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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1901/309

Title: Being Tranceported vs. Just Being: Ludic Reading and Zen Meditation
Authors: Casey L. Miller
Keyword: Zen Buddhism - Meditation
Keyword: Literature - Paradoxes
Keyword: Psychology - Psychology of the Marvelous
Issue Date: 12-Apr-2006
Publisher: School of Information and Library Science
Abstract: This paper examines ludic reading, in which the reader “disappears” into a book, and Zen meditation, in which practitioners see the world as it is, giving rise to an opening of the heart. Interestingly, these two activities are sometimes interpreted as being at odds with each other: ludic reading involves a psychic journey to another time and place, while Zen meditation concerns itself most emphatically with the here and now. While from a certain angle this is irrefutably true, this paper takes the alternate tack of considering the congruencies inherent in absorbed reading and meditation. Looking more closely, both ludic reading and Zen meditation involve the dissolution of a strong sense of selfhood and are methods of experiencing the balm of nonduality. This conclusion is arrived at with the help of scholarly works, books on Buddhist practice, and most importantly with the first-hand reports of practitioners of deep reading and Zen meditation.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1901/309
Appears in Collections:SILS Master's Papers

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