Engaging The Subtle Body: Re-Approaching Bla Rituals In The Himalaya

Keyword(s):  
2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
Andrea Jain

This paper is an exploration of preksha dhyana as a case study of modern yoga. Preksha is a system of yoga and meditation introduced by Acarya Mahaprajna of the Jain Svetambara Terapanth in the late twentieth century. I argue that preksha is an attempt to join the newly emerging transnational yoga market whereby yoga has become a practice oriented around the attainment of physical health and psychological well-being. I will evaluate the ways in which Mahaprajna appropriates scientific discourse and in so doing constructs a new and unique system of Jain modern yoga. In particular, I evaluate the appropriation of physical and meditative techniques from ancient yoga systems in addition to the explanation of yoga metaphysics by means of biomedical discourse. I will demonstrate how, in Mahaprajna’s preksha system, the metaphysical subtle body becomes somaticized. In other words, Mahaprajna uses the bio-medical understanding of physiology to locate and identify the functions of metaphysical subtle body parts and processes in the physiological body.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Pratt-Sitaula ◽  
◽  
Bishal Nath Upreti ◽  
Ananta Prasad Gajurel
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 233 ◽  
pp. 111408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedetta Dini ◽  
Simon Daout ◽  
Andrea Manconi ◽  
Simon Loew
Keyword(s):  

1984 ◽  
Vol 30 (104) ◽  
pp. 66-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Mayewski ◽  
W. Berry Lyons ◽  
N. Ahmad ◽  
Gordon Smith ◽  
M. Pourchet

AbstractSpectral analysis of time series of a c. 17 ± 0.3 year core, calibrated for total ß activity recovered from Sentik Glacier (4908m) Ladakh, Himalaya, yields several recognizable periodicities including subannual, annual, and multi-annual. The time-series, include both chemical data (chloride, sodium, reactive iron, reactive silicate, reactive phosphate, ammonium, δD, δ(18O) and pH) and physical data (density, debris and ice-band locations, and microparticles in size grades 0.50 to 12.70 μm). Source areas for chemical species investigated and general air-mass circulation defined from chemical and physical time-series are discussed to demonstrate the potential of such studies in the development of paleometeorological data sets from remote high-alpine glacierized sites such as the Himalaya.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document