Buddhist Studies Footnotes

Dr. Sean Hillman discusses caregiving work and his research on end-of-life care in India through the lenses of religious studies, bioethics and the law. He talks about how religious views affect end-of-life decision-making of patients, families and health care professionals; issues around blocking disclosure of bad news in sharing of sensitive medical information; ritual fasting and immobilization at the end of life; and attitudes towards end-of-life care, including pain management, hospice palliative care and assistance in dying. Dr. Hillman is a clinical bioethicist with the Centre for Clinical Ethics (CCE), a consultant organization based at Unity Health Toronto and contracted to seven institutions in Ontario. He also is a Buddhist Corrections Chaplain for two facilities in the Kingston region. Dr. Hillman was a bedside caregiver in hospital for almost two decades and did a year-long fellowship in Clinical and Organizational Bioethics also at the CCE. A medical anthropologist and textualist, he has a doctorate in religion, bioethics, and south Asian studies from the University of Toronto. A scholar of Asian philosophies and languages for almost thirty years, Dr. Hillman has spent five years living, studying and researching in India. His current research projects are on maximizing decisional participation by those who might have mental capacity interferences, and on how to better understand why families may request aggressive medical management for their loved-ones despite a poor prognosis (including religious logic such as vitalism, non-harm and filial piety). Dr. Hillman is a member of Durham Family Resources community advisory committee for their “recognizing capacity” pilot project which advocates for increased inclusion of those with intellectual, cognitive or communication challenges and for including supported decision making in Ontario healthcare law.

As psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies march towards likely legality for therapeutic purposes, we may ask how Buddhism and psychedelics intersect. In this episode, Kerry Helston explores some challenges and opportunities as well as the existing legacy of Buddhism and psychedelics in the West, with reference to current science and academic literature as well as personal experiences. Resources mentioned: Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America by Douglas Osto LSD and the Mind of the Universe by Christopher M. Bache Secret Drugs of Buddhism: Psychedelic Sacraments and the Origins of the Vajrayana by Mike Crowley “Characterization and prediction of acute and sustained response to psychedelic psilocybin in a mindfulness group retreat” “Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness” Chacruna Religion & Psychedelics Forum Kerry Helston is a University of Toronto graduate student in psychotherapy and spiritual care. The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada. See more at https://buddhist-studies-footnotes.castos.com/.

A conversation with Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim on her ground-breaking 2021 book, ReOrienting Histories of Medicine: Encounters along the Silk Roads. Ronit's research on Eurasian medical history illuminates cross-cultural interactions and transmissions of knowledge, drawing on medieval manuscripts from Dunhuang, Kucha, the Cairo Genizah and Tabriz. See more about this book at https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/reorienting-histories-of-medicine-9781472512574/ . The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada. See more at https://buddhist-studies-footnotes.castos.com/ .

A conversation with Pierce Salguero on his 2022 book, A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine. Pierce explains what it means to talk about "Buddhist medicine", how medical texts and healing practices interact, and how Buddhism and its healing practices change over time and across geographic regions. He emphasizes how the deep importance of Buddhism has been neglected in our understanding of medical practices globally, and stresses the value of transdisciplinary collaboration and conversation. See more about this book at http://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-global-history-of-buddhism-and-medicine/9780231185271. The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada. See more at https://buddhist-studies-footnotes.castos.com/ .

A conversation about Buddhist spiritual care work with Joanne Yuasa, a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist minister who is also in training to be a military chaplain. Joanne talks about how she came to Buddhism as an adult, and about her experiences with social anxiety disorder. Karl, Wini, and Joanne share their experiences of engaging with Buddhist practice in moments of suffering and distress. They also talk about working in hospital clinics as Buddhist care providers, and about the role of practices like deep listening and chanting mantras. All three speakers have gone through Emmanual College’s Buddhist chaplaincy program – Emmanual College is located in Toronto. Karl and Wini are just completing their Master of Pastoral Studies, focusing on Buddhist spiritual care, and Joanne Yuasa completed that program recently. The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada. See more at https://buddhist-studies-footnotes.castos.com/.

Thinley Gyatso discusses the use of mantras in Tibetan medical practice. He describes early medical texts that address how mantras are used as healing tools, and reports on conversations with Tibetan medical doctors who use mantra recitation in their medical practice. Thinley describes how mantra recitation as a form speech or sound therapy and a type of breathing practice. Thinley’s research brings forth the multidimensional impact that mantras can have in Buddhist practices of healing. Thinley Gyatso is a University of Toronto doctoral student in Buddhist Studies. The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada. See more at https://buddhist-studies-footnotes.castos.com/.

Jonathan Morgan examines the role of the demonic in Buddhism, with a focus on Tibetan perspectives. He looks into how animistic traditions, such as Tibetan Bon, co-exist with Buddhism, and he asks: are demons inherently evil in the way that some Euro-North American cultures understand them, or are they more ubiquitous and even intimately familiar to people? Do demons teach us anything about ourselves or the nature of the world we inhabit? Can demons even help us to heal? Jonathan Morgan is a University of Toronto graduate student in psychotherapy and spiritual care. The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada. See more at https://buddhist-studies-footnotes.castos.com/.

An interview by Uvina Persaud with Buddhist minister Joanne Yuasa about her student practicum work in a hospital palliative care unit, and about how her own sensibilities about death and dying have changed through this training. Uvina Persaud is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto. The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada. See more at https://buddhist-studies-footnotes.castos.com/.

An interview by Sumeet Kumar with Buddhist monk Adesh on the role of mindfulness in healing. Bhante Adesh shares insights on the role of a monk in Buddhist spiritual care, on the differences between healing practices in Buddhism and biomedicine, and on his work with people experiencing advanced life-limiting illnesses. He also talks about the importance of deeply listening to others as the first step in working as a healer, and on the role of mindfulness in healing. Sumeet Kumar is an MA student at the University of Toronto. The Footnotes series is produced at the University of Toronto, in Canada.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for the article, "Sex and Sexuality in Buddhism: A Tetralemma.", by Amy Langenberg, published in 2015 in Religion Compass, 9: 277– 286. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is “Like Pebbles in a Stream" by Fabio Rambelli and Rory Lindsay and "Not Tired Bells" by Daniel Birch. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for chapters 4 and 6 from the book, Virtuous Bodies: The Physical Dimensions of Morality in Buddhist Ethics by Susanne Mrozik, published in 2010 by Oxford University Press. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is "Maya’s Guidance for Gotami" Khmer & English versions by Trent Walker, and "Bells Bobbing Along" by Daniel Birch. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for the article, "Circumambulatory Reading: Revolving Sutra Libraries and Buddhist Scrolls" by Charlotte Eubanks, published in 2010 in Book History 13, 1-24. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario.

A Footnotes reading guide by Frances Garrett for two chapters from Joseph Cheah's book, Race and Religion in American Buddhism: White Supremacy and Immigrant Adaptation (Oxford University Press, 2011), namely, the “Introduction” and Chapter 3, “Adaptation of  Vipassana Meditation by Convert Buddhists and Sympathizers”. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario.

A reading guide by Tony Scott for the article, "Contemporary Buddhist Chanting and Music" by P. Greene, published in 2017 in The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism, Oxford University Press. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Tony Scott, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for a chapter by Sharon Suh called "Buddhist Meditation as Strategic Embodiment: An Optative Reflection" from the book, "Flashpoints for Asian American Studies", edited by Cathy Schlund-Vials, and Viet Thanh Nguyen, and published in 2017 by Fordham University Press. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario.

An interview by Tony Scott with Dr Tanatchaporn Kittikong on her 2015 article, "Choreographing the site of impermanence: Performing body with Buddhist philosophy and meditation in movement-based performance" in Dance Movement & Spiritualities 2(1):57-72. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Tony Scott with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is a single track called “Meditation” created by the artist Synapsis working in Perth, Australia. Synapsis can be reached at a-zone records@live.ca. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto in Canada with support from ecampus Ontario. Image of Tanatchaporn Kittikong from her doctoral thesis.

A reading guide by Tony Scott for the 2013 article, "Participatory Filmmaking Among Contemporary Shugendō Practitioners: Representing an Esoteric Tradition in an Accessible Documentary Film" by M. P. McGuire, published in The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 20(4), 325–339. https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-02004001 This episode of Footnotes was produced by Tony Scott with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is a track called “Jinkai” produced by hip-hop artist Yakuza Beatz and licensed by Creative Commons. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto in Canada with support from ecampus Ontario. Image: Shugendo Now Poster (taken from shugendonow.com)

A reading guide by Tony Scott for the article, "‘No mind’: A Zen Buddhist perspective on embodied consciousness" by Aska Sakuta, published in Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, Volume 5, Number 1, 1 July 2018, pp. 119-136(18). This episode of Footnotes was produced by Tony Scott with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is a recording of a religious ceremony featuring the song “Shwe Byone, Ngwe Byone,” performed by Master Kyi Lin Bo and his nat hsaing ensemble from Yangon; it was recorded by Lorenzo Chiarofonte, an ethnomusicologist from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto in Canada with support from ecampus Ontario. Image: Butoh dancer (Creative Commons) by Demipoulpe (free to use for non-commercial use as long as we credit the creator, Demipoulpe)

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for the article, “The Body of the Buddha" by John Powers, published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario.

A reading guide by Tony Scott for the article, "Critical Disability Theory", by Hall, Melinda C., in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/disability-critical/. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Tony Scott with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music was “Where the Sylfs Play” performed by Fabio Rambelli and Rory Lindsay. The Footnote series is created at the University of Toronto in Canada with support from ecampus Ontario. Image: Jaipur artificial foot, sectioned to show construction, 1982 (Creative Commons, free to use for non-commercial purposes; no creator given)

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for the article, “Reciting, Chanting, and Singing: The Codification of Music in Buddhist Canon Law", by Cuilan Liu, published in 2018 in the Journal of Indian Philosophy, 46, 4, Pp. 713-752. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty.

An interview by Tony Scott with Dr Catherine Hartmann about her 2020 doctoral dissertation, "To See a Mountain: Writing, Place, and Vision in Tibetan Pilgrimage Literature," Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Tony Scott with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music consists of three different Tibetan songs performed in the nomad style by a woman named Buti from a village in the Mak Township of Tibet. They were recorded by David Germano. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto in Canada with support from ecampus Ontario. Image: Catherine Hartmann Headshot (taken from www.buddhiststudiesonline.com, where she is director)

A reading guide by Tony Scott for the article, "Buddhist Walking Meditations and Contemporary Art of Southeast Asia" by Boreth Ly, published in 2012 in the journal, positions, 1 February 2012; 20 (1): 267–285, available at https://read.dukeupress.edu/positions/article/20/1/267/21605/Buddhist-Walking-Meditations-and-Contemporary-Art. This episode of Footnotes was created by Tony Scott, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is “The Academic (Life & Afterlife)” by Nic Bommarito and “Monday Morning Wake Up Call” by Daniel Birch. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario. Created by Frances Garrett, a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto, Footnotes is a series of short lectures or readings on research in the field. Each episode features an article or book chapter from an academic book in Buddhist Studies. We aim to make topics in Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for the article, "What Bodies Know About Religion and the Study of It" by K.L. LaMothe, published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 76(3), 573–601. This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is “Folk Psychology” by Nic Bommarito and “Bells in the Wind” by Daniel Birch. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario. Created by Frances Garrett, a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto, Footnotes is a series of short lectures or readings on research in the field. Each episode features an article or book chapter from an academic book in Buddhist Studies. We aim to make topics in Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for the article, “Decolonizing the Study of Religion”, by Malory Nye, published in 2019 in the Open Library of Humanities 5(1). p.43. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.421 This episode of Footnotes was produced by Frances Garrett, with sound editing by Jesse Whitty. The show’s music is “The Academic (Life & Afterlife)” by Nic Bommarito and “Monday Morning Wake Up Call” by Daniel Birch. The Footnotes series is created at the University of Toronto, in Canada, with support from eCampus Ontario. Created by Frances Garrett, a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto, Footnotes is a series of short lectures or readings on research in the field. Each episode features an article or book chapter from an academic book in Buddhist Studies. We aim to make topics in Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.

The contemplative technique of tummo (gtum mo, caṇḍālī) – literally, the “fierce lady” – is a consummate practice of Vajrayāna Tibetan Buddhist yoga. To understand this somatic yoga and breathwork practice, this presentation discusses (a) tummo in the context of a Buddhist tantric practice curriculum; (b) the philosophy and practice of inducing yogic heat and rapturous bliss described in classical Tibetan yoga manuals, including a discussion of subtle body physiology, thermogenesis, and the correlation of tummo with sexual yoga; (c) popular depictions that introduced tummo to the modern Buddhist imagination, including drying wet sheet ceremonies in Tibet and contemporary spin-offs; and (d) scientific research on the neurophysiological effects of arousal induced by tummo on core body temperature, cerebral blood flow, and cognitive correlates. The presentation concludes with reflections on working with technologies of breath in yogic Buddhism. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

In Vipassana meditation practice, the first common object is the breath. By allowing the breath to be the focus of your awareness, one lets the social world full of discursive thought, self-reflexivity and judgement move into the background. Yet, we know that as intimate and solitary as this breath practice is, many individuals turn to communities of solitary practice such as sitting groups and retreat spaces, as safe grounds or anchors to turn their gaze inward and attend to the tacit, embodied dimension of their being. This presentation critically evaluates how for non-white people of color in North America who practice in institutional spaces that are predominantly white, such silence and safety is interrupted by race. By drawing on fieldwork conducted in California among mindfulness communities, I explore key assumptions about mindfulness that North American black and non-black people of color expose and problematize through their engagement with mindfulness. The presentation asks, how in the context of racialized history of the United States and institutional whiteness, how we might more fully appreciate the “noble” breath of meditation, not as simply empty and neutral, but rather as supersaturated with history and power. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

This presentation explores how Tibetan Buddhist and medical notions of the relationship between heart, wind and mind come together to explain the (dys)functioning of the mind, and how this is understood to lead to various forms of ‘mental illness’ through incorrect Tantric practice and other factors including an individual’s behaviors and/or emotional states. Dr Deane uses examples from interview material with lay Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhist and Sowa Rigpa medical specialists, alongside some material from Tibetan medical texts, to explore the causes, symptoms, and treatments of various forms of ‘wind illness’ in Tibetan perspective. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

Breath and wind concepts are widespread in Asia, and the Tibetans inherited both Yogic and Tantric prāṇa and Ayurvedic vāta, both translated into Tibetan as rlung. This proved a constructive confluence for Tibetan Tantra and Tibetan medicine, and may be suggestive too for modern Western understandings of consciousness and its physiological correlates. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

Anne Klein starts with a few phenomenological reflections on how easeful attention to breath resolves structures that constrict our experience of being. What does breath feel like, and what does it bring us? What changes when we direct breath to different parts of the body, or different parts of the environment? Breath is air. Air is movement, and thus breath is connected with everything that moves. She points to several such connections, the movement of wind currents inside the body and out (rlung), as well as the mobile dynamism of life force (blah) itself, found not only in breathing bodies but in land and water. When breath is directed in certain ways, it opens to experiences of wisdom, famously described as unborn and unceasing, and connects as well as with contemporary notions, such as described by Daniel Stern, of vitality as core to human experience. Anne Klein briefly explores a medley of these connections. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

Preached by the Buddha, prescribed by psychologists, and practiced by people from all faiths and walks of life, breath meditation is one of the most popular meditation practices to have emerged from Buddhism. In this video we will look at how people in the country of Myanmar practice breath meditation and how some, known as “wizards,” use the breath to gain supernatural powers. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

This presentation will describe how urban Mongolians navigate the capital city Ulaanbaatar’s chronic air pollution in relation to breath, clarity, bodily winds and purification. It will describe how blockages in breath relate to other kinds of obscuration and stagnation in the post-socialist period. In Ulaanbaatar the murky and obscuring nature of air pollution has become an active part of Mongolian religious and ritual life. This talk will illustrate how air pollution and related phenomena exist in dynamic tension with Buddhist purification practices, along with ideas about the renewing energies of breath, wind and movement. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

This presentation briefly introduces the Japanese Vajrayana tradition of Shingon Buddhism and a few of its fundamental breathing techniques. It then summarizes some of the ways such meditative practices in the tradition have been used historically and in contemporary times. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

This conversation will consider Seng Kan Cheung, a contemporary Chinese American religious healer who uses qigong, reiki, and Buddhist spells. He shares these practices and exchanges healing with a community of relatives, friends, students, and patients in the New York City area. Breathing is involuntary, yet can also be voluntarily controlled. Agency in his healing is difficult to determine because he experiences involuntary movements that trigger during the practice of qigong, application of acupressure on patients, and encounters with Buddhist temples in New York and Japan. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

In this presentation, the place of the Old School Buddhist form jhāna absorptions within Theravādin meditation practice is outlined, with a note on the modern history of their practice. The heart of the presentation is a first-hand account of what the experience of jhāna through the breath entails. Brief reflections are offered on implications of such experience for our constructions of “religion,” and “philosophy,” and “psychology.” This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

David Wells introduces Thai Yoga, “Reusi Dat Ton,” and its place within the traditions of Buddhist Yoga and Mahasiddhas. Tracing its development from India into Nepal, Tibet and the Ancient Lanna Kingdom of Southeast Asia, he discusses how wind is managed in “Reusi Dat Ton” from breathing techniques and visualization to self-massage, joint mobilization and full body exercises. The video presentation features images of techniques as depicted in traditional artwork including: statues, murals, and illustrations from manuscripts. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

Heinrich Jäschke, a nineteenth-century Moravian missionary to Ladakh, is mostly known amongst scholars of Tibet for his pioneering 1881 Tibetan–English Dictionary. In his entry on ‘rlung’—a fundamental concept of Tibetan medicine and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, commonly translated into English as ‘wind’, ‘breath’ or ‘vital energy’—following his definition of the term, he added: ‘These notions concerning rlung are one of the weakest points of Tibetan physiology and pathology’. Strong words for a dictionary. While Jäschke perceived these ideas as highly problematic, fast-forward a century and a half to 2015 central London, and we can observe that much has changed. It is hard to think of what might better demonstrate the extent to which western perception of the term rlung has evolved since Jäschke gave his damning opinion on the term in his 1881 dictionary, than the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition “Tibet’s Secret Temple: Body, Mind and Meditation in Tantric Buddhism” which ran in London in the winter of 2015-16, and was one of the most attended exhibitions of this popular central London venue. How can we make sense of this transformation? What might be some of the concrete implications for health care that these imply? This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

This presentation by Napakadol Kittisenee offers two insightful accounts of the (former) prisoners on the brink of their death sentence. This illuminates how both of them went through self-transformation process in the context of Buddhist meditation. The sharing is based on the reflection of a memoir by a Thai man on his last moment at San Quentin in 1999 along with an ethnographic account Napakadol Kittisenee conducted over the last ten years with a Cambodian woman who witnessed the atrocities under the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for an article by Gideon Enz, "Qi cultivation in qigong and taiji quan," in Energy Medicine East and West, Edited by David Mayor, Marc S. Micozzi, Churchill Livingstone, 2011, Pages 73-83. This episode of Footnotes was a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for an article by Shigehisa Kuriyama, "Pneuma, Qi, and the Problematic of Breath," in The Comparison Between Concepts of Life-Breath in East and West (Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on the Comparative History of Medicine - East and West, August 26-September 3, 1990), Edited by Yosio Kawakita, Shizu Sakai, and Yasuo Otsuka. Ishiyaku EuroAmerica, Inc, 1995, Pages 1-32. This episode of Footnotes was a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for an article by Nancy N. Chen, "Qi in Asian medicine," in Energy Medicine East and West, Edited by David Mayor, Marc S. Micozzi, Churchill Livingstone, 2011, Pages 3-10. This episode of Footnotes was a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for an article by Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, "Tibetan ‘wind’ and ‘wind’ illnesses: towards a multicultural approach to health and illness," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Volume 41, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 318-324. This episode of Footnotes was a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for an article by Geoffrey Samuel, "Unbalanced Flows in the Subtle Body: Tibetan Understandings of Psychiatric Illness and How to Deal With It" in the Journal of Religion and Health (2019), 58(3), 770–794. This episode of Footnotes is a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for a chapter by Tamara Ditrich, “Mindfulness of Breathing in Early Buddhism” in Atmospheres of Breathing, edited by Lenart Škof and Petri Berndtson. SUNY Press, 2018. This episode of Footnotes was a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for an article by Kenneth Zysk, "Vital Breath (prāṇa) in Ancient Indian Medicine and Religion," in The Comparison Between Concepts of Life-Breath in East and West (Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on the Comparative History of Medicine - East and West, August 26-September 3, 1990), edited by Yosio Kawakita, Shizu Sakai, and Yasuo Otsuka. Ishiyaku EuroAmerica, Inc, 1995, Pages 33-66. This episode of Footnotes was a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

A reading guide by Frances Garrett for a chapter from Atmospheres of Breathing, edited by Lenart Škof & Petri Berndtson, published by SUNY Press in 2018, and a chapter from the book, Wind, Life, Health: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, edited by Elisabeth Hsu and Chris Low, published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2008. This episode of Footnotes was a lecture produced by Frances Garrett for a 2019 University of Toronto undergraduate course called Biohacking Breath.

Summary of two chapters from Religion and Ethnicity in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2009): Mathieu Boisvert, Chapter 4, “Buddhists in Canada: Impermanence in a Land of Change,” and David Chuenyan Lai, Jordan Paper and Li Chuang Paper, Chapter 5 “The Chinese in Canada: Their Unrecognized Religion.” From a series of lectures by Dr Frances Garrett from a University of Toronto course that surveys historical, cultural, and textual contexts for Buddhist meditation, with a focus on the role of race in the history of Buddhist meditation in North America. We examine how Buddhist meditation practices including mindfulness have been shaped by, and even contributed to, forces like colonialism, orientalism, capitalism, and white supremacy in the last hundred years or so in North America.

A summary preview of two chapters, Laurie Cassidy's “The Tranquil Meditator” and Carol J. Moeller's “'bell hooks Made Me a Buddhist': Liberatory Cross-Cultural Learning—Or Is This Just Another Case of How White People Steal Everything?” from the book, Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections. From a series of lectures by Dr Frances Garrett from a University of Toronto course that surveys historical, cultural, and textual contexts for Buddhist meditation, with a focus on the role of race in the history of Buddhist meditation in North America. We examine how Buddhist meditation practices including mindfulness have been shaped by, and even contributed to, forces like colonialism, orientalism, capitalism, and white supremacy in the last hundred years or so in North America.

A summary preview of “Introduction” and Chapter 1, “Buddhist Modernism from Asia to America” from Ann Gleig's book, American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (Yale University Press, 2019. From a series of lectures by Dr Frances Garrett for a University of Toronto course that surveys historical, cultural, and textual contexts for Buddhist meditation, with a focus on the role of race in the history of Buddhist meditation in North America. We examine how Buddhist meditation practices including mindfulness have been shaped by, and even contributed to, forces like colonialism, orientalism, capitalism, and white supremacy in the last hundred years or so in North America.

A summary preview of “Introduction” (pgs 1-17) and Chapter 5, “Is Mindfulness Religion?” (pgs 137-170) from Wakoh Shannon Hickey's book, Mind Cure: How Meditation Became Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2019). From a series of lectures by Dr Frances Garrett from a University of Toronto course that surveys historical, cultural, and textual contexts for Buddhist meditation, with a focus on the role of race in the history of Buddhist meditation in North America. We examine how Buddhist meditation practices including mindfulness have been shaped by, and even contributed to, forces like colonialism, orientalism, capitalism, and white supremacy in the last hundred years or so in North America.