This book, first published in 1998, 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. Preston attempts 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.
目次
Foreword Randall Collins ix Preface xv Part I. A Sociological View of Zen: 1 1. Approaching the study of religion 2 2. On going native 8 Part II. A Profile of Zen Membership and Formal Orgainzation in Southern California: 14 3. A profile of Zen membership 17 4. The physical layout of a Zen center 22 5. Formal organization and staff 26 Part III. The Zen Teacher: 28 6. The teacher 31 7. Daily schedule 32 8. Interaction with students 33 Part IV. What is Zen?: 41 9. Learning about Zen 41 10. Varieties of Zen practice 45 11. Zen viewed sociologically 50 12. Zen practice 52 Part V. Meditation as a Social Phenomenon: I: 54 13. Becoming a Zen practitioner 54 14. Consequences of meditative practice 57 15. Becker's model 58 Part VI. Meditation as a Social Phenomenon II: 65 16. The social constructionist view 65 17. Meditation defined 70 18. Bracketing and Meditation 74 19. Some consequences of meditative practice 75 Part VII. Doing Zen Meditation: 78 20. Sudnow's view of improvised conduct 78 21. Using Sudnow to see Zen practice sociologically 80 22. The social organization of Zen meditation 83 23. Problems in Zen practice 86 24. An experience of sitting meditation 88 Part VIII. The Social Organization of Zen Meditative Ritual Practice and its Consequences: 98 25. Bourdieu's concept of habitus 98 26. Ritual, self-transformation, and reality construction 102 Part IX. The Meanings of Zen Practice: 122 27. Subjective (conscious) meaning 125 28. Objective (unconscious) meaning 126 29. Intuitive (Fundamental) meaning 136 Part X. Summary and Conclusions 143 Appendix 147 Notes 153 References 160 Index 169
