Table of Figures ............................................. viii
Acknowledgments ................................................ ix
Note on Transliteration, Spelling, and Translations ............ xi
Prologue ..................................................... xiii
Introduction .................................................... 1
Part I
Chapter 1
A New Comparative Religion and the Search for Contemplative
Universals ...................................................... 9
Chapter 2
Recovering the Mystical in the Reign of Constructivism ......... 22
Chapter 3
Biological Essentialism and the New Sciences of Religion ....... 38
Part II
Introduction to Part Two: Charting the Common Itinerary
of the Contemplative Experience ................................ 51
Chapter 4
The Concentrative Itinerary of the Buddhist Jhānas ............. 56
Chapter 5
The Concentrative Itinerary of Yogic Samādhi ................... 83
Chapter 6
The Concentrative Itinerary of Catholic Unio Mystica .......... 124
Conclusion .................................................... 156
Notes ......................................................... 157
Bibliography .................................................. 219
Index ......................................................... 238
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