Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2016) | Viewed by 47713

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Religion, Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, NJ 07003, USA
Interests: history of religion; cognitive science; neuroscience; gender and sexuality; Tantra; Yoga
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Arts and Letters, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Interests: Vedic and Tantric traditions; Yogacara philosophy; literary theory; ritual studies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Focus: The pan-Asian traditions of Yoga and Tantra have developed their own forms of psychology, consciousness theories, textual and sociological lineages, and extensive ritual systems—all of which provide fascinating examples for the study of various cognitive processes. Imagination, conceptual integration, metaphor and metonymy, pattern recognition, memory studies, and self-consciousness are frequent subjects in the classical study of Yoga and Tantra. However, studying these complex traditions using recent methods and insights from Cognitive Science will not only advance the study of Yoga and Tantra; it will provide cognitive scientists with new examples and tools to advance their own emerging theories and methods.

Purpose: Religious traditions, particularly Yoga and Tantra, have much to offer to scholars seeking to better understand human nature. However, until quite recently, Yoga and Tantra have largely been studied from the perspectives of traditional disciplines, such as the history of religions, sociology, anthropology, and linguistics. The cognitive dimensions and processes of Yoga and Tantra have not been sufficiently examined using the many disciplines allied with Cognitive Science. The purpose of this volume is to engage this coming together of studies of Yoga and Tantra with the range of Cognitive Sciences, providing fresh insights into these rich expressions of human creativity and experience.

Relation to existing literature: This proposed issue is unlike any existing volume, although it grows out of recent research and publications of the co-editors and other colleagues (see References). It is unlike mainstream approaches to the study of Yoga and Tantra, and will provide a venue for cognitive scientists and scholars of Yoga and Tantra to share their research, methods, and insights. Hopefully, this will lead to entirely new fields of cognitive science and the study of religion.

Prof. Dr. Glen A. Hayes
Prof. Dr. Sthaneshwar Timalsina
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.



References:

Auer, Peter and Stefan Pfander. 2011. Constructions: emerging and emergent. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Barcelona, Antonio, 2000b. On the plausibility of claiming a metonymic motivation for conceptual metaphor. In: Barcelona 2000a, 31–58.

Bergen, Benjamin K. Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning. New York: Basic Books.

Boyer, Pascal. 2001. Religion Explained. New York: Basic Books.

Chilcott, Travis. 2015. “Directly perceiving Kṛṣṇa: Accounting for perceptual experiences of deities within the framework of naturalism.” Religion, DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2015.1009863.

Coulson, Seana. 1995. "Analogic and metaphoric mapping in blended spaces" Center for Research in Language Newsletter, 9, 1: 2-12.

Coulson, Seana and Todd Oakley. 2000. "Blending basics." Cognitive Linguistics 11:3-4, 175-196.

Coulson, Seana and Todd Oakley. 2005. “Blending and Coded Meaning: Literal and Figurative Meaning in Cognitive Semantics.” Journal of Pragmatics 37, 1510-1536.

Dehaene, S., Changeux, J.P., Nacchache, L., Sackut, J., Sergent, C. 2006. “Conscious, preconscious, and subliminal processing: a testable taxonomy,” Trends in Cognitive Science, 10: 204–211.

Donald, Merlin. 2006. “Art and Cognitive Evolution,” in Turner, Mark (ed.). 2006. The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of Human Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press, 3-20.

Egge, James. 2013. "Theorizing Embodiment: Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Comparative Study of Religion." In Shubha Pathak (ed.) Figuring Religions: Comparing Ideas, Images, and Activities.  Albany: SUNY Press, 91-116.

Esgate A. and Groome D. 2005. An Introduction to Applied Cognitive Psychology. Hove: Psychology Press.

Fauconnier, G. 1985. Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge, Mass.-London: The MIT Press.

–––––––––. 2001. "Conceptual blending and analogy." In Gentner, Dedre, Keith Holyoak, and Boicho Kokinov, editors. 2001. The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 255-286.

–––––––––. 2002. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books.

–––––––––. and Mark Turner. 1998. "Conceptual Integration Networks." Cognitive Science 22: 2, 133-187. Expanded CSN version. [original article] [A Danish translation by Martin Skov, "Konceptuelle integreringsnetværk," appears in Kognitiv semiotik, edited by Peer F. Bundgård, Jesper Egholm, and Martin Skov (Copenhagen: Haase & Søns, 2003).]

–––––––– and Mark Turner. 2000. “Metaphor, Metonymy, and Binding.” In Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads. Antonio Barcelona, ed. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 133-145.

–––––––––. and Mark Turner. 1994. "Conceptual Projection and Middle Spaces." UCSD Department of Cognitive Science Technical Report 9401. CSN version.

–––––––––. and Mark Turner. 1998. "Principles of Conceptual Integration." Discourse and Cognition. Edited by Jean-Pierre Koenig. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), 269-283 [distributed by Cambridge University Press].

–––––––––. and Mark Turner. 1999. "Metonymy and Conceptual Integration." In Metonymy in Language and Thought. Edited by Klaus-Uwe Panther and Günter Radden. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 77-90. [A volume in the series Human Cognitive Processing].

–––––––––. 2000. "Conceptual Integration and Analogy." In Gentner, D., Holyoak, K. J., & Kokinov, B. N., editors, The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

–––––––––. and Mark Turner. 2003. "Polysemy and Conceptual Blending." In Polysemy: Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language. Edited by Brigitte Nerlich, Vimala Herman, Zazie Todd, and David Clarke. John Benjamins. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 79-94. [A volume in the series Trends in Linguistics].

–––––––––. 2005. Compression and Emergent Structure. In S. Huang, ed. Language and Linguistics 6.4:523-538.

–––––––––. and Mark Turner. 2008. "Rethinking Metaphor". Ray Gibbs, editor, Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought. New York: Cambridge University Press, 53-66.

Forceville, Charles, 2002. “The identification of target and source in pictorial metaphors.” Journal of Pragmatics 34, 1–14.

–––––––––. 2005. “Visual Representations of the Idealized Cognitive Model of Anger in the Asterix Album La Zizanie, Journal of Pragmatics 37, 69-88.

–––––––––. 2006. Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in the cognitivist framework: agendas for research. In: Kristiansen, G., Achard, M., Dirven, R., Ruiz de Mendoza, F.J. (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives. Amsterdam/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 379–402.

Gibbs, RaymondW., Colston, Herbert L. 2006. Image schema: the cognitive psychological reality of image schemas and their transformations. In: Gerow, Edwin. 1971. A Glossary of Indian Figures of Speech. The Hague: Mouton.

–––––––––. and Ashok Aklujkar.  1972. “On Śānta Rasa in Sanskrit Poetics: Śāntarasa and Abhinavagupta's Philosophy of Aesthetics by J. L. Masson; M. V. Patwardhan.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 92,:1, 80-87.

–––––––––. 1981. “Rasa as a Category of Literary Criticism,” Sanskrit Drama in Performance, Rachel van Meter Baumer and James Brandon (Ed.), Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 226-57.

–––––––––. (1994). ‘Abhinavagupta’s Aesthetics as a Speculative Paradigm’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 114(2): 186–208.

–––––––––. 2002. “Rasa and Katharsis: A Comparative Study, Aided by Several Films,” Journal of the American Oriental Society. 122:2, 264-277.

Gibbs, Raymond W. (1987), “What does it mean to say that a metaphor has been understood?” In R. Haskell (ed.), Cognition and Symbolic Structures: The Psychology of Metaphoric Transformations, 31-48. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

–––––––––. 1994. The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language and Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

–––––––––. ed. 2008. The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought. New York: Cambridge University Press.

–––––––––, Paula Lenz Costa Lima, and Edson Francoso. 2004. “Metaphor is Grounded in Embodied Experience,” Journal of Pragmatics 36, 1189-1210.

–––––––––.and Gerard J. Steen, eds. 1999. Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Grady, Joseph. 2000. "Cognitive mechanisms of conceptual integration." Cognitive Linguistics 11:3-4, 335-346.

Grady, Joseph. 2005. “Primary Metaphors as Inputs to Conceptual Integration,” Journal of Pragmatics 37, 1595-1614.

–––––––––, Todd Oakley, and Seana Coulson. 1999. "Conceptual Blending and Metaphor." In Metaphor in cognitive linguistics. Steen, G., & Gibbs, R., eds. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Harris, Paul. 2000. The Work of Imagination. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Hayes, G. A. 1985.  Shapes for the Soul: A Study of Body Symbolism in the Vaiṣṇava-sahajiyā Tradition of Medieval Bengal. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.

––––––––. 2003. “Metaphoric worlds and yoga in the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Tantric traditions of medieval Bengal.” In Yoga: The Indian Tradition.  Edited by Ian Whicher and David Carpenter. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 162-184.

––––––––. 2005. “Contemporary Metaphor Theory and Alternative Views of Krishna and Rādhā in Vaishnava Sahajiyā Tantric Traditions.” In Alternative Krishnas: Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity. Guy Beck (ed.) Albany: SUNY Press, 19-32.

––––––––. 2006. “The Guru’s Tongue: Metaphor, Imagery, and Vernacular Language in Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Traditions.” In: Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies 3:8, 41-71.

––––––––. 2012. “Conceptual Blending Theory, 'Reverse Amnesia', and the Study of Tantra," in The Journal of Hindu Studies 1:17, doi:10.1093/jhs/his022.

––––––––. 2013. "Possible Selves, Body Schemas, and Sādhana: Using Neuroscience in the Study of Medieval Vaiṣṇava Hindu Tantric Texts." Religions 2014, 5, 684–699; doi:10.3390/rel5030684.

Higgins, Kathleen Marie. 2007. “An Alchemy of Emotion: Rasa and Aesthetic Breakthroughs,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 65:1, 43-54.

Holland, Dorothy, Quinn, Naomi (Eds.), 1987. Cultural Models of Language and Thought. Cambridge University Press, New York.

Hussain, Mazhar and Robert Wilkinson (Ed.). 2006. The Pursuit of Comparative Aesthetics: An Interface between the East and West. Burlington: Ashgate.

Isola, Philip; Jianxiong Xiao; Antonio Torralba; Aude Oliva. 2011. “What makes an iamge memorable,” IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011, pages 145-52.

Isola, P., D. Parikh, A. Torralba, A. Oliva
2011. Understanding the intrinsic memorability of images. Granada, Spain, NIPS.

Jackson, Roger R. 1992. Ambiguous Sexuality: Imagery and Interpretation in Tantric Buddhism,” Religion 22, 85-100.

Johnson, Mark. 1987. The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

––––––––. 1981. Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor. Minneapolis: University of Minn.

Katz, Albert N., Cristina Cacciari, Raymond W. Gibbs, and Mark Turner (Ed.). 1998. Figurative Language and Thought (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language). New York: Oxford University Press.

Kövecses, Zoltán. 1986. Metaphors of Anger, Pride and Love. Philadelphia: Benjamins.

––––––––. 1990. Emotion Concepts. New York: Springer.

––––––––. 1999. “Metaphor. Does it constitute or reflect cultural models?” In: Gibbbs, Jr., R.W., Sten, G.J. (Eds.), Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 167–188.

––––––––. 2000. Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture and Body in Human Feeling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

––––––––. 2002. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press, New York.

––––––––. 2005. Metaphor and Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

–––––––––. 2006. Language, Mind and Culture: A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

––––––––. 2008. “Conceptual Metaphor Theory: Some Criticisms and Alternative Proposals,” Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics. 6: 168-84.

________. 2015. Where Metaphors Come From: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor. Oxford University Press, New York.

Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

––––––––. 1990. “The invariance hypothesis in abstract reason based on image-schemas,” Cognitive Linguistics 1:1, 39–75.

––––––––. (1993): "The contemporary theory of metaphor". In A. Ortony, ed., Metaphor and Thought, 2nd. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 202-251.

––––––––. and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

––––––––. and Mark Johnson. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh. The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.

––––––––. and Mark Turner. 1989. More than cool reason: a field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lawrence, David Peter. 2005. “Remarks on Abhinavagupta’s Use of the Analogy of Reflection,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 33, 583-99.

Liddell, Scott K. 1998. "Grounded blends, gestures, and conceptual shifts." Cognitive Linguistics, 9.

––––––––. 2000. Blended spaces and deixis in sign language discourse. In David McNeill, editor, Language and gesture. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 331-357.

Masson, J. M. 1980. The Oceanic Feeling: The Origins of Religious Sentiment in Ancient India, Dordrecht: Holland.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1979. Phenomenology of Perception, Trans. Colin Smith. New Jersey: Humanities Press,

Mica, Ishino. 2007. Metaphor and metonymy in gesture and discourse Dissertation. The University of Chicago.

Ortony A. (1979), The role of similarity in similes and metaphors. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 186-201.

Pandey, K. C. 1959. Indian Aesthetics. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series.

Patton, Laurie L. 2013. “Poetry, Ritual, and Associational Thought in Early India and Elsewhere.” In Shubha Pathak (ed.) Figuring Religions: Comparing Ideas, Images, and Activities. Albany: SUNY Press, 179-198.

Prinz, J., 2005, “A Neurofunctional Theory of Consciousness”, in Cognition and the brain: The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement, A. Brook and K. Akins (eds.) New York: Cambridge University Press, 381–396.

Quinn, Naomi. 1991. “The Cultural Basis of Metaphor,” in Fernandez, James (ed.). Beyond Metaphor: The Theory of Tropes in Anthropology. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 56-93.

Radden, G. 2000. “How metonymic are metaphors?,” in Barcelona, A (ed). Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 93-108.

Ricour, Paul. 1977. The Rule of Metaphor, Multi-disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language. Robert Czerny with Kathleen McLaughlin and John Costello, trans. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Ruiz de Mendoza Ibañez, and Francisco José. 1997. “Metaphor, Metonymy and Conceptual Interaction.” ATLANTIS 19:1, 201–295.

Ruiz de Mendoza Ibañez, and Francisco José. 1998. Understanding through metonymy: the role of metonymy in communication and cognition. In: Peñas, B. (Ed.), The Pragmatics of Understanding and Misunderstanding. Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza, Servicio de Publicaciones, 197–208.

Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José. 1998. “On the Nature of Blending as a Cognitive Phenomenon,” Journal of Pragmatics 30, 259-274.

Ruiz de Mendoza Ibañez, and Francisco José. 2000. “The role of mappings and domains in understanding metonymy”, in Barcelona 2000a, 109-132.

Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José, and Pérez Hernández, L. 2001. “Metonymy and the grammar: motivation, constraints and interaction,” Language & Communication, 21: 4, 321-357.

Ruiz de Mendoza Ibañez, and Francisco José. 2005. Construing meanings through conceptual mappings. In: Fuertes-Olivera, P.A. (Cood.), Lengua y Sociedad: Investigaciones recientes en lingüística aplicada. Servicio de Publicaciones.

Ruiz de Mendoza Ibañez, Francisco José. and J. L. Otal. 2002. Metonymy, Grammar and Communication. Granada: Comares

Sacks, Sheldon E., 1979. On Metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Fauconnier, Gilles & Turner, Mark. "Rethinking Metaphor". 2008. Ray Gibbs, editor, Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought. New York: Cambridge University Press, 53-66.

Sanderson, Alexis. 1990. “The Visualization of the Deities of the Trika,” L’Image Divine Culte et Meditation dans L’Hindousme, Paris: Editions du CNRS.

Schacter, Daniel L. and Donna Rose Addis. 2007. “The Cognitive Neuroscience of Constructive Memory: Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future.” Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences 362:1481, 773-86.

Shepard, R and Cooper, L. 1986. Mental images and their transformations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Shore, Bradd. 1996. Culture in Mind: Cognition, Culture, and the Problem of Meaning. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shulman, David. 2012. More Than Real: A History of the Imagination in South India. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Slingerland, Edward. 2005 "Conceptual Blending, Somatic Marking, and Normativity: A Case Example from Ancient China." Cognitive Linguistics 16:2, 557-584.

______. 2008. What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.

______. 2014. Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity. Crown Publications.

Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive Theory (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Sternberg, R.J. 2006. Cognitive Psychology (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson.

Sweetser, Eve. 2000. "Blended spaces and performativity." Cognitive Linguistics 11:3-4, 305-334.

Tall, David, and Shlomo Vinner. 1981. “Concept Image and Concept Definition in Mathematics with Particular Reference to Limits and Continuity,” Educational Studies in Mathematics 12, 151-69.

Taves, Ann. 2009. Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things

Tengelyi, László. 2007. “Redescription and Refiguration of Reality in Ricour,” Research in Phenomenology 37, 160-174.

Thomas, N. J.T., 2011. "Mental imagery", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N Zalta, (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-imagery/

Timalsina, Sthaneshwar. 2005. “Time and Space in Tantric Art.” in Nepal: Old Images, New Insights. (Ed.) Pal, Pratyapaditya. Bombay: Marg Publications, 20-35.

–––––--. 2006. Seeing and Appearance: History of the Advaita Doctrine of Dṛṣṭisṛṣṭi. Indo-Halle Series 10, Aachen, Germany: Shaker Verlag. 2006.

––––––. 2008. Consciousness in Indian Philosophy: The Advaita Doctrine of ‘Awareness Only.’ London: Routledge,

––––––. 2013. “Gauḍapāda on Imagination,” Journal of Indian Philosophy. 41:6. pp. 591-602.

––––––. 2014. “The Dialogical Manifestation of Reality in Āgamas,” Journal of Hindu Studies. (Oxford Journals) 7:1, 6-24.

––––––. 2012. “Holographic Bodies and Metaphoric Limbs in Hindu Myths,” Zeitschrift für Indologie und Südasienstudien 2, 167-86.

––––––. 2012. “Embodiment and Self-realisation: The Interface between Śaṅkara’s Transcendentalism and Shamanic and Tantric Experiences,” Journal of Hindu Studies (Oxford Journals), 5:3, 1-15.

––––––. 2012. “Reconstructing the Tantric Body: Elements of the Symbolism of Body in the Monistic Kaula and Trika Tantric Traditions,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 16:1, (Springer Journals), 57-91.

––––––. 2012. “Body, Self, and Healing in Tantric Ritual Paradigm,” Journal of Hindu Studies 5:1, (Oxford Journals), 30-52.

––––––. 2011. “Materializing Space and Time in Tantric Images,” Zeitschrift für Indologie und Südasienstudien 28, 145-82.

–––––. 2009. “Ritual, Reality, and Meaning: The Vedic Ritual of Cremating a Surrogate Body,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 159:1, 45-69. 2009.

––––––. 2007. “Metaphors, Rasa, and Dhvani: Suggested Meaning in Tantric Esotericism,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 19:1-2, 134-62. 2007.

––––––. 2014. “Semantics of Nothingness: Bhartṛhari’s Philosophy of Negation,” in Nothingness in Asian Philosophy. (Ed.) Liu, JeeLoo and Douglas Burger. New York: Routledge. Pp. 25-43.

––––––. 2014. “Self, Causation, and Agency in the Advaita of Śaṅkara,” Free Will, Agency and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy. (Eds.) Dasti, Matthew R. and Edwin F. Bryant. New York: Oxford University Press, 186-209.

–––––––. 2013. “Imagining Reality: Image and Visualization in Classical Hinduism,” SERAS: Southeast Regional Association for Asian Studies. Pp. 50-69.

–––––––. 2013. “Linguistic and Cosmic Powers: The Concept of Śakti in the Philosophies of Bhartṛhari and Abhinavagupta,” in Classical and Contemporary Issues in Indian Studies: Essays in Honour of Trichur S. Rukmani. (Eds.) Duquette, Jonathan and Pratap Kumar, Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 211-32. 2013.

–––––––. 2008. “The Body of the Goddess: Eco-awareness and Embodiment in Hindu Myth and Romance,” in Constant and Changing Faces of the Goddess: Goddess Traditions of Asia. (Eds.) Simkhada, Deepak and Phyllis Hermann. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar’s Publishing, 273-289.

–––––––. 2015. Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach. London: Routledge. 2015 January

–––––––. 2015. Language of Images: Visualization and Meaning in Tantras. New York: Peter Lang.

––––––. 2016. “Theatrics of Emotion: Self-deception and self-cultivation in Abhinavagupta’s aesthetics,” Philosophy East and West, Accepted for publication (2016 issue)

–––––––. “Śrīharṣa on Knowledge and Justification,” Journal of Indian Philosophy, (being reviewed for publication.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1975. “Images and Mental Maps,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 65:2, 205-13.

Turner, Mark (ed.). 2006. The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of Human Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press.

Turner, Mark. 2007. "Conceptual Integration" in The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. Edited by Dirk Geeraerts and Hubert Cuyckens. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Turner, Mark. 2002. "The Cognitive Study of Art, Language, and Literature." Poetics Today 23:1, 9-20.

Turner, Mark. 1999. "Forging Connections." Computation for Metaphor, Analogy, and Agents. Edited by Chrystopher Nehaniv. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 11-26. A volume in the series Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence.

Turner, Mark. 2002. "The Cognitive Study of Art, Language, and Literature." Poetics Today 23:1, 9-20.

Turner, Mark. 2007. "Conceptual Integration" in The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. Edited by Dirk Geeraerts and Hubert Cuyckens. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Turner, Mark. 2008a. "Frame Blending." In Frames, Corpora, and Knowledge Representation, edited by Rema Rossini Favretti. Bologna: Bononia University Press. 13-32. CSN version.

Turner, Mark. 2008b. "The Way We Imagine." In Ilona Roth, editor, Imaginative Minds. Proceedings of the British Academy. London: Oxford University Press & the British Academy.

Turner, Mark.  2014.  The Origin of Ideas: Blending, Creativity, and the Human Spark.  Oxford University Press, New York.

Turner, Mark and Gilles Fauconnier. 1999. "A Mechanism of Creativity." Poetics Today 20:3, 397-418.

Turner, Mark. 2010. “Blending Box Experiments, Build 1.0.” http://ssrn.com/abstract=1541062 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1541062.

Turner. Mark and Fauconnier. 1995. "Conceptual Integration and Formal Expression." Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 10:3, 183-203.

Turner, M. & Fauconnier, G. 2000. “Metaphor, metonymy and binding”, in Barcelona, A. (ed). Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads. Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 77-90.

Tweed, Thomas A. 2008. Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion. Boston: Harvard University Press.

Velasco-Sacristán, Marisol. 2010. “Metonymic Grounding of Ideological Metaphors: Evidence from Advertising Gender Metaphors,” Journal of Pragmatics 42, 64-96.

Wedemeyer, Christian K. 2002. “Antinomianism and Gradualism: the Contextualization of the Practices of Sensual Enjoyment (Caryā) in the Guhyasamāja Ārya Tradition.” International Journal of Buddhist Studies. 3:181-95

Worthen, J. B. 2006. “Resolution of Discrepant Memory Strengths: An Explanation of the Effects of Bizarreness on Memory. In R. R. Hunt and J. B. Worthen (Eds.). Distinctiveness and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press. 133-156.

Yu, Ning. 2001. “Chinese Metaphors of Thinking.” In Palmer, Gary B., Goddard, Cliff, and Lee, Penny (Eds.). Special Issue on “Talking About Thinking Across Languages, Cognitive Linguistics 14: 141-165.

–––––––––. 2004. “The Eyes for Sight and Mind,” Journal of Pragmatics 36, 663-686.

Keywords

  • Yoga
  • Tantra
  • Cognitive Science
  • Neuroscience
  • History of Religion
  • Embodiment
  • Gender
  • Sexuality
  • Hinduism
  • Buddhism
  • Asia
  • Asian religion
  • perception
  • cognition
  • consciousness
  • memory
  • conceptual blending
  • metaphor
  • imagination

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (8 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Editorial

Jump to: Research, Other

210 KiB  
Editorial
Introduction to “Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra”
by Glen Alexander Hayes and Sthaneshwar Timalsina
Religions 2017, 8(9), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8090181 - 6 Sep 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4596
Abstract
The range of disciplines known as the Cognitive Science of Religions (CSR), which has emerged in recent decades, embraces many areas and specializations within the Academy, including cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, and religious studies.[...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

9805 KiB  
Article
A Cognitive Approach to Tantric Language
by Sthaneshwar Timalsina
Religions 2016, 7(12), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7120139 - 30 Nov 2016
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 7946
Abstract
By applying the contemporary theories of schema, metonymy, metaphor, and conceptual blending, I argue in this paper that salient cognitive categories facilitate a deeper analysis of Tantric language. Tantras use a wide range of symbolic language expressed in terms of mantric speech and [...] Read more.
By applying the contemporary theories of schema, metonymy, metaphor, and conceptual blending, I argue in this paper that salient cognitive categories facilitate a deeper analysis of Tantric language. Tantras use a wide range of symbolic language expressed in terms of mantric speech and visual maṇḍalas, and Tantric texts relate the process of deciphering meaning with the surge of mystical experience. In this essay, I will focus on some distinctive varieties of Tantric language with a conviction that select cognitive tools facilitate coherent reading of these expressions. Mystical language broadly utilizes images and metaphors. Deciphering Tantric language should therefore also provide a framework for reading other varieties of mystical expressions across cultures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)
Show Figures

Figure 1

242 KiB  
Article
The Potential of the Bi-Directional Gaze: A Call for Neuroscientific Research on the Simultaneous Activation of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems through Tantric Practice
by Jeffrey S. Lidke
Religions 2016, 7(11), 132; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7110132 - 14 Nov 2016
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5470
Abstract
This paper is a call for the development of a neuroscientific research protocol for the study of the impact of Tantric practice on the autonomic nervous system. Tantric texts like Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka map out a complex meditative ritual system in which inward-gazing, apophatic, [...] Read more.
This paper is a call for the development of a neuroscientific research protocol for the study of the impact of Tantric practice on the autonomic nervous system. Tantric texts like Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka map out a complex meditative ritual system in which inward-gazing, apophatic, sense-denying contemplative practices are combined with outward-gazing, kataphatic sense-activating ritual practices. Abhinavagupta announces a culminating “bi-directional” state (pratimīlana-samādhi) as the highest natural state (sahaja-samādhi) in which the practitioner becomes a perfected yogi (siddhayogi). This state of maximized cognitive capacities, in which one’s inward gaze and outward world-engagement are held in balance, appears to be one in which the anabolic metabolic processes of the parasympathetic nervous system and the catabolic metabolic processes of the sympathetic nervous systems are simultaneously activated and integrated. Akin to secularized mindfulness and compassion training protocols like Emory’s CBCT, I propose the development of secularized “Tantric protocols” for the development of secular and tradition-specific methods for further exploring the potential of the human neurological system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)
1234 KiB  
Article
Buddhist Ritual from Syntax to Cognition: Insight Meditation and Homa
by Richard K. Payne
Religions 2016, 7(8), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7080104 - 16 Aug 2016
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 6373
Abstract
The concept of “ritual syntax” is developed by relating it to cognitive studies of ritual, providing a fuller theoretical basis. Developing theoretical grounding requires differentiating between the members of five pairs of concepts: production is not the same as analysis, syntax is not [...] Read more.
The concept of “ritual syntax” is developed by relating it to cognitive studies of ritual, providing a fuller theoretical basis. Developing theoretical grounding requires differentiating between the members of five pairs of concepts: production is not the same as analysis, syntax is not the same as semantics, ritual is not the same as the mental, cognition is not the same as the mental, and syntax is not the same as language. These distinctions help avoid overly strong interpretations of the analogy between ritual and language. A discussion of “ritual” suggests that it is best conceptualized in terms of multiple scalar characteristics with degrees of ritualization. Two Buddhist practices, insight meditation and homa, are introduced as instances for the cognitive study of ritual. Syntax involves not simply ordering of elements, but also hierarchical organization of those elements. While syntax allows sentential elements to move within a sentence, ritual tends toward invariance. Invariance seems to contradict the claim that ritual is syntactically organized. However, rituals are often modeled on ordinary activities, producing a kind of “semantic” motivation for invariance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)
Show Figures

Figure 1

238 KiB  
Article
Contemplative Science and Secular Ethics
by Brendan Ozawa-de Silva
Religions 2016, 7(8), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7080098 - 8 Aug 2016
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5856
Abstract
This article argues that the emerging project of contemplative science will be best served if it is informed by two perspectives. First, attention should be paid not only to non-analytical and/or mindfulness-based practices, but to a fuller range of contemplative practices, including analytical [...] Read more.
This article argues that the emerging project of contemplative science will be best served if it is informed by two perspectives. First, attention should be paid not only to non-analytical and/or mindfulness-based practices, but to a fuller range of contemplative practices, including analytical styles of meditation. Second, the issue of ethics must be addressed as a framework within which to understand contemplative practice: both theoretically in order to understand better the practices themselves and the traditions they come from, and practically in order to understand the ways in which contemplative practices are deployed in contemporary societies. The Tibetan Buddhist Lojong (blo sbyong) tradition and secularized practices derived from it, which are now an area of study in contemplative science, are examined as a kind of case study in order to make these two points and illustrate their importance and relevance for the future of this emerging field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)
200 KiB  
Article
Connecting Consciousness to Physical Causality: Abhinavagupta’s Phenomenology of Subjectivity and Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory
by Loriliai Biernacki
Religions 2016, 7(7), 87; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7070087 - 1 Jul 2016
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5357
Abstract
This article demonstrates remarkably similar methods for linking mind and body to address the “hard problem” in the work of 11th-century Indian philosopher Abhinavagupta with a currently prominent neuroscienctific theory, Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory 3.0. Both Abhinavagupta and Tononi and Christof Koch hinge [...] Read more.
This article demonstrates remarkably similar methods for linking mind and body to address the “hard problem” in the work of 11th-century Indian philosopher Abhinavagupta with a currently prominent neuroscienctific theory, Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory 3.0. Both Abhinavagupta and Tononi and Christof Koch hinge their theories on the identity of phenomenal subjective experience with causality. Giulio Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory is remarkable precisely in its method for dealing with the mind-body problem; namely, Tononi’s mathematically oriented systems neurology proposes something we typically do not find in neuroscientific literature—that we start from a phenomenology of experience. Abhinavagupta’s sophisticated and, for his milieu, novel way of linking subjectivity and objectivity in the concepts of knowledge (jñāna) and action (kriyā) also offers a way of understanding how subjectivity can be linked to causality. This particular configuration is mostly absent in Western Cartesian models for understanding consciousness and in Indian philosophical speculations on consciousness. However, this, in any case, is precisely the move that Tononi makes when he proposes that information is both “causal and intrinsic.” Abhinavagupta’s similar linkage of subjectivity with causality can help us to think about Tononi’s neuroscientific mathematical model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)
233 KiB  
Article
Transforming Adverse Cognition on the Path of Bhakti: Rule-Based Devotion, “My-Ness,” and the Existential Condition of Bondage
by Travis Chilcott
Religions 2016, 7(5), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7050049 - 6 May 2016
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4502
Abstract
Early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theologians developed a unique path of Hindu devotion during the 16th century through which an aspirant cultivates a rapturous form of selfless love (premā) for Kṛṣṇa, who is recognized as the supreme and personal deity. In the course [...] Read more.
Early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theologians developed a unique path of Hindu devotion during the 16th century through which an aspirant cultivates a rapturous form of selfless love (premā) for Kṛṣṇa, who is recognized as the supreme and personal deity. In the course and consequence of cultivating this selfless love, the recommended practices of devotion are claimed to free one from the basic existential condition of bondage that is of concern for a wide range of South Asian religious and philosophical traditions. One of the principle cognitive tendencies characterizing this condition is to have thoughts and feelings of possessiveness over objects of the world, or what is referred to as the state of “my-ness” (mamatā), e.g., my home, my children, or my wealth. Using the therapeutic model of schema therapy as a heuristic analogue, this article explores the relationship between recommended practices of rule-based devotion (vaidhi-bhakti) and the modulation of thoughts and feelings of possessiveness towards mundane objects. I argue that such practices function as learning strategies that can systematically rework and modulate how one relates to and responds to these objects in theologically desirable ways. I conclude by suggesting that connectionist theories of cognition and learning may offer a promising explanatory framework for understanding the dynamics of this kind of relationship. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)

Other

Jump to: Editorial, Research

241 KiB  
Essay
Strange Bedfellows: Meditations on the Indispensable Virtues of Confusion, Mindfulness and Humor in the Neuroscientific and Cognitive Study of Esoteric and Contemplative Traditions1
by Jeffrey C. Ruff
Religions 2016, 7(9), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7090113 - 6 Sep 2016
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4305
Abstract
Several recent publications in the study of esoteric traditions have drawn together insights from scholars of religions and philosophy, contemplative communities, metaphor and conceptual blend theories, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, and physical anthropology. These interdisciplinary explorations revolve around contemplative practices (meditation, mindfulness, ritual traditions, [...] Read more.
Several recent publications in the study of esoteric traditions have drawn together insights from scholars of religions and philosophy, contemplative communities, metaphor and conceptual blend theories, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, and physical anthropology. These interdisciplinary explorations revolve around contemplative practices (meditation, mindfulness, ritual traditions, etc.). This includes both ethnographic and textual expressions of these traditions. This paper is a response to the questions and insights of some recent articles, books, and two 2015 conference papers, with the specific purpose of contributing to what Glen Hayes (2014) called “the need to develop and ‘new vocabulary’ for this interdisciplinary study” of contemplative and esoteric traditions (Hayes’ call was specifically in reference to Hindu Tantra). To do this, I have referred to some other scientific approaches to which the scholars of esoteric and contemplative communities have not made much mention, and then to offer a form of reflection and meditation on what this new vocabulary and these research projects call us to do: their concepts, logic, and meaning. To this end, I have given some careful attention to the concepts of confusion, mindfulness, humor, and dispassionate vulnerability to help us better understand what we are doing, and where we should go from here. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Science and the Study of Yoga and Tantra)
Back to TopTop