The Social Organization of Zen Practice: Constructing Transcultural Reality

by David L. Preston

• ISBN13: 9780521350006
• ISBN10: 052135000X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1988-06-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Preston provides both a first-hand account and a theoretical analysis of the way an American Zen community works. The form Zen practice takes in the United States is described in detail through close study of two Zen groups in southern California. Preston leads readers through the buildings and grounds of a Zen residential community and introduces them to the main forms of Zen practice, paying special attention to the styles and implications of meditation. The book's second half develops a theory of the nature of religious reality as it is shared by Zen practitioners. Prestonattempts to explain how this reality--based on a group's ethnography yet at the same time transcending it--relates to meditation and other elements of Zen practice by drawing on the notions of ritual, practice, emotions, and the unconscious found in the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, Randall Collins, Erving Goffman, and Emile Durkheim.

Table of Contents

Foreword Randall Collins

Preface

A Sociological View of Zen

Approaching the study of religion

On going native

A Profile of Zen Membership and Formal Orgainzation in Southern California

A profile of Zen membership

The physical layout of a Zen center

Formal organization and staff

The Zen Teacher

The teacher

Daily schedule

Interaction with students

What is Zen?

Learning about Zen

Varieties of Zen practice

Zen viewed sociologically

Zen practice

Meditation as a Social Phenomenon: I

Becoming a Zen practitioner

Consequences of meditative practice

Becker's model

Meditation as a Social Phenomenon II

The social constructionist view

Meditation defined 18. Some consequences of meditative practice

Doing Zen Meditation

Sudnow's view of improvised conduct

Using Sudnow to see Zen practice sociologically

The social organization of Zen meditation

Problems in Zen practice

An experience of sitting meditation

The Social Organization of Zen Meditative Ritual Practice and its Consequences

Bourdieu's concept of habitus

Ritual, self-transformation, and reality construction

The Meanings of Zen Practice

Subjective (conscious) meaning

Objective (unconscious) meaning

Summary and Conclusions

Appendix

Notes

References

Index

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