ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary resource, which frames and contextualises the rapidly expanding fields that explore yoga and meditative techniques. The book analyses yoga and meditation studies in a variety of religious, historical and geographical settings. The chapters, authored by an international set of experts, are laid out across five sections:

  • Introduction to yoga and meditation studies

  • History of yoga and meditation in South Asia

  • Doctrinal perspectives: technique and praxis

  • Global and regional transmissions

  • Disciplinary framings

In addition to up-to-date explorations of the history of yoga and meditation in the Indian subcontinent, new contexts include a case study of yoga and meditation in the contemporary Tibetan diaspora, and unique summaries of historical developments in Japan and Latin America as well as an introduction to the growing academic study of yoga in Korea. Underpinned by critical and theoretical engagement, the volume provides an in-depth guide to the history of yoga and meditation studies and combines the best of established research with attention to emerging directions for future investigation. This handbook will be of interest to multidisciplinary academic audiences from across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

Chapters 1, 4, 9, 12, and 27 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

part I|62 pages

Introduction to yoga and meditation studies

part II|106 pages

History of yoga and meditation in South Asia

chapter 6|15 pages

How yoga became yoga

Yoga and meditation up to the classical period

chapter 7|22 pages

Buddhist meditation in South Asia

An overview

chapter 8|18 pages

Tantric transformations of yoga

Kuṇḍalinī in the ninth to tenth century

chapter 9|10 pages

Early haT.hayoga 1

part III|101 pages

Doctrinal perspectives

chapter 14|23 pages

Daoist meditation

chapter 15|14 pages

Islam, yoga and meditation

chapter 16|15 pages

Sikhi(sm)

Yoga and meditation

chapter 17|14 pages

Christianity

Classical, modern and postmodern forms of contemplation

part IV|111 pages

Global and regional transmissions

part V|141 pages

Disciplinary framings

chapter 26|10 pages

Philology and digital humanities

chapter 27|16 pages

Observing yoga

The use of ethnography to develop yoga studies 1

chapter 28|14 pages

Yoga and philosophy

Ontology, epistemology, ethics

chapter 30|20 pages

The psychophysiology of yoga

Characteristics of the main components and review of research studies

chapter 32|17 pages

Inclusive identities

The lens of critical theory

chapter 34|20 pages

Sound and yoga 1