The Social Organization of Zen Practice: Constructing Transcultural RealityPreston 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. |
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The Social Organization of Zen Practice: Constructing Transcultural Reality David L. Preston No preview available - 2012 |
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accomplishment action activity actor analysis Angeles Center argues attitude becomes beginning behavior beliefs body bodymind Bourdieu breathing Buddhism Chapter cognitive Collins common concentration consciousness consequences context counterculture D. T. Suzuki discussion dokusan emotional emphasis energy enlightenment Erving Goffman Ethnomethodology everyday example feeling goal Goffman groups studied habitus individual interesting interviews intuitive meaning involved Japanese jazz kinhin koan learning marijuana meditative practices meditative ritual practices meditative settings mind notion objective one's organization of Zen pain participants particular perience person posture prac Preston produce Randall Collins reality construction recognized reflexive religion religious conversion religious experience role roshi samadhi San Diego Schutz seen sense sesshin shared sitting meditation social organization social theory sociological sociologists spiritual Sudnow symbolic symbolic interactionism talk tend theoretical typical understanding usually Wilber zazen Zen Buddhism Zen Center Zen groups Zen meditation Zen practice Zen practitioners Zen setting Zen teachers zendo