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Document Details : Title: Cosmology, Worldview, and Attitude Subtitle: A Discussion of Maximus the Confessor in Light of Mindfulness Meditation Author(s): JOYCE, Cullan Journal: Studies in Spirituality Volume: 28 Date: 2018 Pages: 301-330 DOI: 10.2143/SIS.28.0.3285336 Abstract : Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engages non-judgementally with experiences can help transform a person’s attitudes. By responding to experiences in a non-judgemental way, negative behavioral patterns lessen. In this way, mindfulness has demonstrated a positive effect on mental health, physical pain, and even improves community resilience. Meditative traditions that emerge from religious contexts, on the other hand, often have quite complex worldviews, concepts, and attitudes. These structures inform how a person responds to experiences that arise in meditation. In this paper, I discuss how Maximus the Confessor’s (580-662) Ambigua 7 describes the creation and the world we experience which provides a framework for an attitudinal shift toward receptivity. Cosmology and worldview play an important role in Maximus’ redefinition of attitude away from a more active engagement with experience to a more receptivity attitude. I suggest that receptivity can be understood as a way of encountering experiences in meditation. |
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