Quick Look
An overview of the meditative life, weaving practical instruction together with the guidance and inspiration of the world’s great teachers.
Description
In Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry, Arthur Zajonc offers an overview of the meditative life, weaving practical instruction together with the guidance and inspiration of the world’s great teachers, from Rudolf Steiner to Rumi, and from Goethe to the sages of Asia.
Zajonc reminds us that an ethic of humility grounds all practice, and that care of the soul is the basis for sound spiritual reflection and understanding. The author carefully describes each stage of the path and includes many recommended practices.
Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry is the fruit of many years of personal practice and teaching. Arthur Zajonc has worked with hundreds of university students and professors, as well as with contemplative groups in the US, Europe, and Australia.
Reviews
'An outstanding contribution to addressing a root issue of our time: how to integrate the quest for scientific clarity, contemplative awakening, and improved personal practices in a way that is clear, integrates Eastern and Western wisdom traditions, and offers readers practical methods and tools. It is highly recommended.'
-- Otto Scharmer, MIT, author of Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges
'A profound and masterful exposition of the calling, challenges, and, above all, the immediate and the harder-to-extract-but-worth-it gifts of meditative inquiry. A glistening gem of a book.'
-- Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to Our Senses and Arriving at Your Own Door
'The great turn needed to reverse problems like climate change and the growing gap between rich and poor is none other than the one that we can accomplish in our own ways of thinking and living together. Arthur Zajonc is one of our best guides in the new art of traversing the narrowing gulf between science, consciousness, and social change.'
-- Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization
'In this beautifully written work, Arthur Zajonc offers gentle and wise guidance on the path of contemplative inquiry. Drawing both on the writings of Rudolf Steiner and on the world’s spiritual traditions, he presents universal truths that are relevant to all contemplative paths, East and West.'
-- B. Allan Wallace, author of The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind
'By the end of this enriching book the reader can appreciate how contemplative enquiry can extend and refine science while balancing the inner life of the scientist in the process. It is a book to savour, a point of departure to a refined range of practices for mind, heart and will.'
-- David Lorimer, Scientific and Medical Network Review, Summer 2010
Author
Dr Arthur Zajonc is the Andrew Mellon professor of physics and interdisciplinary studies at Amherst College and is currently the director of the Academic Program of the Center for Contemplative Mind, an organization of 1500 academics supporting the appropriate inclusion of contemplative practice in higher education. Dr Zajonc is the former General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America. He is the author of Catching the Light, coauthor of The Quantum Challenge, and coeditor of Goethe's Way of Science.
