The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy (SUNY series, The Body in Culture, History, and Religion) - Hardcover

Yuasa, Yasuo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0791416232 ISBN 13: 9780791416235

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 1993

Synopsis

This book is an inquiry into ki-energy, its role within Eastern mind-body theory, and its implications for our contemporary Western understanding of the body. Yuasa examines the concept of ki-energy as it has been used in such areas as acupuncture, Buddhist and Taoist meditation, and the martial arts. To explain the achievement of mind-body oneness in these traditions he offers an innovative schematization of the lived body. His approach is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, offering insights into Western philosophy, religion, medical science, depth psychology, parapsychology, theater, and physical education.

To substantiate the relationship that ki-energy forms between the human body and its environment, Yuasa introduces contemporary scientific research on ki-energy in China and Japan, as well as evidence from acupuncture medicine and from the experience of meditators and martial arts practitioners. This evidence requires not only a rethinking of the living human body and of the mind-body and mind-matter relation, but also calls into question the adequacy of the existing scientific paradigm. Yuasa calls for an epistemological critique of modern science and explores the issue of the relation of teleology to science.

About this title

Review:

"Among Japan's contemporary philosophers, Yuasa is one of the most provocative and far-reaching. His work critiques in a fruitful way the foundational ideas in Asian and Western philosophy, science, medicine, and the study of religion. He not only shows how ideas are culturally embedded, but also suggests how we can work across those cultural lines to make our theories more universal and more efficacious. Of his works available in English, this is not only his latest, but perhaps his most accessible." -- Thomas P. Kasulis, The Ohio State University

Synopsis:

An investigation into ki-energy, a oneness of body and mind that is important in acupuncture, Buddhist and Taoist meditation, and martial arts, showing its place in eastern mind-body theory, and its implications for western understandings of the living body, and the relationship of the mind to the body and to other matter. Drawing evidence from the

About this edition

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0791416232
• ISBN 13: 9780791416235
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 266