Abstract
Studies on the benefits of meditation show that the practice reduces stress and helps achieve a feeling of equanimity and peacefulness. These studies have tended to view meditation as an individual endeavor; however, many people learn to practice meditation in a group. Drawing on literature that connects the self, emotional experience and social interaction, I suggest that meditation-based equanimity is not only a psychological state but also a social attitude that is cultivated and learned in a unique silent interaction order. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with participants in vipassana meditation retreats in Israel and the United States, I analyze instances of silent social interaction that take place in meditation centers. The analysis reveals a sociological understanding of equanimity as a sociality of “non-engagement” which serves as a grey zone between full engagement and complete disengagement. As I show, participants in meditation retreats go through a gradual process of learning how to be with others while not directly attending to them. This form of being together allows for the emergence of silent social attunement that facilitates equanimity. Participants purposely cultivate and perform equanimity with and for others, but eventually it takes over the self, leading to an experience of self-transformation.
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Notes
Recent research on religious transformation began to put more emphasis on the emotional sides of religious experience. See, for example, Lee et al. 2013.
This paper focuses on relatively non-experienced practitioners and their first encounters with meditative equanimity. These first encounters (i.e. the first meditation retreat) are usually described by practitioners as most significant in their experience of self-change, even when recalling the experience after a few years. Advanced vipassana practitioners do make use of Buddhist concepts and ideas (see Pagis 2010b).
See Pagis 2009 for the claim that self-reflexivity is not necessary mediated by language.
Theravada Buddhism is commonly practiced in Southeast Asia. The popularization of vipassana to the laity began in Burma around 1950, moved to other parts of South-East Asia (such as Thailand and Cambodia) and to non-Buddhist parts of the world (including India).
This emphasis on mental health led to programs that are delivered in hospitals, such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), that is based on a mix of Zen and vipassana. MBSR is taught in weekly collective group meetings; however, John Kabat Zinn, the founder of the program, recommends attending silent meditation retreats and reports that he himself participates regularly in such retreats.
The body, sensations, mind and objects of the mind are the four objects of observation in the Satipatthana Sutta, the Theravada Buddhist text which includes instructions for the practice of vipassana meditation.
In South-East Asia two main lines of teachers opened lay vipassana centers. The most popular meditation centers today in Burma and Thailand follow the teachings of Mahasi Sayadaw. Meditation centers that follow the teachings of S.N. Goenka have become extremely popular in India. Though the lineages of both Mahasi Sayadaw and S.N. Goenka track back to the same teacher (Ledi Sayadow), they teach a slightly different version of vipassana. The vipassana practice introduced in this study follows S.N. Goenka who places a specific emphasis on being mindful of bodily sensations and includes a method of bodily sweeping. In the non-Buddhist world we can find meditation centers that either adhere to one version of vipassana or teach a combination of both.
Even though Israel is located in the Middle East, it is highly influenced by Anglo-American culture, especially among secular, educated young adults. See Ram 2007.
Not everyone that takes a meditation course experiences this self-change. Those who do not experience a change will rarely continue to meditate. While I have spoken with people who did not find the course satisfactory, this paper concentrates on people that did experience a positive effect and regard meditation as an important part of their lives.
Studies on silence in interaction reveal that in locations influenced by Anglo-American culture prolonged moments of silence are considered negative and are experienced as a discomfort pose in the flow of interaction (Bilmes 1994; Gurevitch 1989; Jaworski 1993). However, there are places, such as Finland, in which silence is regarded as a natural part of interaction (Basso 1970; Lehtonen and Sajavaara 1985).
These conditions are not limited to Buddhist retreats. For an analysis of the process of attunement into silence in the context of Christian meditation retreats see Mermis Cava (2007).
The recent finding of mirror neurons in the brains of primates and humans can explain the tendency to imitate the bodily movements of others, which can lead to both bodily and emotional synchronization (Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia 2008).
For a discussion of other worlds of silence see Kurzon 2007.
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the many people who opened their hearts and shared their experiences with me. This work could not have been done without their insights and wisdom. The analysis and conclusions are my own. I would like to thank Jonathan Mermis-Cava whose work on silent interaction in Christian meditation retreats inspired this paper. I am grateful to Erika Summers-Effler, Iddo Tavory and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2011 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.
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Pagis, M. Evoking Equanimity: Silent Interaction Rituals in Vipassana Meditation Retreats. Qual Sociol 38, 39–56 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9295-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9295-7