Uploaded September 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Samani Pratibha Pragya (SOAS University of London)
Sapta Dhatū Prekṣā (SDP): An Amalgamation of Āyurvedic elements in Prekṣa Meditation
This paper is an attempt to trace amalgamation of Āyurvedic elements in Prekṣā Meditation. Prekṣā-dhyāna is a modern form of Jain meditation developed in the last quarter of the twentieth century by Ācārya Mahāprajña (1920–2010), the tenth head of the Jaina Śvetāmbara Terāpanth sect. It demonstrates that Mahāprajña’s construction of the prekṣā-dhyāna system integrates distinct sources among them one is Āyurvedic concept. I argue that the practice of sapta-dhātu-prekṣā (“perception of seven constituents of the body”) is an “adaptive reuse” of āyurvedic element. I demonstrate in the process of creation of sapta-dhātu-prekṣā practice, an acceptance of seven constituents of the body in a specific meditative modality has been construed.
Medicine and Yoga in South and Inner Asia: Body Cultivation, Therapeutic Intervention and the Sowa Rigoa Industry.
University of Vienna
1st - 3rd August, 2017
Samani Pratibha Pragya (SOAS University of London)
Sapta Dhatū Prekṣā (SDP): An Amalgamation of Āyurvedic elements in Prekṣa Meditation
This paper is an attempt to trace amalgamation of Āyurvedic elements in Prekṣā Meditation. Prekṣā-dhyāna is a modern form of Jain meditation developed in the last quarter of the twentieth century by Ācārya Mahāprajña (1920–2010), the tenth head of the Jaina Śvetāmbara Terāpanth sect. It demonstrates that Mahāprajña’s construction of the prekṣā-dhyāna system integrates distinct sources among them one is Āyurvedic concept. I argue that the practice of sapta-dhātu-prekṣā (“perception of seven constituents of the body”) is an “adaptive reuse” of āyurvedic element. I demonstrate in the process of creation of sapta-dhātu-prekṣā practice, an acceptance of seven constituents of the body in a specific meditative modality has been construed.
Medicine and Yoga in South and Inner Asia: Body Cultivation, Therapeutic Intervention and the Sowa Rigoa Industry.
University of Vienna
1st - 3rd August, 2017
