Equality of Access? Chinese Women Practicing Chan and Transnational Meditation in Contemporary China

This paper examines how the Buddhist revival, the Chan revival, and recent popularity of transnational meditation practices have facilitated Chinese women practicing Buddhist meditation in contemporary China. With the influence of the opening of China and growing transnational networks, there has been an increasing number of Han Chinese monastics and lay people practicing transnational meditation, such as samādhi, vipassanā and mindfulness, in the past two decades. Despite the restriction of accessing Chan halls at monasteries, some Chinese nuns and laywomen have traveled to learn meditation in different parts of China, and international meditation centers in Southeast Asia to study with yogis from all over the world. Surprisingly some returned female travelers have taken significant roles in organizing meditation retreats, and establishing meditation centers and meditation halls. Through examining some ethnographic cases of Chinese nuns and laywomen, this paper argues that the transnational meditation movement has an impact not only on gender equality, especially concerning Chinese women practicing meditation, but also on the development of contemporary Chinese Buddhism. The significant role of Chinese female meditators in promoting Buddhist meditation can reflect a trend of re-positioning the Chan School in contemporary China.

Towards a Contemplative Research Framework for Training Self-Observation in HCI: A Study of Compassion Cultivation

With the emergence in human–computer interaction (HCI) of researching contemplative practices, authentic descriptions of first-person lived experience informing design are few. Most researchers in HCI are not trained in observing the mind. We draw on learnings from neurophenomenology, inspired by well-established Buddhist techniques for mind-training. We present a self-observation of Tonglen , a Buddhist meditation technique for compassion, conducted over 12 weeks. We found that to keenly observe and document the practice, it is important to go through preparatory stages of stabilising attention and observing the mind. For the practitioner-cum-researcher, the technique should be embedded into a framework training self-observation and developing meta-awareness, supported by documentation of somatic snapshots and reflective journal writing. The first-person method of self-enquiry and account of self-evidence offer insight and directions for refining first-person approaches for future HCI research in body and mind cultivation, and design implications for interactive technologies supporting any practice with a contemplative component.

The Art of Stoic Living

Meditation is key to the art of Stoic living. But it’s not Zen or Buddhist meditation. If you are meditating like an Eastern monk, you are trying to quiet the chattering mind. If you are meditating like a Stoic, you are cultivating that busy mind. How does self-talk, and often self-blame, promote calm? Stoic living also involves monitoring the onset of disruptive emotions, and some Stoic-minded teachers have designed Stoic exercises for this kind of impulse control in their classrooms. Others practice Stoicism by looking to moral exemplars. A Cato or a Socrates, as the Stoics would say. But who is a modern moral exemplar? Take Hugh Thompson, the young American Army helicopter pilot who stopped the My Lai massacre. Would he be part of a Stoic pantheon? Moral outrage at the brutal massacre of 500 innocents prompted him to land his helicopter that day and stop the onslaught. Would a Stoic permit, or extoll, just action motivated by righteous anger?

Situating Mindfulness, Part 2: Early Buddhist Soteriology

As the second of three articles, the present essay continues to explore the character of selected aspects of early Buddhism in order to assess its potential relevance as a reference point for those engaged in research on mindfulness in psychology. The exploration, which proceeds in critical dialogue with suggestions made by Donald Lopez Jr. and Evan Thompson, covers the topics of the role of mindfulness as a means for progress to awakening, the path to and the realization of awakening, the implications of the doctrines of not self and of the four noble truths, and the centrality of meditation in early Buddhism. The proposed conclusion is that a deserved criticism of a tendency toward unbalanced presentations of Buddhist thought, so as to be palatable to Western preferences, has gone overboard in the opposite direction, resulting in inaccurate evaluations and exaggerated claims that call for a correction and a sober reassessment of the actual evidence. Such reassessment shows that there is considerable room for an open dialogue between contemporary psychology and Buddhist meditation practice traditions regarding their common ground in the aspiration to understand the workings of the mind with a view to alleviating unnecessary suffering.

On the Veiling and Unveiling of Experience: A Comparison Between the Micro-Phenomenological Method and the Practice of Meditation

Both Buddhist meditation and micro-phenomenology start from the observation that our experience escapes us, we don’t see it as it is. Both offer devices that allow us to become aware of it. But, surprisingly, the two approaches offer few precise descriptions of the processes which veil experience, and of those which make it possible to dissipate these veils. This article is an attempt to put in parentheses declarative writings on the veiling and unveiling processes and their epistemological background and to collect procedural descriptions of this veiling and unveiling processes. From written and oral meditation teachings on the one hand, micro-phenomenological interviews applied to meditative experience and to themselves on the other hand, we identified four types of veiling processes which contribute to screen what is there, and ultimately to generate the naïve belief in the existence of an external reality independent of the mind: attentional, emotional, intentional and cognitive veils. The first part of the article describes these veiling processes and the processes through which they dissipate. It leads to the identification of several “gestures” conducive to this unveiling. The second part describes the devices used by meditation and by micro-phenomenology to elicit these gestures.

電影《和平戰士》中「正念態度」之佛學詮釋

<p>正念（Sati）被稱為佛教禪修的心要，在發展過程中，西方所開展出多元化、以正念為基礎的介入課程，有助於探討生命意義，以及應對生活壓力與挑戰。其中，喬．卡巴金（Jon Kabat-Zinn）創立「正念減壓」（MBSR）課程，逐漸成為科學熱門研究對象。此課程不只融入於西方世界的主流社會，更進入到醫學中心、跨國企業、學校、政府機構，乃至軍隊之中。</p> <p>本文將《和平戰士》（Peaceful Warrior，2006）2 影片部分情節作為案例，試從「電影賞析」和「佛教正念」角度切入，來進行對「正念減壓」課程中正念態度（Mindfulness Attitudes）的具體詮釋，以便大家形成一個較形象化的認知。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;Sati&quot; is known as the heart of Buddhist meditation. In the process of development, a diversified, mindfulness-based curriculums have been developed in Western society. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the &ldquo;Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction&rdquo; (MBSR) course, which has gradually become a popular scientific research object, integrated into the mainstream society of the Western world, and entered medical centers, multinational companies, schools, government agencies, and even the military. Similarly, it is also vividly expressed in the film. This article attempts to cut into &quot;Movie review&quot;, &quot;Buddhist meditation&quot; to interpret the &quot;Mindfulness Attitudes&quot; in the &quot;MBSR&quot;, and analyze the film &quot;Peaceful Warrior&quot; (2006) as a case study.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

“Deep Listening” in Buddhist Studies: Teaching and Learning during a Pandemic

Co-authored between a professor and student, this essay discusses how an experiential learning assignment of “deep listening” was integrated into an online course on histories of Buddhist meditation. Paired with a group art project, the work provided not only an opportunity to practice critical communication skills, but also a sense of connection and community, which is especially important during the conditions of pandemic isolation. The course design relied on pedagogical principles specifically aimed at supporting student well-being, such as trauma-informed teaching. We reflect on how grounding course design in inclusive, anti-oppressive and care-focused principles may enable new outcomes in teaching and learning beyond this pandemic year.