Silent Epistemology: Embodied Intersubjectivity in Zazen

Shared silence in seated meditation is not a break from social connection but a medium for a distinct form of intimacy. An ethnographic study of zazen at the Bristol Zen Dojo found that practitioners feel alone together, connected through stillness, posture, and affective synchrony rather than dialogue. This silence generates a silent epistemology: a mode of knowing grounded in somatic attention and atmospheric attunement. Silence also transforms temporal perception, has effects that persist beyond the meditation hall, and poses unique challenges for newcomers. The work argues that silence is a site of knowledge and co-presence, challenging assumptions about communication and sociality.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Silence is often treated as a communicative void, a suspension of meaning, or a disruption of social connection. This dissertation challenges that assumption through an ethnographic study of zazen (seated meditation) at the Bristol Zen Dojo, where silence is not the absence of sociality but its medium. Through sensory ethnography and phenomenological analysis, the findings reveal that shared silence in zazen produces a paradoxical form of intimacy: practitioners report feeling alone together, connected through stillness rather than dialogue. Identity is not asserted but softened - formed relationally through posture, discipline, and affective synchrony. Through this investigation of non-verbal dimensions of sociality, this research identifies what I term a silent epistemology: a mode of knowing grounded in somatic attention and atmospheric attunement. While Pagis (2010) identifies silent intersubjectivity within Vipassanā meditation, examining how practitioners maintain social connections in silence, this study reveals how silence functions as a generative medium for knowledge transmission and creation. Additional themes include the transformation of temporal perception during silent meditation, the enduring impact of silence beyond the dojo, and the distinctive challenges faced by newcomers. In foregrounding silence as a site of knowledge and co-presence, this research invites a reconsideration of anthropological and broader social scientific assumptions about communication, sociality, and the nature of knowing.