The Oxford Handbook of Meditation

Meditation techniques, including mindfulness, have become popular wellbeing practices. The scientific study of their effects has recently turned 50 years old. But how much do we know about them? What were they developed for and by whom? How similar or different are they? How effective can they be in changing our thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and biology? What are their social, spiritual, and ethical implications? The Oxford Handbook of Meditation is the most comprehensive volume published on meditation, written in accessible language by world-leading experts on the science and history of these techniques. It covers the development of meditation across the world and the varieties of its practices and experiences. It includes approaches from various disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, history, anthropology, religious studies, and sociology, and it explores its potential for therapeutic and social change, as well as unusual effects. Edited by practitioner- researchers, this book is an essential guide for all interested in meditation, including teachers, clinicians, therapists, researchers, or anyone who would like to better understand this topic.

1 - Introduction: Understanding and studying meditation
2 - Meditation and the Modern Encounter between Asia and the West
3 - Studying the Effects of Meditation: The First Fifty Years
4 - Hinduism and Meditation: Tantra
5 - Hinduism and Meditation: Yoga
6 - Judaism and Meditation
7 - Western Christianity and Meditation
8 - Eastern Christianity and Meditation
9 - Islam and Meditation
10 - Theravada Buddhism and Meditation
11 - Chan Buddhism and Meditation
12 - Buddhist Meditation in Tibet: Exoteric and Esoteric Orientations
13 - Classical Daoist Meditation: 400-100 B.C.E
14 - Daoist Meditation: From 100 CE to the Present
14 - Relaxation and Meditation
16 - Concentration and Visualization Techniques in Buddhist Meditation
17 - The Phenomenology of Meditation: Commonalities and Divergences between Christian Meditatio and Hindu Dhyana
18 - The Self in Meditation: The art of self-transformation
19 - Meditation and the brain
20 - Psychophysiology of Meditation
21 - Meditation and emotion
22 - Individual differences in meditation outcomes
23 - Reflections on the Role of Control in Meditation
24 - Psychological Theories of Meditation in Early Buddhism and S??khya/Yoga
25 - The sociology of meditation
26 - The demographics of meditation in the United States
27 - Meditation and the post-secular condition
28 - Christian Contemplative Thought and Practice in the Contemporary World
29 - Goenka's Vipassana Movement: From Conversion to Disaffiliation
30 - Meditation in Contemporary Monastic Life
31 - Mental Illness Through the Lens of Mindfulness
32 - Mindfulness-based interventions in the treatment of physical conditions
33 - Transcendental Meditation in the treatment of mental and physical conditions
34 - Zen Therapy
35 - Enacting Social Change Through Meditation
36 - Meditation and Education
37 - Meditation in Prison
38 - Challenging and Adverse Meditation Experiences: Toward A Person-Centered Approach
39 - The Dark Nights of the Soul in Abrahamic Meditative Traditions
40 - Meditation sickness
41 - Meditation to kill and be killed by The Use of Samadhi Power Imperial Japan
42 - Neuroscience and meditation: Help or hindrance?
43 - Meditation, Exceptional Psychophysiological Control, and Parapsychology

Miguel Farias, BSc (Lisbon), MA (Wales), DPhil (Oxford) is the founding director of the Brain, Belief, & Behaviour Lab at Coventry University. After his doctorate in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University (2000-2004), he was a Research Fellow at Cambridge University and Oxford University (2005-2007) and a Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University (2008-2013). His work focuses on the psychobiology of spiritual practices and beliefs, and in 2017 he won the William Bier award, given by the American Psychological Association, Division 36, for his outstanding contribution to research in the psychology of religion and spirituality. He is a regular speaker at Science festivals, and his popular book with Catherine Wikholm, The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?, has been translated into various languages. David Brazier, MA, PhD (Keele University) is president of the International Zen Therapy Institute, author of a dozen books and many chapters, monographs and articles on Buddhism, psychology and culture, a Buddhist priest, and head of a religious order. He holds professional qualifications in psychotherapy, social work and management and is an authority on Buddhist psychology. In the past he has practised as a psychotherapist and previously in social work, setting up rehabilitation schemes in the fields of mental health, respite care for the mentally handicapped, and juvenile delinquency, as well as aid projects for refugees. He lectures on Buddhism and Buddhist psychology in Europe, Asia and North & South America and supervises educational programmes in English and Spanish. He has practised meditation for over fifty years. Mansur Lalljee BA (Bombay); BA, MA, DPhil. (Oxon.). Until his retirement, Mansur Lalljee was a University Lecturer in Social Psychology and Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. After graduating with a degree in philosophy from the University of Bombay, he moved to Oxford to complete his studies in psychology, and stayed on the faculty at Oxford for the rest of his career. He has published work on a wide range of psychological issues including the psychology of respect; the psychology of explanation; religion; social and political attitudes; and interpersonal communication; and has been invited to talk about these issues at conferences and in Universities in several parts of the world. He has also held visiting appointments at Trinity College, Dublin, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and Yale University, New Haven.