Yoga, Meditation, and Mysticism Also available from Bloomsbury Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context, edited by Halvor Eifring Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Cultural Histories, edited by Halvor Eifring Pluralism: The Future of Religion, Kenneth Rose Yoga, Meditation, and MYsticisM contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks Kenneth Rose Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2016 © Kenneth Rose 2016 Kenneth Rose has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-7168-7 ePDF: 978-1-4725-7169-4 ePub: 978-1-4725-7170-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Names: Rose, Kenneth, 1951- author. Title: Yoga, meditation, and mysticism: contemplative universals and meditative landmarks / Kenneth Rose. Description: New York: Bloomsbury, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016016456 (print) | LCCN 2016026079 (ebook) | ISBN 9781472571687 (hardback) | ISBN 9781472571694 (epdf) | ISBN 9781472571700 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Meditation. | Contemplation. Classification: LCC BL627 .R66 2016 (print) | LCC BL627 (ebook) | DDC 204/.35–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016016456 Cover design by Dani Leigh Cover images © Alfonse Pagano and Dan Barr/Stocktrek Images (gettyimages.co.uk) Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Dedicated to the memory of Patrick Rose and Elisabeth Boost vi Contents Table of Figures viii Acknowledgments ix Note on Transliteration, Spelling, and Translations xi Prologue xiii Introduction 1 Part I Chapter 1 A New Comparative Religion and the Search for Contemplative Universals 9 Chapter 2 Recovering the Mystical in the Reign of Constructivism 22 Chapter 3 Biological Essentialism and the New Sciences of Religion 38 Part II Introduction to Part Two: Charting the Common Itinerary of the Contemplative Experience 51 Chapter 4 The Concentrative Itinerary of the Buddhist Jhānas 56 Chapter 5 The Concentrative Itinerary of Yogic Samādhi 83 Chapter 6 The Concentrative Itinerary of Catholic Unio Mystica 124 Conclusion 156 Notes 157 Bibliography 219 Index 238 Table of Figures Figure 1 The Common Yogic-Mystical Itinerary 52 Figure 2 From The Common Yogic-Mystical Itinerary 73 Figure 3 From The Common Yogic-Mystical Itinerary 101 Figure 4 The Eight Types of Samādhi in the Yoga Sūtra 107 Figure 5 The Degrees and Stages of Prayer in Catholic Mystical Theology 133 Figure 6 From The Common Yogic-Mystical Itinerary 149 Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the editorial readers of the proposal for this book, Louis Komjathy and Jessica Frazier. Their cogent and well-aimed comments warned me away from some of the shoals into which a comparative project of this kind can run aground. Many thanks are due to my editor at Bloomsbury, Lalle Pursglove, who gave strong support to this project from beginning to end. I would also like to acknowledge her editorial assistants, Anna MacDiarmid and Lucy Carroll, who handled my various inquiries and other practical matters with friendly efficiency. I would also like to acknowledge the careful copy-editing of Grishma Fredric, account manager at Deanta Global in Chennai, India. I am grateful as well to the faculty senate of Christopher Newport University, Provost David Doughty, Dean Lori Underwood, and Department Chair Kip Redick for the awarding of faculty- development grants, sabbatical leaves, and course reductions over the years, which have allowed me time to research and write this book. I am grateful as well to Tara Dixon, office manager of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at CNU. Playing a central role in our department, Tara keeps it running smoothly so that we can focus on teaching, study, and guiding our students. I would like to thank Professor Perry Schmidt-Leukel and his wife, Doris, for their hospitality during my visit with my wife Beate to the delightful city of Münster in January 2015. Long will the pleasant images of the elegant and carefully restored streets of Münster, and its fleets of bicyclists stay in my memory. My thanks also go to the students in Professor Schmidt-Leukel’s intercultural theology seminar at the University of Münster, with whom I tested some of the ideas that are expressed in this book. They brought a great deal of insight to our discussion, and their responses to my questions and their critical comments were illuminating and stimulating. Once again, I am thankful and indebted to Jesse Spencer, interlibrary loan librarian at CNU, for unfailingly and efficiently unearthing all of my many and often obscure interlibrary loan requests. Thanks are due also to Mary Sellen, CNU university librarian, for her unswerving support for the robust and highly effective ILL services at CNU’s Trible Library. Among my many family members, I would like to thank my brother Robert Rose for his ongoing support and inspiration. His yogic spirit grows brighter with the challenges and opportunities that life sends his way. Almost to be counted as family is my oldest of friends, Graham Schweig, now a colleague at CNU and formerly a fellow graduate student at Harvard. May we continue, as in the past, to share the fruits of our common and divergent quests for wisdom and yogic balance.