The Way to the Way: Classical Daoist Apophatic Meditation as Effortless Practice

There are several meditative practices within Christianity that have arisen over 2,000 years of the Church’s existence. Despite the diversity of these meditative and contemplative practices within the Christian tradition, they all presuppose a certain philosophical perspective on the nature of being and reality (metaphysics) and a corresponding philosophical view of the human being (philosophical anthropology) that unites them within a common tradition. In a decisive way, Plato and the philosophical tradition that descends from him have bequeathed the metaphysical worldview, along with a philosophical anthropology, which profoundly shapes the meditative and contemplative practices within the Christian tradition. Therefore, a proper philosophical assessment of these practices within Christianity must evaluate them relative to, and within the context of, the platonic vision of reality and its corresponding understanding of the human being. These philosophical assumptions inherent within Christian meditative practices are what allow St. Augustine to state that God, the Unconditioned condition of the meditative experience, is “interior intimo meo et superior summon meo” (“higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self”). Therefore, this chapter will investigate platonic metaphysics and its correlating anthropology as the determinative philosophical framework for meditative and contemplative practices within the Christian tradition.

ABSTRACTDaoism, especially classical Daoism, is often constructed as a ‘philosophy,’ ‘set of ideas,’ or ‘system of thought.’ This is particularly the case in studies of Chinese philosophy and comparative philosophy. The present article draws attention to the central importance of clarity and stillness (qingjing 清靜) as a Daoist form of meditative practice, contemplative experience, and way of being. Examining historical precedents in classical Daoism, the article gives particular attention to the Tang dynasty (618–907) ‘Clarity-and-Stillness Literature,’ specifically the eighth-century Qingjing jing 清靜經 (Scripture on Clarity and Stillness; DZ 620). In the process, one finds that qingjing is one of the major connective strands throughout the Daoist tradition, a connective strand that reveals the central importance of embodied, experiential, and applied dimensions of human being from a Daoist perspective.

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.戀生懼死是人之常情。對於一個瀕臨死亡的人來說，其最大的悲劇莫過於沉浸於對死亡的心理焦慮之中。因此，臨終關懷的重要價值指向應是最大限度地減輕瀕死者的心理痛苦。人生的態度與死亡的觀點息息相闕，瀕死者的悲哀正在於死亡焦慮中的生死困惑。道家文化倡導出生入死、道法自然、無為處世。它以低音悠揚但可震憾現代人心曲的生死吟唱，可以引導臨終者走出死亡焦慮的心理誤區，消解悲苦於無形。安樂死是臨終關懷的應有之意。道家生死論尚自然，法自然，主張人為要與自然之序相協調，不應違反自然而強做妄為。道家反對用過枉之舉去擾亂人的生死變化，認為在死亡來臨時，順其自然，享其“安樂”，尊嚴而歸是不失為善終的。因此，在道家生死觀下，“被動安樂死”（即放棄治療）實為良策，而各種形式的“主動安樂死”（包括醫助致死）均與道家生死論主旨相悖。In confronting death there are differences among people regarding their deep concerns. A survey shows that most Chinese Catholics are worried about what will happen to them after death, whereas most other Chinese are concerned about unfinished life plans, unfulfilled familial obligations, and so on. However, most Western and Chinese authors agree that a great number of terminally ill patients suffer from anxiety, sadness, and depression. And no one denies that unease, puzzle, solitude, and even anger are often experienced by many dying patients. Against this background, this essay argues that the mental sufferings of terminally ill patients can appropriately be healed by taking the Daoist perspective over life and death. Moreover, the essay demonstrates that the Daoist position sheds light on the debate around the issue of passive and active euthanasia.According to the Daoist, the Dao is the way of nature. Nature is a universal process of constant change, binding all things together into a vast and natural harmony. Humans should live freely, naturally, and spontaneously in accord with the Dao. From the Daoist perspective, life and death can be analogized as day and night. They constitute two complementary aspects of nature. Where there is life, there is death. Everything living dies, and death implies new life. In short, just as the ceaseless transformation of four seasons in nature, life and death constitute a balanced knot in the harmonious chain of constant natural changes. Therefore, humans should take death naturally, just as they take life naturally. Humans should not have unnatural worry or anxiety on death in their mind.As there are the natural rules of the Dao, one should follow these rules rather than create artificial human laws. For the Daoist, one artificial expectation for humans is to gain an eternal life without death (here the classical philosophical Daoism remarkably differs from the subsequent religious Daoism which pursues immortality). The other unnatural concerns include mental inseparability from the benefits, utilities, and complicated human relations offered in the living world. The Daoist believes that life and death should be identified as one process and that humans and nature should be taken as a unity.Concerning the issue of euthanasia, we believe that the Dao as following nature is consistent with the position of so-called passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia allows the terminally ill patient naturally to accept death by foregoing aggressive medical procedures when such procedures cannot do more benefit than harm to the patient. Peaceably accepting death when it naturally comes is the human action performed in accord with the Dao. Launching extra human efforts against natural processes is against the Dao.However, the Daoist cannot advocate any type of active euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. On the one hand, the Daoist admires the man who does not use unnatural instruments to prolong the period of dying in the natural process of death. On the other hand, however, to take active means to kill the patient is to act against the Dao. Indeed, actively to kill the patient is on purpose to destroy the natural mechanism and process of human life. It is to intervene with the spontaneous way of nature in the worst sense. Therefore, the Daoist cannot consider it good to take human life with the help of medical tools.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 44 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Contemporary solutions to the problem of violence at the individual level usually involve punitive social control mechanisms. As a humane alternative, meditation programs within correctional institutions are experiencing growth and greater acceptance in North America. A handful of scholarly and anecdotal studies report reduced violence, aggression, and anger and increased self-awareness and hopefulness among inmates who take up meditation and contemplative practices (Phillips, 2008; Parkum & Stultz, 2000). In this chapter we explore the mechanisms of reducing violence and aggression and combating recidivism through meditation programs and practices. We situate this phenomenon within a larger socio-cultural framework that considers the gender-specific subjectivities of a majority male correctional population.

In this commentary on “Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda,” the authors affirm Oman’s emphasis on the need for alternative religious-derived meditative programs and interventions, placed alongside Buddhist-derived mindfulness, for global public health. To begin, we highlight areas of agreement with Oman, then provide a metaphor we believe fittingly captures the current dilemma faced by those ambitiously attempting to globalize mindfulness for public health. Next, we advocate for the decentering of mindfulness, via developing and distributing evidence-based meditative practices derived from other religions, so public health strategies can be more diverse for global consumption. To do so, we offer examples from our own efforts to operationalize and experimentally investigate meditative and contemplative practices housed within the millennia-old Christian religious tradition for contemporary Christian communities experiencing psychological and spiritual suffering. Such examples include contemplation within the classic Medieval work The Cloud of Unknowing, the Jesus Prayer in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Puritan meditation in Protestant Christianity, and Ignatian meditation and contemplation in Catholic Christianity. To conclude, we offer basic steps for the further development of such alternative religious-derived meditative practices, along with a more detailed account of a recent empirical study of our own. Overall, our hope is to promote greater meditative diversity in the noble pursuit of global public health, with mindfulness offered alongside a plethora of other religious meditative practices, which can provide local communities around the world with a broader range of worldview-dependent and -sensitive options.

Empathy, Intimacy, Attention, and Meditation:An Introduction Sandra Costen Kunz On October 31, 2008, at the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting, the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies sponsored a well-attended afternoon session titled "Cognitive Science, Religious Practices, and Human Development: Buddhist and Christian Perspectives." This issue of Buddhist-Christian Studies contains three of the papers presented: Wesley J. Wildman's "Cognitive Error and Contemplative Practices: The Cultivation of Discernment in Mind and Heart," Noreen Herzfeld's "'Your Cell Will Teach You Everything': Old Wisdom, Modern Science, and the Art of Attention," and Robert Aitken's "'Who Hears?' A Zen Buddhist Perspective." Each paper addresses in some way the connections between meditation and accurate perception. Wildman traces how cognitive errors rooted in innate perceptual biases give rise to mistaken beliefs and self-defeating behaviors. He highlights various ways religious practices both promote and ameliorate common cognitive errors. He claims some meditation practices are particularly effective in amelioration. While Wildman's paper gives detailed attention to various types of cognitive errors and ways to curb them, Herzfeld's and Aitken's papers have, in some ways, a broader focus. Both include material that suggests that meditation can clear, sharpen, and steady the overall perceptual lens though which humans interpret and construct all of their relationships. (Most contemporary neuroscience assumes that "what" is perceived is the relationship between the perceiver and the "object" of perception.) Herzfeld cites research suggesting that "empathy" is one socially beneficial characteristic of the "focused, close attention" developed by the solitary meditation practices of the Christian Desert Fathers. Aitken claims that Zen practice develops the attentiveness needed to perceive the "intimacy" between the perceiver and what is perceived. I suspect that the neurophysiology of attention behind Herzfeld's "empathy" and Aitken's "intimacy" is profoundly similar. Aitken, comparing Zen's emphasis on experiencing intimacy with Tibetan Buddhism's emphasis on developing compassion, points out that "Compassion by etymology is 'suffering with others'—the realization of social intimacy." "Compassion" is derived from Latin, while Herzfeld's [End Page 55] "empathy" is derived from Greek. Both express the "suffering with others" Aitken identifies with social intimacy. I will first review the ways each paper connects attention-based perception with meditation, and then consider more carefully the common ground shared by Herzfeld's "empathy" and Aitken's "intimacy," suggesting it may lie (in part) in ways socially activist Christian and Zen traditions have drawn upon the cosmological assumptions embedded in the core texts of Zen and Christian traditions. I will close by proposing a topic for further study based on Wildman's claim that religious traditions have fostered a wider variety of meditation practices that have broader benefits than secular meditation programs that teach "nonreligious" adaptations of religious practices. A Review of the Three Papers Wildman teaches theology, philosophy, and religion and directs a PhD program in science, philosophy, and religion. His paper reviews seven types of cognitive errors grounded in neurologically based "cognitive and perceptual tendencies." While in life-threatening situations these tendencies can aid survival, they do so at the cost of day-to-day "mistaken beliefs" and "self-defeating behavior." Drawing on Thomas Gilovich's typology, Wildman reviews three types of errors based in pattern recognition skills gone awry, three types based in "social and motivational" factors, and then adds a seventh type: "self-defeating behaviors." He next reviews five potentials for detecting and ameliorating such errors and explores how three "techniques for mitigating cognitive error"—meditation practices, psychotherapy, and rigorous intellectual training—draw on these five potentials. Citing Jean Kristeller's multidomain model of meditation effects, Wildman notes the "significant empirical evidence" in "relevant research studies" that various meditation practices can mitigate a variety of cognitive errors. He reviews research that suggests that neuroplasticity (the potential for structural brain change that affects function) is a lifelong possibility, including studies by Richard Davidson, Antoine Lutz, and others involved in the Mind and Life Institute's efforts to demonstrate the brain-changing effects of Buddhist meditation. Wildman cautions: "The longitudinal studies of meditation needed to settle the question of whether meditation produces neurologically detectable changes in brain structure or function are only just now under way." But...

Why should we—as Leaders—consider working on inner Centricity? One reason: Because we are all living in a much more dynamic environment today, working on multiple tasks at the same time and are often so busy with all kinds of things that we forget to take a moment to just lean back, close our eyes … and just breathe. In order to draw energy from ourselves, from our Self, from within, an energy that truly helps us to develop a strong, authentic and even spiritual Leadership. A character, a mind and a soul with a calm and stable inner Centricity will naturally develop an overlying level of positive and strong core Values such as respect, fairness, honesty, reliability. The inner energy source that drives these core Values, the inner Centricity, remains unchanged and stable, like the trunk of a tree, and forms the “center of gravity” of your Character, your mind and your soul. One way to practice Mindfulness is already well known today: meditation. However, should not forget that in addition to the Asian forms of mediation techniques and meditation practice, there have long been forms of meditative or contemplative practice in other cultures, too, in particular the practice of religious prayer and religious contemplation, i.e. religious Mindfulness. We should also recognize and acknowledge as Leaders that, for each of us, the respective religion of our own culture—and increasingly also religions of other cultures—have shaped us, ourselves, our Self and our environment, whether we like it or not: the Character our culture, our Habits, what we do, our Words, our Thoughts and our Values. The very thing that forms our Spiritual interior. Therefore, we can ask ourselves how we can make ourselves aware of what shapes us, focus on it and consciously discover and recognize our Spiritual inner core in order to strengthen our inner Centricity.

In an increasingly fast-paced and demanding world, stress has become a common feature of modern life. From workplace pressure to personal responsibilities, individuals constantly grapple with mental and emotional strain. Amid various strategies for managing stress, meditation and contemplative practices have emerged as powerful tools. These ancient practices offer a path not only to relaxation but also to deep mental clarity and emotional balance. Stress, while a natural physiological response, can become harmful when chronic. Prolonged stress contributes to a range of health issues, including anxiety, depression, cardiovascular problems, and weakened immunity. It affects both the mind and body, disrupting sleep, concentration, and overall well-being. Therefore, effective stress management is essential for maintaining health and quality of life. Meditation is a practice that encourages focused attention, awareness, and a calm mental state. Techniques such as mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, and loving-kindness meditation have gained widespread popularity due to their measurable benefits. Research indicates that regular meditation reduces cortisol levels (the primary stress hormone), enhances emotional regulation, and promotes a sense of peace. Mindfulness meditation, in particular, trains individuals to observe their thoughts and emotions without judgment. This non-reactive awareness helps prevent overthinking and reduces the intensity of stressful experiences. Beyond meditation, contemplative practices like prayer, journaling, deep breathing, and nature walks also contribute to stress reduction. These practices encourage introspection and a deeper connection with oneself and the world. They help individuals slow down, reflect, and foster resilience in the face of challenges. Spiritual contemplation, regardless of religious affiliation, can also provide a sense of purpose and meaning, which acts as a buffer against stress. Numerous studies support the efficacy of meditation and contemplative practices. Neuroscientific research shows changes in brain regions related to emotion regulation, attention, and self-awareness in those who meditate regularly. These practices are also being integrated into clinical settings, schools, and workplaces as preventive and therapeutic tools. Incorporating just a few minutes of daily meditation or reflection can significantly enhance one’s ability to manage stress and maintain mental health. Meditation and contemplative practices offer more than temporary relief and they cultivate a lasting sense of inner peace and emotional strength. By promoting mindfulness, self-awareness, and compassion, they empower individuals to respond to life’s challenges with clarity and calm. In the journey toward holistic well-being, these practices are invaluable allies.

Buddhism has been a missionary religion from its beginning. Japan was among the countries where this “foreign” religion arrived and was assimilated, adapted, and reshaped into new forms specifically connected to the new geographical and cultural environment. Buddhism traveled long distances from India through China and Korea, bringing with it flows of people, ideas, technologies, material cultures, and economies. More than ten centuries after its arrival in Japan, the first phase of propagation of Japanese Buddhism started and was linked to the history of Japanese migrants to Hawaii, North America, and Brazil since the 19th century. This was a history of diaspora, a term that implies not only the physical—and often traumatic—dispersion of people who left their homes for unknown places, but also a reconfiguration of their identities through the adaptation to these new places and their cultures. The main role of Buddhist priests sent from Japan was to assist and provide comfort to the newly formed communities of migrant laborers, who very often experienced racial discrimination and lived under harsh conditions. Temples became important loci of Japanese community life, as well as centers for the preservation of Japanese culture. Diasporic communities felt the urge to keep a bond with the homeland and a reconnection with some past traditions, while, at the same time, striving toward integration in the new society. Japanese Buddhist denominations in diasporic communities had therefore to accommodate different needs and adjust their teachings and practices to better suit their host cultures. Some of them underwent substantial changes, while others placed more emphasis on some practices instead of others. Moreover, Japanese Buddhist schools had to find a way to balance between their traditional role in Japan, which was—and still is—closely related to funerary rituals and memorials, and the new stimuli and requests coming from the new generations of Japanese migrants (nisei and sansei) and the non-Japanese spiritual seekers, the latter mostly interested in meditative practices and not in funeral Buddhism. In short, what needed to be done was to overcome a status of “ethnic” religion without, however, losing its own identity.

The study of practice based on visualization and the role of visualization in shaping the outcomes of contemplative practice is an overlooked research niche. The aim of this article is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the process that connects literary images and visual perception in relevant meditative practices. The key question is which elements contribute to forming this connection in contemplative practices like meditation. To gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved, the study employed a mix of primary and secondary data sources, along with analytical, descriptive, and phenomenological methods, drawing from an interdisciplinary approach that includes psychology, neuroscience, and literature. The following meditation practices were selected: contemplative meditation, creative visualization, koan meditation, imaginative meditation, creative workshops with haiku poetry as an outcome, and meditative storytelling. The identified elements in the connection between literary depictions and visual perception include mental imagery and visualization, cognitive processes, sensory processes, and emotional processes. The importance of literary techniques is particularly highlighted – using descriptive language with metaphors, similes, allegories, and other stylistic figures that create strong visual images. This connection has a neurological basis – neuroscience studies show that reading/listening to texts describing visual experiences activates brain areas involved in actual visual perception. This overlap suggests that the brain processes literary descriptions similarly to how it processes real visual stimuli. The connection between literary depictions and visual perception significantly enhances the quality of meditative practice and promotes deeper understanding and emotional-volitional engagement with the text and personal development of the meditators. Both secondary and primary data sources were used in the paper.

How does one speak the unspeakable, say the unsayable, name the unnamable? How does one subvert the human tendency to become mired in intellectual constructs, philosophical rumination, and psychological confusion, especially with respect to matters of ultimate concern? This chapter examines Daoist uses of “apophatic discourse” and “grammars of ineffability,” or the way in which (apparent) negation is central to Daoist approaches. In addition to providing a foundational introduction to Daoism in general and the Zhuangzi (Book of Master Zhuang) in particular, I explore Daoist meditation and mystical experience, with attentiveness to representative modes of expression and description. In the process, I suggest that one must understand Daoist contemplative practice and mystical experience as the root of “Daoist philosophy.” Daoist apophatic discourse presupposes a contemplative and mystical perspective on being and sacrality. It is a praxis-based and experiential perspective. Daoist views of language in turn reveal alternative uses of linguistic expression, beyond mere communication and description. We may begin to imagine “soteriological linguistics.”

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.

As a physiologist interested in contemplative practice and meditation I have enjoyed the opportunity of lecturing to students engaged in the study of contemplation. My pedagogic role was to expose them to some of what we know of the biological phenomena that are or may be taking place during various meditative states — explicating for them the details of how the human body actually works. In the course of working with students and faculty engaged in meditation I formulated the following questions relating biological science and contemplative practice: What should a practitioner or a teacher of meditation know about basic human anatomy and physiology? Is it necessary for someone engaging in contemplative practice to understand how the human organism is actually put together and how it works? Will knowledge of how the various organs work with one another enhance one's ability to meditate or can we dispense with this information and suffer no consequences in our practice? The fundamental importance of somatic or physical phenomena in meditative practice (for example in control of breath, heart rate, or metabolism) and most people's lack of understanding of basic human anatomy and physiology led me to answer yes to all of these questions. In this paper I outline the physiological knowledge and particular insights I have found useful for enhancing a person's understanding of how we breathe, how we regulate our heart rate, and how we control our metabolic rate in 'control' or non-meditative states and the kinds of changes we might expect in a meditating subject. I link what is perhaps the fundamental principle of physiology, the concept of 'homeostasis', with the balance and integration of the body systems sought by people engaged in contemplation. Mind-body harmony or an enhanced awareness of this linkage between the mind and the body can, in my opinion, be more fully realized when coupled with an understanding of what Hippocrates called, 'the nature of the body', that is, what the body actually does and how it does it.

Research into the benefits of mindfulness training, meditation, and other contemplative practices for the workplace has grown dramatically. Within the context of Canadian policing, the wellness benefits of these mental practices are beginning to be understood. However, little is known about Canadian police officers’ current use of these practices. This information is important for future research exploring the effects of these practices over time, and for police agencies considering introducing mindfulness or meditation training programs into their organizations. This article shares initial findings from a broader, yet unpublished, qualitative study of a cohort of Commissioned Officers from a large Canadian police service who self-identified as having regular meditation practices. Invitations to participate in a study exploring the perceived influence of meditation on leadership were e-mailed to all 605 Commissioned Officers. Of the 13 individuals who responded, 11 met the study criteria. Qualitative content analysis of the data yielded the following results: Commissioned Officers in a wide variety of roles in this police service are engaged in a broad spectrum of contemplative practices; each participant engaged in multiple practices; and the most common reason for beginning to practice meditation was to assist in recovery from a psychological or physical injury. These findings suggest that police organizations introduce a variety of mental training practices early in officers’ service to ensure their career is more positive, resilient, and rewarding.

“Christian Contemplative Thought and Practice in the Contemporary World” describes the growth and development of contemplative and meditative practices within contemporary Christianity, focusing especially on the retrieval of ancient contemplative practices in the contemporary period by Thomas Merton, John Main, and Thomas Keating. It also attends to the varied expressions of Christian contemplative thought among contemporary thinkers and practitioners and movements, such as the new monasticism, to ask how and why it continues to thrive and develop in the contemporary period. Noteworthy here are the distinctive contributions made by emerging writers such as Martin Laird, Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, Kathleen Norris, Barbara Holmes, Sarah Coakley, Adam Bucko, Bernadette Flanagan, and Jean-Yves Leloup in extending and deepening the understanding of Christian contemplative practice in light of contemporary experience. Also significant are contributions by Latin American, African American, and feminist writers, such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, Maria Clara Bingemer, and Howard Thurman, in illuminating the role of Christian contemplative practice in responding to social injustice.