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Buddhism, meditation, and ‘the inner world’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

CAMPBELL PURTON
CAMPBELL PURTON*
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Buddhist meditation seems to involve giving attention to one's thoughts and feelings, to one's ‘inner world’. In this article I explore what is involved in such talk of one's inner world, with special reference to Wittgenstein's claim that ‘the inner’ is a delusion. The article explores the nature of thoughts and feelings, and suggests that we cannot fully understand what is involved in meditation without some consideration of its ethical and religious context. I conclude with some reflections on how the pictures we naturally employ in thinking about meditation can lead us into a misleading metaphysical view of ‘the inner’.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 183 - 197
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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