Entering the Mind as a Way of Approaching God

Practicing Meditation and Being Muslim in Semarang, Indonesia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0134

Keywords:

Buddhism, Indonesia, Islam, meditation, narrative

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which Muslim meditation practitioners in Indonesia understand and utilize Buddhist meditative practice. Focusing on the narrative of one such practitioner, we draw out the little-known role that meditation plays in the everyday life of being Muslim. We pay special attention to how three meditation-related themes are entwined with the performance of the Islamic obligatory daily prayers to open up a space for contemplating and reconceiving a relationship with God as our interlocutors attempt to make sense of life with God as the ultimate referent. While at first glance the act of combining meditation with Islamic daily prayers may appear incompatible with the formalistic view of Islam, we seek to demonstrate that the labelling of meditation as ‘cultural’ and ‘scientific’ allows our interlocutors to build a narrative that inserts the importance of being mindful in their effort of moral striving.

Author Biographies

Stanley Khu, Universitas Negeri Semarang

Stanley Khu is a lecturer in the Department of Pancasila and Civic Education, Universitas Negeri Semarang. He is interested in the lives of Chinese Indonesians and the question of their ethnic belonging in the nation. Furthermore, his current academic interest also extends to Buddhism as a philosophical tradition as well as a socio-cultural phenomenon. He also has a keen interest in the intertwining between philosophy and social science theories, in particular, those concerning themes such as subjectivity, relationality, selfhood, emotion, ethics, and morality.

Izmy Khumairoh, Universitas Diponegoro

Izmy Khumairoh is a lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology, Universitas Diponegoro. Her research interest focuses on the intersection of religion, family, and gender, and how a possible ethical subject emerges as the result of a complex negotiation, navigation, and striving in-between these three themes.

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Published

2025-12-15

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Current Research on Southeast Asia

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