Yasuo Yuasa (1925–2005)

This book is an inquiry into ki-energy, its role within Eastern mind-body theory, and its implicatins for our contemporary Western understanding of the body. Yuasa examines the concept ofki-energy as it has been used n such areas as acupuncture, Buddhist and Taoist meditatin, 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-cutural, offering insights into Western philosphiy, 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 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.

'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 Univrsity

Yuasa Yasuo is Professor of Japanology and Director of International studies at Obirin University in Japan. He is the author of many books in Japanese, and the translation of his The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory is also published by SUNY Press.

Contents

Translator's introduction
Author's preface to the English version
Part I: Eastern mind-body theory and the contemporary period
Chapter 1 Eastern mind-body theory
I Introduction
II The Eastern tradition of self-cultivation and Western mind-body dualism
III Meditation in stillness and in motion
IV Meditation and psychotherapy
V Meditation and mind-body oneness
VI Self-cultivation
VII Characteristics of the Japanese martial arts
Chapter 2 Beyond the contemporary period
I From disjunctive mind-body dualism to correlative mind-body dualism
II Three information systems in the body
III Conditioned reflex and control of the autonomic nerves
IV A methodological reflective
Part II: Ki and the body: Martial arts, meditation methods, and Eastern medicine
Chapter 3 Ki and the body in the martial arts and meditaton methods
I Introduction
II Unifying mind and ki-energy
III Meditation training transforms ki
IV The transformation of ki
V Aspects of inner image experiences accompanying teh transformation of ki
VI The meaning of knowledge in Eastern thought: An inttermediary methodological investigation
Chapter 4 Ki and the body in Eastern medicine
I Introduction
II Fundamental characteristics of Eastern medicine's theroy of hte body
III The relationship between ki and emotion in the meridians
IV The unconscious quasi-body's functin directed toward the external world
V Memory and the lived body
Part III: The present and future of the science of ki
Chapter 5 The science of ki and its view of human being
I Introduction
II Ki-energy and its relation to the external world
III Transpersonal synchronizatin of ki and the problem of teleology
Chapter 6 Ki and the problem of paranormal phenomena
I Introduction
II Problematics of the dispute
III An assissment of parapsychology
IV The need for an epistemological critique of modern science
V Beyond causality
Chapter 7 Toward an East-West dialogue
I Teleology and science
II Objectivistic science and subjective science
III Concluding remards: Mind, life, and matter
Postscript
Notes
Glossary
Index… (lisätietoja)