Geographies of Sri Lankan Nationhood (2013)

Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano, Landscapes of Wonder: Discovering Buddhist Dhamma in the World Around Us (2013)

Leslie E. Sponsel, Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution (2012)

Pragati Sahni, Environmental Ethics in Buddhism: A Virtues Approach (2011)

David M. Engel & Jaruwan S. Engel, Tort, Custom, and Karma: Globalization and Legal Consciousness in Thailand (2010)

Roger S. Gottlieb (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2010)

Lin Jensen, Deep Down Things: The Earth in Celebration and Dismay (2010)

Richard Payne, How Much is Enough? Buddhism, Consumerism, and the Human Environment (2010)

Thomas Berry, The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker (2009)

Peter D. Hershock, Buddhism in the Public Sphere: Reorienting Global Interdependence (2009)

John Stanley et al (eds.), A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency (2009)

Ananda W. P. Guruge, Buddhism, Economics and Science: Further Studies in Socially Engaged Humanistic Buddhism (2008)

Stephanie Kaza, Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking (2008)

Bhikkhu Basnagoda Rahula, The Buddha's Teachings on Prosperity: At Home, At Work, in the World (2008)

Lloyd Field, Business and the Buddha: Doing Well by Doing Good (2007)

Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano, Available Truth: Excursions into Buddhist Wisdom and the Natural World (2007)

Lisa Kemmerer, In Search of Consistency: Ethics and Animals (2006)

Kirkpatrick Sale, After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination (2006)

Paul Waldau & Kimberley Christine Patton (eds.), A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (2006)

Sulak Sivaraksa, Conflict, Culture, Change: Engaged Buddhism in a Globalizing World (2005)

Stuart Chandler, Establishing a Pure Land on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization (2004)

Linda Learman, Buddhist Missionaries in the Era of Globalization (2004)

Roger S. Gottlieb, This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment, 2nd ed. (2003)

Joanna Macy, World As Lover, World As Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal (2003)

Paul Waldau, The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals (2001)

Stephanie Kaza & Kenneth Kraft (eds.), Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism (2000)

Tony Page, Buddhism and Animals: A Buddhist Vision of Humanity's Rightful Relationship with the Animal Kingdom (1999)

Laurel Kearns & Catherine Keller (eds.), Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth (2007)

Mary E. Tucker & Duncan R. Williams (eds.), Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds (1997)

Christopher Key Chapple, Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (1993)

Martine Batchelor & Kerry Brown (eds.), Buddhism and Ecology (1992)

Allan Hunt Badiner (ed.), Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology (1990)

Arne Naess, Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy, trans. David Rothenberg (1989)

In this study of the place of vegetarianism within Tibetan religiosity, Geoffrey Barstow explores the tension between Buddhist ethics and Tibetan cultural norms to offer a novel perspective on the spiritual and social dimensions of meat eating. Barstow offers a detailed analysis of the debates over meat eating and vegetarianism, from the first references to such a diet in the tenth century through the Chinese invasion in the 1950s. He discusses elements of Tibetan Buddhist thought, but also looks beyond religious attitudes to examine the cultural, economic, and environmental factors that oppose the Buddhist critique of meat, including Tibetan concepts of medicine and health, food scarcity, the display of wealth, and idealized male gender roles. Barstow argues that the issue of meat eating was influenced by a complex interplay of factors, with religious perspectives largely supporting vegetarianism while practical concerns and secular ideals pulled in the other direction.

Clair Brown, professor of economics at UC Berkeley and a practicing Buddhist, has developed a holistic model, one based on the notion that quality of life should be measured by more than national income. Brown advocates an approach to organizing the economy that embraces rather than skirts questions of values, sustainability, and equity, and incorporates the Buddhist emphasis on interdependence, shared prosperity, and happiness into her vision for a sustainable and compassionate world. Buddhist economics leads us to think mindfully as we go about our daily activities, and offers a way to appreciate how our actions affect the well-being of those around us. By replacing the endless cycle of desire with more positive collective activities, we can make our lives more meaningful as well as happier. This book represents an enlightened approach to our modern world infused with ancient wisdom, with benefits both personal and global, for generations to come.

This book reflects the growing interest and research in this field. Drawing on a diversity of experience from the counselling and psychotherapy professions, but also from practitioners in community work, mental health and education, this book explores the exciting and innovative possibilities involved in practising outdoors. Brazier brings to bear her experience and knowledge as a psychotherapist, group worker and trainer over several decades to think about therapeutic work outdoors in all its forms. The book presents a model of ecotherapy based on principles drawn from Buddhist psychology and Western psychotherapy which focuses particularly on the relationship between person and environment at three levels, moving from the personal level of individual history to cultural influences, then finally to global circumstances, all of which condition mind-states and psychological well-being. This work will provide refreshing and valuable reading for psychotherapists and counsellors in the field, those interested in Buddhism, and other mental health and health professionals working outdoors.

This work explores alternative ways of leading in the aftermath of the Great Recession and the many stories of fraud and greed that emerged. The book explores shifts in business perspectives as more value is placed on soft skills like emotional intelligence and listening, and introduces the reader to the principles in Buddhist philosophy that can be applied in the workplace. Marques explores the value of applying the positive psychology of Buddhism to work settings. She outlines the ways in which it offers highly effective solutions to addressing important management and organizational behavior related issues, but also flags up critical areas for caution. For example, Buddhism is non-confrontational, and promotes detachment. How can business leaders negotiate these principles in light of the demands of modern day pressures? The book includes end of chapter questions to promote reflection and critical thinking, and examples of Buddhist leaders in action. It will prove a captivating read for students of organizational behavior, management, leadership, diversity and ethics.

Andy Rotman, Hungry Ghosts (2021)

Eric Huntington, Creating the Universe: Depictions of the Cosmos in Himalayan Buddhism (2019)

Rebecca Redwood French, The Golden Yoke: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet (2002)

Akira Sadakata, Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins (1997)

Jamgon K.L. Taye, Myriad Worlds: Buddhist Cosmology in Abhidharma, Kalacakra, and Dzog-chen (1995)

Randy Kloetzli, Buddhist Cosmology: From Single World System to Pure Land: Science and Theology in the Images of Motion and Light (1983)

Frank E. Reynolds & Mani B. Reynolds (trans.), Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology (1982)

Peter Singer & Shih Chao-Hwei, The Buddhist and the Ethicist: Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World (2023)

Jay L. Garfield, Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021)

Daniel Cozort & James Mark Shields (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics (2018)

Jake H. Davis (ed.), A Mirror Is for Reflection: Understanding Buddhist Ethics (2017)

The Cowherds, Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (2015)

Dharmachari Subhuti, Mind in Harmony: A Guide to the Psychology of Buddhist Ethics (2015)

Charles Goodman, Consequences of Compassion: An Interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics (2014)

Christopher W. Gowans, Buddhist Moral Philosophy: An Introduction (2014)

Alexus McLeod, Understanding Asian Philosophy: Ethics in the Analects, Zhuangzi, Dhammapada, and the Bhagavad Gita (2014)

Subhadramati, Not About Being Good: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Ethics (2013)

Dale Wright, The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character (2011)

Charles S. Prebish (ed.), Destroying Mara Forever: Buddhist Ethics Essays in Honor of Damien Keown (2010)

Susanne Mrozik, Virtuous Bodies: The Physical Dimensions of Morality in Buddhist Ethics (2007)

Hari Shankar Prasad, The Centrality of Ethics in Buddhism: Exploratory Essays (2007)

Pamela Bloom, The Healing Power of Compassion: The Essence of Buddhist Acts (2006)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Into the Jaws of Yama, Lord of Death: Buddhism, Bioethics, and Death (2006)

Damien Keown, Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction (2005)

Sangharakshita, Know Your Mind: The Psychological Dimension of Ethics in Buddhism (2004)

Jeffrey Hopkins, Cultivating Compassion: A Buddhist Perspective (2002)

Gananath Obeyesekere, Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth (2002)

Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values, and Issues (2000)

Damien Keown (ed.), Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (2000)

Damien Keown (ed.), Buddhism and Abortion (1998)

Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics (1997)

Peggy Morgan & Clive Lawton (eds.), Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions (1996)

Damien Keown, Buddhism and Bioethics (1995)

Phillip Olson, The Discipline of Freedom: A Kantian View of the Role of Moral Precepts in Zen Practice (1993)

Damien Keown, The Nature of Buddhist Ethics (1992)

William R. LaFleur, Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan (1992)

Charles W. Fu & Sandra A. Wawrytko (eds.), Buddhist Ethics and Modern Society (1991)

Bruce Reichenbach, The Law of Karma: A Philosophical Study (1990)

Russell F. Sizemore & Donald K. Swearer (eds.), Ethics, Wealth and Salvation: A Study in Buddhist Social Ethics (1989)

Toshiichi Endo, Dana: The Development of Its Concept and Practice (1987)

G.S. Misra, The Development of Buddhist Ethics (1984)

Robert Aitken, The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics (1982)

Roderick Hindery, Comparative Ethics in Hindu and Buddhist Traditions (1978)

Michael Pye, Skilful Means: A Concept in Mahayana Buddhism (1978)

Unto Tahtinen, Ahimsa: Non-Violence in Indian Tradition (1976)

Shundo Tachibana, The Ethics of Buddhism (1975)

Winston King, In the Hope of Nibbana: An Essay on Theravada Buddhist Ethics (1964)

All the varied forms of Buddhism embody an ethical core that is remarkably consistent. Articulated by the historical Buddha in his first sermon, this moral core is founded on the concept of karma--that intentions and actions have future consequences for an individual--and is summarized as Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, three of the elements of the Eightfold Path. Although they were later elaborated and interpreted in a multitude of ways, none of these core principles were ever abandoned. This work provides a comprehensive overview of the field of Buddhist ethics in the twenty-first century. It discusses the foundations of Buddhist ethics, focusing on karma and the precepts for abstinence from harming others, stealing, and intoxication. It considers ethics in the different Buddhist traditions and the similarities they share, and compares Buddhist ethics to Western ethics and the psychology of moral judgments. The volume also investigates Buddhism and society, analysing economics, environmental ethics, and Just War ethics. The final section focuses on contemporary issues surrounding Buddhist ethics, including gender, sexuality, animal rights, and euthanasia.

Here is a lucid, accessible, and inspiring guide to the six perfections--Buddhist teachings about six dimensions of human character that require "perfecting": generosity, morality, tolerance, energy, meditation, and wisdom. Drawing on the Diamond Sutra, the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, and other essential Mahayana texts, Dale Wright shows how these teachings were understood and practiced in classical Mahayana Buddhism and how they can be adapted to contemporary life in a global society. What would the perfection of generosity look like today, for example? What would it mean to give with neither ulterior motives nor naiveté? Devoting a separate chapter to each of the six perfections, Wright combines sophisticated analysis with real-life applications. Buddhists have always stressed self-cultivation and the freedom of human beings to shape their own lives. For those interested in ideals of human character and practices of self-cultivation, this work offers invaluable guidance.

This book explores the Buddhist view of death and its implications for contemporary bioethics. Writing primarily from within the Tibetan tradition, Tsomo discusses Buddhist notions of human consciousness and personal identity and how these figure in the Buddhist view of death. Beliefs about death and enlightenment and states between life and death are also discussed. Tsomo goes on to examine such hot-button topics as cloning, abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, organ donation, genetic engineering, and stem-cell research within a Buddhist context, introducing new ways of thinking about these highly controversial issues.

With this work, Obeyesekere embarks on the very first comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. Exploring in rich detail the beliefs of small-scale societies of West Africa, Melanesia, traditional Siberia, Canada, and the northwest coast of North America, Obeyesekere compares their ideas with those of the ancient and modern Indic civilizations and with the Greek rebirth theories of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Pindar, and Plato. His groundbreaking and authoritative discussion decenters the popular notion that India was the origin and locus of ideas of rebirth. As he compares responses to the most fundamental questions of human existence, the author challenges readers to reexamine accepted ideas about death, cosmology, morality, and eschatology. Obeyesekere's comprehensive inquiry shows that diverse societies have come through independent invention or borrowing to believe in reincarnation as an integral part of their larger cosmological systems. The author brings together into a coherent methodological framework the thought of such diverse thinkers as Weber, Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche. In a contemporary intellectual context that celebrates difference and cultural relativism, this book makes a case for disciplined comparison, a humane view of human nature, and a theoretical understanding of "family resemblances" and differences across great cultural divides.

Gender, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Children

Toni Pressley-Sanon, Lifting As They Climb: Black Women Buddhists and Collective Liberation (2024)

Megan Bryson & Kevin Buckelew, eds., Buddhist Masculinities (2023)

Vanessa R. Sasson, The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women (2023)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Daughters of the Buddha: Teachings by Ancient Indian Women (2022)

Jacoby Ballard, A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation (2022)

Ute Hüsken, Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance: Female Agency in Buddhism and Hinduism (2022)

Elisabeth A. Benard, The Sakya Jetsunmas: The Hidden World of Tibetan Female Lamas (2022)

Darcy Flynn (ed.), Buddhism and Women: In the Middle Way (2022)

Kodo Nishimura, This Monk Wears Heels: Be Who You Are (2022)

Rachael Stevens, Red Tara: The Female Buddha of Power and Magnetism (2022)

Stephanie Guyer-Stevens & Françoise Pommaret, Divine Messengers: The Untold Story of Bhutan's Female Shamans (2021)

Alice Collett, I Hear Her Words: An Introduction to Women in Buddhism (2021)

Wendy Garling, The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati (2021)

Carola Roloff, The Buddhist Nun´s Ordination in the Tibetan Canon: Possibilities of the Revival of the Mulasarvastivada Bhiksuni Lineage (2021)

Vanessa R. Sasson, Yasodhara and the Buddha (2021)

Mayumi Oda, Sarasvati's Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda - Artist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary (2020)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Women in Buddhist Traditions (2020)

Matty Weingast, The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns (2020)

Jan Willis, Dharma Matters: Women, Race, and Tantra (2020)

Sokthan Yeng, Buddhist Feminism: Transforming Anger Against Patriarchy (2020)

Anne Cushman, The Mama Sutra: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Pain of Motherhood (2019)

Martin Seeger, Gender and the Path to Awakening: Hidden Histories of Nuns in Modern Thai Buddhism (2018)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities (2019)

Gendun Chopel, The Passion Book: A Tibetan Guide to Love & Sex, trans. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (2018)

Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Object Relations, Buddhism, and Relationality in Womanist Practical Theology (2018)

Amy Paris Langenberg, Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom (2017)

Karen Muldoon-Hules, Brides of the Buddha: Nuns' Stories from the Avadanasataka (2017)

Bhikkhu Analayo, The Foundation History of the Nuns' Order (2016)

Anna Andreeva & Dominic Steavu (eds.), Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions (2016)

Wendy Garling, Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life (2016)

Kamalamani, Other Than Mother: Choosing Childlessness with Life in Mind (2016)

Ashley Thompson, Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor (2016)

Pascale Engelmajer, Women in Pali Buddhism: Walking the Spiritual Paths in Mutual Dependence (2015)

Rosemarie Freeney Harding & Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering (2015)

Jennifer McWeeny & Ashby Butnor (eds.), Asian and Feminist Philosophies in Dialogue: Liberating Traditions (2014)

Andrea Miller (ed.), Buddha's Daughters: Teachings from Women Who Are Shaping Buddhism in the West (2014)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Eminent Buddhist Women (2014)

Kathryn R. Blackstone, Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha (2013)

Florence Caplow & Susan Moon (eds.), The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women (2013)

Nirmala S. Salgado, Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice: In Search of the Female Renunciant (2013)

Bardwell L. Smith, Narratives of Sorrow and Dignity: Japanese Women, Pregnancy Loss, and Modern Rituals of Grieving (2013)

Reiko Ohnuma, Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism (2012)

Vanessa R. Sasson (ed.), Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions (2012)

Paula Arai, Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women's Rituals (2011)

Hsiao-Lan Hu, This-Worldly Nibbana: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community (2011)

Lori Rachelle Meeks, Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan (2010)

Thea Mohr & Jampa Tsedroen (eds.), Dignity and Discipline: Reviewing Full Ordination for Buddhist Nuns (2010)

Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Nuns: The Birth and Development of a Women's Monastic Order (2010)

Christina Feldman, Woman Awake: Women Practicing Buddhism (2009)

Rita M. Gross, A Garland of Feminist Reflections: Forty Years of Religious Exploration (2009)

Grace Schireson, Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters (2009)

Andrea Whittaker, Abortion, Sin and the State in Thailand (2009)

Frances Mary Garrett, Religion, Medicine and the Human Embryo in Tibet (2008)

Sara Burns, A Path for Parents: What Buddhism Can Offer (2007)

Peter N. Gregory & Susanne Mrozik (eds.), Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences (2007)

Maura O'Halloran, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Life and Letters of an Irish Zen Saint (2007)

Sallie Tisdale, Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom (2007)

Martine Batchelor & Son'gyong Sunim, Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices (2006)

Sandy Boucher, Dancing in the Dharma: The Life and Teachings of Ruth Denison (2006)

Wei-Yi Cheng, Buddhist Nuns in Taiwan and Sri Lanka: A Critique of the Feminist Perspective (2006)

Alexandra David-Néel, My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City (2005)

Kim Gutschow, Being a Buddhist Nun: The Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas (2004)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements (2004)

Bernard Faure, The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity and Gender (2003)

Beata Grant, Daughters of Emptiness: Poems of Chinese Buddhist Nuns (2003)

Hugh B. Urban, Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion (2003)

Martine Batchelor, Women on the Buddhist Path (2002)

Susan Murcott, First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening (2002)

Sid Brown, The Journey of One Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind (2001)

Rita M. Gross & Rosemary Radford Ruether, Religious Feminism and the Future of the Planet: A Christian-Buddhist Conversation (2001)

Ranjini Obeyesekere (trans.), Portraits of Buddhist Women: Stories from the Saddharmaratnaavaliya (2001)

Tsültrim Allione, Women of Wisdom (2000)

Sandy Boucher, Discovering Kwan Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion: A Path Towards Clarity and Peace (2000)

Mandakranta Bose (ed.), Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India (2000)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Innovative Buddhist Women: Swimming Against the Stream (2000)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Buddhist Women Across Cultures: Realizations (1999)

Sandy Boucher, Opening the Lotus: A Woman's Guide to Buddhism (1998)

Alan Cole, Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism (1998)

Bernard Faure, The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality (1998)

Chamindaji gamage, buddhism and sensuality: as recorded in the theravada canon (1998).

Rita M. Gross, Soaring and Settling: Buddhist Perspectives on Contemporary Social and Religious Issues (1998)

Lenore Friedman & Susan Moon (eds.), Being Bodies: Buddhist Women on the Paradox of Embodiment (1997)

Helen Hardacre, Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan (1997)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Ethics for Women (1997)

Martine Batchelor, Walking on Lotus Flowers: Buddhist Women Living, Loving and Meditating (1996)

Marianne Dresser (ed.), Buddhist Women on the Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier (1996)

Liz Wilson, Charming Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature (1996)

Anne C. Klein, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self (1995)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Buddhism Through American Women's Eyes (1995)

L.p.n. perera, sexuality in ancient india: a study based on the pali vinayapitaka (1993).

Rita M. Gross, Buddhism after Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism (1992)

Susan Murcott, The First Buddhist Women (1992)

José Ignacio Cabezón (ed.), Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender (1991)

I. B. Horner, Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen (1990)

John Stevens, Lust for Enlightenment: Buddhism and Sex (1990)

Janice Willis (ed.), Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (1989)

Sandy Boucher, Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism (1988)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Sakyadhita: Daughters of the Buddha (1988)

Recent decades have seen a transnational agitation for better opportunities for Buddhist women. Many of the main players in this movement self-identify as feminists, but other participants in this movement may not know or use the language of feminism. In fact, many ordained Buddhist women say they seek higher ordination so that they might be better Buddhist practitioners, not for the sake of gender equality. Eschewing the backward projection of secular liberal feminist categories, this book describes the basic features of the Buddhist discourse of the female body, held more or less in common across sectarian lines, and still pertinent to ordained Buddhist women today. The textual focus of the study is an early-first-millennium Sanskrit Buddhist work, the "Descent into the Womb Scripture" or Garbhāvakrānti-sūtra. Drawing out the implications of this text, the author offers innovative arguments about the significance of childbirth and fertility in Buddhism, namely that birth is a master metaphor in Indian Buddhism; that Buddhist gender constructions are centrally shaped by Buddhist birth discourse; and that, by undermining the religious importance of female fertility, the Buddhist construction of an inauspicious, chronically impure, and disgusting femininity constituted a portal to a new, liberated, feminine life for Buddhist monastic women.

Based on extensive research in Sri Lanka and interviews with Theravada and Tibetan nuns from around the world, Salgado's groundbreaking study urges a rethinking of female renunciation. How are scholarly accounts complicit in reinscribing imperialist stories about the subjectivity of Buddhist women? How do key Buddhist "concepts" such as dukkha, samsara, and sila ground female renunciant practice? Salgado's provocative analysis questions the secular notion of the higher ordination of nuns as a political movement for freedom against patriarchal norms. Arguing that the lives of nuns defy translation into a politics of global sisterhood equal before law, she calls for more-nuanced readings of nuns' everyday renunciant practices.

Consideration of children in the academic field of Religious Studies is taking root, but Buddhist Studies has yet to take notice. This book brings together a wide range of scholarship and expertise to address the question of what role children have played in Buddhist literature, in particular historical contexts, and what role they continue to play in specific Buddhist contexts today. The volume is divided into two parts, one addressing the representation of children in Buddhist texts, the other children and childhoods in Buddhist cultures around the world. The ground-breaking contributions in this volume challenge the perception of irreconcilable differences between Buddhist idealism and family ties. This work will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of Buddhism and Childhood Studies, and a catalyst for further research on the topic.

Rita M. Gross has long been acknowledged as a founder in the field of feminist theology. One of the earliest scholars in religious studies to discover how feminism affects that discipline, she is recognized as preeminent in Buddhist feminist theology. The essays in this book represent the major aspects of her work and provide an overview of her methodology in women's studies in religion and feminism. The introductory article, written specifically for this volume, summarizes the conclusions Gross has reached about gender and feminism after forty years of searching and exploring, and the autobiography, also written for this volume, narrates how those conclusions were reached. These articles reveal the range of scholarship and reflection found in Gross's work and demonstrate how feminist scholars in the 1970s shifted the paradigm away from an androcentric model of humanity and forever changed the way we study religion.

Enlightenment & Enlightened Beings

Dale S. Wright, What Is Buddhist Enlightenment? (2016)

Soon-il Hwang, Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana (2012)

Alan Sponberg & Helen Hardacre (eds.), Maitreya: The Future Buddha (2011)

Bhikkhu Analayo, The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal (2010)

Steven Collins, Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative (2010)

Guang Xing, The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory (2010)

Jan Nattier, A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path According to the Inquiry of Ugra (2005)

Sangharakshita, Wisdom Beyond Words: The Buddhist Vision of Ultimate Reality (2004)

Steven Collins, Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali Imaginaire (1998)

Ulrich Pagel, The Bodhisattvapitaka: Its Doctrines, Practices and Their Position in Mahayana Literature (1995)

Cheng Chien, Manifestation of the Tathagata: Buddhahood According to the Avatamsaka Sutra (1993)

Sallie B. King, Buddha Nature (1991)

David Seyfort Ruegg, Buddha-Nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective (1989)

Sung Bae Park, Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment (1983)

Nathan Katz, Buddhist Images of Human Perfection: The Arahant of the Sutta Pitaka compared with the Bodhisattva and the Mahasiddha (1982)

Leslie Kawamura (ed.), The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism (1981)

Theodor Stcherbatsky, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana. With Sanskrit Text of the Madhyamaka-karika, 2nd rev. ed. (1977)

Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature (1970)

Rune E. A. Johansson, The Psychology of Nirvana: A Comparative Study (1970)

G.R. Welbon, The Buddhist Nirvana and Its Western Interpreters (1968)

Robert L. Slater, Paradox and Nirvana: A Study of Religious Ultimates with Special Reference to Burmese Buddhism (1951)

Julius Evola, The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts (1943)

Law, Politics, War, and Violence

Stephanie Balkwill & James A. Benn (eds.), Buddhist Statecraft in East Asia (2022)

Tom Ginsburg & Benjamin Schonthal (eds.), Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law (2022)

William J. Long, A Buddhist Approach to International Relations: Radical Interdependence (2021)

George Yancy & Emily McRae (eds.), Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections (2019)

Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Essays on Buddhism, Politics, and Violence (2018)

D. Christian Lammerts, Buddhist Law in Burma: A History of Dhammasattha Texts and Jurisprudence (2018)

Padmasiri de Silva, The Psychology of Buddhism in Conflict Studies (2017)

Hiroko Kawanami (ed.), Buddhism and the Political Process (2016)

Matthew J. Moore, Buddhism and Political Theory (2016)

Wayne R. Husted & Damien Keown (eds.), Buddhism and Human Rights (2015)

Rebecca Redwood French & Mark A. Nathan (eds.), Buddhism and Law: An Introduction (2014)

Hiroko Kawanami & Geoffrey Samuel (eds.), Buddhism, International Relief Work, and Civil Society (2013)

Vincent Eltschinger, Caste and Buddhist Philosophy: Continuity of Some Buddhist Arguments against the Realist Interpretation of Social Denominations (2012)

Melvin McLeod (ed.), Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place (2012)

Vladimir Tikhonov & Torkel Brekke (eds.), Buddhism and Violence: Militarism and Buddhism in Modern Asia (2012)

Michael K. Jerryson & Mark Juergensmeyer (eds.), Buddhist Warfare (2010)

Carmen Meinert, Hans-Bernd Zöllner (eds.), Buddhist Approaches to Human Rights: Dissonances and Resonances (2010)

Brian D. Victoria, Zen at War (2006)

Susan Moon, Not Turning Away: The Practice of Engaged Buddhism (2004)

Brian D. Victoria, Zen War Stories (2003)

Tessa J. Bartholomeusz, In Defense of Dharma: Just-War Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka (2002)

Andrew Huxley, Religion, Law and Tradition: Comparative Studies in Religious Law (2002)

Daisaku Ikeda, For the Sake of Peace: Seven Paths to Global Harmony: A Buddhist Perspective (2002)

Ian Harris (ed.), Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth Century Asia (2001)

Jan E.M. Houben & Karel R. Van Kooj (eds.), Violence Denied: Violence, Non-Violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History (1999)

David R. Loy, The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory (1997)

Kenneth Kraft (ed.), Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence (1992)

Glenn D. Paige & Sarah Gilliatt, Buddhism and Non-Violent Global Problem-Solving: Ulan Bator Explorations (1991)

Unto tahtinen, non-violent theories of punishment: indian and western (1983).

Burma and neighboring areas of Southeast Asia comprise the only region of the world to have developed a written corpus of Buddhist law claiming jurisdiction over all members of society. Yet in contrast with the extensive scholarship on Islamic and Hindu law, this tradition of Buddhist law has been largely overlooked. In fact, it is commonplace to read that Buddhism gave rise to no law aside from the vinaya, or monastic law. In this book, Lammerts upends this misperception and provides an intellectual and literary history of the dynamic jurisprudence of the dhammasattha legal genre between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries. Based on a critical study of hundreds of little-known surviving dhammasattha and related manuscripts, the work demonstrates the centrality of law as a crucial discipline of Buddhist knowledge in precolonial Southeast Asia. Lammerts argues that there were multiple, sometimes contentious, modes of reckoning Buddhist jurisprudence and legal authority in the region and assesses these in the context of local cultural, textual, and ritual practices. Over time, the foundational jurisprudence of the genre underwent considerable reformulation in light of arguments raised by its critics, bibliographers, and historians, resulting in a reorientation from a cosmological to a more positivist conception of Buddhist law and legislation that had far-reaching implications for innovative forms of dhammasattha -related discourse on the eve of British colonialism. Lammerts' book shows how, despite such textual and theoretical transformations, late precolonial Burmese jurists continued to promote and justify the dhammasattha genre, and the role of law generally in Buddhism, as a vital aspect of the ongoing effort to protect and preserve the sāsana of Gotama Buddha.

As the first comprehensive study of Buddhism and law in Asia, this interdisciplinary volume challenges the concept of Buddhism as an apolitical religion without implications for law. This collection draws on the expertise of the foremost scholars in Buddhist studies and in law to trace the legal aspects of the religion from the time of the Buddha to the present. In some cases, Buddhism provided the crucial architecture for legal ideologies and secular law codes, while in other cases it had to contend with a preexisting legal system, to which it added a new layer of complexity. The wide-ranging studies in this book reveal a diversity of relationships between Buddhist monastic codes and secular legal systems in terms of substantive rules, factoring, and ritual practices. This volume will be an essential resource for all students and teachers in Buddhist studies, law and religion, and comparative law.

Though traditionally regarded as a peaceful religion, Buddhism has a dark side. On multiple occasions over the past fifteen centuries, Buddhist leaders have sanctioned violence, and even war. The eight essays in this book focus on a variety of Buddhist traditions, from antiquity to the present, and show that Buddhist organizations have used religious images and rhetoric to support military conquest throughout history. Buddhist soldiers in sixth century China were given the illustrious status of Bodhisattva after killing their adversaries. In seventeenth century Tibet, the Fifth Dalai Lama endorsed a Mongol ruler's killing of his rivals. And in modern-day Thailand, Buddhist soldiers carry out their duties undercover, as fully ordained monks armed with guns. This work demonstrates that the discourse on religion and violence, usually applied to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, can no longer exclude Buddhist traditions. The book examines Buddhist military action in Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and shows that even the most unlikely and allegedly pacifist religious traditions are susceptible to the violent tendencies of man.

The "golden yoke" of Buddhist Tibet was the last medieval legal system still in existence in the middle of the twentieth century. This book reconstructs that system as a series of layered narratives from the memories of people who participated in the daily operation of law in the houses and courtyards the offices and courts of Tibet prior to 1959. The practice of law in this unique legal world, which lacked most of our familiar sign posts, ranged from the fantastic use of oracles in the search for evidence to the more mundane presentation of cases in court. Buddhism and law, two topics rarely intertwined in Western consciousness, are at the center of this work. The Tibetan legal system was based on Buddhist philosophy and reflected Buddhist thought in legal practice and decision making. For Tibetans, law is a cosmology, a kaleidoscopic patterning of relations which is constantly changing, recycling, and re-forming even as it integrates the universe and the individual into a timeless mandalic whole. This work causes us to rethink American legal culture. It argues that in the United States, legal matters are segregated into a separate space with rigidly defined categories. The legal cosmology of Buddhist Tibet brings into question both this autonomous framework and most of the presumptions we have about the very nature of law from precedent and res judicata to rule formation and closure.

The Literature of Buddhism

Michihiro Ama, The Awakening of Modern Japanese Fiction: Path Literature and the Interpretation of Buddhism (2021)

John Brehm, The Dharma of Poetry: How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy (2021)

Karen Derris, Storied Companions: Cancer, Trauma, and Discovering Guides for Living in Buddhist Narratives (2021)

Ven. K.L. Dhammajoti, Reading Buddhist Sanskrit Texts: An Elementary Grammatical Guide, 4th ed. (2021)

Natalie Gummer (ed.), The Language of the Sutras: Essays in Honor of Luis Gómez (2021)

Stefan Larsson & Kristoffer af Edholm, Songs on the Road: Wandering Religious Poets in India, Tibet, and Japan (2021)

Eviatar Shulman, Visions of the Buddha: Creative Dimensions of Early Buddhist Scripture (2021)

Chunwen Hao, Dunhuang Manuscripts: An Introduction to Texts from the Silk Road (2020)

Rafal K. Stepien (ed.), Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature (2020)

Dominique Julien, Borges, Buddhism, and World Literature: A Morphology of Renunciation Tales (2019)

Naomi Appleton, Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative: Gods, Kings and Other Heroes (2016)

Hildegard Diemberger et al (eds.), Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change (2016)

Naomi Appleton, Narrating Karma and Rebirth: Buddhist and Jain Multi-Life Stories (2015)

Jae-Seong Lee, Postmodern Ethics, Emptiness, and Literature (2015)

Lawrence Normand & Alison Winch (eds.), Encountering Buddhism in Twentieth-Century British and American Literature (2015)

Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, The Archaeology of Tibetan Books (2014)

Kurtis R. Schaeffer, The Culture of the Book in Tibet (2014)

Jinah Kim, Receptacle of the Sacred: Illustrated Manuscripts and the Buddhist Book Cult in South Asia (2013)

Richard S. Cohen, The Splendid Vision: Reading a Buddhist Sutra (2012)

Stephen C. Berkwitz et al (eds.), Buddhist Manuscript Cultures: Knowledge, Ritual, and Art (2011)

John Whalen-Bridge & Gary Storhoff (eds.), Writing as Enlightenment: Buddhist American Literature into the Twenty-First Century (2011)

John Whalen-Bridge & Gary Storhoff (eds.), The Emergence of Buddhist American Literature (2009)

Ralph Flores, Buddhist Scriptures as Literature: Sacred Rhetoric and the Uses of Theory (2008)

Richard F. Gombrich & Cristina Scherrer-Schaub (eds.), Buddhist Studies: Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference, Vol. 8 (2008)

Deborah Klimburg-Salter et al (eds.), Text, Image and Song in Transdisciplinary Dialogue (2007)

Jeff Humphries, Reading Emptiness: Buddhism and Literature (1999)

Milton C. Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, Volume II: Buddhist and Jaina Literature (1999)

Kogen Mizuno, Buddhist Sutras: Origin, Development, Transmission (1989)

Donald S. Lopez (ed.), Buddhist Hermeneutics (1988)

Roy C. Amore & Larry D. Shinn (ed. & trans.), Lustful Maidens and Ascetic Kings: Buddhist and Hindu Stories of Life (1981)

Shinsho Hanayama, Bibliography on Buddhism (1961)

Buddhism and Jainism share the concepts of karma, rebirth, and the desirability of escaping from rebirth. The literature of both traditions contains many stories about past, and sometimes future, lives which reveal much about these foundational doctrines. Naomi Appleton carefully explores how multi-life stories served to construct, communicate, and challenge ideas about karma and rebirth within early South Asia, examining portrayals of the different realms of rebirth, the potential paths and goals of human beings, and the biographies of ideal religious figures. Appleton also deftly surveys the ability of karma to bind individuals together over multiple lives, and the nature of the supernormal memory that makes multi-life stories available in the first place. This original study not only sheds light on the individual preoccupations of Buddhist and Jain tradition, but contributes to a more complete history of religious thought in South Asia.

In considering medieval illustrated Buddhist manuscripts as sacred objects of cultic innovation, this book explores how and why the South Asian Buddhist book-cult has survived for almost two millennia to the present. A book "manuscript" should be understood as a form of sacred space: a temple in microcosm, not only imbued with divine presence but also layered with the memories of many generations of users. Kim argues that illustrating a manuscript with Buddhist imagery not only empowered it as a three-dimensional sacred object, but also made it a suitable tool for the spiritual transformation of medieval Indian practitioners. Through a detailed historical analysis, she suggests that while Buddhism’s disappearance in eastern India was a slow and gradual process, the Buddhist book-cult played an important role in sustaining its identity. In addition, by examining the physical traces left by later Nepalese users and the contemporary ritual use of the book in Nepal, Kim shows how human agency was critical in perpetuating and intensifying the potency of a manuscript as a sacred object throughout time.

This work explores how religious and cultural practices in premodern Asia were shaped by literary and artistic traditions as well as by Buddhist material culture. This study of Buddhist texts focuses on the significance of their material forms rather than their doctrinal contents, and examines how and why they were made. Collectively, the book offers cross-cultural and comparative insights into the transmission of Buddhist knowledge and the use of texts and images as ritual objects in the artistic and aesthetic traditions of Buddhist cultures. Drawing on case studies from India, Gandhara, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mongolia, China and Nepal, the chapters included investigate the range of interests and values associated with producing and using written texts, and the roles manuscripts and images play in the transmission of Buddhist texts and in fostering devotion among Buddhist communities. Contributions are by reputed scholars in Buddhist Studies and represent diverse disciplinary approaches from religious studies, art history, anthropology, and history.

This work connects ancient Buddhist attitudes and ideas with postmodern theory and aesthetics, concluding that the closest thing in Western culture to the Middle Way of Buddhism is not any sort of theory or philosophy, but the practice of literature. The book draws on scholarship and criticism in literary theory, philosophy, and science to speculate about the possible common ground between literary and Buddhist practices, aiming not so much to elucidate the ancient traditions of Buddhism as to seek ways in which literature might be integrated into a truly Western practice of Buddhism that would remain philosophically true to its Eastern roots.

Language, Logic, and Semiotics

Eun-Su Cho, Language and Meaning: Buddhist Interpretations of the "Buddha's Word" in Indian and East Asian Perspectives (2020)

Manel Herat (ed.), Buddhism and Linguistics: Theory and Philosophy (2017)

Sangharakshita, Metaphors, Magic, and Mystery: An Anthology of Writings and Teachings on Words and Their Relation to the Truth (2015)

Koji Tanaka et al (eds.), The Moon Points Back (2015)

Youxuan Wang, Buddhism and Deconstruction: Towards a Comparative Semiotics (2015)

Jayant Burde, Buddhist Logic and Quantum Dilemma (2012)

The Cowherds, Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy (2010)

Jay L. Garfield et al (eds.), Pointing at the Moon: Buddhism, Logic, Analytic Philosophy (2009)

Jin Y. Park (ed.), Buddhisms and Deconstructions (2006)

Alex Wayman, A Millennium of Buddhist Logic (1999)

Asanga tilakaratne, nirvana and ineffability: a study of the buddhist theory of reality and language (1993).

R.S.Y. Chi, Buddhist Formal Logic: A Study of Dignaga's Hetucakra and K'uei-chi's Great Commentary on the Nyayapravesa (1990)

Joan Stambaugh, The Real Is Not the Rational (1986)

G.M. Sprung (ed.), The Problem of Two Truths in Buddhism and Vedanta (1973)

T. Stcherbatsky, Buddhist Logic, 2 vols. (1962)

Meditation, Mindfulness, and Insight

David L. McMahan, Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditative Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds (2023)

Farah Godrej, Freedom Inside? Yoga and Meditation in the Carceral State (2022)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Developments in Buddhist Meditation Traditions: The Interplay Between Theory and Practice (2022)

L.S. Cousins, Meditations of the Pali Tradition: Illuminating Buddhist Doctrine, History, and Practice, ed. Sarah Shaw (2022)

Paul Dennison, Jhana Consciousness: Buddhist Meditation in the Age of Neuroscience (2022)

Geshe YongDong Losar, Calm Breath, Calm Mind: A Guide to the Healing Power of Breath, ed. Bernadette Wyton (2022)

B. Alan Wallace, The Art of Transforming the Mind: A Meditator’s Guide to the Tibetan Practice of Lojong (2022)

Karen O'Brien-Kop, Rethinking 'Classical Yoga' and Buddhism: Meditation, Metaphors and Materiality (2021)

Vajradevi, Uncontrived Mindfulness: Ending Suffering Through Attention, Curiosity, and Wisdom (2021)

B. Alan Wallace, Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness (2021)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Introducing Mindfulness: The Buddhist Background and Practical Exercises (2020)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Mindfulness in Early Buddhism: Characteristics and Functions (2020)

Will Johnson, The Posture of Meditation: A Practical Manual for Meditators of All Traditions (2020)

Sarah Shaw, Mindfulness: Where It Comes From and What It Means (2020)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Mindfulness of Breathing: A Practice Guide and Translations (2019)

Tullio Giraldi, Psychotherapy, Mindfulness and Buddhist Meditation (2019)

Michal Pagis, Inward: Vipassana Meditation and the Embodiment of the Self (2019)

Paramananda, The Myth of Meditation: Restoring Imaginal Ground through Embodied Buddhist Practice (2019)

Ronald Purser, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (2019)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide (2018)

John Blofeld, Gateway to Wisdom: Taoist and Buddhist Contemplative and Healing Yogas (2018)

Ratnaguna Hennessey, The Art of Reflection: A Guide to Thinking, Contemplation and Insight on the Buddhist Path (2018)

Hyun-soo Jeon, Samatha, Jhana, and Vipassana. Practice at the Pa-Auk Monastery: A Meditator's Experience, trans. HaNul Jun (2018)

Jack Kornfield & Joseph Goldstein, The Path of Insight Meditation (2018)

Jaime Kucinskas, The Mindful Elite: Mobilizing from the Inside Out (2018)

Dharmachari Shantigarbha, I'll Meet You There: A Practical Guide to Empathy, Mindfulness and Communication (2018)

Lenart Skof & Petri Berndtson (eds.), Atmospheres of Breathing (2018)

Henry Vyner, The Healthy Mind: Mindfulness, True Self, and the Stream of Consciousness (2018)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Mindfully Facing Disease and Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts (2017)

Keren Arbel, Early Buddhist Meditation: The Four Jhanas as the Actualization of Insight (2017)

Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Introduction for Meditators (2017)

Peter Doran, A Political Economy of Attention, Mindfulness and Consumption: Reclaiming the Mindful Commons (2017)

Halvor Eifring (ed.), Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context (2017)

Paramabandhu Groves & Jed Shamel, Mindful Emotion: A Short Course in Kindness (2017)

Bhikkhu Phra Khantipalo, Calm and Insight: A Buddhist Manual for Meditators (2017)

Erik Braun, The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (2016)

Bob Chisholm & Jeff Harrison (eds.), The Wisdom of Not-Knowing: Essays on Psychotherapy, Buddhism, and Life Experience (2016)

Mahasi Sayadaw, Manual of Insight, trans. Steve Armstrong (2016)

Sayadaw U. Tejaniya, When Awareness Becomes Natural: A Guide to Cultivating Mindfulness in Everyday Life (2016)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation (2015)

Richard P. Boyle, Realizing Awakened Consciousness: Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind (2015)

Leigh Brasington, Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas (2015)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Perspectives on Satipatthana (2014)

Manu Bazzano (ed.), After Mindfulness: New Perspectives on Psychology and Meditation (2014)

Amanda Ie et al (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness, 2 vols. (2014)

Sarah Shaw, The Spirit of Buddhist Meditation (2014)

Lama Dudjom Dorjee, Stillness, Insight, and Emptiness: Buddhist Meditation from the Ground Up (2013)

J. Mark G. Williams & Jon Kabat-Zinn (eds.), Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on Its Meaning, Origins and Applications (2013)

Jinananda, Meditating: A Buddhist View (2012)

Kamalashila, Buddhist Meditation: Tranquillity, Imagination and Insight (2012)

Joe Loizzo, Sustainable Happiness: The Mind Science of Well-Being, Altruism, and Inspiration (2012)

Sangharakshita, The Purpose and Practice of Buddhist Meditation: A Sourcebook of Teachings (2012)

Shaila Catherine, Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana (2011)

Judith Simmer-Brown & Fran Grace (eds.), Meditation and the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for Religious Studies (2011)

Cynthia Thatcher, Just Seeing: Insight Meditation and Sense-Perception (2011)

Bodhipaksa, Wildmind: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation (2010)

Arinna Weisman & Jean Smith, The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation (2010)

Thomas Cleary, Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation (2009)

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory Guide to the Jhanas, ed. John Peddicord (2009)

Maitreyabandhu, Life with Full Attention: A Practical Course in Mindfulness (2009)

Stephen Snyder & Tina Rasmussen, Practicing the Jhanas: Traditional Concentration Meditation As Presented by the Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw (2009)

Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation (2009)

Richard Shankman, The Experience of Samadhi: An In-Depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation (2008)

Sarah Shaw, Introduction to Buddhist Meditation (2008)

Ajahn Brahmavamso, Ajahn Nyanadhammo, & Dharma Dorje, Walking Meditation: Three Expositions (2007)

Gregory Kramer, Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom (2007)

Toni Packer, The Silent Question: Meditating in the Stillness of Not-Knowing (2007)

Paramananda, The Body: The Art of Meditation (2007)

Ajahn Brahm, Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook (2006)

Paramananda, Change Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Meditation (2006)

Sarah Shaw, Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon (2006)

Vessantara, The Heart: The Art of Meditation (2006)

Kathleen McDonald, How to Meditate: A Practical Guide (2005)

Vessantara, The Breath: The Art of Meditation (2005)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization (2004)

Frits Koster, Liberating Insight: Introduction to Buddhist Psychology and Insight Meditation (2004)

Nagabodhi, Metta: The Practice of Loving Kindness (2004)

Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation (2004)

Sangharakshita, Living with Awareness: A Guide to the Satipatthana Sutta (2004)

Daniel Odier, Meditation Techniques of the Buddhist and Taoist Masters (2003)

John Daishin Buksbazen, Zen Meditation in Plain English (2002)

Bhante Gunaratana, Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Path of the Buddha (2001)

Lewis Richmond, Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job (2000)

Mitchell Ginsberg, The Far Shore: Vipassana, the Practice of Insight (1999)

A. Charles Muller (trans.), The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment: Korean Buddhism's Guide to Meditation (1999)

Chih-i, Stopping and Seeing: A Comprehensive Course in Buddhist Meditation trans. Thomas Cleary (1997)

Donald K. Swearer, Secrets of the Lotus: Studies in Buddhist Meditation (1997)

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (1996)

Sayadaw U. Silananda, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, ed. Ruth-Inge Heinze (1995)

Claude F. Whitmyer (ed.), Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livelihood (1994)

Johannes Bronkhorst, The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India (1993)

Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom (1993)

Amadeo Sole-Leris, Tranquillity and Insight: An Introduction to the Oldest Form of Buddhist Meditation (1992)

Charles Luk, Secrets of Chinese Meditation: Self-Cultivation by Mind Control As Taught in the Ch'an, Mahayana and Taoist Schools in China (1991)

Chögyam Trungpa, Meditation in Action (1991)

Geshe G. Lodro, Walking Through Walls: A Presentation of Tibetan Meditation (1990)

Joseph Goldstein, The Experience of Insight: A Simple and Direct Guide to Buddhist Meditation (1987)

Bhikkhu Nanamoli, Mindfulness of Breathing: Buddhist Texts from the Pāli Canon and Extracts from the Pali Commentaries (1982)

Nyanaponika Thera (ed. & trans.), The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (1973)

Western society has never been more interested in interiority. Indeed, it seems more and more people are deliberately looking inward—toward the mind, the body, or both. Pagis’s book focuses on one increasingly popular channel for the introverted gaze: vipassana meditation, which has spread from Burma to more than forty countries and counting. Lacing her account with vivid anecdotes and personal stories, Pagis turns our attention not only to the practice of vipassana but to the communities that have sprung up around it. This work is also a social history of the westward diffusion of Eastern religious practices spurred on by the lingering effects of the British colonial presence in India. At the same time Pagis asks knotty questions about what happens when we continually turn inward, as she investigates the complex relations between physical selves, emotional selves, and our larger social worlds. Her book sheds new light on evergreen topics such as globalization, social psychology, and the place of the human body in the enduring process of self-awareness.

Mindful meditation is now embraced in virtually all corners of society today, from K-12 schools to Fortune 100 companies, and its virtues extolled by national and international media almost daily. It is thought to benefit our health and overall well-being, to counter stress, to help children pay attention, and to foster creativity, productivity and emotional intelligence. Yet in the 1960s and 1970s meditation was viewed as a marginal, counter-cultural practice, or a religious ritual for Asian immigrants. How did mindfulness become mainstream? Kucinskas reveals who is behind the mindfulness movement, and the engine they built to propel mindfulness into public consciousness. Drawing on over a hundred first-hand accounts with top scientists, religious leaders, educators, business people and investors, Kucinskas shows how this highly accomplished, affluent group in America transformed meditation into an appealing set of contemplative practices. Rather than relying on confrontation and protest to make their mark and improve society, the contemplatives sought a cultural revolution by building elite networks and advocating the benefits of meditation across professions. But this idealistic myopia came to reinforce some of the problems it originally aspired to solve. A critical look at this Buddhist-inspired movement, this book explores how elite movements can spread and draws larger lessons for other social, cultural, and religious movements across institutions and organizations.

This book offers a new interpretation of the relationship between 'insight practice' (satipatthana) and the attainment of the four jhanas (i.e., right samadhi ), a key problem in the study of Buddhist meditation. The author challenges the traditional Buddhist understanding of the four jhanas as states of absorption, and shows how these states are the actualization and embodiment of insight (vipassana). It proposes that the four jhanas and what we call 'vipassana' are integral dimensions of a single process that leads to awakening. This book demonstrates that the distinction between the 'practice of serenity' (samatha-bhavana) and the 'practice of insight' (vipassana-bhavana) – a fundamental distinction in Buddhist meditation theory – is not applicable to early Buddhist understanding of the meditative path. It seeks to show that the common interpretation of the jhanas as 'altered states of consciousness', absorptions that do not reveal anything about the nature of phenomena, is incompatible with the teachings of the Pali Nikayas. By carefully analyzing the descriptions of the four jhanas in the early Buddhist texts in Pali, their contexts, associations and meanings within the conceptual framework of early Buddhism, the relationship between this central element in the Buddhist path and 'insight meditation' becomes revealed in all its power. This book will be of interest to scholars of Buddhist studies, Asian philosophies and religions, as well as serious practitioners of insight meditation.

Dharma practice comprises a wide range of wise instructions and skillful means. As a result, meditators may be exposed to a diversity of approaches to the core teachings and the meditative path--and that can be confusing at times. In this clear and accessible exploration, Dharma teacher and longtime meditator Richard Shankman unravels the mix of differing, sometimes conflicting, views and traditional teachings on how samadhi (concentration) is understood and taught. In part one, Richard Shankman explores the range of teachings and views about samadhi in the Theravada Pali tradition, examines different approaches, and considers how they can inform and enrich our meditation practice. Part two consists of a series of interviews with prominent contemporary Theravada and vipassana (insight) Buddhist teachers. These discussions focus on the practical experience of samadhi, bringing the theoretical to life and offering a range of applications.

Monasticism

Stephen J. Davis, Monasticism: A Very Short Introduction (2018)

Susan Andrews et al (eds.), Rules of Engagement: Medieval Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Regulation (2017)

Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Banner of the Arahants: Buddhist Monks and Nuns from the Buddha's Time Till Now (2016)

Jeffrey Samuels, Attracting the Heart: Social Relations and the Aesthetics of Emotion in Sri Lankan Monastic Culture (2016)

Malcolm Voyce, Foucault, Buddhism and Disciplinary Rules (2016)

Bhikkhu Nyanatusita, Analysis of the Bhikkhu Patimokkha (2014)

Bhikkhu Nyanatusita (ed. & trans.), The Bhikkhu Patimokkha: A Word by Word Translation (2014)

Tim Ward, What the Buddha Never Taught (2013)

Jonathan A. Silk, Managing Monks: Administrators and Administrative Roles in Indian Buddhist Monasticism (2008)

Jotiya Dhirasekera, Buddhist Monastic Discipline: A Study of Its Origin and Development in Relation to the Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas (2007)

Li Rongxi & Albert A. Dalia (trans.), Lives of Great Monks and Nuns (2006)

Koichi Shinohara & Phyllis Granoff, Speaking of Monks: From Benares to Beijing (2006)

William Bodiford (ed.), Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya (2005)

Pierre Pichard & Francois Lagirarde, The Buddhist Monastery: A Cross-Cultural Survey (2003)

Ann Heirman, Rules for Nuns According to the Dharmaguptakavinaya: "The Discipline in Four Parts" (2002)

Venerable Bhikshuni Wu Yin, Choosing Simplicity: A Commentary on the Bhikshuni Pratimoksha, ed. Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, trans. Bhikshuni Jendy Shih (2001)

W. Pachow, A Comparative Study of the Pratimoksa: On the Basis of its Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Pali Versions (2000)

Charles S. Prebish, Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Pratimoksa Sutras of the Mahasamghikas and Mulasarvastivadins (1996)

Charles S. Prebish, A Survey of Vinaya Literature, Volume One (1996)

Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Buddhist Monastic Code, 2 vols. (1994)

Charles Wei-hsun Fu & Sandra A. Wawrytko (eds.), Buddhist Behavioral Codes and the Modern World (1994)

Gunaratne Panabokke, History of the Buddhist Sangha in India and Sri Lanka (1993)

Sunanda Putuwar, The Buddhist Sangha: Paradigm of the Ideal Human Society (1991)

Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic Life, according to the Texts of the Theravada Tradition (1990)

Walpola Rahula, The Heritage of the Bhikkhu (1987)

Heinz Bechert & Richard Gombrich (eds.), The World of Buddhism: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture (1984)

John C. Holt, Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapitaka (1983)

Nandasena ratnapala (ed. & trans.), the katikavatas: laws of the buddhist order of ceylon from the 12th century to the 18th century (1971).

Nalinaksha Dutt, Early Monastic Buddhism, 2 vols. (1960)

Sukumar Dutt, Early Buddhist Monachism (1960)

Erich Frauwallner, The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature (1956)

Recent years have seen heightened interest in the ritual, juridical, and generally practical aspects of the Buddhist tradition. The contributions to this edited volume build on this trend while venturing beyond the established boundaries of discourse in specialized academic disciplines, presenting state-of-the-art research on the vinaya in all of its breadth and depth. They do so not only by tracing Buddhist textual traditions but also by showcasing the vast variety of practices that are the object of such regulations and throw a new light on the social implications such protocols have had in South, Central, and East Asia.

Vinaya, one of the three main categories of Buddhist scripture, functions not only as a type of canon law, but also as a founding charter for Buddhist institutional practice in East Asia. In its role as a scriptural charter, vinaya has justified widely dissimilar approaches to religious life as Buddhist orders in different times and places have interpreted it in contradictory ways. In the resulting tension between scripture and practice, certain kinds of ceremonial issues acquire profound social, psychological, doctrinal, and soteriological significance in Buddhism. This collection focuses on these issues over a wide sweep of history--from early fifth-century China to modern Japan--to provide readers with a rich overview of the intersection of doctrinal, ritual, and institutional concerns in the development of East Asian Buddhist practices. Despite the crucial importance of vinaya, especially for understanding Buddhism in East Asia, very little scholarship in Western languages exists on this fascinating topic. The essays presented here, written by senior scholars in the field, address how actual people responded to local social and cultural imperatives by reading scripture in innovative ways to give new life to tradition. They place real people, practices, and institutions at the center of each account, revealing both diversity and unity in Buddhist customs.

This work discusses the precepts and lifestyle of fully ordained nuns within the Buddhist tradition. The ordination vows act as guidelines to promote harmony both within the individual and within the community by regulating and thereby simplifying one's relationships to other sangha members and laypeople, as well as to the needs of daily life. Observing these precepts and practicing the Buddhadharma brings incredible benefit to oneself and others. Since the nuns' precepts include those for monks and have additional rules for nuns, this book is useful for anyone interested in monastic life. As a record of women's struggle not only to achieve a life of self-discipline, but also to create harmonious independent religious communities of women, this volume is a pioneering work.

This book provides a vivid and detailed picture of the daily life and religious practices of Buddhist monks and nuns in the classic period of Theravada Buddhism. The author describes the way in which the Buddha's disciples institutionalized and ritualized his teachings about food, dress, money, chastity, solitude, and discipleship. This tradition represents an ideal of religious life that has been followed in India and South Asia for more than two thousand years. The introduction by Steven Collins describes Theravada Buddhist literature, discusses the issue of the historical reliability of the texts, and offers extensive suggestions for further reading. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in Asian studies, religious studies, anthropology, and history.

Medicine & Health

C. Pierce Salguero, A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine (2022)

C. Pierce Salguero & Andrew Macomber (eds.), Buddhist Healing in Medieval China and Japan (2020)

C. Pierce Salguero (ed.), Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources (2019)

Katja Triplett, Buddhism and Medicine in Japan: A Topical Survey (500-1600 CE) of a Complex Relationship (2019)

Thomas N. Patton, The Buddha's Wizards: Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism (2018)

C. Pierce Salguero, Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources (2017)

C. Pierce Salguero, Traditional Thai Medicine: Buddhism, Animism, Yoga, Ayurveda (2016)

Jan Chozen Bays, Jizo Bodhisattva: Modern Healing & Traditional Buddhist Practice (2015)

Janet Gyatso, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet (2015)

C. Pierce Salguero, Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China (2014)

Andrew E. Goble, Confluences of Medicine in Medieval Japan: Buddhist Healing, Chinese Knowledge, Islamic Formulas, and Wounds of War (2011)

Paul Brenner, Buddha in the Waiting Room: Simple Truths about Health, Illness, and Healing (2007)

Michel Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine (2005)

Sharon Cameron, Beautiful Work: A Meditation on Pain (2000)

Raoul Birnbaum, The Healing Buddha (1980)

Pluralism & Tolerance: Buddhism & Other Religions

C.V. Jones (ed.), Buddhism and Its Religious Others: Historical Encounters and Representations (2022)

R. Michael Feener & Anne M. Blackburn (eds.), Buddhist and Islamic Orders in Southern Asia: Comparative Perspectives (2021)

Jijimon Alakkalam Joseph, Christian-Zen Dialogue: Sacred Stories As a Starting Point for Interfaith Dialogue (2021)

Yongho Francis Lee, Mysticism and Intellect in Medieval Christianity and Buddhism (2021)

Monica Sanford, Kalyanamitra: A Model for Buddhist Spiritual Care, Volume 1 (2021)

Douglas S. Duckworth, J. Abraham Vélez de Cea, & Elizabeth J. Harris (eds.), Buddhist Responses to Religious Diversity: Theravada and Tibetan Perspectives (2020)

Pehr Granqvist, Attachment in Religion and Spirituality: A Wider View (2020)

Harold Coward, Word, Chant, and Song: Spiritual Transformation in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Sikhism (2019)

Peter Harvey, Buddhism and Monotheism (2019)

S. Mark Heim, Crucified Wisdom: Theological Reflection on Christ and the Bodhisattva (2018)

J. Abraham Velez de Cea, The Buddha and Religious Diversity (2017)

Kristin Beise Kiblinger, Buddhist Inclusivism: Attitudes Towards Religious Others (2017)

Anh Q. Tran (ed. & trans.), Gods, Heroes, and Ancestors: An Interreligious Encounter in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam (2017)

Gavin D'Costa & Ross Thompson (eds.), Buddhist-Christian Dual Belonging: Affirmations, Objections, Explorations (2016)

Hugh Nicholson, The Spirit of Contradiction in Christianity and Buddhism (2016)

Corinna Nicolaou, A None's Story: Searching for Meaning Inside Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam (2016)

John Raymaker, Bernard Lonergan's Third Way of the Heart and Mind: Bridging Some Buddhist-Christian-Muslim-Secularist Misunderstandings with a Global Secularity Ethics (2016)

Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Buddhism, Christianity and the Question of Creation: Karmic or Divine? (2016)

Alan Cole, Fetishizing Tradition: Desire and Reinvention in Buddhist and Christian Narratives (2015)

Gavin Flood, The Truth Within: A History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism (2015)

Jan van Bragt, Interreligious Affinities: Encounters with the Kyoto School and the Religions of Japan, ed. James W. Heisig et al (2014)

Donald S. Lopez, Jr. & Peggy McCracken, In Search of the Christian Buddha: How an Asian Sage Became a Medieval Saint (2014)

Paul Gwynne, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad: A Comparative Study (2013)

Michael Pye & Robert Morgan (eds.), The Cardinal Meaning: Essays in Comparative Hermeneutics. Buddhism and Christianity (2013)

John Ross Carter, In the Company of Friends: Exploring Faith with Buddhists and Christians (2012)

Kari Storstein Haug, Interpreting Proverbs 11:18-31, Psalm 73, and Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 in Light of, and As a Response to, Thai Buddhist Interpretations (2012)

Peter D. Hershock, Valuing Diversity: Buddhist Reflection on Realizing a More Equitable Global Future (2012)

Kazuo Muto, Christianity and the Notion of Nothingness: Contributions to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue from the Kyoto School, ed. Martin Repp, trans. Jan van Bragt (2012)

Perry Schmidt-Leukel (ed.), Buddhism and Religious Diversity: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies (2012)

Amos Yong, Cosmic Breath: Spirit and Nature in the Christianity-Buddhism-Science Trialogue (2012)

Amos Yong, Pneumatology and the Christian-Buddhist Dialogue (2012)

Rose Drew, Buddhist and Christian? An Exploration of Dual Belonging (2011)

Daniel Dubuisson, Wisdoms of Humanity: Buddhism, Paganism, and Christianity (2011)

Eileen Rizo-Patron & Richard Kearney (eds.), Traversing the Heart: Journeys of the Inter-religious Imagination (2010)

Jin Baek, Nothingness: Tadao Ando's Christian Sacred Space (2009)

B. Alan Wallace, Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, & Christianity (2009)

Winston L. King, Buddhism and Christianity: Some Bridges of Understanding (2008)

Paul O. Ingram, Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in an Age of Science (2007)

Rita M. Gross & Terry C. Muck (eds.), Christians Talk about Buddhist Meditation, Buddhists Talk about Christian Prayer (2003)

John Raymaker, Empowering the Lonely Crowd: Pope John Paul II, Lonergan, and Japanese Buddhism (2003)

John Raymaker, A Buddhist-Christian Logic of the Heart: Nishida's Kyoto School and Lonergan's "Spiritual Genome" as World Bridge (2002)

J.P. Williams, Denying Divinity: Apophasis in the Patristic Christian and Soto Zen Buddhist Traditions (2001)

Rita M. Gross & Terry C. Muck (eds.), Buddhists Talk about Jesus, Christians Talk about the Buddha (2000)

Sallie B. King & Paul O. Ingram (eds.), The Sound of Liberating Truth: Buddhist-Christian Dialogues in Honor of Frederick J. Streng (1999)

Fritz Buri, The Buddha-Christ As the Lord of the True Self: The Religious Philosophy of the Kyoto School and Christianity, trans. Harold H. Oliver (1997)

Robert R. Magliola, On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity, Culture (1997)

Donald W. Mitchell & James Wiseman, O.S.B., eds., The Gethsemani Encounter: A Dialogue on the Spiritual Life by Buddhist and Christian Monastics (1997)

Denise Lardner Carmody & John Tully Carmody, In the Path of the Masters: Understanding the Spirituality of Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammad (1996)

John Tully Carmody & Denise Lardner Carmody, Serene Compassion: A Christian Appreciation of Buddhist Holiness (1996)

David Loy (ed.), Healing Deconstruction: Postmodern Thought in Buddhism and Christianity (1996)

Masao Abe, Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue, ed. Steven Heine (1995)

Russell H. Bowers, Someone or Nothing? Nishitani's "Religion and Nothingness" as a Foundation for Christian-Buddhist Dialogue (1995)

John b. cobb, jr., & christopher a. ives (eds.), the emptying god: a buddhist-jewish-christian conversation (1990).

Donald S. Lopez & Steven C. Rockefeller (eds.), The Christ and the Bodhisattva (1987)

Hajime Nakamura, Buddhism in Comparative Light (1986)

Hans waldenfels, absolute nothingness: foundations for a buddhist-christian dialogue, trans. james w. heisig (1980).

Lynn A. De Silva, The Problem of the Self in Buddhism and Christianity (1979)

D.T. Suzuki, Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist (1976)

James W. Boyd, Satan and Māra: Christian and Buddhist Symbols of Evil (1975)

J. Estlin Carpenter, Buddhism and Christianity: A Contrast and Parallel (1922)

Though a minority religion in Vietnam, Christianity has been a significant presence in the country since its arrival in the sixteenth century. In this volume, Tran offers the first English translation of the recently discovered 1752 manuscript Tam Giao Chu Vong (The Errors of the Three Religions). Structured as a dialogue between a Christian priest and a Confucian scholar, this anonymously authored manuscript paints a rich picture of the three traditional Vietnamese religions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. The work explains and evaluates several religious beliefs, customs, and rituals of eighteenth-century Vietnam, many of which are still in practice today. In addition, it contains a trove of information on the challenges and struggles that Vietnamese Christian converts had to face in following the new faith.

The cognitive science of religion has shown that abstract religious concepts within many established religious traditions often fail to correspond to what the majority of their adherents actually believe. Yet the cognitive approach to religion is largely silent on the question of how the doctrinal views developed in the first place. Nicholson aims to fill this gap by arguing that such doctrines can be understood as developing out of social identity processes. He focuses on the historical development of the Christian doctrine of consubstantiality, the claim that the Son is of the same substance as the Father, and the Buddhist doctrine of no-self, the claim that the personality is reducible to its impersonal physical and psychological constituents. Nicholson argues that that these doctrines were each the products of intra- and inter-religious rivalry, in which one faction tried to get the upper hand over its ingroup rivals by maximizing the contrast with the dominant outgroup. Thus the theologians of the fourth century developed the concept of consubstantiality in the context of an effort to maximize, against their rivals, the contrast with Christianity's archetypal "other," Judaism. Similarly, the no-self doctrine stemmed from an effort to maximize, against the so-called Personalist schools of Buddhism, the contrast with Brahmanical Hinduism with its doctrine of an unchanging and eternal self. In this way, Nicholson shows how religious traditions can back themselves into doctrinal positions that they must retrospectively justify.

Diversity matters. Whether in the context of ecosystems, education, the workplace, or politics, diversity is now recognized as a fact and as something to be positively affirmed. But what is the value of diversity? What explains its increasing significance? This book is a groundbreaking response to these questions and to the contemporary global dynamics that make them so salient. Peter D. Hershock examines the changes of the last century to show how the successes of Western-style modernity and industrially-powered markets have, ironically, coupled progressive integration and interdependence with the proliferation of political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental differences. Global predicaments like climate change and persistent wealth inequalities compel recognition that we are in the midst of an era-defining shift from the primacy of the technical to that of the ethical. Yet, neither modern liberalism nor its postmodern critiques have offered the resources needed to address such challenges. Making use of Buddhist and ecological insights, Hershock's book develops a qualitatively rich conception of diversity as an emerging value and global relational commons, forwarding an ethics of interdependence and responsive virtuosity that opens prospects for a paradigm shift in our pursuits of equity, freedom, and democratic justice.

Based around an interview with Tadao Ando, this book explores the influence of the Buddhist concept of nothingness on Ando’s Christian architecture, and sheds new light on the cultural significance of the buildings of one of the world’s leading contemporary architects. Specifically, this book situates Ando’s churches, particularly his world-renowned Church of the Light (1989), within the legacy of nothingness expounded by Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945), the father of the Kyoto Philosophical School. Linking Ando’s Christian architecture with a philosophy originating in Mahayana Buddhism illuminates the relationship between the two religious systems, as well as tying Ando’s architecture to the influence of Nishida on post-war Japanese art and culture.

Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy

Laura Burges, The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path out of the Darkness of Addiction (2023)

Mark Epstein, The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life (2022)

John Davis, The Diamond Approach: An Introduction to the Teachings of A.H. Almaas (2021)

Hyunsoo Jeon, Buddhist Psychotherapy: Wisdom from Early Buddhist Teaching (2021)

Arnold Kozak, The Buddha Was a Psychologist: A Rational Approach to Buddhist Teachings (2021)

Joseph Bobrow, Zen and Psychotherapy: Partners in Liberation (2020)

Michal Barnea-Astrog, Psychoanalytic and Buddhist Reflections on Gentleness: Sensitivity, Fear, and the Drive Towards Truth (2019)

Ira Helderman, Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion (2019)

Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Mind Cure: From Meditation to Medicine (2019)

Itai Ivtzan (ed.), Handbook of Mindfulness-Based Programmes: Mindfulness Interventions from Education to Health and Therapy (2019)

Christian U. Krägeloh et al, Mindfulness-Based Intervention Research: Characteristics, Approaches, and Developments (2019)

Paul C. Cooper, Zen Insight, Psychoanalytic Action (2018)

Yorai Sella, From Dualism to Oneness in Psychoanalysis: A Zen Perspective on the Mind-Body Question (2018)

Manu Bazzano, Zen and Therapy: Heretical Perspectives (2017)

Pilar Jennings, To Heal a Wounded Heart: The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action (2017)

Peg LeVine, Classic Morita Therapy: Consciousness, Zen, Justice and Trauma (2017)

Joseph Loizzo et al (eds.), Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy: Accelerating Healing and Transformation (2017)

Padmasiri de Silva, Emotions and the Body in Buddhist Contemplative Practice and Mindfulness-Based Therapy: Pathways of Somatic Intelligence (2017)

Itai Ivtzan & Tim Lomas (eds.), Mindfulness in Positive Psychology: The Science of Meditation and Well-Being (2016)

Richard W. Sears, The Sense of Self: Perspectives from Science and Zen Buddhism (2016)

Erik van den Brink & Frits Koster, Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living: A New Training Programme to Deepen Mindfulness with Heartfulness (2015)

Mark Epstein, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness (2015)

Padmasiri De Silva, An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology and Counselling: Pathways of Mindfulness-Based Therapies (2014)

Anthony Molino (ed.), Crossroads in Psychoanalysis, Buddhism, and Mindfulness: The Word and the Breath (2013)

Jeffrey B. Rubin, Psychotherapy and Buddhism: Toward an Integration (2013)

Cheryl A. Giles & Willa B. Miller (eds.), The Arts of Contemplative Care: Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work (2012)

Barry Magid, Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychoanalysis (2012)

Jeremy D. Safran (ed.), Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: An Unfolding Dialogue (2012)

B. Alan Wallace, The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness (2011)

Maurits G.T. Kwee (ed.), New Horizons in Buddhist Psychology: Relational Buddhism for Collaborative Practitioners (2010)

Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind: The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism (2010)

Anne Maiden Brown et al, The Tibetan Art of Parenting: From Before Conception Through Early Childhood (2009)

Paul C. Cooper, The Zen Impulse and the Psychoanalytic Encounter (2009)

Marvin Levine, The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga (2009)

Dale Mathers et al (eds.), Self and No-Self: Continuing the Dialogue Between Buddhism and Psychotherapy (2009)

Mark Epstein, Psychotherapy Without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective (2008)

Maurits Kwee et al (eds.), Horizons in Buddhist Psychology (2006)

Robert Langan & Robert Coles, Minding What Matters: Psychotherapy and the Buddha Within (2006)

Dinesh Kumar Nauriyal, Michael S. Drummond, & Y.B. Lal (eds.), Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research: Transcending the Boundaries (2006)

Padmasiri de Silva, An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology, 4th ed. (2005)

Harvey B. Aronson, Buddhist Practice on Western Ground: Reconciling Eastern Ideals and Western Psychology (2004)

Seth Robert Segall (ed.), Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings (2003)

David Brazier, The Feeling Buddha: A Buddhist Psychology of Character, Adversity, and Passion (2002)

Radmila Moacanin, The Essence of Jung's Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism: Western and Eastern Paths to the Heart (2002)

Mark Epstein, Going on Being: Buddhism and the Way of Change: A Positive Psychology for the West (2001)

John Welwood, Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation (2000)

Gay Watson, The Resonance of Emptiness: A Buddhist Inspiration for a Contemporary Psychotherapy (1998)

David Brazier, Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrows of the Human Mind (1997)

Christopher deCharms, Two Views of Mind: Abhidharma and Brain Science (1997)

Mark Epstein, Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective (1995)

John R. Suler, Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Eastern Thought (1993)

Nathan Katz (ed.), Buddhist and Western Psychology (1983)

Mindfulness and yoga are widely said to improve mental and physical health, and booming industries have emerged to teach them as secular techniques. This movement is typically traced to the 1970s, but it actually began a century earlier. Hickey shows that most of those who first advocated meditation for healing were women: leaders of the "Mind Cure" movement, which emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instructed by Buddhist and Hindu missionaries, many of these women believed that by transforming consciousness, they could also transform oppressive conditions in which they lived. For women - and many African-American men - "Mind Cure" meant not just happiness, but liberation in concrete political, economic, and legal terms. In response to the perceived threat posed by this movement, white male doctors and clergy with elite academic credentials began to channel key Mind Cure methods into "scientific" psychology and medicine. As mental therapeutics became medicalized and commodified, the religious roots of meditation, like the social-justice agendas of early Mind Curers, fell by the wayside. Although characterized as "universal," mindfulness has very specific historical and cultural roots, and is now largely marketed by and accessible to affluent white people. Hickey examines religious dimensions of the Mindfulness movement and clinical research about its effectiveness. By treating stress-related illness individualistically, she argues, the contemporary movement obscures the roles religious communities can play in fostering civil society and personal well-being, and diverts attention from systemic factors fueling stress-related illness, including racism, sexism, and poverty.

Drawing from original source material, contemporary scholarship, and Wilfred Bion’s psychoanalytic writings, this book introduces the Zen notion of gūjin, or total exertion, and elaborates a realizational perspective that integrates Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis. Developed by the thirteenth-century Zen teacher and founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school, Eihei Dogen, gūjin finds expression and is referenced in various contemporary scholarly and religious commentaries. This book explains this pivotal Zen concept and addresses themes by drawing from translated source material, academic scholarship, traditional Zen kōans and teaching stories, extensive commentarial literature, interpretive writings by contemporary Soto Zen teachers, psychoanalytic theory, clinical material, and poetry, as well as the author’s thirty years of personal experience as a psychoanalyst, supervisor, psychoanalytic educator, ordained Soto Zen priest, and transmitted Soto Zen teacher. From a realizational perspective that integrates Zen and psychoanalytic concepts, the book extends the scope and increases the effectiveness of clinical work for the psychotherapist, and facilitates deepened experiences for the meditation practitioner.

This collection brings together the latest thinking in these two important disciplines. Positive psychology, the science of well-being and strengths, is the fastest growing branch of psychology, offering an optimal home for the research and application of mindfulness. As we contemplate mindfulness in the context of positive psychology, meaningful insights are being revealed in relation to our mental and physical health. The book features chapters from leading figures from mindfulness and positive psychology, offering an exciting combination of topics. Mindfulness is explored in relation to flow, meaning, parenthood, performance, sports, obesity, depression, pregnancy, spirituality, happiness, mortality, and many other ground-breaking topics. This is an invitation to rethink about mindfulness in ways that truly expands our understanding of well-being. The work will appeal to a readership of students and practitioners, as well as those interested in mindfulness, positive psychology, or other relevant areas such as education, healthcare, clinical psychology, counselling psychology, occupational psychology, and coaching. The contributors explore cutting edge theories, research, and practical exercises, which will be relevant to all people interested in this area, and particularly those who wish to enhance their well-being via mindfulness.

Immersed in Buddhist psychology prior to studying Western psychiatry, Dr. Mark Epstein first viewed Western therapeutic approaches through the lens of the East. This posed something of a challenge. Although both systems promise liberation through self-awareness, the central tenet of Buddha's wisdom is the notion of no-self, while the central focus of Western psychotherapy is the self. This book, which includes writings from the past twenty-five years, wrestles with the complex relationship between Buddhism and psychotherapy and offers nuanced reflections on therapy, meditation, and psychological and spiritual development. A best-selling author and popular speaker, Epstein has long been at the forefront of the effort to introduce Buddhist psychology to the West. His unique background enables him to serve as a bridge between the two traditions, which he has found to be more compatible than at first thought. Engaging with the teachings of the Buddha as well as those of Freud and Winnicott, he offers a compelling look at desire, anger, and insight and helps reinterpret the Buddha's Four Noble Truths and central concepts such as egolessness and emptiness in the psychoanalytic language of our time.

Philosophical Psychology & Philosophy of Mind

John Peacock & Martine Batchelor (eds.), The Definition, Practice and Psychology of Vedana: Knowing How It Feels (2019)

Philip J. Ivanhoe et al (eds.), The Oneness Hypothesis: Beyond the Boundary of Self (2018)

Rick Repetti, Buddhism, Meditation, and Free Will: A Theory of Mental Freedom (2018)

Padmasiri de Silva, The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism (2018)

Gert Hofmann & Snježana Zorić (eds.), Presence of the Body: Awareness in and beyond Experience (2016)

Irina Kuznetsova et al (eds.), Hindu and Buddhist Ideas in Dialogue: Self and No-Self (2016)

Rick Repetti (ed.), Buddhist Perspectives on Free Will: Agentless Agency (2016)

Mark Siderits, Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy: Empty Persons, 2nd ed. (2016)

Christian Coseru, Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy (2015)

Zhihua Yao, The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition (2014)

John Pickering, The Authority of Experience: Essays on Buddhism and Psychology (2013)

Miri Albahari, Analytical Buddhism: The Two-Tiered Illusion of Self (2006)

Stephanie Kaza (ed.), Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume (2005)

Joan Stambaugh, The Formless Self (1999)

R. S. Khare (ed.), The Eternal Food: Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences of Hindus and Buddhists (1992)

David J. Kalupahana, Principles of Buddhist Psychology (1987)

Yasuo Yuasa, The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory, ed. & trans. Thomas P. Kasulis & Shigenori Nagatomo (1987)

Paul Griffiths, On Being Mindless: Buddhist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem (1986)

E.R. Sarachchandra, Buddhist Psychology of Perception (1958)

The idea that the self is inextricably intertwined with the rest of the world―the “oneness hypothesis”―can be found in many of the world’s philosophical and religious traditions. Oneness provides ways to imagine and achieve a more expansive conception of the self as fundamentally connected with other people, creatures, and things. Such views present profound challenges to Western hyperindividualism and its excessive concern with self-interest and tendency toward self-centered behavior. This anthology presents a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary exploration of the nature and implications of the oneness hypothesis. While fundamentally inspired by East and South Asian traditions, in which such a view is often critical to their philosophical approach, this collection also draws upon religious studies, psychology, and Western philosophy, as well as sociology, evolutionary theory, and cognitive neuroscience. Contributors trace the oneness hypothesis through the works of East Asian and Western schools, including Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Platonism and such thinkers as Zhuangzi, Kant, James, and Dewey. They intervene in debates over ethics, cultural difference, identity, group solidarity, and the positive and negative implications of metaphors of organic unity. Challenging dominant views that presume that the proper scope of the mind stops at the boundaries of skin and skull, this work shows that a more relational conception of the self is not only consistent with contemporary science but has the potential to lead to greater happiness and well-being for both individuals and the larger wholes of which they are parts.

Since the publication of Mark Siderits' important book in 2003, much has changed in the field of Buddhist philosophy. There has been unprecedented growth in analytic metaphysics, and a considerable amount of new work on Indian theories of the self and personal identity has emerged. Fully revised and updated, and drawing on these changes as well as on developments in the author's own thinking, the second edition explores the conversation between Buddhist and Western Philosophy showing how concepts and tools drawn from one philosophical tradition can help solve problems arising in another. Siderits discusses afresh areas involved in the philosophical investigation of persons, including vagueness and its implications for personal identity, recent attempts by scholars of Buddhist philosophy to defend the attribution of an emergentist account of personhood to at least some Buddhists, and whether a distinctively Buddhist antirealism can avoid problems that beset other forms of ontological anti-foundationalism.

What turns the continuous flow of experience into perceptually distinct objects? Can our verbal descriptions unambiguously capture what it is like to see, hear, or feel? How might we reason about the testimony that perception alone discloses? Coseru proposes a rigorous and highly original way to answer these questions by developing a framework for understanding perception as a mode of apprehension that is intentionally constituted, pragmatically oriented, and causally effective. By engaging with recent discussions in phenomenology and analytic philosophy of mind, but also by drawing on the work of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, Coseru offers a sustained argument that Buddhist philosophers, in particular those who follow the tradition of inquiry initiated by Dignaga and Dharmakirti, have much to offer when it comes to explaining why epistemological disputes about the evidential role of perceptual experience cannot satisfactorily be resolved without taking into account the structure of our cognitive awareness. This work examines the function of perception and its relation to attention, language, and discursive thought, and provides new ways of conceptualizing the Buddhist defense of the reflexivity thesis of consciousness--namely, that each cognitive event is to be understood as involving a pre-reflective implicit awareness of its own occurrence. Coseru advances an innovative approach to Buddhist philosophy of mind in the form of phenomenological naturalism, and moves beyond comparative approaches to philosophy by emphasizing the continuity of concerns between Buddhist and Western philosophical accounts of the nature of perceptual content and the character of perceptual consciousness.

Gathering and interpreting material that is not readily available elsewhere, this book discusses the thought of the Japanese Buddhist philosophers Dogen, Hisamatsu, and Nishitani. Stambaugh develops ideas about the self culminating in the concept of the Formless Self as formulated by Hisamatsu in his book The Fullness of Nothingness and the essay "The Characteristics of Oriental Nothingness," and further explicated by Nishitani in his book Religion and Nothingness. These works show that Oriental nothingness has nothing to do with the 19th- and 20th-century Western concept of nihilism; rather, it is a positive phenomenon: enabling things to be.

Science: Mind & Universe

Thupten Jinpa (ed.), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 2: The Mind, trans. Dechen Rochard & John D. Dunne (2020)

David Presti et al, Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal (2019)

Robert Wright, Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment (2018)

Dusana Dorjee, Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life: Searching for the Essence of Mind (2017)

Arri Eisen & Yungdrung Konchok, The Enlightened Gene: Biology, Buddhism, and the Convergence that Explains the World (2017)

Wendy Hasenkamp & Janna R. White (eds.), The Monastery and the Microscope: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mind, Mindfulness, and the Nature of Reality (2017)

Thupten Jinpa (ed.), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 1: The Physical World (2017)

David L. McMahan & Erik Braun, Meditation, Buddhism, and Science (2017)

Matthieu Ricard & Wolf Singer, Beyond the Self: Conversations Between Buddhism and Neuroscience (2017)

Francisca Cho & Richard Squier, Religion and Science in the Mirror of Buddhism (2015)

Erik J. Hammerstrom, The Science of Chinese Buddhism: Early Twentieth-Century Engagements (2015)

Evan Thompson, Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy (2014)

David P. Barash, Buddhist Biology: Ancient Eastern Wisdom Meets Modern Western Science (2013)

Dusana Dorjee, Mind, Brain and the Path to Happiness: A Guide to Buddhist Mind Training and the Neuroscience of Meditation (2013)

Owen Flanagan, The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (2013)

B. Alan Wallace, Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice (2013)

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life (2012)

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed (2011)

Vic Mansfield, Tibetan Buddhism and Modern Physics: Toward a Union of Love and Knowledge (2008)

B. Alan Wallace, Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness (2007)

B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge (2006)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The New Physics and Cosmology: Dialogues with the Dalai Lama, ed. Arthur Zajonc & Zara Houshmand (2004)

B. Alan Wallace, Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind (2003)

B. Alan Wallace (ed.), Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground (2003)

Richard J. Davidson & Anne Harrington (eds.), Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature (2001)

Matthieu Ricard & Trinh Xuan Thuan, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet (2001)

Daniel Goleman & Robert A.F. Thurman (eds.), MindScience: An East-West Dialogue (1999)

Buddhadasa P. Kirthisinghe, Buddhism and Science (1999)

Robin Cooper, The Evolving Mind: Buddhism, Biology, and Consciousness (1996)

Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems (1995)

Luang suriyabongs, buddhism in the light of modern scientific ideas, rev. ed. (1960).

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• Review Article
• Published: 18 March 2015

The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation

• Yi-Yuan Tang 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Britta K. Hölzel 3 , 4   na1 &
• Michael I. Posner 2  

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume  16 ,  pages 213–225 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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• Cognitive neuroscience

An Erratum to this article was published on 10 April 2015

It is proposed that the mechanism through which mindfulness meditation exerts its effects is a process of enhanced self-regulation, including attention control, emotion regulation and self-awareness.

Research on mindfulness meditation faces a number of important challenges in study design that limit the interpretation of existing studies.

A number of changes in brain structure have been related to mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness practice enhances attention. The anterior cingulate cortex is the region associated with attention in which changes in activity and/or structure in response to mindfulness meditation are most consistently reported.

Mindfulness practice improves emotion regulation and reduces stress. Fronto-limbic networks involved in these processes show various patterns of engagement by mindfulness meditation.

Meditation practice has the potential to affect self-referential processing and improve present-moment awareness. The default mode networks — including the midline prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, which support self-awareness — could be altered following mindfulness training.

Mindfulness meditation has potential for the treatment of clinical disorders and might facilitate the cultivation of a healthy mind and increased well-being.

Future research into mindfulness meditation should use randomized and actively controlled longitudinal studies with large sample sizes to validate previous findings.

The effects of mindfulness practice on neural structure and function need to be linked to behavioural performance, such as cognitive, affective and social functioning, in future research.

The complex mental state of mindfulness is likely to be supported by the large-scale brain networks; future work should take this into account rather than being restricted to activations in single brain areas.

Research over the past two decades broadly supports the claim that mindfulness meditation — practiced widely for the reduction of stress and promotion of health — exerts beneficial effects on physical and mental health, and cognitive performance. Recent neuroimaging studies have begun to uncover the brain areas and networks that mediate these positive effects. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear, and it is apparent that more methodologically rigorous studies are required if we are to gain a full understanding of the neuronal and molecular bases of the changes in the brain that accompany mindfulness meditation.

You have full access to this article via your institution.

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Mindfulness meditation increases default mode, salience, and central executive network connectivity

Focused attention meditation changes the boundary and configuration of functional networks in the brain

Meta-analytic evidence that mindfulness training alters resting state default mode network connectivity

Meditation can be defined as a form of mental training that aims to improve an individual's core psychological capacities, such as attentional and emotional self-regulation. Meditation encompasses a family of complex practices that include mindfulness meditation, mantra meditation, yoga, tai chi and chi gong 1 . Of these practices, mindfulness meditation — often described as non-judgemental attention to present-moment experiences ( Box 1 ) — has received most attention in neuroscience research over the past two decades 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 .

Although meditation research is in its infancy, a number of studies have investigated changes in brain activation (at rest and during specific tasks) that are associated with the practice of, or that follow, training in mindfulness meditation. These studies have reported changes in multiple aspects of mental function in beginner and advanced meditators, healthy individuals and patient populations 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 .

In this Review, we consider the current state of research on mindfulness meditation. We discuss the methodological challenges that the field faces and point to several shortcomings in existing studies. Taking into account some important theoretical considerations, we then discuss behavioural and neuroscientific findings in light of what we think are the core components of meditation practice: attention control, emotion regulation and self-awareness ( Box 1 ). Within this framework, we describe research that has revealed changes in behaviour, brain activity and brain structure following mindfulness meditation training. We discuss what has been learned so far from this research and suggest new research strategies for the field. We focus here on mindfulness meditation practices and have excluded studies on other types of meditation. However, it is important to note that other styles of meditation may operate via distinct neural mechanisms 15 , 16 .

Box 1: Mindfulness meditation

Different styles and forms of meditation are found in almost all cultures and religions. Mindfulness meditation originally stems from Buddhist meditation traditions 3 . Since the 1990s, mindfulness meditation has been applied to multiple mental and physical health conditions, and has received much attention in psychological research 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . In current clinical and research contexts, mindfulness meditation is typically described as non-judgemental attention to experiences in the present moment 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 . This definition encompasses the Buddhist concepts of mindfulness and equanimity 158 and describes practices that require both the regulation of attention (in order to maintain the focus on immediate experiences, such as thoughts, emotions, body posture and sensations) and the ability to approach one's experiences with openness and acceptance 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 53 , 158 , 159 , 160 , 161 . Mindfulness meditation can be subdivided into methods involving focused attention and those involving open monitoring of present-moment experience 9 .

The mindfulness practices that have been the subject of neuroscientific research comprise a broad range of methods and techniques, including Buddhist meditation traditions, such as Vipassana meditation, Dzogchen and Zen, as well as mindfulness-based approaches such as integrative body–mind training (IBMT), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and clinical interventions based on MBSR 4 , 5 , 6 . Both MBSR and IBMT have adopted mindfulness practices from the Buddhist traditions and aim to develop moment-to-moment, non-judgemental awareness through various techniques 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 53 , 73 . IBMT has been categorized in the literature as open-monitoring mindfulness meditation 9 , 10 , 161 , whereas MBSR includes both focused attention and open-monitoring practices 8 .

It has been suggested that mindfulness meditation includes at least three components that interact closely to constitute a process of enhanced self-regulation: enhanced attention control, improved emotion regulation and altered self-awareness (diminished self-referential processing and enhanced body awareness) 10 (see the figure, part a). Mindfulness meditation can be roughly divided into three different stages of practice — early, middle (intermediate) and advanced — that involve different amounts of effort 11 (see the figure, part b ).

Challenges in meditation research

Findings on the effects of meditation on the brain are often reported enthusiastically by the media and used by clinicians and educators to inform their work. However, most of the findings have not yet been replicated. Many researchers are enthusiastic meditators themselves. Although their insider perspective may be valuable for a deep understanding of meditation, these researchers must ensure that they take a critical view of study outcomes. In fact, for meditation studies there is a relatively strong bias towards the publication of positive or significant results, as was shown in a meta-analysis 17 .

The methodological quality of many meditation research studies is still relatively low. Few are actively controlled longitudinal studies , and sample sizes are small. As is typical for a young research field, many experiments are not yet based on elaborated theories, and conclusions are often drawn from post-hoc interpretations. These conclusions therefore remain tentative, and studies must be carefully replicated. Meditation research also faces several specific methodological challenges.

Cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies. Early meditation studies were mostly cross-sectional studies : that is, they compared data from a group of meditators with data from a control group at one point in time. These studies investigated practitioners with hundreds or thousands of hours of meditation experience (such as Buddhist monks) and compared them with control groups of non-meditators matched on various dimensions 9 , 18 . The rationale was that any effects of meditation would be most easily detectable in highly experienced practitioners.

A number of cross-sectional studies revealed differences in brain structure and function associated with meditation (see below). Although these differences may constitute training-induced effects, a cross-sectional study design precludes causal attribution: it is possible that there are pre-existing differences in the brains of meditators, which might be linked to their interest in meditation, personality or temperament 2 , 19 . Although correlational studies have attempted to discover whether more meditation experience is related to larger changes in brain structure or function, such correlations still cannot prove that meditation practice has caused the changes because it is possible that individuals with these particular brain characteristics may be drawn to longer meditation practice.

More recent research has used longitudinal designs, which compare data from one or more groups at several time points and ideally include a (preferably active) control condition and random assignment to conditions 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 . In meditation research, longitudinal studies are still relatively rare. Among those studies, some have investigated the effects of mindfulness training over just a few days, whereas others have investigated programmes of 1 to 3 months. Some of these studies have revealed changes in behaviour, brain structure and function 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 . A lack of similar changes in the control group suggests that meditation has caused the observed changes, especially when other potentially confounding variables are controlled for properly 20 , 21 , 22 .

Novice meditators versus expert meditators. Although most cross-sectional studies included long-term meditators 9 , 17 , longitudinal studies are often conducted in beginners or naive subjects. Thus, differences in the results of cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses might be attributed to the different brain regions used during learning of meditation versus those used during the continued practice of an acquired skill. It would be interesting to follow subjects over a long-term period of practice to determine whether changes induced by meditation training persist in the absence of continued practice. However, such long-term longitudinal studies would be compromised by feasibility constraints, and it is likely that future longitudinal studies will remain restricted to relatively short training periods2.

Control groups and interventions. It is important to control for variables that may be confounded with meditation training, such as changes in lifestyle and diet that might accompany the meditation practice or the expectancy and intention that meditation beginners bring to their practice. Researchers must carefully determine which variables are integral aspects of the meditation training and which can be controlled for. Some earlier studies only controlled for the length of time that the individual has practised meditation and the effects of repeated testing, but more recent studies have developed and included active interventions in control groups — such as stress management education 26 , relaxation training 14 , 23 , 27 or health enhancement programmes 20 , 21 , 22 — that can control for variables such as social interaction with the group and teachers, amount of home exercise, physical exercise and psychoeducation. These studies are therefore better able to extract and delineate the meditation-specific effects. For example, one study investigating short-term meditation training used a 'sham meditation' condition in which participants thought they were meditating, but did not receive proper meditation instructions, which allowed the researchers to control for factors such as expectancy, body posture and attention from the teacher 28 . Mechanistic studies ideally need to use interventions that are as effective as mindfulness meditation in producing the beneficial effects on target variables but that allow for assessment of the unique mechanism underlying the mindfulness practice 23 , 29 .

Control conditions in functional imaging. Although all functional neuroimaging studies must use appropriate comparison conditions, this challenge is particularly important when imaging meditative states ( Box 2 ). The comparison condition should be one in which a state of mindfulness meditation is not present. Many studies use resting comparison conditions, but a problem with this is that experienced practitioners are likely to enter into a state of meditation when at rest. However, other active tasks introduce additional brain activity that renders the comparison difficult to interpret. Using imaging protocols that do not rely on blood-oxygen-level-dependent contrasts (BOLD contrasts), such as arterial spin labelling , might be a possible solution for this problem30.

Box 2: Imaging the meditative state

A brain state can be defined as a reliable pattern of activity and/or connectivity in multiple large-scale brain networks 11 , 73 . Meditation training involves obtaining a meditative state, and measurements of behaviour and/or brain activity can be made while participants are thought to be in such a state 15 , 76 , 162 , 163 . These studies can elucidate how the state influences the brain and behaviour 2 , 10 , 14 , 73 . To identify brain regions activated during the state of meditation (compared to a baseline state) across multiple studies in experienced healthy meditators, an activation likelihood estimate meta-analysis of 10 studies with 91 subjects published before January 2011 was performed 108 . This revealed three areas in which there were clusters of activity: the caudate, which is thought (together with the putamen) to have a role in attentional disengagement from irrelevant information, allowing a meditative state to be achieved and maintained; the entorhinal cortex (parahippocampus), which is thought to control the mental stream of thoughts and possibly stop mind wandering; and the medial prefrontal cortex, which is thought to support the enhanced self-awareness during meditation 108 (also see Ref. 162 ). It was suggested that these regions of activity might represent a core cortical network for the meditative state, independent of the meditation technique. It is important to note, however, that this meta-analysis included mostly papers from traditions other than mindfulness.

Changes in brain structure

In the past decade, 21 studies have investigated alterations in brain morphometry related to mindfulness meditation 17 . These studies varied in regard to the exact mindfulness meditation tradition under investigation 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , and multiple measurements have been used to investigate effects on both grey and white matter. Studies have captured cortical thickness 32 , 51 , grey-matter volume and/or density 33 , 40 , fractional anisotropy and axial and radial diffusivity 38 , 39 . These studies have also used different research designs. Most have made cross-sectional comparisons between experienced meditators and controls 32 , 33 , 34 ; however, a few recent studies have investigated longitudinal changes in novice practitioners 38 , 39 , 40 . Some further studies have investigated correlations between brain changes and other variables related to mindfulness practice, such as stress reduction 40 , emotion regulation 39 or increased well-being 47 . Most studies include small sample sizes of between 10 and 34 subjects per group 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 .

Because the studies vary in regard to study design, measurement and type of mindfulness meditation, it is not surprising that the locations of reported effects are diverse and cover multiple regions in the brain 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 . Effects reported by individual studies have been found in multiple brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, subcortical grey and white matter, brain stem and cerebellum, suggesting that the effects of meditation might involve large-scale brain networks. This is not surprising because mindfulness practice involves multiple aspects of mental function that use multiple complex interactive networks in the brain. Table 1 summarizes the main findings of structural neuroimaging studies on mindfulness meditation (grey and white matter).

An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis , which also included studies from traditions other than mindfulness meditation, was conducted to investigate which regions were consistently altered in meditators across studies 17 . The findings demonstrated a global medium effect size, and eight brain regions were found to be consistently altered in meditators: the frontopolar cortex, which the authors suggest might be related to enhanced meta-awareness following meditation practice; the sensory cortices and insula, areas that have been related to body awareness; the hippocampus, a region that has been related to memory processes; the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), mid-cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex, areas known to be related to self and emotion regulation; and the superior longitudinal fasciculus and corpus callosum, areas involved in intra- and inter-hemispherical communication 17 .

Thus, some initial attempts have been undertaken to investigate the brain regions that are structurally altered by the practice of meditation. However, our knowledge of what these changes actually mean will remain trivial until we gain a better understanding of how such structural changes are related to the reported improvements in affective, cognitive and social function. Very few studies have begun to relate findings in the brain to self-reported variables and behavioural measures 34 , 39 , 47 , 48 , 51 . Future studies therefore need to replicate the reported findings and begin to unravel how changes in the neural structure relate to changes in well-being and behaviour.

Growing evidence also demonstrates changes in the functional properties of the brain following meditation. Below, we summarize such findings in the context of the framework of core mechanisms of mindfulness meditation ( Box 1 ; Fig. 1 ).

Schematic view of some of the brain regions involved in attention control (the anterior cingulate cortex and the striatum), emotion regulation (multiple prefrontal regions, limbic regions and the striatum) and self-awareness (the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus).

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Mindfulness and attention

Many meditation traditions emphasize the necessity to cultivate attention regulation early in the practice 9 , 53 . A sufficient degree of attentional control is required to stay engaged in meditation, and meditators often report improved attention control as an effect of repeated practice 10 , 14 . Multiple studies have experimentally investigated such effects 54 .

Components of attention. Attention is often subdivided into three different components: alerting (readiness in preparation for an impending stimulus, which includes tonic effects that result from spending time on a task (vigilance) and phasic effects that are due to brain changes induced by warning signals or targets); orienting (the selection of specific information from multiple sensory stimuli); and conflict monitoring (monitoring and resolution of conflict between computations in different neural areas, also referred to as executive attention) 55 , 56 . Other distinctions between types of attention refer to combinations of these three components. For example, sustained attention refers to the sense of vigilance during long continued tasks and may involve both tonic alerting and orienting, whereas selective attention may involve either orienting (when a stimulus is present) or executive function (when stored information is involved).

Performance in these three basic domains can be measured with the attention network test (ANT) 57 . This test uses as a target an arrow pointing left or right. The target is surrounded by flankers, and subtracting reaction times to congruent stimuli (that is, those on the side of the screen indicated by the arrow) from reaction times to incongruent stimuli produces a measure of the time to resolve conflict. The inclusion of cues that indicate when or where the target will occur allows the measurement of alerting and orienting. These measures are used to quantify efficiency in each of the three networks that support the individual components of attention. Alerting involves the brain's noradrenaline system, which originates in the locus coeruleus. Orienting involves frontal and parietal areas, including the frontal eye fields and inferior and superior parietal lobe. The executive network involved in conflict resolution involves the ACC, anterior insula and basal ganglia 58 , 59 .

Effects of mindfulness meditation on attention. The ANT and other experimental paradigms have been used to investigate the effects of meditation on attentional performance 60 . Improved conflict monitoring was reported in several studies 14 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 . For example, a longitudinal study showed that only 5 days (20 min per day) of integrative body–mind training (IBMT) led to improved conflict monitoring 14 . In addition, cross-sectional studies of 3 months of mindfulness meditation showed a reduced attentional blink (a lapse in attention following a stimulus within a rapid stream of presented stimuli that has been related to executive function 65 , 66 ) following training 64 (also see Ref. 67 ). Better performance in conflict monitoring has also been demonstrated in experienced meditators in cross-sectional studies 68 . However, although altered attention is a common finding in these well-designed meditation studies, some studies investigating mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) have not observed effects on conflict monitoring 69 , 70 .

Most of the studies on the effects of short-term (1 week) mindfulness meditation on alerting have not found significant effects, but studies investigating long-term meditators (ranging from months to years) did detect changes in alerting 27 , 70 , 71 , 72 . Enhanced orienting has been reported in some cross-sectional studies using longer periods of training. For example, 3 months of Shamatha mindfulness training improved tonic alertness (the ability to remain alert over time) and allowed for improved orienting towards a visual target in comparison to controls 71 . However, 8 weeks of MBSR did not improve measures of sustained attention in a continuous performance task that measured aspects of tonic alertness, but did show some improvement in orienting 22 . We do not know whether the differences in the findings of these studies are due to the type of training, type of control or other subtle factors.

A systematic review that compiled the findings of these studies (as well as the effects on other measures of cognition) concluded that early phases of mindfulness meditation might be associated with improvements in conflict monitoring and orienting, whereas later phases might be mainly associated with improved alerting 60 . It is currently still unclear how different meditation practices differentially affect the specific attentional components 2 , 9 , 53 . In addition, the length of practice needs to be defined more consistently in future research.

Neural mechanisms of enhanced attention control. Several functional and structural MRI studies on mindfulness training have investigated neuroplasticity in brain regions supporting attention regulation. The brain region to which the effects of mindfulness training on attention is most consistently linked is the ACC 11 , 23 , 38 , 39 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 . The ACC enables executive attention and control 77 , 78 , 79 by detecting the presence of conflicts emerging from incompatible streams of information processing. The ACC and the fronto-insular cortex form part of a network that facilitates cognitive processing through long-range connections to other brain areas 11 , 80 . Cross-sectional studies have reported enhanced activation of regions of the ACC in experienced meditators compared to controls during focused attention meditation 76 or when mindfully anticipating delivery of a painful stimulus 81 . Greater activation of the ventral and/or rostral ACC during the resting state following 5 days of IBMT was also found in an actively controlled, randomized, longitudinal study 23 . Although ACC activation may be enhanced in earlier stages of mindfulness meditation, it might decrease with higher levels of expertise, as demonstrated in a cross-sectional study 18 . Structural MRI data suggest that mindfulness meditation might be associated with greater cortical thickness 51 and might lead to enhanced white-matter integrity in the ACC 38 , 39 .

Other attention-related brain regions in which functional changes have been observed following mindfulness meditation include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), where responses were enhanced during executive processing 82 , as revealed by a randomized longitudinal study, and parietal attention regions, which showed greater activation following an MBSR course in people with social anxiety, as demonstrated by an uncontrolled longitudinal study 83 . Furthermore, a diminished age-related decline of grey-matter volume in the putamen as well as diminished age-related decline in sustained attention performance were found in a cross-sectional study of Zen meditation practitioners 34 .

Although there is evidence that brain regions relevant for the regulation of attention show functional and structural changes following mindfulness meditation practice, it has not yet been determined whether these changes are actually related to the improved attentional performance. Longitudinal studies that use measures of attentional performance along with functional MRI (fMRI) are needed. If supported by more rigorous future research, the evidence of improved attention regulation and strengthened brain activity in the regions underlying attentional control following mindfulness meditation might be promising for the treatment of psychiatric disorders in which there are deficiencies in these functions 74 , 84 , 85 .

Mindfulness and emotion regulation

Enhanced emotion regulation has been suggested to underlie many of the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation. Emotion regulation refers to strategies that can influence which emotions arise and when, how long they occur, and how these emotions are experienced and expressed. A range of implicit and explicit emotion regulation processes has been proposed 86 , and mindfulness-based emotion regulation may involve a mix of these processes, including attentional deployment (attending to mental processes, including emotions), cognitive change (altering typical patterns of appraisal regarding one's emotions) and response modulation (decreasing tonic levels of suppression).

Effects of mindfulness meditation on emotion regulation. Improvements in emotion regulation associated with mindfulness meditation have been investigated through various approaches, including experimental studies, self-reporting studies, measurement of peripheral physiology and neuroimaging 10 . These studies have reported various positive effects of mindfulness meditation on emotional processing, such as a reduction in emotional interference by unpleasant stimuli 87 , decreased physiological reactivity and facilitated return to emotional baseline after response to a stressor film 88 , and decreased self-reported difficulties in emotion regulation 89 . Consequently, lowered intensity and frequency of negative affect 90 , 91 and improved positive mood states 14 , 91 , 92 are reported to be associated with mindfulness meditation.

Neural mechanisms of improved emotion regulation. Neuroimaging studies that have probed the enhanced emotion regulation associated with mindfulness meditation in an attempt to identify the underlying brain activation patterns typically present study participants with emotional pictures 82 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , words and/or statements 29 , 98 and instruct them to encounter these with a state of mindfulness or a simple baseline state.

The hypothesis that drives many of these studies is that mindful emotion regulation works by strengthening prefrontal cognitive control mechanisms and thus downregulates activity in regions relevant to affect processing, such as the amygdala. Present-moment awareness and non-judgemental acceptance through mindfulness meditation 8 , 10 are thought to be crucial in promoting cognitive control because they increase sensitivity to affective cues that help to signal the need for control 99 . Studies have therefore investigated whether mindfulness training exerts its effects through enhanced top-down control or facilitated bottom-up processing 100 . The findings (outlined below) suggest that the level of expertise is important, with beginners showing a different pattern from expert meditators. However, although several studies have pointed to the involvement of fronto-limbic regions, very few studies have begun to relate changes in these regions to changes in measures of behaviour or well-being 10 .

A frequently reported finding is that mindfulness practice leads to (or is associated with) a diminished activation of the amygdala in response to emotional stimuli during mindful states 83 , 94 , 95 as well as in a resting state 93 , suggesting a decrease in emotional arousal. However, although such results have been reported for meditation beginners, they have less consistently been detected in experienced meditators 95 (but see Ref. 18 ).

Prefrontal activations are often enhanced as an effect of mindfulness meditation in novice meditators (but see Ref. 29 ): for example, greater dorsolateral PFC responses were found during executive processing within an emotional Stroop task in healthy individuals after 6 weeks of mindfulness training 82 . Enhanced dorsomedial and dorsolateral PFC activation was also detected when participants expected to see negative images while engaging in a mindful state 94 . Moreover, after an MBSR course, an enhanced activation in the ventrolateral PFC in people suffering from anxiety was found when they labelled the affect of emotional images 97 . By contrast, experienced meditators have been found to show diminished activation in medial PFC regions 95 . This finding could be interpreted as indicating reduced control (disengagement of elaboration and appraisal) and greater acceptance of affective states.

Neuroimaging studies of ameliorated pain processing through mindfulness meditation have also pointed to expertise-related differences in the extent of cognitive control over sensory experience. Meditation beginners showed increased activity in areas involved in the cognitive regulation of nociceptive processing (the ACC and anterior insula) and areas involved in reframing the evaluation of stimuli (the orbitofrontal cortex), along with reduced activation in the primary somatosensory cortex in a 4-day longitudinal study with no control group 30 , whereas meditation experts were characterized by decreased activation in dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC regions and enhancements in primary pain processing regions (the insula, somatosensory cortex and thalamus) compared with controls in two cross-sectional studies 35 , 81 .

These findings are in line with the assumption that the process of mindfulness meditation is characterized as an active cognitive regulation in meditation beginners, who need to overcome habitual ways of internally reacting to one's emotions and might therefore show greater prefrontal activation. Expert meditators might not use this prefrontal control. Rather, they might have automated an accepting stance towards their experience and thus no longer engage in top-down control efforts but instead show enhanced bottom-up processing 100 .

In the early stages of meditation training, achieving the meditation state seems to involve the use of attentional control and mental effort; thus, areas of the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortex are more active than before training 11 , 16 , 100 , 101 . This may reflect the higher level of effort often found when participants struggle to obtain the meditation state in the early stages 11 , 73 , 98 , 102 . However, in the advanced stages, prefrontal–parietal activity is often reduced or eliminated, but ACC, striatum and insula activity remains 9 , 10 , 53 , 73 , 76 , 101 , 102 , 103 . Whether effort has a key role in PFC and ACC activation during or following meditation needs further investigation.

Analysis of functional connectivity between regions of the fronto-limbic network could help to further elucidate the regulatory function of executive control regions. Only a few studies have included such analyses. One cross-sectional study on pain processing in meditators demonstrated decreased connectivity of executive and pain-related brain regions 35 , and one study of mindfulness-naive smokers demonstrated reduced connectivity between craving-related brain regions during a mindfulness condition compared to passive viewing of smoking-related images during cigarette craving 96 , suggesting a functional decoupling of involved regions. Another longitudinal, randomized study reported that people suffering from anxiety showed a change from a negative correlation between the activity of frontal regions and that of the amygdala before intervention (that is, negative connectivity) to a positive correlation between the activity of these regions (positive connectivity) after a mindfulness intervention 97 . Because such a negative correlation will occur when prefrontal regions downregulate limbic activation 104 , 105 , it was speculated that the positive coupling between the activity of the two regions after mindfulness intervention might indicate that meditation involves monitoring of arousal rather than a downregulation or suppression of emotional responses, and that it might be a unique signature of mindful emotion regulation. Importantly, this study also investigated the correlation between neural and self-reported findings and demonstrated that the changes in PFC–amygdala connectivity were correlated with anxiety symptom improvement. Further studies are needed to elucidate the complex interplay between regions of the fronto-limbic network in mindfulness meditation.

Although the proposed similarities between mindfulness and the reappraisal strategy of emotion regulation have been much debated, there is some evidence that mindfulness also shares similarities with extinction processes ( Box 3 ).

Brain regions involved in motivation and reward processing also show functional alterations that are related to mindfulness training, such as stronger activity of the putamen and caudate during a resting state following mindfulness training 23 and lower activation in the caudate nucleus during reward anticipation in experienced meditators 106 . These studies might indicate altered self-regulation in the motivational realm, with possibly reduced susceptibility to incentives and enhanced reward-related activity during rest.

Brain regions involved in the regulation of emotions have also shown structural changes following mindfulness meditation 31 , 32 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 48 , 51 . Although these findings provide some initial evidence that these brain regions are related to mindfulness practice, the question of whether they are involved in mediating the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation remains largely unanswered.

Box 3: Mindfulness meditation as exposure therapy

Exposure therapy aims for patients to extinguish a fear response and instead to acquire a sense of safety in the presence of a formerly feared stimulus by exposing them to that stimulus and preventing the usual response 164 . Mindfulness meditation resembles an exposure situation because practitioners 'turn towards their emotional experience', bring acceptance to bodily and affective responses, and refrain from engaging in internal reactivity towards it. Research on fear conditioning has helped to identify a network of brain regions that are crucial for the extinction of conditioned fear responses and the retention of extinction 165 . This network includes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which is important for a successful recall of the extinction; the hippocampus 166 , which is related to signalling the extinguished context (contextual safety); and the amygdala, which has a crucial role during the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear 167 and is thought to be downregulated by the vmPFC and the hippocampus 105 , 168 . Activation in the vmPFC (subgenual anterior cingulate cortex) is primarily linked to the expression of fear learning during a delayed test of extinction and is critical for the retention of extinction 169 .

There is emerging evidence from MRI studies that the aforementioned brain regions show structural and functional changes following mindfulness meditation training (see main text). This overlap of involved brain regions, as well as the conceptual similarity between mindfulness and an exposure situation, suggest that mindfulness training might enhance the ability to extinguish conditioned fear by structurally and functionally affecting the brain network that supports safety signalling. The capacity for successful extinction memories reliably differentiates healthy from pathological conditions 170 , 171 , and is crucial in order to overcome maladaptive states. It helps individuals to learn to have no fear response to neutral stimuli when there is no adaptive function for a fear response. Instead, individuals can experience a sense of safety and can flexibly elicit other emotions and behaviours.

Mindfulness and self-awareness

According to Buddhist philosophy, the identification with a static concept of 'self' causes psychological distress. Dis-identification from such a static self-concept results in the freedom to experience a more genuine way of being. Through enhanced meta-awareness (making awareness itself an object of attention), mindfulness meditation is thought to facilitate a detachment from identification with the self as a static entity 3 , 10 , 107 and a tendency to identify with the phenomenon of 'experiencing' itself is said to emerge 15 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 . Currently, empirical research into this area is only just emerging 111 , 113 , and the few interpretations of connections between neuroimaging findings and self-reported data — which we will summarize briefly below — are suggestive at best.

Self-referential processing. Altered self-representation has been investigated with questionnaire studies. Early studies reported mindfulness training to be associated with a more positive self-representation, higher self-esteem, higher acceptance of oneself 114 and styles of self-concept that are typically associated with less-severe pathological symptoms 115 . Meditators have also been shown to score higher than non-meditators on a scale that measures non-attachment 116 : a construct that is based on insight into the constructed and impermanent nature of mental representations. Although such concepts are not easy to capture in experimental and neuroscientific studies, findings from a few recent studies seem to suggest that brain structures supporting self-referential processing might be affected by mindfulness meditation 98 , 117 , 118 .

Although there is much debate about its exact function, a widespread view holds that the default mode network (DMN) 119 , 120 is involved in self-referential processing. This network includes midline structures of the brain, such as areas of the medial PFC, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), anterior precuneus and inferior parietal lobule 121 , 122 . These structures show high activity during rest, mind wandering and conditions of stimulus-independent thought 121 and have been suggested to support diverse mechanisms by which an individual can 'project' themselves into another perspective 123 . fMRI studies have investigated activity in the DMN in association with mindfulness practice. Regions of the DMN (the medial PFC and PCC) showed relatively little activity in meditators compared to controls across different types of meditation, which has been interpreted as indicating diminished self-referential processing 117 . Functional connectivity analysis revealed stronger coupling in experienced meditators between the PCC, dorsal ACC and dorsolateral PFC, both at baseline and during meditation, which was interpreted as indicating increased cognitive control over the function of the DMN 117 . Increased functional connectivity was also found between DMN regions and the ventromedial PFC in participants with more compared to less meditation experience 118 . It has been speculated that this increased connectivity with ventromedial PFC regions supports greater access of the default circuitry to information about internal states because this region is highly interconnected with limbic regions 118 .

Awareness of present-moment experiences. Evaluative self-referential processing is assumed to decrease as an effect of mindfulness meditation, whereas awareness of present-moment experiences is thought to be enhanced. Mindfulness practitioners often report that the practice of attending to present-moment body sensations results in an enhanced awareness of bodily states and greater perceptual clarity of subtle interoception. Empirical findings to support this claim are mixed. Although studies that assessed performance on a heartbeat detection task — a standard measure of interoceptive awareness — found no evidence that meditators had superior performance to non-meditators 124 , 125 , other studies found that meditators showed greater coherence between objective physiological data and their subjective experience in regard to an emotional experience 126 and the sensitivity of body regions 127 .

Multiple studies have shown the insula to be implicated in mindfulness meditation: it shows stronger activation during compassion meditation 128 and following mindfulness training 23 , 52 , 98 , and has greater cortical thickness in experienced meditators 32 . Given its known role in awareness 129 , it is conceivable that enhanced insula activity in meditators might represent the amplified awareness of present-moment experience.

Similarly, a study reported an uncoupling of the right insula and medial PFC and increased connectivity of the right insula with dorsolateral PFC regions in individuals after mindfulness training 98 . The authors interpret their findings as a shift in self-referential processing towards a more self-detached and objective analysis of interoceptive and exteroceptive sensory events, rather than their affective or subjective self-referential value. Furthermore, a preliminary analysis from a study of a state of 'non-dual awareness' (a state of awareness in which perceived dualities, such as the distinction between subject and object, are absent) showed a decreased functional connectivity of the central precuneus with the dorsolateral PFC. The author speculates that this finding might be indicative of a state in which awareness is itself the subject of awareness 111 .

Together, the findings from these studies have been taken to suggest that mindfulness meditation might alter the self-referential mode so that a previous narrative, evaluative form of self-referential processing is replaced by greater awareness 98 , 111 . We suggest that this shift in self-awareness is one of the major active mechanisms of the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation. However, because these interpretations are built on a still-fragmentary understanding of the function of the involved brain regions, future research will need to test and elaborate these assumptions.

Across the functional and structural MRI studies that have been published to date, especially those based on the longitudinal, randomized, controlled studies with active control groups and meta-analyses, the ACC, PFC, PCC, insula, striatum (caudate and putamen) and amygdala seem to show consistent changes associated with mindfulness meditation 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 17 , 23 , 34 , 73 , 108 , 130 ( Fig. 1 ; Table 2 ). We consider these areas to be the core regions involved in self-regulation of attention, emotion and awareness following mindfulness training. However, we acknowledge that many other brain areas are also involved in mindfulness practice and warrant further investigation using rigorous randomized and controlled designs.

Future questions

Mechanisms of mindfulness-induced changes. A number of studies seem to suggest that mindfulness meditation induces changes in brain structure and function, raising the question of which underlying mechanisms support these processes. It is possible that engaging the brain in mindfulness affects brain structure by inducing dendritic branching, synaptogenesis, myelinogenesis or even adult neurogenesis. Alternatively, it is possible that mindfulness positively affects autonomic regulation and immune activity, which may result in neuronal preservation, restoration and/or inhibition of apoptosis 14 , 23 , 131 . It is well known that mindfulness-based techniques are highly effective in stress reduction, and it is possible that such stress reduction may mediate changes in brain function 14 , 48 , 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 ( Box 4 ). A combination of all of these mechanisms may even occur.

It is also important to realize that the direction of the observed effects of mindfulness meditation has not been consistent across all studies. Although larger values in meditators compared to controls are predominantly reported, a cross-sectional study also revealed smaller fractional anisotropy and cortical thickness values in meditators in some brain regions, including the medial PFC, postcentral and inferior parietal cortices, PCC and medial occipital cortex 138 . Along these lines, mindfulness-induced increases are predominantly observed in longitudinal studies. However, it was also reported, for example, that as a consequence of meditation, larger decreases in perceived stress were associated with larger decreases in grey-matter density in the amygdala 48 . Thus, the underlying mechanisms seem to be more complex than currently assumed, and further research is necessary.

Although neuroimaging has advanced our understanding of the individual brain regions involved in mindfulness meditation, most evidence supports the idea that the brain processes information through the dynamic interactions of distributed areas operating in large-scale networks 139 , 140 . Because the complex mental state of mindfulness is probably supported by alterations in large-scale brain networks, future work should consider the inclusion of complex network analyses, rather than restricting analyses to comparisons of the strength of activations in single brain areas. Recent studies have explored functional network architecture during the resting state using these new tools 141 , 142 .

Decoding mental states. Mindfulness meditation approaches can be divided into those involving focused attention and those involving open monitoring. Even within the same meditation style, practitioners can be at different stages of mindfulness practice 2 . Investigating the distinction between these different stages in terms of brain function will require new advanced tools and methods. For instance, simultaneous multi-level recording — using fMRI and electrophysiology — could provide information on how the brain and body interact to support the meditation practice 143 . Electroencephalography feedback has been used to aid training and study meditation by providing the practitioners with information on the brain waves they are producing. Similarly, real-time fMRI has been used to provide subjects with feedback of the brain activity they are producing and allows the experimenter to examine pain, cognitive control, emotion regulation and learning of meditation. This dynamic recording and feedback technique may help to train the subjects effectively and allow their mental states at different stages of mindfulness training to be decoded from their brain activity 144 , 145 , 146 , possibly by applying techniques such as multivariate pattern analysis 147 .

Interpretations of study outcomes remain tentative until they are clearly linked to subjective reports or behavioural findings. Future studies should therefore increasingly draw connections between behavioural outcomes and neuroimaging data using the advanced multi-level analyses mentioned above.

Investigating individual differences. People respond to mindfulness meditation differently. These differences may derive from temperamental, personality or genetic differences. Studies in other fields have suggested that genetic polymorphisms may interact with experience to influence the success of training 148 . Because mindfulness meditation affects the activation and connectivity of the ACC, PFC and other brain regions involved in cognitive control and emotion regulation, it might be helpful to examine these polymorphisms to determine their possible influence on the success of meditation practice 2 , 59 , 149 . Moreover, individual differences in personality, lifestyle, life events and trainer–trainee dynamics are likely to have substantial influence on training effects, although little is known about these influences. Mood and personality have been used to predict individual variation in the improvement of creative performance following mindfulness meditation 150 . Capturing temperament and personality differences may serve to predict success in mindfulness training 150 , 151 because different temperament and personality traits are reported to be associated with different electroencephalography patterns and heart-rate variability in Zen meditators 152 .

Clinical application. Self-regulation deficits are associated with diverse behavioural problems and mental disorders, such as increased risk of school failure, attention deficit disorder, anxiety, depression and drug abuse 78 , 153 . Convergent findings indicate that mindfulness meditation could ameliorate negative outcomes resulting from deficits in self-regulation and could consequently help patient populations suffering from diseases and behavioural abnormalities. Several clinical trials have explored the effects of mindfulness meditation on disorders such as depression 154 , generalized anxiety 26 , addictions 155 , attention deficit disorders 156 and others 42 , and have begun to establish the efficiency of mindfulness practice for these conditions. Only a few recent studies, however, have investigated the neuroplastic changes underlying these beneficial effects of mindfulness in clinical populations 29 , 41 , 42 , 74 , 97 , 142 , 157 . Although these studies are promising, future work needs to replicate and expand the emerging findings to optimally tailor interventions for clinical application.

Box 4: Mindfulness meditation and stress

Stress reduction might be a potential mediator of the effects of mindfulness practice on neural function. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to reduce stress 14 , 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 ; this is most consistently documented in self-reported data 132 , 133 . A review of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) studies showed a non-specific effect on stress reduction, which is similar to that of standard relaxation training 134 . However, findings in studies that have examined biomarkers of stress, such as cortisol levels, are less consistent: changes in cortisol levels have been found in association with mindfulness training in some studies 14 , 136 but not in others 132 , 135 .

The brain is a target for stress and stress-related hormones. It undergoes functional and structural remodelling in response to stress in a manner that is adaptive under normal circumstances but can lead to damage when stress is excessive 172 . Evidence suggests that vulnerability to stress-induced brain plasticity is prominent in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, amygdala and other areas associated with fear-related memories and self-regulatory behaviours 172 , 173 . The interactions between these brain regions determine whether life experiences lead to successful adaptation or maladaptation and impaired mental and physical health 173 . A study has shown that chronic stress induces less flexibility in attention shifting in the rodent and human adult 174 . This was paralleled by a reduction in apical dendritic arborization in rodent medial PFC (specifically, in the anterior cingulate cortex) and fewer feedforward PFC connections in humans under stress, effects that recovered when the stressor was removed 174 . This suggests that the effects of chronic psychosocial stress on PFC function and connectivity are plastic and can change quickly as a function of mental state 174 . Studies have also shown that moderate to severe stress seems to increase the volume of the amygdala but reduce the volume of the PFC and hippocampus 175 . Mindfulness training, however, has been shown to enhance grey-matter density in the hippocampus 40 . Furthermore, after mindfulness training, reductions in perceived stress correlate with reductions in amygdala grey-matter density 48 . These findings suggest that mindfulness meditation might be a potential intervention and prevention strategy 176 . Thus, it is possible that mindfulness meditation reduces stress by improving self-regulation, which enhances neuroplasticity and leads to health benefits. It should be noted that mindfulness meditation might also directly modulate stress processing via a 'bottom-up' pathway, through which it alters the sympathetic–adrenal–medullary and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axes by increasing activity in the parasympathetic nervous system; thus, mindfulness meditation could prevent sympathetic nervous system fight-or-flight stress responses 177 , 178 . Indeed, some research has suggested that mindfulness leads to increased activity of the parasympathetic nervous system 23 , 179 .

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been linked to numerous aspects of plasticity in the brain. Stress-induced remodelling of the PFC, hippocampus and amygdala coincides with changes in the levels of BDNF, supporting its role as a trophic factor modulating neuronal survival and regulating synaptic plasticity 131 . However, glucocorticoids and other molecules have been shown to act in conjunction with BDNF to facilitate both morphological and molecular changes. Because some forms of mindfulness meditation training have been found to reduce stress-induced cortisol secretion, this could potentially have neuroprotective effects by increasing levels of BDNF, and future research should explore this possible causal relationship 136 , 149 , 180 .

Conclusions

Interest in the psychological and neuroscientific investigation of mindfulness meditation has increased markedly over the past two decades. As is relatively common in a new field of research, studies suffer from low methodological quality and present with speculative post-hoc interpretations. Knowledge of the mechanisms that underlie the effects of meditation is therefore still in its infancy. However, there is emerging evidence that mindfulness meditation might cause neuroplastic changes in the structure and function of brain regions involved in regulation of attention, emotion and self-awareness. Further research needs to use longitudinal, randomized and actively controlled research designs and larger sample sizes to advance the understanding of the mechanisms of mindfulness meditation in regard to the interactions of complex brain networks, and needs to connect neuroscientific findings with behavioural data. If supported by rigorous research studies, the practice of mindfulness meditation might be promising for the treatment of clinical disorders and might facilitate the cultivation of a healthy mind and increased well-being.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US Office of Naval Research. We thank E. Luders for her contributions to an earlier version of this manuscript. We benefited from discussions with R. Davidson and A. Chiesa. We thank four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and R. Tang for manuscript preparation.

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Yi-Yuan Tang and Britta K. Hölzel: These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 79409, Texas, USA

Yi-Yuan Tang

Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403, Oregon, USA

Yi-Yuan Tang & Michael I. Posner

Department of Neuroradiology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, 81675, Germany

Britta K. Hölzel

Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, 02129, Massachusetts, USA

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Study designs that compare data from one or more groups at several time points and that ideally include a (preferably active) control condition and random assignment to conditions.

Study designs that compare data from an experimental group with those from a control group at one point in time.

Studies that assess the co-variation between two variables: for example, co-variation of functional or structural properties of the brain and a behavioural variable, such as reported stress.

(BOLD contrasts). Signals that can be extracted with functional MRI and that reflect the change in the amount of deoxyhaemoglobin that is induced by changes in the activity of neurons and their synapses in a region of the brain. The signals thus reflect the activity in a local brain region.

(ASL). An MRI technique that is capable of measuring cerebral blood flow in vivo . It provides cerebral perfusion maps without requiring the administration of a contrast agent or the use of ionizing radiation because it uses magnetically labelled endogenous blood water as a freely diffusible tracer.

The reliable patterns of brain activity that involve the activation and/or connectivity of multiple large-scale brain networks.

A parameter in diffusion tensor imaging, which images brain structures by measuring the diffusion properties of water molecules. It provides information about the microstructural integrity of white matter.

Derived from the eigenvalues of the diffusion tensor, their underlying biophysical properties are associated with axonal density and myelination, respectively.

A technique for coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging data. It determines the convergence of foci reported from different experiments, weighted by the number of participants in each study.

A method of analysing functional MRI data that is capable of detecting and characterizing information represented in patterns of activity distributed within and across multiple regions of the brain. Unlike univariate approaches, which only identify magnitudes of activity in localized parts of the brain, this approach can monitor multiple areas at once.

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Trends and Developments in Mindfulness Research over 55 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications Indexed in Web of Science

• Published: 16 July 2021
• Volume 12 , pages 2099–2116, ( 2021 )

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• Anuradha Baminiwatta   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5495-2029 1 &
• Indrajith Solangaarachchi 2  

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This study aimed to identify historical developments, active research areas, and emerging trends within scientific literature on mindfulness published so far, using bibliometric methods. We also aimed to identify prominent journals, authors, organizations, and countries in the field of mindfulness.

Articles or reviews which mention mindfulness in the title, abstract, or keywords were identified using the Web of Science. A descriptive summary of the literature was obtained from the Web of Science Analysis tool. Country collaboration, co-authorship, and keyword co-occurrence networks were visualized using VOSviewer. CiteSpace, which uses document co-citation analysis, was used to identify emerging trends and transient patterns in the literature.

From 1966 to 2021, 16,581 publications on mindfulness were identified. There has been an exponential growth of publications since 2006. Almost half (47%) of the publications were in psychology and about one-fifth (20.8%) in psychiatry. The most prolific journal was Mindfulness (contributing 7% of all publications) and the most prolific author was Eric L. Garland. The vast majority of publications originated from Western countries but representation from Asian countries has increased. The most frequently co-occurring keywords were meditation , depression , stress , and anxiety. Co-citation analysis of the early period (1966–2015) revealed how scholarly work on spiritual themes has inspired early mindfulness research. Recent trends (2016–2021) revealed a rising interest in mechanisms and moderators, long-term meditation, neuroscientific studies, and smartphone/online delivery of interventions.

Conclusions

This comprehensive bibliometric study summarized and visualized 55 years of mindfulness research, revealing pivotal points, active research areas, and emerging trends.

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Trends of Research on Mindfulness: a Bibliometric Study of an Emerging Field

The Evolution of Mindfulness from 1916 to 2019

Nine Prolific Years: An Analysis of Publications in Mindfulness

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Mindfulness, which originates from Buddhist contemplative practices dating back more than 25 centuries, has recently enjoyed a surge of popularity in the Western hemisphere, pervading a variety of disciplines (Shapiro & Weisbaum, 2020 ). Adaptation of Buddhist mindfulness techniques into a secular therapeutic intervention in the 1980s in the United States, namely the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programme, probably sparked the interest of researchers from myriad disciplines to scientifically and systematically study these meditative practices (Kabat-Zinn, 1982 ; Shapiro & Weisbaum, 2020 ). Since then, a large body of research evidence has accrued in support of the beneficial effects of mindfulness on diverse mental and physical health attributes (Creswell, 2017 ; Khoury et al., 2013 ).

A rapid growth of literature on mindfulness since the turn of the century was recognized earlier (Pagnini & Philips, 2015 ; Van Dam et al., 2018 ). A few studies have previously attempted to identify trends within mindfulness research. An analysis of 1056 articles published in the journal Mindfulness during 2010–2019 showed a few salient trends: increased diversification of the topics being explored as shown by the greater variety of recurring keywords and an increase in the proportion of articles from Asia were noted (Toniolo–Barrios et al., 2020 ). An analysis of trends in systematic reviews on mindfulness revealed an average increase of 19% per year in the number of reviews published from 2003 to 2015 (Chiesa et al., 2017 ). A study by Valerio ( 2016 ) demonstrated how mindfulness literature has become “disembedded” from Buddhist contexts over time: The ratio of literature on Buddhism to that on mindfulness flipped from 4.6:1 before 2008 to 1:1.8 over the following 5 years, and the meditation-to-mindfulness publication ratio dropped from 12.9:1 in 1993–1997 to approximately 1:1 around 2010.

With the explosive growth in the production of research literature, new approaches are required to review and analyze trends within knowledge domains (Chen, 2006 ; van Eck & Waltman, 2010 ). Bibliometrics, defined originally by Pritchard ( 1969 ) as “the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books and other media of communication,” is now widely used to study trends within a body of literature (Thompson & Walker, 2015 ). Application of bibliometrics to study mindfulness literature has so far been limited to the scope of a single journal and short time frame (Toniolo–Barrios et al., 2020 ), a single type of publication (Chiesa et al., 2017 ), or a narrow research question (Valerio, 2016 ). Therefore, we aimed to perform a broader and comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the mindfulness literature, in order to elucidate historical developments, emerging trends, and active research areas within this rapidly expanding domain of scientific knowledge.

Source of Data

Bibliographic data for the analyses were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. WoS contains over 21,100 peer-reviewed, scholarly journals published worldwide in over 250 disciplines within sciences, social sciences, and arts & humanities. The availability of citation data makes WoS data suitable for bibliometric analyses including co-citation analysis.

Search Strategy and Data Retrieval

A search was performed on WoS for all documents with “mindfulness” as a topic; this identifies all documents with the word “mindfulness” in the title, abstract, or keywords. Only the documents of the article or review type were included; other document types such as meeting proceedings , book reviews , and letters were excluded. Bibliographic data were exported as “full records with cited references.”

Data Analysis and Visualization

Analysis and visualization of the bibliometric data were performed using three analytical tools — the WoS Analysis tool; VOSviewer (version 1.6.16), and CiteSpace (version 5.7.R2). Additionally, ArcGIS 10.8.1 was used to draw a world map of country trends.

Web of Science Analysis

Descriptive analyses summarizing information about the most prominent authors, countries, organizations, journals, and publication years were tabulated or graphically presented using the WoS Analysis tool.

VOSviewer is a software for creating and visualizing maps based on network data (van Eck & Waltman, 2010 ). Country collaboration, co-authorship, and keyword co-occurrence networks within the mindfulness literature were visualized using VOSviewer. In VOSviewer terminology, a cluster is a set of items closely associated with one another in a map (items can be authors, countries, keywords, etc.). One item may belong to only one cluster. In the visualization of a map, items with greater importance (e.g., total link strength) are shown with larger labels and larger circles. For some items, the label may not be displayed in order to avoid overlapping labels. The color of an item is determined by the cluster to which it belongs. A link is a connection between two items. Examples of links are co-authorship links between authors and countries and co-occurrence links between keywords. Each link has a strength , with a numerical value assigned. For example, the strength of a co-authorship link indicates the number of publications two researchers have co-authored, whereas a co-occurrence link indicates the number of publications in which two keywords occur together. The thickness of the lines connecting items indicates the link strength . For a given item, total link strength indicates the total strength of the links it has with other items, e.g., in the case of co-authorship links between authors, the total link strength indicates the total strength of the co-authorship links of a given author with other authors.

CiteSpace is a Java application developed for visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in a knowledge domain using document co-citation analysis (Chen, 2006 ). Co-citation refers to the frequency of two documents being cited together; the more co-citations two documents receive, the more likely they are semantically related. CiteSpace has drawn from earlier concepts introduced by Small ( 1973 ) to identify underlying intellectual structures. WoS data on mindfulness were split into two arbitrary periods in order to visualize earlier (1966–2015) and recent (2016–2021) trends in mindfulness research. Even though the earlier period was much longer, the number of publications in this period was about half of that in the recent period. Each period was separately visualized to explore historical developments, major research areas, and trends. CiteSpace uses computer algorithms to label co-citation clusters automatically; the log-likelihood ratio method is generally preferred. CiteSpace provides metrics of structural and temporal properties of the network, clusters, and nodes. Structural metrics include betweenness centrality , modularity , and silhouette index . The betweenness centrality (or centrality ), based on concepts of Freeman ( 1978 ), measures the extent to which a node is in the middle of a path that connects other nodes in the network: High centrality values identify potentially revolutionary scientific publications (Chen, 2006 ). Temporal metrics include citation burstness , derived from Kleinberg’s ( 2002 ) burst detection algorithm. CiteSpace allows detection of citation bursts for any type of node (publications, countries, keywords, etc.) over the period studied. Citation bursts indicate sudden surges in interest within the research community towards a particular node during a particular period of time. Sigma is a combined indicator of both structural and temporal properties of a node.

Number of Publications over Time

From 1966 to 2021, 16,581 publications (14,682 articles and 1899 reviews) referring to mindfulness in the title, abstract, or keywords were identified on the WoS. The first publication was “Mindfulness of sensation” published in 1966 in by W. Pe in Psychologia , a Japanese journal. The next two articles were published in 1979 (a theoretical paper on “Empathy and Mindfulness” by R. Schuster) and 1982 (Kabat-Zinn’s preliminary study introducing an outpatient program of mindfulness for chronic pain), respectively.

The number of publication remained less than 100 per year until 2006, and since then, there has been an exponential growth in publications on mindfulness, reaching 2808 publications in 2020 (Fig.  1 ). The number of publications increased by an average of 23.5% per year from 2010 to 2020. The number of reviews has also increased similarly, reaching a peak of 405 in 2019. Two-thirds of all publications (n = 11,164, 67%) were in the period of 2016–2021.

Number of publications on mindfulness indexed in Web of Science 1966–2020

Research Areas

Based on research areas as categorized on WoS, almost half (47%) of the publications on mindfulness were in psychology, and about one-fifth (20.8%) were in psychiatry. Table 1 lists and compares the 25 most prominent research areas in the periods of 1966–2015 and 2015–2021, in order to illustrate changing trends. Publications in psychology have dropped from 50.5 to 45.2% whereas a slight increase from 19.7 to 21.4% is seen for psychiatry. Of note, there is a recent increase in publications in public environmental occupational health (from 3.3 to 5.2%) and general internal medicine (2.2 to 3.5%) and a decline in publications in the area of religion (from 3.2 to 1.7%).

Most Cited Publications

Out of the 10 most cited publications on mindfulness, 7 were review articles. The two most cited publications were empirical research articles; these two articles validated the Mindful Awareness and Attention Scale (MAAS) and the five facet mindfulness questionnaire (FFMQ), respectively (Baer et al., 2006 ; Brown & Ryan, 2003 ). The former had the highest average citations per year. Also included among the 10 most cited empirical articles were two other studies investigating the validity of mindfulness measures (Baer et al., 2004 ; Baer et al., 2008 ); pioneering studies which introduced MBSR for chronic pain (Kabat-Zinn, 1982 ) and anxiety (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1992 ) and MBCT for depressive relapse prevention (Teasdale et al., 2000 ), and one of the first studies on effects of mindfulness on brain function and immunity (Davidson et al., 2003 ). Table 2 lists the most cited empirical articles and reviews on mindfulness.

The most cited review article provided an operational definition of mindfulness (Bishop et al., 2004 ). Other highly cited reviews included a few meta-analyses of the efficacy of mindfulness on health conditions, several theoretical papers on mindfulness and related concepts, and two reviews exploring mechanisms of action of mindfulness. All of the 10 most cited research and review articles were published in or before 2011. Among publications produced after 2011, a review on neuroscience of mindfulness meditation by Tang et al. ( 2015 ) had received the highest citations per year (109 citations/year).

Most Prolific Journals

WoS listed 3644 journals with at least one publication on mindfulness. There were 338 journals with at least 10 publications (accounting for 59% of all publications). Table 3 lists the 25 journals with the highest number of publications related to mindfulness. Mindfulness , published by Springer, had by far the largest number of publications (n = 1169, 7.05%) on mindfulness. The top 10 journals contributed to 15.7% of the publications, whereas the top 25 journals contributed to 22%.

Most Prolific Authors

Authors with the highest number of publications on mindfulness indexed in WoS are listed in Table 4 . The author with the highest number of citations for his publications on mindfulness was Zindel Segal (9469 citations for 44 publications), who played an integral role in introducing MBCT.

Collaborations Among Authors

Figure  2 shows the networks among the top 100 authors based on co-authorship links; 11 author clusters were delineated using VOS viewer. The three authors with the most links with other authors were Javier Garcia-Campayo (total link strength = 175), Nirbhay Singh (total link strength = 136), and Joaquim Soler (total link strength = 126).

Co-authorship networks among the top 100 authors with strongest co-authorship links

Most Prolific Organizations

Table 5 lists the 25 most prolific organizations in terms of mindfulness research output. Out of the top 25, 22 organizations were located in the United States, 2 in the United Kingdom, and 1 in Canada.

Most Prolific Countries

Among 119 countries listed as contributing to the mindfulness literature on WoS, USA had the highest research output (46.7%) overall; however, the proportion of USA publications dropped from 52 in the early period (1966–2015) to 43.4% in the recent period (2016–2021). Contributions from different countries across the two periods are compared in a world map in Fig.  3 . Of note, a few Asian countries showed recent increases in publication output: Contributions from China increased from 2.7 to 5.9%; Iran, from 0.6 to 2.1%, and India, from 0.7 to 1.8%. In terms of rankings, Iran rose from 28 to 10th position, and India rose from 24 to 12th position.

Contributions (%) by countries to mindfulness research in the early (1966–2015) and recent (2016–2021) periods

Collaborations Between Countries

Collaborations between countries were visualized using VOSviewer based on co-authorship data (Fig.  4 ). USA had the greatest amount of links with other countries (total link strength = 2070), followed by England (total link strength = 1165) and Australia (total link strength = 718). Co-authorship among countries formed six clusters. The most prominent cluster consisted of USA, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland (shown in blue in Fig.  4 ). The three strongest links between countries pairwise were seen for USA-Canada (link strength = 317), USA-England (link strength = 195), and USA-Australia (link strength = 183).

Collaboration networks among countries producing mindfulness research. The size of circles represents the total link strength of each country and the thickness of lines indicates the link strength between countries

Country Citation Bursts

Top 10 countries with the strongest citation bursts (indicating sudden increases in interest within the scientific community towards articles from a certain country) as illustrated using CiteSpace revealed currently active citation bursts for Turkey, China, Peru, Vietnam, and Pakistan (Fig.  5 ). The strongest citation burst overall is for China, commencing in 2020.

Top 10 strongest citation bursts for countries 1966–2021. The duration of burst is indicated by the red line along the timeline

Major Research Areas During 1966–2015 (Document Co-citation Analysis)

CiteSpace uses document co-citation analysis to reveal the structure and dynamics within a knowledge domain and provides insight about the major areas of research (in the form of clusters) and how they are inter-connected. Co-citation analysis of 5501 publications in the period of 1966–2015, shown in Fig.  6a , revealed 19 co-citation clusters, labelled using a log-likelihood algorithm based on index terms used by citers. There was good quality of clustering configurations (weighted mean silhouette value of the clusters = 0.87) and satisfactory clarity of decomposition of the network (modularity Q = 0.73).

Major research areas (co-citation clusters) in mindfulness literature during 1966–2015. a Cluster view shows 19 co-citation clusters (in different colors), labelled by an algorithm. b Timeline view shows the temporal progression of activity in each cluster

The largest cluster during 1966–2015 was using mindfulness-based therapeutic intervention (cluster #0), consisting of 179 articles. The most active citer to this cluster was a review of empirical studies on the effects of mindfulness on psychological health (Keng et al., 2011 ). One of the articles in this cluster had the highest centrality value of all nodes in this period; the article by Teasdale et al. ( 1995 ) titled “How does cognitive therapy prevent depressive relapse and why should attentional control (mindfulness) training help” had a centrality of 0.3 (centrality is an indicator of the pivotal role played by an article in paths connecting different clusters). This cluster also included the publication with the highest sigma value (= 327) in the 1966–2015 period, viz. the landmark publication detailing the MBCT programme (Segal et al., 2002 ) (sigma is an indicator of the combined strength of structural and temporal properties of an article within a network).

The next two largest clusters were named meditation practitioner (177 cited articles) and commitment therapy (155 cited articles), respectively. Figure  6a shows the other major research areas within mindfulness literature between 1966 and 2015. Most of the labels provide a reasonable idea about the topics covered in each domain. A closer look at the oddly labelled “Turkish university student” cluster revealed a series of publications on self-compassion conducted among Turkish university students.

Co-citation analysis may also provide insight about the flow of knowledge over time within a knowledge domain. The three oldest clusters (shown on the right side of Fig.  6a ), namely outpatient program (cluster #13, mean year = 1978), reflective practice (cluster #14, mean year = 1984), and transcendental meditation (cluster #5, mean year = 1987), appear to be connected to the more recent body of literature through a cluster named “ breast-prostate cancer ” (cluster #10, mean year = 1991). The article with the highest centrality value within this pivotal cluster (cluster #10) was Kabat-Zinn’s (1992) study on effectiveness of MBSR for anxiety disorders (centrality = 0.26). This cluster #10 had 7 articles with centrality > 0.1, the most for any cluster; two other articles by Kabat-Zinn were also included among them. While the log-likelihood ratio method identified “breast prostate cancer” as the top term in this cluster, the next two top terms in the cluster were “spiritual health” and “intervention strategy,” reflecting the semantic heterogeneity within the cluster.

An article titled “Values and religious issues in psychotherapy and mental health” (Bergin, 1991 ) in the transcendental meditation cluster had the second highest centrality value (= 0.28) in the 1966–2015 period, reflecting its role in connecting the older reflective practice and outpatient program clusters to the breast prostate cancer cluster. The timeline view (Fig.  6b ) shows the progress of research activity in the different clusters through time.

Major Research Areas During 2016–2021

Document co-citation analysis of 11,164 publications in the 2016–2021 period revealed a network divided into 14 co-citation clusters (Fig.  7a ). There was good quality of clustering configurations (weighted mean silhouette value of the clusters = 0.86) and satisfactory clarity of decomposition of the network (modularity Q = 0.7).

Major research areas (co-citation clusters) in mindfulness literature during 1966–2015. a Cluster view shows 14 co-citation clusters (in different colors), labelled by an algorithm. b Timeline view shows the temporal progression of activity in each cluster

The largest cluster (#0) had 152 articles and was labelled as moderating role . The publication with the highest sigma value within this cluster was a meta-analysis of mindfulness-based interventions for reducing stress among healthcare professionals (Burton et al., 2017 ) and the most active citer to this cluster was a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials evaluating mindfulness-based programs in the workplace (Vonderlin et al., 2020 ). No publications during this period had centrality values > 0.1; no pivotal points could be observed visually as well.

The second largest cluster was long-term meditator , and the publication with the highest sigma value in this cluster was a study that investigated the effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state (Desbordes et al., 2012 ).

The article with the highest sigma value (= 4.5) in this period overall was a critical evaluation of research on mindfulness (Van Dam et al., 2018 ) included within the third largest cluster, i.e., mindfulness-based cognitive therapy .

The most recent cluster within the network was covid-19 outbreak (Fig.  7b ). A closer look at the composition of this cluster revealed that publications on mindfulness apps and online mindfulness interventions were also included within it. Studies on acceptance and commitment therapy seemed to cluster within the chronic pain cluster. The cluster which was named by the algorithm as bipolar disorder also included studies on mindfulness interventions for psychotic disorders and at-risk mental states.

Publications with Strongest Citation Bursts (1966–2021)

Top 25 citation bursts detected and visualized using CiteSpace for articles in the period of 1966 to 2021 are illustrated in Fig.  8 . The strongest citation burst (lasting from 2003 to 2011) was observed for the article that validated the MAAS (Brown & Ryan, 2003 ). Four articles show currently active citation bursts: a review on neuroscience of mindfulness meditation (Tang et al., 2015 ); a review of mechanisms of action for MBSR (Gu et al., 2015 ); a critical evaluation of research on mindfulness and meditation (Dam et al., 2018 ), and a review of randomized controlled trials employing mindfulness interventions (Creswell, 2017 ).

Top 25 publications with the strongest citations bursts (1966–2021). The duration of burst is indicated by the red line along the timeline

2.11 Keywords

1 keyword co-occurrence.

Keywords co-occurring in the publications on mindfulness were visualized using VOSviewer (Fig.  9 ): Five clusters of keywords were identified. The most prominent cluster (red) included keywords such as mindfulness , meditation , emotion regulation , attention , and validation . The second cluster (green) included keywords such as depression , anxiety , cognitive therapy , acceptance , and commitment therapy . Third cluster (blue) consisted of keywords such as stress , health , wellbeing , burnout , satisfaction , compassion , empathy , and resilience . Keywords in the fourth cluster (yellow) included stress reduction , intervention , and therapy . The smallest and fifth cluster (purple) comprised the keywords adolescents and children .

Keywords co-occurrence clusters in mindfulness literature. Five clusters are shown in different colors. The size of circles indicates the total link strength of each keyword

The 10 keywords which co-occurred most frequently with mindfulness were meditation (link strength = 2306), depression (link strength = 1996), stress (link strength = 1510), anxiety (link strength = 1445), stress reduction (link strength = 1294), intervention (link strength = 1015), health (link strength = 985), acceptance (link strength = 910), validation (link strength = 890), and emotion regulation (link strength = 838).

Keyword Bursts

Top 50 keywords with the strongest citation bursts during 1966–2021 are illustrated in Fig.  10 using CiteSpace. The three keywords with the strongest citation bursts were mindfulness meditation (1992 to 2011), mood (2004 to 2013), and prevention (2003 to 2012). Currently active bursts are observed for the keywords resource , loneliness , psychological intervention , and gratitude . Other keywords which attracted interest during the last decade include long term meditation , compassion meditation , alcohol dependence , immune , and integrative medicine .

Top 50 keywords with the strongest citation bursts. The duration of burst is indicated by the red line along the timeline

We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 55 years of scientific literature on mindfulness in order to gauge the progress that has been made so far and to detect emerging trends. The number of publications has risen exponentially since the turn of the century, and two-thirds of the total body of literature was produced over the last 5 years. As of 2020, the annual rate of publication exceeded 2800 publications per year, and this rate is likely to keep rising along its exponential trend. Almost half of these publications were within the discipline of psychology; however, this proportion has dropped by a reasonable degree in 2016–2021 compared to 1966–2015. Among the less prominent disciplines, notable recent increases in representation were noted for public environmental occupational health and general internal medicine. Also of note was the decline in the proportion of publications in the subject of religion: This is consistent with Valerio’s ( 2016 ) observation that mindfulness literature has become “disembedded” from Buddhism over the years. Similarly, although mindfulness originated from the Eastern part of the world, the great majority of mindfulness literature came from Western countries. All the top 25 authors and top 25 organizations were also from Western countries. However, a trend of increasing contributions to the mindfulness literature base by Asian countries such as China, Iran, and India was noteworthy. The most prominent surge of interest within the scientific community towards scholarly work from any single country was for China, which is currently in effect.

Historical Developments

Using computer algorithms based on bibliometric principles, we were able to visually depict the landscape of mindfulness research in the early (1966–2015) and recent (2016–2021) periods. Co-citations clusters and their temporal progression in the early period provided insight about the early development of scientific interest into mindfulness and meditation: A cluster of scholarly work on transcendental meditation, reflective practices, and Kabat-Zinn’s pioneering work on mindfulness for chronic pain, appearing in the 1970s and 1980s, seem to have laid the foundation for mindfulness research. Another landmark publication by Kabat-Zinn in 1992 on the effectiveness of MBSR for anxiety disorders, and a cluster of knowledge surrounding this, served as a pivotal point connecting this older knowledge base to a new and rich network of knowledge. The most revolutionary publication of all, in terms of structural properties within the whole network, came out in 1995; this publication by Teasdale et al. provided an information processing analysis of mindfulness and proposed a mechanism by which mindfulness meditation may prevent depressive relapses. This theoretical paper preceded the formal introduction of MBCT by several years. It was part of the largest network of knowledge in this period titled “ using mindfulness based therapeutic intervention .” Several other distinct clusters representing the major mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions were connected to this largest network, namely, MBSR, MBCT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindful yoga, and Self-compassion-based therapies.

Recent Trends

The co-citation clusters in the recent period (2016–2021) revealed the currently active research areas in mindfulness (see Fig.  7 ). The knowledge clusters during this period were highly inter-connected and structurally overlapping, without notable pivotal points. The largest cluster being named as moderating role by the algorithm is consistent with the earlier observations of a recent rise in interest towards mechanisms and moderators underlying mindfulness interventions (Chiesa et al., 2017 ). A meta-analytic review of mediation studies (Gu et al., 2015 ) showing a currently active citation burst also confirms this trend. Tang et al.’s review of neuroscience of mindfulness meditation ( 2015 ) has also been garnering attention from the scientific community, indicating the ongoing interest in the neurobiological basis of mindfulness. This review shed light on the neural mechanisms of mindfulness by reviewing the evidence for structural and functional brain changes associated with mindfulness practice. Tang et al. ( 2015 ) recommended that further research should use rigorous research designs and larger sample sizes “to advance the understanding of the mechanisms of mindfulness meditation in regard to the interactions of complex brain networks, and to connect neuroscientific findings with behavioural data.”

Although most secular mindfulness interventions were designed for short-term implementation (e.g., lasting 8 weeks), there may be added benefits of long-term meditation; this seems to be a topic of recent interest since the second largest cluster of this period was labelled as long-term meditator . A citation burst for the keyword long term meditation was also observed from 2012 to 2015.

The most recent co-citation cluster is related to the covid-19 outbreak. The pandemic seems to have created a surge of interest in online interventions and smartphone apps for mindfulness, probably owing to the restrictions on physical gatherings.

The applications of mindfulness in managing several clinical conditions such as eating disorders ( mindful eating ), addiction ( smoking cessation ), and bipolar/psychotic disorders have also gained prominence in recent years. Investigations into the preventive capabilities of mindfulness are reflected by the cluster named school-based mindfulness intervention .

Keywords which have received recent citation bursts also illuminate some emerging trends. Gratitude , which has been called one of the “sisters of mindfulness” (Rosenzweig, 2013 ), seems to have attracted renewed interest within mindfulness literature (Sawyer et al., 2021 ; Swickert et al., 2019 ). The ability of mindfulness to reduce loneliness also appears to have gained recognition; this probably reflects the ongoing need for interventions to combat loneliness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (Teoh et al., 2021 ).

Uses and Implications of the Findings

Our study provides insight about the historical developments over 55 years and recent trends in mindfulness research, which will be useful for new researchers, students, and academics in various disciplines, particularly in psychology and psychiatry. Pointers towards important sources of information such as the most cited publications, revolutionary articles, most prolific journals, and authors will be useful for anyone interested in reading scientific literature on mindfulness. This study also provides some foresight into future directions in mindfulness research, as reflected by current trends.

Limitations

This study used all publications on WoS with the term “mindfulness” in the title, abstract, or keywords as articles on mindfulness. Since over 16,000 articles were identified, the authors did not attempt to peruse each article to check whether mindfulness was an important focus of each article. Authors noted that most of the individual articles which were identified algorithmically as important during the analysis included mindfulness as an important component. However, some articles included mindfulness as a minor component only, e.g., one of the 10 most cited reviews — Deci and Ryan ( 2008 ) — discussed mindfulness as only a correlate of motivation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Hasindu Gamaarachchi for helping us in data retrieval and to Buddhika Madurapperuma for assisting us with GIS mapping.

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Baminiwatta, A., Solangaarachchi, I. Trends and Developments in Mindfulness Research over 55 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications Indexed in Web of Science. Mindfulness 12 , 2099–2116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01681-x

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Brief, daily meditation enhances attention, memory, mood, and emotional regulation in non-experienced meditators

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• 1 New York University, Center for Neural Science, 4 Washington Place, Room 809, New York, NY 10003, United States; Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors, 1 Riverside Circle, Suite 104G, Roanoke, VA 24016, United States. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 2 New York University, Center for Neural Science, 4 Washington Place, Room 809, New York, NY 10003, United States.
• 3 New York University, Center for Neural Science, 4 Washington Place, Room 809, New York, NY 10003, United States. Electronic address: [email protected].
• PMID: 30153464
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.08.023

Meditation is an ancient practice that cultivates a calm yet focused mind; however, little is known about how short, practical meditation practices affect cognitive functioning in meditation-naïve populations. To address this question, we randomized subjects (ages of 18-45) who were non-experienced meditators into either a 13-min daily guided meditation session or a 13-min daily podcast listening session (control group) for a total duration of 8 weeks. We examined the effects of the daily meditation practice relative to podcast listening on mood, prefrontal and hippocampal functioning, baseline cortisol levels, and emotional regulation using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Compared to our control group, we found that 8 but not 4 weeks of brief, daily meditation decreased negative mood state and enhanced attention, working memory, and recognition memory as well as decreased state anxiety scores on the TSST. Furthermore, we report that meditation-induced changes in emotional regulation are more strongly linked to improved affective state than improved cognition. This study not only suggests a lower limit for the duration of brief daily meditation needed to see significant benefits in non-experienced meditators, but suggests that even relatively short daily meditation practice can have similar behavioral effects as longer duration and higher-intensity mediation practices.

Keywords: Breathing; Cognition; Consciousness; Executive function; Mindfulness; Stress.

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• Affect / physiology*
• Anxiety / psychology
• Attention / physiology*
• Cognition / physiology
• Emotions / physiology*
• Meditation / psychology*
• Memory, Short-Term / physiology*
• Middle Aged
• Mindfulness
• Stress, Psychological / psychology
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• Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism Elements Hindus, the last power is discovered in the Vedas and the writing of the religious leaders willing to view the fact nature of reality.
• Four Noble Truths as Buddhism Fundamentals The first noble truth in Buddhism teachings is the truth of suffering that is frequently referred to as Dukkha. The last interpretation of the Dukkha is the expression of suffering that is inevitable.
• Philosophy of Confucius Compared to That of Buddhism This due to the fact that only the aspect of ethics in the Buddhist philosophy can be significantly likened to the Confucian philosophy.
• Buddhism: Religion or Philosophy Buddhists believe in a higher power and life after death, they have a moral code of ethics, and they perform rituals; these things are the definition of established religion.
• Buddhism and Christianity Comparison In Buddhism, the ultimate goal is the acquisition of the Nirvana state, a state in which one is relieved of egos, desires, and cravings and saved from the suffering experienced due to reincarnations.
• Morality in Buddhism The purpose of this paper is to expound on the concept of morality in Buddhism, and how the various Buddhist teachings, such as the Four Noble Truths, have enhanced my morality in me and in […]
• Reflection on Self in Buddhism and Hinduism The specificity of the Buddhist concept of the human self lies in the acceptance of the distinction between self and general in a spiritual aspect.
• Anatman and Atman Concepts in Buddhism and Hinduism Rendering to the Atman notion, Atman is eventually in the custody of people’s reactions to what happens in the outside world. The idea of the self in assembly to God is where Hinduism and Buddhism […]
• Buddhism in ‘The World’s Religions’ by Huston Smith Although in his The World’s Religions, Huston Smith identifies speculation as one of the religious constants, Buddhism views humans’ endeavors to ascertain the truth as meaningless and fruitless pursuit: It is not on the view […]
• Buddhism. Allegory in “The Monkey and the Monk” In The Monkey & the Monk: an Abridgment of the Journey to the West, the Monkey is one of the main protagonists of the book, as is apparent from its title.
• Buddhism Spread as Globalization of Knowledge Modern Buddhism has been integrated as a key part of the globalization movement, and it explains why the faith has spread throughout different parts of the world.[3] The correlation between Buddhism and globalization stems from […]
• Buddhism in Different Historical Regions He became Buddha and gathered disciples in the valley of the Ganges who spread the knowledge and contributed to the scripture.
• Wu Wei in Daoism and Zen Buddhism Therefore, the original ideas and thoughts of Taoism are believed to have influenced the development of Zen Buddhism in China. This discussion shows clearly that emptiness in Buddhism points to dependent origination as the true […]
• Descartes’ and Buddhist Ideas of Self-Existence It is the assumption of this paper that Descartes’ perspective and the teachings of Buddha on the self are inherently incompatible due to their different perspectives on what constitutes “the self”.
• Religious Studies: Hinduism and Buddhism Samsara refers to the processor rebirth whereby the individual is reincarnated in a succession of lives. This is what has led to the many differences that arise, causing Buddhism to be viewed as a religious […]
• Buddhism: The Concept of Death and Dying Life is permanent but death is the transition of a human soul to either one of the six Buddhist realms. The purpose of this paper is to explain the concept of death from the Buddhist […]
• Concepts of Buddhism At the age of twenty-nine, he left the comforts of the palace and went out to seek the real meaning of life.
• Buddhism and Hinduism: A Comparison Both of Hinduism and Buddhism have shared beliefs but they are different in the practice of duties, worshipped, the founders of the religions.
• Three Jewels of Buddhism and Their Role The three jewels of Buddhism which are the main ideals at the heart of Buddhism are together identified as the Three Jewels, or the Three Treasures.
• How Does Mahayana Differ From Early Buddhism? According to Mahayana believers, the rituals and ceremonies are important in affirming their faith and in teaching vital traditions and rules that have to be followed by those who accept to be members of the […]
• The Confluence of Buddhism and Hinduism in India The basis of Buddhism is found in the answers to two questions that Gautama attempted to answer. Buddhism was spread to other parts of the world with different doctrines and beliefs.
• Buddhism and Hinduism Thus it is each individuals role to return the soul but this is not possible because of the sins and impurities one becomes exposed to once living in this world and since the process of […]
• Myanmar Buddhism: Between Controversy and Ecumenism Firstly, the formation of a Buddha through the ritual performance by placing and identifying within a person’s body the traits of the Buddha that, in turn, become the Buddha.
• Buddhist Meditation’s Impact on Health My goal is to determine whether Buddhist meditation can help an individual find a sense of mental, emotional, and spiritual balance in their life.
• Hindu Pathways and Buddhist Noble Truths The Buddha relates life suffering in the Four Noble Truths to that of a physician who identifies the symptoms of the suffering, finds out the causes, identifies ways to stop, and finally administers treatment.

👍 Good Essay Topics on Buddhism

• Paths to Enlightenment in Hinduism and Buddhism This paper will compare the paths to moksha with the Four Noble Truths and argue that raja yoga would best utilize the Buddhist method of the Eightfold Path.
• Mahayana Buddhism: Growth and Development of Buddhism The Mahayana elaboration of this concept is unusual in that it uses the term “bodhisattva” to refer to anyone who has the desire to become a Buddha and does not require that this desire be […]
• Distribution Features of Confucianism and Buddhism Confucianism is more a philosophical doctrine than a religion, and its connection with the East is strong due to the specifics of the Asian mentality.
• Buddhism and Christianity: Similarities and Differences While Buddhists see suffering as an integral part of life, in Christianity people can put a stop to it finding unity with God, a notion that may cause misunderstanding on the part of Buddhist adepts.
• Ethics in the Buddhist Tradition The concept of ethics and morality is one of the perfection followers of Buddhism must strive to achieve enlightenment. Techniques include entering into the flow and control of the senses, understanding the practice of return, […]
• Health Beliefs in Buddhist Religion Moreover, the body and mind are interdependent; thus, Buddhists consider greed, anger, and ignorance as the main aspects affecting the deterioration of human well-being.
• Indigenous Religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism For example, Confucianism is one of the modern national religions of China, which was formed at the turn of the new era based on the ethical-philosophical teachings of Confucius and his followers.
• Buddhism and Christianity: Comparison and Contrast The principal teachings of the religion are on enlightenment which is thought to be attained through a life of self-deprivation. Christianity is evident in the existence of one supreme being who is the creator of […]
• Analysis of Buddhism Idea and Paradox The most important aspect that attracted me to this film was the authentic depiction of the traditions of old Ceylon and the excellent atmosphere of the festival.
• Buddhism and the Definition of Religion On the one hand, the concepts of ‘laukika’ and ‘lokottara,’ which can be roughly translated as ‘of the world’ and ‘not of the world,’ more or less corresponding to Western ideas of profane and sacred.
• Why Was the Silk Road So Important in the Spread of Buddhism The fundamental importance was the spread of Buddhism from India to the rest of the world. Trade development along the Silk Road resulted in the expansion of Buddhism to Eastern Asia and China.
• Karma and Other Concepts in Buddhism The afflictions that propel rebirth in the wheel of existence are the teachings of new reality after death in a circumstance known as samsara.
• Buddhism and Hinduism: A Comparative Study While in the case of Hinduism, samsara is the cyclical rebirth of the soul that remains unchanged, Buddhism teaches that samsara is the transformation of a person into something else.
• Hinduism, Buddhism, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Ramayana in the News Media It also implies that the government of the country where Hinduism is the predominant religion is concerned because of the mistakes revealed by mass media.
• Architeture and Function in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islamic Religion In Buddhism religion, various architectural structures like Stupas which are oldest in Buddhism and Pagodas which are major form of architectural structures in Buddhism have been used for long time up to date.
• An Introduction to Buddhism The doctrines of suffering and rebirth are contained in dharma which is also the teachings of Buddhism. It is celebrated to remember a historical and important event that took place in the life of Budha.
• A Conversation With a Buddhist The biggest role when discussing Buddhism is often given to the ability to see the light and become one of the sources of it.
• Buddhism: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Times The problem of wanting more and more is often the main reason why people fail to follow the Five Precepts of Buddhism, resort to violence, get lost in indulging themselves, and defy moral principles.
• Healthy Grief: Kübler-Ross, Job, and Buddhist Stages of Grieving The author also recognizes the fact that the five phases of grieving do not necessarily manifest in the same order in everyone. In the ‘anger’ stage, people begin to comprehend the reality of the situation.
• Comprehending Heart Sutra in Mahayana Buddhism The sutra is chanted in Chinese, but the general message is the same regardless of the language or even the version of the verses.
• Buddhism and Sexuality: Restraining Sexual Desires for Enlightenment It is considered to be more honest to refuse to stick to the aforementioned rules than to be a hypocritical member of the community, who consciously violates the codes.
• Buddhist Arts and Visual Culture In contrast, the Gandhara sculptures were usually made of grey sandstone, whereas the ones found in Sarnath are in the buff one.
• Soul Concept in Islam and Buddhism And since this pursuit is ever continual, the soul is therefore eternal.’The Soul’ in Buddhism: One of the most distinct concepts of Buddhism is the assertion that there is no soul.
• Religion. How Buddhism Views the World Evaluating the general information about this religion, it appears that Buddhism is seen as one of the most popular and widespread religions on the earth the reason of its pragmatic and attractive philosophies which are […]
• Animal Ethics From the Buddhist Perspective In biomedical research and ethics, one of the most frequently debated issues regarding the use of animals in healthcare research is the concept of animal rights.
• Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism in America: A Country of Many Religions This paper aims to explore the impact of Islam, Hindu, and Buddhism on the diversity in America today and answer the question what role they are playing in the society.
• Buddhism in China: Yogācāra Buddhism However, the logical structure of the Yogak ra was not mere speculation, and the ultimate scopes of tradition remained the attainment of the Buddhahood and liberation from the Sams ra.
• The Emergence of Tibetan Buddhism According to modern historians, it is widely believed that the religion based on the Buddha’s teachings first came to Tibet in the seventh century of the Common Era, with the period of its most active […]
• China Impact on Transformation of Buddhist Teachings The unique Chinese Buddhist tradition was formed under the impact of the long-established worldview of the Chinese culture on the original ideas of Buddhism.
• No-Self or Anatman Concept in Buddhism In his teachings, the Buddha used the idea of no-self to disprove the logical consistency of seeing people as creatures that are independent in terms of perception and knowledge.
• The Unexamined Life and the Buddhist Four Noble Truths One is happy to see healthy grandkids playing in the green backyard of the beautiful house because the life goals are met and this brings happiness because there have been so many questions and uncertainties […]
• Buddhism: Definition and Origins of Buddhism However, there is admittance to the existence, reality and truth that in one general conscious awareness, Buddhism is man’s inclination to support or be loyal to and to agree to an opinion of the Teaching […]
• Comparing Early Christian and Buddhist Sculpture During his reign, the territory of the Byzantine Empire expanded significantly, having become the largest during the whole history of the Byzantine Empire; it is possible to say that the cult of Justinian existed in […]
• The Place of Buddhism Among Other Religions The purpose of this paper is to analyze the eight fold path in Buddhism and its similarities with other religion. Buddhism is one of the major religions in the world and shares a lot in […]
• Hindu and Buddhism: Concept of Karma Indeed, the teachings tend to create a balance between spirituality and ordinary human life in the sense that, by following the path of attaining knowledge and the quest to understand the oneself as human through […]
• Nature of Self, Death, and Ethics in Buddhism The state of ultimate reality is pervasive and it builds the foundation of being and the source of energy in every atom and the life of every creature.
• Vedic Hinduism, Classical Hinduism, and Buddhism: A Uniting Belief Systems The difference between Vedic and Classical Hinduism is fundamentally approach towards life rather than beliefs or reformation and the progression from the former to latter is not clear in terms of time.
• The Comparison of Buddhism and Taoism Philosophies In Taoism the aim is attain Tao while the Buddhists strive to reach the nirvana and adhere to the four noble truths.
• Nirvana in Buddhism and Atman in Hinduism The Mantras which is the text of the Vedas are the personification of the Brahman and are divided into two forms which are the karma-Kanda and the Jnana-Kanda.

💡 Easy Buddhism Essay Topics

• Buddhist Religion, Its Past and Its Present The first and the foremost form of Buddhism that has long been practiced is known as the Theravada Buddhism, which is also known as Southern Buddhism; sporadically spelled as Therevada has been the governing discipline […]
• Thailand’s Social Investment Project and Buddhist Philosophy According to the World Bank, the first priority area of the Social Investment Project was to respond to the economic and financial crises through the provision of vital social services to the poor and unemployed […]
• World Religions. Buddhism and Its Teaching As per the teachings of this religion, happiness and contentment is possible. The Fourth Noble Truth is all about Noble eightfold path, as being the path leading to the end of suffering.
• How Tibetan Buddhism Is Represented by Hollywood LITTLE BUDDHA is a well-represented film by Hollywood that tells the story of Jesse Conrad and has a major parallels story of a prince Siddhartha in which the story talks about the birth of Buddhism.
• The History of Buddhism in Korea: Origin, Establishment, and Development The Koryo dynasty’s era witnessed the creation of the Korean Tripitaka, this is a collection of all of the Buddhist sacred books or the scriptures and era of the spread of Buddhism also the period […]
• Buddhism. “The Burmese Harp” Drama Film When the Japanese troops are supposed to surrender and a soldier is sent to other Japanese troops to tell them to drop their guns, they deny the orders and continue to fight and thereby, continue […]
• Ways in Which the Hindu and Buddhist Philosophy Criticize the Body as a Source of Suffering Yet Use It as Path to Enlighten The level of how weakness and sensibility to pain, adversity is discouraged is shown when the lord Krishna makes it a point to elaborate to Arjuna, that in his position as a warrior he has […]
• Buddhism and Greater Peace: Conflict, Visions of Peace The main reason for this Buddhism teaches is that by encouraging people in the communities to live in peace with neighbors, chances of conflicts would greatly be diminished.
• Middle Path’ in Chinese Buddhism and Zen Buddhism Followers of Mahayana tradition consider their doctrine as the finding of the truth about the nature and teachings of the Buddha in contrast to the Theravada tradition, which they characterize as Lesser Vehicle, known as […]
• The Feminine Aspect of Tibetan Buddhism One of the inspiring stories of the first of enlightened females in the literature is of Princess Yeshe Bawa who was a follower of the Buddha of her time and was determined to become enlightened.
• Dualism, Ignorance, and Clinging in the Buddhism Writings To understand the truth of life, the essence of objects, and the meaning of existence, it is necessary to set yourself aside from fixed thoughts.
• Existence Viewed by Modern America, Buddhism, and Christianity Humans of all generations and historical periods seek to find the answer to the cause about the cause of life, the destiny and the role of each human in the life of others.
• Karuna Part of Spiritual Path in Buddhism and Jainism The purpose of this paper is to study the concept of karuna in Buddhism and its relevance to the two major sects in that religion namely Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism.
• Buddhism Studies: A Visit of the Jade Buddha Temple The teachings of the Buddhist are essentially meant to change ourselves and not others like a Christian believer and in the teaching the change occurs when we are “filled with” or we are awaken to […]
• Buddhism: Brief History of Religion From Origin to Modern Days The faith of Buddhism was shaped by a man by the name of Siddhartha Gautama who is supposed to have been imagines by a miraculous conception “in which the future Buddha came to his look […]
• Buddhism in Koryo Analysis Although some of the concepts similar to the teachings Buddhism had spread to Paschke and Koguyo, the places inhabited by the Koryo people, the religion preached by Buddha could not be firmly established in two […]
• Meeting of Buddhist Monks and Nuns The stupa became a symbol of the Buddha, of his final release from the cycle of birth and rebirth – the Parinirvana or the “Final Dying,” the monk explained. He explained that the main Buddha […]
• Teachings of Buddhism as a Means to Alleviate Sadness Buddhism, one of the major religions of the world, provides valuable teachings on how to alleviate sadness in life, among others specifically advocating Contentment, Peace of Mind and Love, all of which lie at the […]
• Presenting Christianity to Buddhism A Buddhist can therefore relate to the phrase ‘kingdom of God’ as the process of living and discovering the heaven that is located within a person’s heart.
• Buddhism and William James’ Theory of Religions It can also be learned from the theory that philosophy is the head of emancipation, and the proletariat is its heart.
• Salvation and Self in Hinduism and Theravada Buddhism The accomplishment of the elevating state of ‘Moksha’ is the final goal of Hinduism, whereas Buddhism aspires to attain the elevating state of ‘Nirvana’ as its final aim.’Moksha’, the final outcome of which is ultimate […]
• Formation and Development of Tibetan Buddhist Canon Kangyur means “translations of the word” of the Buddhas and consists of sutras, tantras, and the root texts attributed to the Buddhas Buddha Shakyamuni and later enlightened beings, like Guru Padmasambhava.
• Buddhist Teachings Allegory in “Monkey” by Lamport The Monkey is one of the masterpieces of literature that contains the ethics, morality, religion, and culture of the Eastern world.
• Monkey Novel as an Allegory of Buddhist Teachings The purpose of this paper is to explain why Monkey is an allegory of Buddhist teachings in the selected novel. The reader also observed that Tripitaka is a representation of the physical outcomes and experiences […]
• Buddhism in Taiwan Then and Now The origin and development of Buddhism is attributed to the life experiences and achievements of the Buddha. 1 The Dutch colonialists and settlers from China presented the teachings of the Buddha to the people.
• Nirvana and Other Buddhism Concepts Different regions have adopted specific ways of being religious that have been influenced by the cultural attributes of the people, influence from other religions, and the ideas associated with various Asian philosophies.
• Buddhism in the 19th and 20th Centuries The 19th and 20th centuries brought challenges and opportunities for Buddhism, as a religious sect, which underlined the need for change from an amorphous and disorganized outfit to the formation of institutions of governance and […]
• Changes to Buddhism in Modern Times Buddhism originated in the middle of the first millennium BC in northern India as an opposition to the religion of Brahmanism that dominated in those days. Tolerance of Buddhism undoubtedly contributes to its attractiveness in […]
• Religion in Japan: Buddhism, Shintoism, and Daoism Unlike in different European and American nations, the citizens of this country uphold unique ideas informed by the concepts of Buddhism and Shintoism.
• The Tibetan Buddhism Lecture On the journey to Nirvana, traditions of donation of money and donation of the body are important, as charity is said to benefit those around you and make the journey easier. Tibetan Buddhism is very […]
• Buddhism in China, Its Spread and Sinification The lack of material concerning the early spread of Buddhism into China and the appearance of a dignified form of Buddhism has suggested a series of factors that contributed to filtering the original Indian doctrine […]
• World Religions: Confucianism and Buddhism Birth as the first stage of human life is supported by rituals that have to protect the woman and her child.
• Religions: Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam In the Bhagavad Gita, three yogas, or paths to liberation, are outlined: jnana yoga, which liberates one via knowledge; karma yoga, which liberates one via actions; and bhakti yoga, which liberates one via devotion.
• Hinduism and Buddhism: Definition and Comparison The only technique required in this context is wouldevotion.’ The followers of this religious group are required to demonstrate outstanding devotion as they strive to serve their religious faiths.
• Buddhism and Christianity: Comparative Religious Analysis The wiremen’s interpretation of the dream was that there was going to be born a son to the royal family. Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, Siddharta was a son to the Queen.
• Jainism and Theravada Buddhism The cause of this violence, according to Jainism, is greed and so for a person to attain the ultimate goal, which is bliss or liberation from karma.
• Buddhism Practices, Theories, Teachings, Rituals The author provides the evolution of Buddhism and the main religious figures that influenced the formation of the Buddhist vision of the world.
• Religious Rituals in Judaism and Buddhism This whole process causes the religious follower to learn that the sacred or the spiritual is a vital part of the human world.
• The Key Features of Buddhist Thought and Practice These three characteristics are always connected with existence as they tend to illuminate the nature of existence as well as helping the faithful to have knowledge of what to do with existence.

⭐ Buddhism Research Paper Topics

• Asian Philosophy: Veddic Period and Early Buddhism In the creation hymn of the Rg Vega, Aditi is acknowledged to be the god of all gods because he is the creator and has equally been granted the status of five men.
• Death of the Historical Buddha in Zen Buddhism The hanging scroll Death of the Historical Buddha is a perfect example of an idiosyncratic subgenre of the nirvana images, which permeated Japanese art in the sixth century after the adoption of Buddhism.[4] The composition […]
• Filial Piety in Zen Buddhist Discursive Paradigm Nevertheless, there appears to have been a phenomenological quality to the development in question, because during the initial phase of Buddhism’s expansion into China this concept used to be commonly regarded contradictory to the religion’s […]
• Daoism’s Influence on Chan Buddhism in China To comprehend the connection between Daoism and Buddhism and the possible influence of the former on the latter, it is expected to identify the main concepts of Taoism in Chinese philosophy and culture first.
• Buddhism and Confucianism in Modern China In the article “Concepts and Institutions for a New Buddhist Education: Reforming the Sa gha between and within State Agencies,” Stefania Travagnin discusses the opposition between Buddhist education and Western education in China the beginning […]
• The Role of Meditation in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism Some of the claims in the article sound farfetched, but it is apparent that one of the characteristics of the Tibetan Buddhists is the mystical powers possessed by some of the individuals.
• How Enterprises Appropriate the Vocabulary of Buddhism? This popular association that has been created by advertisers for the purposes of commodification has transformed Buddhism into a resource of imagery and concepts for vendors within the context of a modern marketplace.
• Purpose of Meditation in Buddhism One of the key roles of meditation in the Buddhist faith is the relaxation of the mind and the improvement of mental alertness.
• Confucianism and Daoism Influence on Zen Buddhism The concept of “emptiness” and “nothingness” is often mentioned and discussed in Zen philosophy. Together with the concept of ephemerality, Zen and Daoism explain that reality is conceived rather than seen.
• Buddhism and Hinduism: Religious Differences In Hinduism, only representatives of higher varnas, Brahmins, can attain moksha with the help of gods. Hinduists believe in the multitude of gods who can be the manifestations of one Great God.
• Philosophy of Science: Approaches on Buddhism In this view, this research paper aims at understanding the Tibetan monks’ practice of feeding the remains of one of their own to vultures, upon their demise, based on the Durkheim and Wittgensteinian’s approaches to […]
• Denver Buddhist Temple: Cultural Outing In this connection, the paper aims at identifying Buddhist religion that is prevalent in Vietnam focusing on three paramount concepts I learned in class such as the moral policy of the Denver Buddhist Temple, symbolic […]
• How Does Buddhism Explain the Nature of Our Existence? One of the largest world religions, Buddhism is based on the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama who emphasized a significant role of nature in our lives and the importance of personal harmony with nature.
• Nagarjuna’s Buddhist Philosophy Investigation Additionally, it is possible to say that it is not just a religion, however, it is the way of life and philosophy.
• Buddhist Traditional Healing in Mental Health To understand the traditional healing in Buddhist culture in mental health, it is important to start by understanding the origin of Buddhism as a religion.
• Buddhism as the Most Peaceful Religion He is mainly spread on the East of our planet, that is why it is not surprising that it is one of the most popular and recognized religions all over the world, as the majority […]
• Four Noble Truths in Buddhist Teaching The Buddha said that there is dukkha, there is an origin of dukkha, there is an end of dukkha and there is a path that leads to the end of dukkha.
• Buddhism Revitalization in China and Japan The comparison stems from the idea of general similarity between the theological traditions that are valued by the citizens of two countries.
• Buddhism and Hinduism Differences One of the main differences between Buddhism and Hinduism is the fact that Theravada Buddhism has no gods, as Buddha is not a god, he is an enlightened being that has reached and realised the […]
• Zen Buddhism Religion in Japanese Culture The uniqueness of Zen is in rejecting the importance of doctrines and emphasizing the role of the spiritual growth of the person through the practice of meditation.
• The Highest Good of Buddhism: Arahantship This state of awakening is the highest good that a human being can achieve, and all Buddhists are urged to aspire to achieve it.
• Religious Studies Discussion: Hinduism and Buddhism It is believed that Hinduism evolved and later spread to other areas in India. In conclusion, the objectives and practices of Hinduism and Buddhism are similar in many ways.
• Buddhism Studies in the Far East This emanates from the fact that the religion is only popular in one part of the world. Woo writes that it is possible to have many misconceptions about a belief, a religion and a practice […]
• Asian Religions in Practice: Buddhism, Islam and Sikhism This school of thought claims that salvation is possible through believing in the power of Amitabha and the desire to be reborn in a gracious place. This means that it advocates for people to be […]
• Religious Teachings of Buddhist Doctrine To substantiate the validity of his opinion, in this respect, Nagasena came up with the ‘parable of the lamp.’ According to the monk, just as it is the case with the flame of a burning […]
• Religious Teachings: Jainism vs. Buddhism and Hinduism The Jains believe in the existence of a divine being, and they attribute the forces that govern their fate in life to the Supreme Being.
• Religion Comparative Aspects: Hindu and Buddhism The similarities and differences in the ethical teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism include the following. Fourth, the act of lying is unacceptable in both Hinduism and Buddhism.
• Bhagavad Gita: Buddhism and Ancient Indian Philosophy First of all, it should be said that Bhagavad Gita is a part of the great epic of Mahabharata, which is known to be one of the greatest literary works of Ancient India.
• History of Buddhism and the Life of Buddha Buddha took the opportunity of being a member of the loyal family to influence the development of Buddhism. One of the factors that contributed to the speedy development of Buddhism was its inspirational teachings.
• David Hume’s and Buddhism Self Concepts Correlation Hume’s philosophy is based on the ideas that all the knowledge of the world is gained from the interaction of human’s experiences and the thoughts.
• Women and the Buddhist Religion According to Arvandi Sharma, ancient Indian women chose to become Buddhists nuns purely due to the influence of Buddha’s positive ways, teachings and the Buddhism doctrines.
• What Brings Women to Buddhism? Once establishing the source that has the greatest influence on the women and the ways which are most typical of women to be converted into Buddhism, whether it is the doctrinal one, or the one […]
• India’s Women in Buddhism’ Religion Regarding the place of women in Buddhism, it is interesting to note that Buddhism is not attached to any gender despite the fact that Buddha himself has historically been a man.
• Buddhism Religion History in China The differences between the two regions of China led to the advancement of the northern and southern disciplines hence the emergence of the Mahayana Buddhism.
• To What Extent Was China a Buddhist Country? The religion was associated with super powers and the potential to prosper, and thus many people were challenged to learn and experience it since it had compatible aspects with the Chinese Daoism.
• Buddhism Religion in the East Asian Societies This paper explores an argument whether Buddhism was a change for better or worse for the East Asian societies and concludes that even though Buddhism created a lot of discomfort during the period of introduction, […]
• Religious Studies: Morality in Buddhism In this case, much attention should be paid to a collection of restrictions or taboos that should govern the decisions or actions of a person. This is one of the issues that should not be […]
• History: Women in Hinduism and Buddhism For instance, one of the main problems that arise when examining the situation of women in Karimpur is the fact that there is a considerable level of disparity in the survival rates between male and […]
• Buddhism Characteristics and Attributes The readings under analysis focus on the main characteristics and attributes of Buddhism, as well as on schools of thought that emerged due to the spread of this teaching.
• The Comparison of Buddhism and Daoism Principles
• Dalai Lama and Buddhism Tradition
• Anapanasati: As a Method for Reading the Buddhist Goal
• Buddhism in a Post- Han China
• Buddhism Believer’s Practice: Meditation
• The Main Aspects of Buddhism
• Exploring Buddhism: An Introduction to the Chinese Philosophy. In Search for the Enlightenment
• Buddhism Psychology in Changing Negative Behaviors
• Buddhism on Animal Treatment
• Sustainability of Buddhism in the Health System
• How Zen Buddhism Has Influenced the Development of Tea Ceremony
• Thich Nhat Hanh’s Engaged Buddhism
• Christianity vs. Buddhism
• The Journey of One Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind
• Role of Brahmanism in the Decline of Buddhism
• Comparison Between Hinduism and Buddhism
• Buddhism: The History of Development
• Siddhartha Gautama and Buddhism
• Asian Studies: Confucianism and Buddhism in China
• Tibetan Buddhist and Christian Symbols of Worship
• Buddhism, Sikhism and Baha’ism
• The Zen Temple as the Place of Worship in Japanese Zen Buddhism
• Buddhism in Canada
• Zhong Kui, the Keeper of Hearth and Home: Japanese Myth With Buddhist Philosophy
• Buddhism and Its impact on Japan
• Newspaper Response on Buddhism
• Buddhism in China: Origin and Expansion
• Religion of Christianity and Buddhism – Similarities and Difference
• Anger Emotion and Buddhism
• Padmasambhava’ Effects on Buddhist Beliefs
• Buddhism as a Sacred Tradition
• Buddhism and Christianity
• Buddhism’s Things and Ideas
• Buddhism: Analysis of the Religion’s Faith and Practices
• The Origin of Buddhism
• Zen Buddhism’s Religion
• Misconceptions About Buddhism
• Zen Buddhism and Oneida Community
• Dialogue Over the Interfaith Christian and Buddhist Perspectives
• Buddhism & Hinduism: Comparisons and Contractions

🥇 Most Interesting Buddhism Topics to Write about

• A Brief Comparison of Native American Religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, and Taoism
• A Biography of Buddhism Born From a Single Man Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha in Factors in Achieving Enlightenment
• A Comparative Study between the Teachings of Two World Religions: Islam and Buddhism
• Affirmative Action Confucius Buddhism And Taoism
• An Analysis of Buddhism in Women and World Religions
• A History of Buddhism and an Analysis of the Teachings of the Buddha
• A History of the Influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on the South Asian Culture
• An Analysis of Buddhism First Sermon Which Should be Treated With Circumspection
• The Concept of Buddhism and the Figure of Buddha as a Central Symbol and Reality for Buddhist Monks
• Convergence of Ideas About Christianity and Buddhism in Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Early Life of Buddha, His Enlightenment, Founding of Buddhism and the Buddhist Literature
• An Analysis of Impermanence, Selflessness and Dissatisfaction on Buddhism as a Religion Nor a Philosophy
• Life and Teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), the Founder of Buddhism
• An Argument in Favor of the Quote Life is Dukkha and Explanation of My Opinion on the Goals of Buddhism
• An Examination of Asian Philosophy and the Different Philosophical Schools: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Confucianism
• An Overview of the Selflessness in Buddhism and the Works by Buddha in Contrast to the Monks
• Buddhism And Pop Culture Details The Comparison Between The Movies The Matrix And Fight Club And Buddhists Beliefs
• Buddhism: The Discipline and Knowledge for a Spiritual Life of Well-Being and the Path to Awakening the Nirvana
• Enlightened Revolutionary How King Asoka Entrenched Buddhism into Indian
• Reincarnation as an Important Part of the Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism
• Religion and Homosexuality: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam
• The Growing Popularity of the Tibetan Buddhism and the Suspicion of the Non-Believers
• Zen Buddhism And Its Relationship To The Practical Psychology Of Daily Living

✅ Controversial Buddhism Topics for Essay

• How Buddhism Reflect The Human Understanding Of God?
• How Does Buddhism Relate And Help To Formulate A Local Understanding Of Transsexuals In Thailand?
• How Climate Change is Affecting Human Civilization and the Relationship Between Buddhism and Climate Change in Today’s Society?
• How Buddhism Has Interacted With Nature And Environment?
• What Role Does Karma Play in Buddhism? Who Does It Affect, and How Does It Affect Them in This Life, the Afterlife, and the Next Life?
• What do Buddhism and Christianity Teach About the Significance, Purpose And Value of Human Life?
• What Are The Core Beliefs Of Buddhism? How Do Buddhists View Craving?
• Why Are Experiences of Stillness and Reflection (Meditation) Important to Buddhism?
• Why A Key Part Of The Beliefs Of Tibetan Buddhism Is Reincarnation?

❓ Research Questions about Buddhism

• How Applied Buddhism Affected Peoples Daily Activities?
• What Is the Influence of Shen Hui on Chinese Buddhism?
• How Buddhism and Hinduism Share a Belief That Life Suffering Is Caused by Desire?
• What Are the Similarities and Differences Between Buddhism and Jainism?
• How Has Tibetan Buddhism Been Incorporated Into Modern Psychotherapy?
• What Are the Key Differences Between Christianity and Buddhism?
• How Is Japanese Culture Related to Buddhism?
• What Parallels and Deviations Can Science Learn From Buddhism?
• Precisely How Zen Buddhism Gives Influenced the Progress of Tea Services?
• Why Did the Rise of Buddhism in Britain Come About?
• What Are Buddhist Beliefs and the Role of the Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism?
• How Did Chinese Culture Shape a New Form of Buddhism?
• What Significant Overlap Between Buddhism and Neuroscience Research Work?
• How does Buddhism Affect Chinese Culture History?
• What Is the Middle Way According to Mahayana Buddhism?
• How Did Buddhism Appear and Spread?
• What Are the Similarities Between Buddhism and Christianity?
• How Did Buddhism Spread in Southeast Asia?
• What Are the Differences Between Hinduism and Buddhism?
• What Is the Impact of Buddhism on Western Civilization?
• What Are the Beliefs and Values of Buddhism?
• How Do Buddhists View Craving?
• What Are the Core Beliefs of Buddhism?
• What Does Buddhism Teach?
• Why Did Buddhism Become So Powerful in Ancient History?
• What Role Did Zen Buddhism Play in Shaping the Art of Japan?
• What Role Does Karma Play in Buddhism?
• When Buddhism Was the Dominant Tradition in India?
• Who Were the Founders of Buddhism in Japan?
• Why Did Buddhism Fail To Take Hold in India?
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Buddhism Research Paper

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More than two millennia ago in India, Siddhartha Gautama became “the Buddha” and began to teach that one can only escape suffering and sorrow by living along a righteous path that ends with the extinction of desire and ignorance. The Buddha’s teachings lie at the core of what has become one of the world’s largest religions.

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Buddhism is the world’s fourth-largest religion after Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Buddhism is approximately twenty-five hundred years old and has influenced cultures, events, and thought for generations. It is devoted to the improvement and eventual enlightenment of people, primarily through their own efforts.

The Indian philosopher Siddhartha Gautama founded Buddhism. The traditional dates of his life are 566 to 486 BCE, although recent studies suggest that Gautama was born as much as a century later. Gautama became known as “the Buddha” (the Enlightened One) after achieving enlightenment. He was born a prince of the Sakya clan in a small Indian kingdom in what is now Nepal. He had every luxury of the day and on the surface an apparently satisfying life. He married, had a son, and was destined to inherit his father’s kingdom. However, at the age of twenty-nine he became dissatisfied with his life of ease after being exposed to the true lot of humankind: suffering, old age, disease, and death. His father had protected him from these things because of a prophecy that Siddhartha would become either a great king or a great spiritual leader. His father’s hopes for a powerful successor were dashed when Siddhartha walked away from this life of ease and became an ascetic, a wandering holy man.

For six years he studied and learned from various gurus and holy men while depriving himself of all but the most meager nourishment. Siddhartha discovered that the extremes of self-deprivation were no better than the extremes of luxury and self-indulgence, so he sought the “Middle Way,” another name for Buddhism. Gautama found enlightenment while meditating under a bodhi tree. The Buddha achieved nirvana—the extinction of all desire and ignorance—and proceeded to teach others how to achieve the same state for the next forty-five years. Through discussions, parables, teaching, and living, the Buddha taught the “path of truth or righteousness” (Dhammapada). The scripture (sutta), “The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness,” contains a succinct exposition of the major points that the Buddha taught.

Basic Beliefs

The Buddha preached “the Four Noble Truths” that define the existence of humankind: (1) Life is sorrow or suffering, (2) this suffering is caused by our selfish craving and desires, (3) we can remove sorrow by removing our desires, and (4) the removal of our desires is achieved by following the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path defines the “correct” behavior as right conduct, right effort, right speech, right views, right purpose or aspiration, right livelihood, right mindfulness, and right contemplation or meditation. The Buddha had few prohibitions but listed “five precepts” that good Buddhists should generally adhere to: not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, not to imbibe intoxicants, and not to be unchaste or unfaithful.

The Buddha taught that skandas (experiential data) create our existence from moment to moment and that only karma (the law of cause and effect) operates through our experience and is never lost. However, everything is changeable and impermanent. The Buddha made few concrete statements about the afterlife or the nature of “god”—realizing that the Middle Way can be taught but that each person must experience dharma—the realization of nirvana. His final admonition to his followers was to “work out your salvation with diligence” (Buddhist suttas 2000, 114).

After the Buddha—Growth in India

The Buddha was a practical teacher who knew that people need instruction, and he established the sangha (community of Buddhist monks and nuns) to carry on his work and the work of their own salvation. The Buddha instructed the sangha that it could change or delete any of the lesser rules after his passing if the sangha saw fit. Ultimately, the Buddha urged his followers to be “a lamp unto themselves.” Buddhism provides a system that demonstrates where we err and how to correct our errors not by miracles but rather by hard work and contemplation.

One of the most noted people who helped to expand Buddhism was the Mauryan ruler Asoka, who ruled from 272 to 231 BCE. The Maurya Empire (c. 324–200 BCE) grew from the state of Magadha after the time of the Buddha and rapidly expanded after Alexander of Macedon invaded India in the 320s bce, creating the first really unified kingdom in India. Asoka became a convert to Buddhism and helped to expand it by providing for missionaries and monks, so that Buddhism became a world religion while Hinduism remained confined to India. He is often compared with Roman emperor Constantine in the West, whose conversion to Christianity in 312 CE helped that religion to grow. Inscriptions on pillars and rocks throughout Asoka’s realm encouraged the citizens of the empire to follow the dharma, limit the killing and cruelty to animals, and live a righteous life. Like Christianity, Buddhism may also have provided Asoka and the Mauryans with a code of conduct and a way to help manage, enlarge, and consolidate the empire. Buddhism also benefited from the patronage of a king who helped it to reach beyond the borders of India.

Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Sects

The Maha-Parinibbana Sutta (Book of the Great Decease) concerns the final days and death of the Buddha and is important because the Buddha did not consider himself to be a deity. It illustrates the relationship between the Buddha and Ananda, a cousin of the Buddha who was a disciple and his personal servant. A warm, trusting relationship between the two shines through the text. The first Council of Buddhism met to organize and retain the teachings of the Buddha several months after his death. The Buddhist Suttas, probably recorded by the first or second century BCE, is the canon of the Buddhist faith.

However, by the second and first centuries BCE Buddhism had already begun to diverge into schools of thought that evolved into the major sects of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The Theravada claimed to adhere closely to the original teachings of the Buddha and evolved along more monastic lines to spread through Southeast Asia to Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Cambodia. Theravada is also known as “Hinayana,” which means “lesser vehicle.” Mahayana (greater vehicle) Buddhism became the more adaptive Buddhism. With an emphasis on compassion and flexibility, it meshed with the cultures it encountered to spread to China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Mahayanists also developed the idea of the bodhisattva (a being who compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to save others and is worshipped as a deity). Vajrayana (diamond vehicle) Buddhism is also known as “tantric Buddhism” and spread to Central Asia, primarily Tibet.

The Silk Roads and the Spread of Buddhism in Asia

A network of trade routes called the Silk Roads made travel possible from China to the Mediterranean and to India from about the second century CE to approximately the fifteenth century, connecting the world in ways it had not been before. Religions in particular found their way to new lands and different cultures via the Silk Roads. Buddhism originated in India and spread to the Kushan areas, part of what is today Pakistan and Afghanistan, by the first century CE. Buddhism developed a number of sects, built many monasteries, and became a consumer of many of the luxuries of the day, especially silk. Buddhist monasteries often provided solace for weary travelers, and Buddhist monks, nuns, and their devotees acquired massive quantities of silk for ceremonial functions. A symbiotic relationship existed whereby the growth of Buddhist monasteries increased demand for silk while also supporting its trade and movement.

The earliest schools of Buddhism to spread along the Silk Roads were the Mahasanghikas, Dharmaguptakas, and Sarvastivadins, eventually to be subsumed by the Mahayana sect. As Buddhism spread to Central Asia and China, pilgrims began to seek the origins of Buddhism, visiting its holy sites and bringing home its sacred texts. The travels of fifty-four Buddhists, starting as early as 260 CE, are documented in Chinese sources.

Xuanzang, also known as Hsuan-tsang, was a Chinese Buddhist monk; like many others he sought a more in-depth understanding of his faith by seeking out original documents and visiting places where the faith began in India. Xuanzang began his 16,000- kilometer journey in 629 CE and returned in 645. As Xuanzang began his journey, the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) emperor, Taizong, was beginning to restore China and make it a powerful force in Central Asia.

Xuanzang encountered Buddhist stupas (usually dome-shaped structures serving as Buddhist shrines) at Balkh and two large Buddhist figures at Bamian in Afghanistan. Although many areas of former Buddhist expansion were in decline, Xuanzang found in Kashmir one hundred Buddhist monasteries and five thousand monks. Welcomed in India at Nalanda by thousands, Xuanzang found a place of intellectual ferment. Cave paintings at Dunhuang record the triumphant passage of Xuanzang back to China; Xuanzang finished The Record of the Western Regions in 646 to document his journey. Gaozong, Taizong’s son and successor, built the Big Wild Goose Pagoda at Xuanzang’s urging to house relics and Buddhist scriptures.

A chaotic period of religious exchange and development began with the rise of the Mongols during the 1100s and 1200s. The Silk Roads’ pivotal role in cultural and religious exchange eventually declined with the advent of the Age of Exploration during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Additionally, Muslim control of long-distance trade routes helped to enhance the Islamization of Central Asia. Central Asian peoples apparently therefore accommodated themselves to those people who were the major participants in their trade connections. Trade led to cultural exchange; thus trade was an important factor in spreading the world’s great religions.

Buddhism in China and Japan

Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam spread in various areas, but to truly make a home in foreign lands these faiths often accommodated themselves to the local culture and modified or even changed some of their values or traditions. In China Buddhists spreading the faith emphasized the compassionate aspects of the faith rather than the disciplined aspects of Theravada Buddhism, and Nestorian Christians used Daoist (relating to a religion developed from Daoist philosophy and folk and Buddhist religion) or Buddhist terms, calling the books of the Bible “sutras” (precepts summarizing Vedic teaching).

Buddhism reached China by the first century CE, and a number of Mahayana sects developed there, including Tiantai, Huayan, Pure Land, and Chan. Pure Land developed as a way to reach the general population without its members having to grasp all the intricate philosophical teachings of Buddhism. Followers of Pure Land simply were to call or chant the name of Amitabha Buddha for salvation in paradise or the Pure Land.

The Indian monk Bodhidhanna is reputed to have brought Chan Buddhism to China during the sixth century CE. The word Chan (Zen in Japanese) derives from the Sanskrit word dhyana and means “meditation,” so Chan is meditation Buddhism. Towering figures such as Huineng (638–713) and Zhaozhou (778–897) strengthened Chan so that by the ninth century major schools of Chan called “Linji” and “Caodong” had developed and would later be exported to Japan as the Zen sects of Rinzai and Soto.

Buddhism had already arrived in Japan from China and Korea during the 500s CE. During the Kamakura period of Japanese history, from 1185 to 1333, Buddhism experienced dramatic growth and reinvigoration. Energetic and charismatic figures such as Nichiren (1222–1282) founded new sects. The medieval period has been characterized as one of the most religious times in Japanese history.

Buddhism had evolved in China to the point that, during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), Chan or Zen dominated Buddhist teachings. Scholars usually credit Myozen Eisai (1141–1215) for introducing Rinzai Zen and Dogen Kigen (1200–1253) for introducing Soto Zen. The Rinzai sect emphasizes koan (spiritual exercise) as its prime tool for achieving understanding and enlightenment, whereas the Soto sect emphasizes zazen (sitting meditation). Both Eisai and Dogen studied in China under Chan masters, receiving recognition of their enlightenment—an official document of lineage is important in Zen and helps to provide credentials to teach upon one’s return home. During the twentieth century, appreciation of Dogen’s work grew, and today Dogen is perceived as one of Japan’s greatest geniuses and the most noted Zen figure in Japan.

With the influx of Chinese masters during the 1200s and 1300s, Japanese Zen more closely resembled its Chinese Chan counterpart. In fact, the Five Mountains system of temple organization, which arose during the late 1300s, was based on the Chinese model. The ironic aspect of Zen growth is that Zen had few real practitioners. Its primary role initially was transmitting Chinese culture to Japan. The Japanese and Chinese masters achieved influence and success because of their access to Chinese culture during the Song dynasty (960–1279).

Buddhism and the West

Much of the early Western exposure to Buddhism came through the Japanese. Eight people, including three Buddhist priests, represented Japanese Buddhism at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, held in Chicago. The writings of D. T. Suzuki helped to open Western eyes to Buddhism and began to popularize Zen Buddhism. During the last half of the twentieth century, new patterns of immigration and many U.S. and European citizens who turned to non-Western faiths helped Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Daoism have an impact on Western culture. Older and recent emigrants from Asia—Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Tibetans—have played a large role in establishing a Buddhist foothold in the West and exposing Westerners (Euro-Americans) to the traditions of Asia.

Buddhism’s rise in the United States can be attributed to people’s search for answers and the rapid changes brought about by a modern and consumer-driven society. Buddhism’s rise is also because of dedicated teachers, such as Sylvia Boorstein, Chogyam Trungpa, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, who have helped to popularize the faith. The Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh has had an important influence on U.S. Buddhism. The Dalai Lama (the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism) also has promoted a more engaged Buddhism with his pleas for Tibetan freedom from China. The Tibetan diaspora (scattering) has opened up access to teachers and lamas (monks) who, until the Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959, were little known outside their own country. The Dalai Lama himself has come to symbolize for many the face of Buddhism shown to the world. His character and compassion in the face of difficulties for his own people exemplify for many the best attributes of the Buddhist life.

Shunryu Suzuki was a Japanese Zen priest who came to the United States in 1959 and settled at a small temple in San Francisco. He is credited with establishing the first Zen monastery in the United States at Tassajara, California, in 1967. The Three Pillars of Zen (1965) by Philip Kapleau was one of the first books in English that discussed the practice of Zen Buddhism. The book has had an impact far beyond the students of Kapleau because many people in the United States lacked access to a Buddhist teacher but were shown how to begin meditating and practice on their own by Kapleau’s book. Much of the Buddhist faith in Asia is centered on the sangha, whereas in the United States no real sangha exists.

Buddhism and Change

Buddhism flowered in the West during the last three decades of the twentieth century, and Zen became a cottage industry. What attracted Westerners, particularly well-educated and professional people, to the faith? The beliefs of Buddhism “are more compatible with a secular scientific worldview than those of the more established Western religions” (Coleman 2001, 205).

In a world that grows smaller each day, the Internet has provided a link to the Buddhist communities of the world and has begun to house the vast amount of Buddhist scriptural writing. The Internet may hold hope for many who practice alone or who are in ill health to have access to qualified teachers. Nonetheless, Buddhism is uniquely suited to isolated practice and meditation. Whether Buddhism will continue to broaden its appeal in the West is difficult to say. Even in Asia monasteries and monkhood are difficult choices in an ever-broadening world consumer culture. Buddhism, like many of the great faiths of the world, has found ways to adapt and survive for centuries. Buddhism continues as a way, the Middle Way, to work toward peace, compassion, and enlightenment. Yet, we have only to look back to the Buddha’s own words to find the future of Buddhism. The Buddha said that the only really permanent thing in this world is change.

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