Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewFinally a study of Buddhist mindfulness groups that does not treat meditation as self-evidential and naturally effective, but paints a much more complex picture. Less dramatic than the Buddha's enlightenment, we learn of practitioner's informal affiliation, their silent conversion, or their disengagement with meditation. Instead of following the well-trodden path of evaluating benefits of Buddhist meditation, Rahmani offers insights into practitioner's careers highly relevant for readers interested in late-modern forms of spiritual practice. * Jens Schlieter, Professor and Co-Director of the Institute for the Science of Religion, University of Bern *
This innovative book is a welcome addition to the literature on conversion, a process whereby people change their religions and usually their lives. Rahmani's careful attention to the narratives of those who engage in and disengage from Vipassana meditation sheds light on the complex relationships between self and spirituality. * Peter Stromberg, Professor of Anthropology, The University of Tulsa *
Highly innovative, brilliantly written, and based on solid research, Drifting through Samsara is one of the best books on (de)conversion that I have read in the last fifteen years. The book addresses an important lacuna in the conversion literature by theoretically expanding religious disaffiliation. Rahmani's research findings challenge the conventional religious exit literature by showing that authenticity discourse is not a motive for disengagement, but rather an effort to reconstruct an alternative universe of discourse. Tacit conversion is a great new concept to capture how many converts deny and conceal their conversion experience, and why they do that. * Henri Gooren, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan *
Table of ContentsAbstract Acknowledgments List of Figures A Note on Terminology and Transcription Conventions of Transcription Introduction Chapter I: Conversion Career Chapter II: Tacit Conversion Chapter III: Pragmatic Leaving Chapter IV: Vipassana Disaffiliation Narratives Chapter V: Disaffiliation Trajectories Chapter VI: Deconversion: Breathing New Self into Not-Self Concluding Discussions Bibliography Appendix 1: Vipassana Ten-day Course Timetable Appendix 2: Participants' Information
