Book Reviews / Indo-Iranian Journal () –
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, DOI: 10.1163/001972409X12645171002054
Sarbacker, Stuart Ray, Sam¯ adhi: e Numinous and Cessative in Indo-
Tibetan Yoga (Albany: State University of New York Press, ), xi +
pp., ., ISBN .
is book is an expanded and revised version of the author’s doctoral
dissertation completed at the University of Michigan in . It includes,
as chapters three and five, two reworked articles previously published in
academic journals.
As clearly defined by Sarbacker, the book’s goal is to develop a new
methodological approach to the study of yoga and meditation in the con-
text of Hinduism and Buddhism, i.e. one that tries to balance both psycho-
logical and sociological standpoints in the study of religion. is approach
—as one may expect given the title of the book—is developed through
the paradigm of the ‘numinous’ and ‘cessative’ dimensions of yoga, which
roughly corresponds to the ecstasis vs. enstasis dichotomy coined by Mircea
Eliade. According to the author’s own words (p. ), ‘the numinous rep-
resents the manner in which a practitioner of yoga embodies the world-
surmounting power of divinity, while the cessative dimension emphasizes
the attainment of freedom through separation from phenomenal existence’.
e author finds this methodological orientation to be the key to ‘a signif-
icantly more sophisticated understanding of the relationship of Classical
Yoga and Buddhism’ (p. ). An attempt is made to link the ‘tension’—and
not real ‘opposition’—existing between the qualities of numinous and ces-
sative to that existing between the categories of sam¯ apatti and nirodha in
the context of Classical Yoga, and of ´ samatha and vipa´ syan¯ a in the Buddhist
Mah¯ ay¯ ana context. A fundamental point in Sarbacker’s analysis is the idea
that sam¯ adhi is composed by both numinous and cessative aspects, against
previous characterizations, such as that by Eliade, stressing the ‘enstatic’
element only.
Sarbacker devotes a large part of the introduction—which I found en-
gaging and thought-provoking—to contextualize the object of his research,
i.e. meditation, taking into account the theoretical issues that have been
object of debate in the field of Religious Studies since the pioneering work
of Eliade. Starting from the characterization of contemporary attitudes
towards meditation, the author declares his intention to overcome the
polarization between empathetic and critical approaches to the study of
religion through the development of an integrative and interdisciplinary
approach, which would eventually make that discipline ‘act as a medium
for social and cultural renewal’ (p. ). He then declares his study to be