A Philosophy of Mindful Movement: Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and the Kinesthetic Imagination (Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and Philosophy)

This novel volume examines Chinese and Indian mindful movements (such as tai chi, qigong, Daoist meditation, and hatha yoga) to demonstrate how the contemplative practices of the body and mind can amount to a form of transformative philosophy through ways of thinking, knowing, and doing. The book explains how these body practices use kinaesthetic imagination, repetition, and slowness to bring about cognitive and epistemic changes in how we experience ourselves and the world.Chapters look in-depth at the details of these practices, drawing analogies with everyday experiences such as singing, hearing musical earworms, reading and re-reading texts, and recalling folk wisdom; the book suggests these body practices can be cognitive, epistemic, and philosophically transformative.Chapters also explore these practices in a first-personal, biographical style, drawing on the author’s own experiences as a student and teacher of these practices.The descriptions take on a range of modes, from that