Book recomendations for buddhism from a western perspective

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
1

I find there is quite a bit of potential for some of the ideas in buddhism and meditation in general but being very much an empiricist and enjoying the academic weltenchauung i find most buddhism writing really inaccessible and steeped in spiritual ‘woo woo’.

Can anyone recommend me some scholarly academic writings on the practice of buddhism or perhaps the scientific studies of the effects of meditation (this would be more what I was looking for in the academic vein as I understand talking about meditation is sort of missing the point and all that).

I sort of find zen the most accessible so I guess I’ll look into that again and like the idea of ‘just sitting’ minus the crap.

2

Research for past and ongoing research done by the Komazawa University in Japan.
They have a “major” in Zen as an academic study there.

You might enjoy this paper as well…
Zazen and Cardiac Variability
Read through the citations and resources at the back; there are several leads to find more readings from there (some related to Komazawa University as well).
(The authors of this paper, btw, almost plant the possibility of their paper existing upon the assistance of Komazawa University.)

3

Cheers.