Andrea Pintimalli

Time perception is closely related to spatial and bodily perception, yet little is known about how this interrelationship is impacted by meditation and biological sex. To examine this, we studied the effects of a stepwise application of three meditation techniques, from focused attention, to open monitoring to non-dual meditation, encompassed in the Place of Pre-Existence technique (PPEt) on the subjective perception of time, space and body using a pre-post research design. A total of 280 participants (mean age = 47.09 years; SD = 10.13; 127:153 males to females) completed the Subjective Time, Self, Space inventory before and after PPEt. Following PPEt, participants perceived time passing as slowing down, while time intensity, relaxation, 'awareness of space' and 'awareness of body' increased, suggesting heightened mindfulness to these constructs following the training. Awareness of space revealed to be modulated by biological sex and meditation expertise, with males showing a decrease of spatial awareness as a function of meditation expertise while females showed an opposite pattern. The speed and intensity of the experience of time both correlated with body and space awareness. In line with previous studies demonstrating a connection between relaxation and perception of time, a significant correlation was found between relaxation and the subjective experience of the intensity of time. The current results are discussed in the context of the embodied experience of time, and the Sphere Model of Consciousness.

Abū al-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (973-1058) fu un contemporaneo, conterraneo e rivale di Avicenna e come quest’ultimo e molti rappresentanti della falsafa islamica medievale fu poligrafo e si occupò di molte discipline diverse. Al-Bīrūnī si distinse da altri autori per i suoi studi sulle tradizioni religiose, almeno una dozzina, tra le quali approfondì specialmente quelle del subcontinente indiano. Inoltre, al-Bīrūnī studiò queste tradizioni in modo eccezionalmente obiettivo per il suo tempo, riportando dati di fatto con un approccio neutrale. Le due opere di al-Bīrūnī più importanti dal punto di vista degli studi storico religiosi, furono tradotte in inglese alla fine del XIX secolo dall’orientalista tedesco Eduard Sachau. Nei due testi, tradotti come The Chronology of the Ancient Nations e India, Sachau fece ampiamente ricorso al termine religion per rendere una dozzina di diverse espressioni utilizzate da al-Bīrūnī. Il presente studio costituisce l’analisi lessicale delle rese traduttive nelle due direzioni, sia la terminologia tradotta come religion, sia la resa con termini diversi laddove al-Bīrūnī utilizzò termini in altri contesti resi con religion. L’analisi lessicale permette di fornire elementi utili ad individuare i limiti interpretativi delle traduzioni di Sachau in riferimento agli studi religionistici, aprendo al contempo nuove prospettive per future analisi dell’opera bīrūniana.

This article is devoted to the third chapter of the Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind by Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (973-1048) from the viewpoint of his vision of the history of religions and their relationship with the issue of human languages. The opinions held by the inhabitants of the Hind about the intelligibilia and  sensibilia form the focus of the chapter, and as an introduction to these opinions al-Bīrūnī embarks on a complex series of comparisons involving texts and concepts of the classical Greece, the sufi tradition, as well as of the Hebrew, Christian, and Manichean doctrines. Such comparisons attest not only al-Birūnī’s linguistic skills and broad knowledge of multifarious religious traditions, but also his endeavour to include elements of the Sanscrit heritage in the intellectual context of the Islam of his age.

Ivan Strenski lancia con questo testo un’interessante sfida agli studi sulle
religioni, richiamandoli ad un ruolo attivo nei dibattiti quotidiani su questioni
sociali complesse come l’islamofobia. L’opera costituisce un materiale didattico di uso interattivo in classe, per vagliare, attraverso lo strumento del dialogo, punti di incontro e inconciliabili distanze tra l’Islam e le società occidentali contemporanei. Valore guida dell’autore un’idea di pluralismo inteso come “molteplicità di beni ugualmente veri”, per giungere a definire i quali il dialogo – in cui si mettano a rischio le posizioni di partenza – costituisce strumento efficace da recuperare.

Recensione dello studio di Mario Kozah sugli studi di al-Biruni come esplorazione della "psicologia dello yoga", letta come esercizio di indagine di un esponente di spicco del periodo d'oro della filosofia islamica alle prese con la scoperta di un nuovo mondo culturale.

Buddhism has significantly influenced the rise of Contemplative Studies and remains a key element in their advancement. The crucial importance of this tradition and its understanding of inner experiences led to postponing the exploration of other contemplative traditions. Nonetheless, it is important to
consider how various traditions can stimulate research to enhance analytical methods and increase their independence from cultural influences. Within this context, I suggest doing an initial examination of contemplative practices from the Islamic tradition -specifically Sufism -which share similarities with Buddhist traditions that are well recognized in the cognitive sciences. Based on the case study of the “Khwajagan” (Master of wisdom) and their practices still applied today, in this talk, I will seek to elucidate the questions that arise when these traditions are taken into consideration with a
multidisciplinary approach encompassing historical, anthropological, and cognitive aspects. Questions related to: (1) historical interactions between traditions; (2) framing of contemplative tradition within different cultures and how this affects contemplative practices; (3) cognitive features included in the considered contemplative tradition. Finally, I will suggest further steps to include Islamic traditions in the investigation of Contemplative Studies.

The prevailing sociological viewpoint on religions in the last century overshadowed in academic research intrinsically pedagogical aspects of religious systems. In religious systems, generally speaking, we have a global representation of the world, of its order, of the place of human being
in it, knowledge to be acquired, capacity to be strengthened, a system of values and morals to be learned and developed, bodily practices to be assimilated, reference models and supporting narratives, a system of evaluation of the results in terms of positive and negative levels and final
outcomes. The category of educational system seems to adapt to describe religious systems in a very appropriate way and would also have the significant advantage of acting as a bridge between a "pre-modern" or confessional concept, and a scientific and secular one. To fully understand the idea of religions as educative systems, it must be recalled a specific concept of human being as “deficient animal with the specific ability to represent to oneself” with the words of Arnold Gehlen. This condition predisposes the human being for an educational process, which orients him and responds to the self-perceived deficiencies. Religions, in this sense, are educational systems, didactic methods that take on the task of mediating for man the relationship with becoming. The idea of an educational system brings us into the field of the human sciences, whose
epistemological status allows us to read the fundamental difference between confessional and secular educational visions within the same framework: the capacity for abstraction/representation is understood in confessional visions as an instrument of knowledge of an objective and causal immaterial world, while in confessional visions it is brought back to the sole relationship between the human being and the material world.

Discussions about other people's religions are usually those allowing clearer explanations and voice of the defining norms of religious belonging. These are most clearly expressed through comparison with otherness.
Most Islamic tradition studies of other religions, as well as of other cultures, tend to read works through confutative arguments and by analysing heresiographies first.
On the contrary a Muslim scholar like Abu al-Rayhan Al-Biruni (973-1048), still the most important scholar of religious traditions in the history of Islamic culture, today at the centre of a renewed interest in the field of religious studies, has distinguished himself for his neutrality, acumen and extent of investigation; in fact, his works are often considered scientific in the modern sense.
Biruni studied Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Greek religion, Judaism, Samaritans, Christianity, Sabians, Corasmians, Arab paganism, Islam. We can’t find a unique concept for “religion” in his writings. In some cases, Biruni defined religious belonging through parameters like a "characteristic trait" of community membership as in the well-known passage in which he indicated it for Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. More often the great scholar applied cognitive parameters across different traditions, including Islam; for instance, the distinction between educated elites and masses related to the ability to abstract from sensory perceptions. Some scholars suggested that it is possible to find in Biruni the concept of some kind of “human” or “universal religion”. Actually, Biruni excluded Islam from any comparison seemingly assuming its superiority. Therefore, a more interesting question is what was Biruni’s idea of Islam? And from that standpoint, how he considered other religions? The present contribution aims at offering an analysis of the taxonomy he used in his works, in order to give some clues on these points.

Time perception is closely related to spatial and bodily perception, yet little is known about how this interrelationship is impacted by meditation and biological sex. To examine this, we studied the effects of a stepwise application of three meditation techniques, from focused attention, to open monitoring to non-dual meditation, encompassed in the Place of Pre-Existence technique (PPEt) on the subjective perception of time, space and body using a pre–post research design. A total of 280 participants (mean age = 47.09 years; SD = 10.13; 127:153 males to females) completed the Subjective Time, Self, Space inventory before and after PPEt. Following PPEt, participants perceived time passing as slowing down, while time intensity, relaxation, ‘awareness of space’ and ‘awareness of body’ increased, suggesting heightened mindfulness to these constructs following the training. Awareness of space revealed to be modulated by biological sex and meditation expertise, with males showing a decre...

La religione è un fatto sociale e culturale, parte integrante della storia umana. Questo libro ha l'obiettivo di fornire al lettore la risposta alla domanda "che cosa è la religione?" da un punto di vista scientifico. Studiosi di diverse discipline si occupano del fatto religioso, ma che cosa fanno, come lo fanno e perché lo fanno? Tali interrogativi hanno un risvolto teorico e dunque questo libro è inteso anche come contributo alla riflessione teorica sulla religione in generale

La religione è un fatto sociale e culturale, parte integrante della storia umana. Questo libro ha l'obiettivo di fornire al lettore la risposta alla domanda "che cosa è la religione?" da un punto di vista scientifico. Studiosi di diverse discipline si occupano del fatto religioso, ma che cosa fanno, come lo fanno e perché lo fanno? Tali interrogativi hanno un risvolto teorico e dunque questo libro è inteso anche come contributo alla riflessione teorica sulla religione in generale