When Buddhist vipassanā travels to Jewish West Bank settlements: openness without cosmopolitanism

Mautner, Ori; Mizrachi, Nissim

doi:10.1080/01419870.2019.1640377

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…This article continues a previous one (Mautner & Mizrachi 2020) in examining JV meditators’ ways of rendering insight meditation both suitable and valuable for orthodox students to adopt – through framing vipassanā as universal as well as Jewish. Both articles also partake in a broader effort to analyse the ethical dimensions of encounters between disparate traditions.…”

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confidence: 56%

“…Such ends include fashioning a Jewish self that is virtuous and enjoys experiences of peace and intimacy with the divine. My interlocutors often report lacking sufficient means through which to cultivate such a self using the standard components presently found within their own tradition (see Mautner & Mizrachi 2020). By contrast, Buddhist‐derived meditation helps them to rejuvenate and complement their more conventional practices.…”

Section: The Ethical Implications Of Secularizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…God is the one who instigates the bodily sensations one feels at every moment. So, by surrendering to His will as expressed in these sensations, a meditator develops confidence in God and gradually weakens the pull of negative character traits, which drive him away from his Creator (see also Mautner & Mizrachi 2020: 1228). This results in experiencing divine ‘stillness and eternity’ within, prompting one to cleave to God and to follow enthusiastically His holy commandments.…”

Section: Sanctifying Vipassanāmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marks 2000). And according to some, such wisdom is due to return to the ‘land of Israel’ after Jewish exile (collective life outside this land) is over, namely at the current age of redemption (see also Mautner & Mizrachi 2020: 1232‐3).…”

Section: Sanctifying Vipassanāmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the long exile period, however, prophecy ceased, and vipassanā only endured with people in ‘the East’, who have preserved it for centuries. But because the redemption process entails ‘the renewal of prophecy’ ( hitchadshut ha'nevua ), practices such as insight meditation are currently becoming available again to Jews in the biblical ‘land of Israel’ (see also Mautner & Mizrachi 2020: 1228).…”

Section: Sanctifying Vipassanāmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Secularization and its ethical consequences: orthodox Israeli Jews sanctifying ‘mundane’ Buddhist meditation

Mautner

2022

Royal Anthropological Inst

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Insight' or vipassanā meditation refers to meditative practices employed within Buddhist traditions. But following the secularization of vipassanā in recent decades -that is, its differentiation from Buddhism -orthodox Jewish Israeli meditators frame it as a religiously neutral, therapeutic technique centred on the mundane human body. They thus consider it as involving no forbidden 'Eastern' religious contents. Nevertheless, these 'Jewish Vipassanā' meditators also utilize insight meditation for improving their Jewish practice, characters, and ability to experience closeness to God; and some situate it within a national-religious historical narrative culminating in redemption. The secularization of vipassanā enables orthodox Jewish practitioners to engage with it in ways that are significant for them as observant Jews, and without continually being concerned over 'idolatry'. Secularization therefore has important implications for people's ethical projects, or attempts to foster what they consider good. Examining these implications can both stimulate secular studies and contribute to anthropological research on ethics.

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confidence: 56%

Section: The Ethical Implications Of Secularizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sanctifying Vipassanāmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sanctifying Vipassanāmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sanctifying Vipassanāmentioning

confidence: 99%

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