Meditation from Buddhist Hindu and Taoist Perspectives engages readers with its original
philosophical and pragmatic analysis of traditional Asian religions philosophy meditation
practice and the supreme spiritual ideals associated with the Hindu Buddhist and Taoist
traditions. The text boldly bridges the theory practice distinction. A central underpinning of
Meditation from Buddhist Hindu and Taoist Perspectives rests on the assumption that
meditation practice without theory is groundless and that theory without practice is useless.
Robert Altobello identifies and analyzes common elements found across traditions in which the
practice of meditation plays a central role in human development and readers will find a
wealth of detailed reflection on the relationship between spiritual growth and meditation
practice from the Hindu Buddhist and Taoist perspectives. In the spirit of these traditions
the exploration of meditation practice requires examination of the principal elements that
sustain the core worldviews as well as the metaphysical epistemological and ethical
presumptions that animate these traditions. Throughout the text the author demonstrates why
these philosophies are all best understood as psychologies of happiness and or contentment and
that by viewing them as such practitioners can reap the great promises of all these traditions
without the need to accept any compromising metaphysical assumptions.
