| Inward: Vipassana Meditation and the Embodiment of the Self Contributor(s): Pagis, Michal (Author) |
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ISBN: 022636187X ISBN-13: 9780226361871 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $29.70 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: September 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Sociology Of Religion - Religion | Buddhism - Rituals & Practice |
| Dewey: 294.344 |
| LCCN: 2018055501 |
| Series: Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.70 lbs) 240 pages |
| Themes: - Religious Orientation - Buddhist |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Western society has never been more interested in interiority. Indeed, it seems more and more people are deliberately looking inward--toward the mind, the body, or both. Michal Pagis's Inward focuses on one increasingly popular channel for the introverted gaze: vipassana meditation, which has spread from Burma to more than forty countries and counting. Lacing her account with vivid anecdotes and personal stories, Pagis turns our attention not only to the practice of vipassana but to the communities that have sprung up around it. Inward is also a social history of the westward diffusion of Eastern religious practices spurred on by the lingering effects of the British colonial presence in India. At the same time Pagis asks knotty questions about what happens when we continually turn inward, as she investigates the complex relations between physical selves, emotional selves, and our larger social worlds. Her book sheds new light on evergreen topics such as globalization, social psychology, and the place of the human body in the enduring process of self-awareness. |
Contributor Bio(s): Pagis, Michal: - Michal Pagis is assistant professor of sociology at Bar-Ilan University. |