Description: "Mindfulness" practices derived from Buddhist sources have become ubiquitous. Meditation teachers will sometimes say that this is the same practice that the Buddha taught over 2500 years ago. David McMahan shows that the standard articulation of mindfulness is, rather, a distillation of particular strands of Buddhist thought that have combined with western ideas to create a unique practice tailored to modern life. Rethinking Meditation asks how and why these practices coalesced into the version we have today.
Review Quotes: "Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." -- Choice
"Scholars across the disciplines of religious studies, particularly those outside of Buddhist studies, will gain greatly from reading this book." -- Franz Metcalf, Religious Studies ReviewThis inspiring new book will be of great use for teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses on Buddhist philosophy and Buddhism in contemporary society.-- Qiao Dai, Religious Studies Review"McMahan's study is ambitious in scope, and despite being a slim volume, it delivers on its aims with clarity of prose and care for the subject matter. ...I recommend it to anyone curious about how contemplative practices have been repackaged for the late modern world of fragmentary, free- floating selves in which Western, liberal-democratic, post-industrial capitalist people live. ...I anticipate that Rethinking Meditation will be essential reading for anyone interested in the subject." -- Thomas Calobrisi, Journal of Contemplative Studies "The work is an excellently balanced critical overview of a widely discussed topic, recommended both for a wide range of academics and the general readership." -- Zsuzsanna Szugyiczki, Religious Studies Review