Becoming a Zen Practitioner
Sociological Analysis 1981 DOI: 10.2307/3709701 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Citations | 15 |
| Key points | Argues that the process of becoming committed to Zen meditation closely parallels Becker's analysis of learning to become a marijuana user, and that physiological consequences of meditative practices, neglected by sociologists, are important for understanding how one becomes a Zen practitioner. |
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the processes of conversion-commitment to a new religious forro and how it is actually accomplished by the individual. Physiological consequences of meditative practices are seen as neglected by sociologists and as important for shedding light on how one becomes in this case a Zen practitioner. Becker's analysis of the learning involved in becoming a marijuana user is applied to the case of the person beginning Zen meditation anda striking similarity is found. Some observations on the differences between the processes of conversion-commitment in Zen meditation and other cases found in the literature are made. One of the major concerns of sociologists with the new religions is understanding who joins them and how or why they come to do it. What are the actual processes or condi-tions involved in converting to a new religious form and increasing one's commitment to it? One influential model for thinking along these lines is Lofland and Stark (1965) which treats conversion and commitment asa process of becoming deviant. Lofland (1966) used this in his study of the early Unification Church. Other groups that use a similarly skepti-cal approach to new religions are those who are interested in the potentially dangerous and coercive aspects of cult-like groups. While there is a growing literature using a coercive
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |