Articles

Original scholarship published on a rolling basis

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The Journal of Contemplative Studies regularly publishes original research and scholarship on topics related to the world’s contemplative traditions — historical and contemporary, religious and secular. Articles are not restricted to a particular disciplinary or methodological approach as long as scholarship is deeply grounded in the humanities or transdisciplinary scholarship with a humanistic core, and adheres to the journal’s Focus and Scope. Articles are reviewed and published on a rolling basis, either independently, or within a Special Issue. Details about how to submit an article are on the Submissions page.

Recent Articles

  • Supreme Patriarch Suk Kai Thuean’s Method of Visualizing the Elements

    by Potprecha Cholvijarn

    The paper aims to shed further light on the boran kammaṭṭhāna, or “old meditation,” tradition by providing a summary and an analysis of a meditation manual titled “Baep Doen That” (literally, “Model for walking the elements”) attributed to the Supreme Patriarch Suk Kai Thuean (1733–1822), the fourth Saṅgharāja of Bangkok, Thailand. It is a manual for advanced practitioners that consists of visualizations of the six elements (earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness), plus citta (mind), represented by sacred Pāli syllables in eight verses, in order to achieve the eight supernormal knowledges and powers (vijjās). The eight verses, each verse aimed at developing one of the vijjās, are taken from the well-known Iti Pi So Eight Directions paritta (protective chant), a variation of the canonical Iti Pi So Bhagavā formula. The analysis of the manual incorporates the author’s interviews with Phra Khru Sitthisangwon (Wira Ṭhanāvīro) of Wat Ratchasittharam, the current lineage holder of Supreme Patriarch Suk’s meditation.
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  • Re-Visioning Ethnography Through Meditative Practice: The Proposal for a Contemplative Anthropology and Its Experience through Visual Elicitation Technique

    by Federico Divino

    This article introduces a novel method presently in development that integrates ethnography and visual elicitation techniques to explore meditative experiences and investigate consciousness. Central to this method is the utilization of mandala-like images as a means to capture the dynamic evolution of consciousness during contemplative practices. The utilization of mandala drawings has been extensively developed in psychological study inspired by the work of C. G. Jung. In this study, I will elaborate on how this methodology has been adapted to suit the needs of qualitative ethnographic research within the framework of a visual elicitation methodology tailored to studies on meditative practices. This article provides an illustrative case study that scrutinizes the method’s potential applications and contributions within the domain of anthropological research on contemplative practices. The study critically examines the method’s historical evolution, signifying a notable shift in ethnographic focus toward meditation, and probes the dissolution of subjectivity boundaries that is inherent in meditative contexts. The research methodology is rooted in fundamental principles emphasizing participants’ direct experiences in meditation, the iterative construction of multistage mandalas, and a purposeful departure from conventional artistic norms during the drawing process. The present case study serves as an illustrative portrayal of the visual data derived from meditation sessions, offering insights into the transformative nature of contemplative experiences.
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  • Hesychasm and Psychedelics: Altered States, Purgation, and the Question of Authentic Mysticism

    by Thomas Cattoi

    The purpose of this essay is to introduce the reader to the tradition of Hesychasm—a form of monastic asceticism rooted in the tradition of the Desert Fathers and given a systematic articulation by the Byzantine author Gregory Palamas (1296–1359)—and to consider how the mystical experiences described in Palamas’s Triads compare to the altered states at the center of contemporary psychedelic research. After reviewing the chief claims of the hesychastic tradition about the nature and purpose of ascetic practice, the essay will consider the methodological challenges psychedelic researchers face when assessing experiences induced by psychedelic substances. The last section will turn to the discipline of Comparative Theology as a helpful framework to bring into dialogue the hesychastic understanding of deification as a trajectory grounded in the reception of the sacraments and the therapeutic impact of psychedelic experiences. The essay will uncover different points of contact between hesychastic and psychedelic experience but will also foreground a number of irreducible differences between the two, reflecting the specific anthropological and soteriological claims of the hesychastic tradition. The conclusion will advocate for greater epistemic modesty—warning from overhasty identification of mystical states and psychedelic experiences—but also invite theologians and psychedelic researchers to greater reciprocal openness to each other’s insights.
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  • Contemplative Life amidst Mass Extinction: Catholic Revisions of Spirituality, Law, and Multispecies Justice

    by Willis Jenkins

    What happens to researchers interested in spirituality, as they engage with a large number of spiritual exemplars? This question is explored, based on the experience of 14 research collaborators in a qualitative phenomenological study of spiritual exemplars (individuals perceived by others as exemplifying the spiritual life) of different traditions, paths, and cultures. Over 5.5 months, two groups of research collaborators watched video recordings of interviews with 20 spiritual exemplars, analyzed their transcripts, wrote down their impressions of each exemplar, and discussed them in biweekly meetings. At the end of that period, the effects of the process on the collaborators were explored through individual interviews and group discussions. The data collected suggests that the collaborators both formed and experienced the process as holistic and self-transformative in different ways. Three main effects were described: “self-reflection and insight,” “opening and broadening,” and “fostering spiritual self-reliance.” In choosing their “most exemplary exemplars,” the collaborators relied mainly on their somatic-intuitive impressions—and there was great diversity in their choices. These findings suggest that spiritual exemplarity is determined by “sympathetic resonance” between the exemplar and the person perceiving them as such. The conditions that contributed to the effects of the process and the potential of its application to facilitate interreligious dialogue and personal growth are discussed.
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  • Portrait of a Poison: Datura in Buddhist Magic

    by Samuel Grimes

    The psychoactive plant Datura metel appears across a range of traditions in premodern South Asia preserved in texts. Among those traditions is the form of tantric Buddhism (Vajrayāna) located in the yoginī tantras. In Vajrayāna works, the plant is most prominently used in instructions for bringing about one or more of the magical acts (ṣaṭkarman). This paper explores the possibility that datura was consumed for its hallucination-inducing potential by considering how the plant was viewed and used in premodern South Asia through an ethnobotanical approach to relevant texts. I argue that the material potency of the plant as a dangerous poison, well established in Sanskrit medical literature from an early period, gave it a magical potency that made it a favored ingredient in several hostile magic rites (abhicāra) found in the yoginī tantras. I suggest that the line between material and magical is an inappropriate distinction to draw when examining these tantras, and that the most responsible way to approach the use of psychotropic plants in a premodern culture is by examining what actors from that culture said about the plant rather than relying on our existing knowledge of the effect of that plant.
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Recent Reviews

Review of The Oxford Handbook of Meditation

Stephen Dawson
This review examines this expansive and valuable recently edited volume on the study of meditation. Dawson attends to larger conceptual orientations of the volume and its specific contributions in his review, and finds that “the breadth of different approaches to meditation is, in fact, one of the Handbook’s prime virtues…. Discussions of meditation are polyphonic—they comprise many voices. The plurality of voices is, however, balanced by listening; conversations take place on these pages. The Handbook amply displays the diverse multidisciplinary discussions underway in the field of meditation studies.”

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Review of Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Alan Brill
This review discusses a helpful edited volume featuring recent scholarship on yoga and meditation studies that address the question: “What exactly is meditation?” In response, the editors “aim to expand the focus of meditation studies to show the diversity of South Asian meditation, including discussions of teachers writing in Telegu, Tamil, Malayalam, and other languages and texts including not only texts about meditation but also songs, poems, letters, and popular devotions. These discussions show the multiplicity of Hindu and South Asian forms of meditation and yoga, engaged in interreligious encounter with Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity.”

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Review of Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation

Francisco Figueroa Medina
This review outlines and evaluates the contributions of this important edited volume on recent scholarship about the philosophy of meditation. “Throughout this Handbook, we find different ways of understanding both philosophy and meditation, as well as their relationship. Some authors highlight the apparent tensions between the two, while others, the apparent harmony…. Anyone interested in the philosophy of meditation will undoubtedly be inspired by [this]… meaningful contribution to establishing this subfield within the academe.”

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