Becoming Buddhist Experiences of Socialization and Self-Transformation in Two Australian Buddhist Centres

by Eddy, Glenys

• ISBN13: 9781441118462
• ISBN10: 1441118462
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-05
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

What does it mean to be a Western Buddhist? For the predominantly Anglo-Australian affiliates of two Western Buddhist centres in Australia, the author proposes ananswer to this question, and finds support for it from interviews and her own participant-observation experience.Practitioners'prior experiences of experimentation with spiritual groups and practicesand their experiences of participation, practice and self-transformationareexamined with respect to their roles in practitioners' appropriation of the Buddhist worldview, and their subsequent commitment to the path toenlightenment.Religious commitment is experienced as a decision-point, itself the effect of the individual'sexperimental immersion in the Centre's activities.During this time the claims of the Buddhist worldview are tested against personal experience and convictions. Using rich ethnographic data and Lofland and Skonovd's experimental conversion motif as a model for theorizing the stages ofinvolvement leading to commitment, the author demonstrates that this study has a wider application to our understanding of the role of alternative religionsin western contexts.

Table of Contents

Foreword \ Acknowledgements \ Glossary \ 1. Approaching the Western Buddhist Experience \ 2. Instruction and Practice at the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre \ 3. Self-Transformation through Vipassana Practice \ 4. Participation and Exploration at Vajrayana Institute \ 5. The Practice of Self-Transformation at Vajrayana Institute \ 6. An Overview of the Experimental Journey: Vipassana- and Vajrayana-Insights\ Appendices \ Notes \ References \ Index