Yoga, karma, meditation, guru—these terms, once obscure, are now a part of the American lexicon. Combining Hinduism with Western concepts and values, a new hybrid form of religion has developed in the United States over the past century. In Transcendent in America, Lola Williamson traces the history of various Hindu-inspired movements in America, and argues that together they constitute a discrete category of religious practice, a distinct and identifiable form of new religion.
Williamson provides an overview of the emergence of these movements through examining exchanges between Indian Hindus and American intellectuals such as Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and illuminates how Protestant traditions of inner experience paved the way for Hindu-style movements’ acceptance in the West.
Williamson focuses on three movements—Self-Realization Fellowship, Transcendental Meditation, and Siddha Yoga—as representative of the larger of phenomenon of Hindu-inspired meditation movements. She provides a window into the beliefs and practices of followers of these movements by offering concrete examples from their words and experiences that shed light on their world view, lifestyle, and relationship with their gurus. Drawing on scholarly research, numerous interviews, and decades of personal experience with Hindu-style practices, Williamson makes a convincing case that Hindu-inspired meditation movements are distinct from both immigrant Hinduism and other forms of Asian-influenced or “New Age” groups.
Book Info:
- Sales Rank: #1186761 in Books
- Brand: Brand: NYU Press
- Published on: 2010-01-01
- Released on: 2010-01-01
- Original language:
English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .80″ h x
5.90″ w x
8.90″ l,
.85 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 280 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Used Book in Good Condition
Yoga, karma, meditation, guru—these terms, once obscure, are now a part of the American lexicon. Combining Hinduism with Western concepts and values, a new hybrid form of religion has developed in the United States over the past century. In Transcendent in America, Lola Williamson traces the history of various Hindu-inspired movements in America, and argues that together they constitute a discrete category of religious practice, a distinct and identifiable form of new religion.
Williamson provides an overview of the emergence of these movements through examining exchanges between Indian Hindus and American intellectuals such as Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and illuminates how Protestant traditions of inner experience paved the way for Hindu-style movements’ acceptance in the West.
Williamson focuses on three movements—Self-Realization Fellowship, Transcendental Meditation, and Siddha Yoga—as representative of the larger of phenomenon of Hindu-inspired meditation movements. She provides a window into the beliefs and practices of followers of these movements by offering concrete examples from their words and experiences that shed light on their world view, lifestyle, and relationship with their gurus. Drawing on scholarly research, numerous interviews, and decades of personal experience with Hindu-style practices, Williamson makes a convincing case that Hindu-inspired meditation movements are distinct from both immigrant Hinduism and other forms of Asian-influenced or “New Age” groups.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
An American Hinduism in the Making?
By Jeffery D. Long
This truly outstanding book is a major contribution to the study of Hinduism, the study of religion in America, and the study of religion in general (particularly the field of comparative mysticism and the epistemology of religious experience). Williamson manages to combine empathy for her subject matter with scholarly rigor to produce a work that is not only intellectually engaging, but that also rings true for those of us who practice within Hindu-inspired meditation traditions.Though it is not the centerpiece of the book, the chapter on mystical experiences is an important contribution to the epistemology of religious experience, providing strong grounds for rejecting hard, dogmatic versions of either constructivism or perennialism (the views, respectively, that the content of mystical experience is purely a cultural construct, or that it is a straightforward representation of objective reality). The ‘soft constructivist’ middle path for which Williamson opts seems to me to be clearly the right one: that mystical experience does disclose something objectively real, but does so through the medium of the cultural understanding of the experiencer.My one difference with Williamson is in her choice to see Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements, or HIMMs, as a phenomenon distinct from Hinduism. While she is clearly correct in pointing out that, “There is a qualitative difference between people who have been raised in a tradition in which the rituals, the foods, the prayers, and the ethics are second nature, and people who have incorporated only parts of a tradition into their religious style,” and while her observations about the differences between the (chaotic) atmosphere of a traditional Hindu temple and the (serene) atmosphere of a Hindu-inspired meditation center bear this out, might the American movement that she chronicles so well not, in the long run, emerge as just another way of being Hindu? Surely the differences between ‘traditional’ Hinduism and ‘Hindu-inspired’ meditation movements are no more or less stark than those between a Catholic mass said in the Vatican and an evangelical revival meeting in Appalachia? Yet we do not hesitate to designate the latter two as instances of a single phenomenon called ‘Christianity.’ Particularly as more second- and third-generation Indian American Hindus grow up practicing their traditions in this country, with its predominantly Protestant ethos, the distinction between ‘ethnic’ Hinduism and movements of the kind Williamson chronicles is likely to grow more and more tenuous.But none of this has a negative impact on Williamson’s descriptions or her analysis. I recommend this book highly both to the scholar and the practitioner of Hindu (or Hindu-inspired) meditation.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting and Informative…
By Michelle Spurlock
I’ve been a yoga teacher for many years and originally began practicing yoga for health and fitness. Like many of my students though, I naturally began to learn more about meditation and yogic philosophy as my practice deepened. But I had many questions about how these seemingly ancient and foreign practices have found their way into mainstream America…and indeed, into my own personal life! As a yoga teacher, this book gave me the historical perspective I was looking for to be able to intelligently discuss these topics with my students. But upon reading the book, I was also delighted to find deeply personal and moving interviews with long-time practitioners of meditation. These personal accounts lent the book an intimacy rarely found in a book written with such academic and intellectual authority.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Great book for free breathers
By Chuck King
A very well researched and written study of the guru movements in the 70′s, 80′s and beyond in America. If you were ever involved in any of the meditation movements such as TM or others and wondered how these organizations cam to be and where they are now. It is a worthy read. The impact of how the leaders of these movements directed followers and the history behind their beginnings is something that was never revealed until I read the book. Highly recommended for those recovering from cults or considering joining a meditation “movement”.
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