An Ethnography of the Vipassana Meditation Retreat
A Reflexive Evaluation of the Participant-Observer’s Meditation Experience as an Interpretive Tool
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/fiel.v9i1.68Keywords:
vipassana meditation, Western Buddhism, religious conversion, religious experience and reflexivity, ethnographyAbstract
The practice of vipassana meditation emphasizes the role of meditative experience in coming to understand the Buddhist worldview and in effecting personal transformation. Data obtained from fieldwork conducted between 2003 and 2005 at the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre (BMIMC) in Medlow Bath, NSW Australia, illustrate the process by which aspects of doctrine come to be accepted through an experiential understanding of their import. Many respondents attributed significance to their experiential understanding of dukkha, suffering, and anicca, impermanence, gained through Vipassana practice. My own significant instance of experiential learning involved that of the five hindrances, outlined in the Satipatthana Sutta as five mental states that hinder the meditator’s development of mindfulness. By reflecting upon the reasons for the difference between my experience and that of my interview respondents, I demonstrate the limitations of the researcher’s own meditation experience used as an interpretive tool for ethnographic data, and the need for the researcher to reflexively examine the way in which their own religious preferences and biases affect the significance they attribute to their own meditation experience.
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References
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Bikkhu Bodhi. 1999. “Message,” in Soma Thera, The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipatthana Sutta and its Commentary, 6th edn. Kuala Lumpur: Buddhist Publication Society, v–vii.
Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed. 2001. “Satipatthana Sutta,” in Bikkhu Nanamoli (trans.), Majjhima Nikaya (The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha), rev. edn. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 145–55.
Bruce, S. 2009. “The Importance of Social Science in the Study of Religion,” Fieldwork in Religion, 4.1, 7–28.
Bryman, A. 2008. Social Research Methods, 3rd edn. New York: Oxford University Press.
Davies, C. 1999. Reflexive Ethnography: A Guide to Researching Selves and Others. London and New York: Routledge.
Eddy, G. 2012. Becoming Buddhist: Experiences of Socialization and Self-Transformation in Two Australian Buddhist Centres. London and New York: Continuum International Publishing.
Engelsrud, G. 2005. “The Lived Body as Experience and Perspective: Methodological Challenges,” Qualitative Research, 5.3, 267–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794105054455
Faivre, A. 1998. “Questions of Terminology Proper to the Study of Esoteric Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe,” in A. Faivre and W. Hanegraaff, eds, Gnostica 2: Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions. Bondgenotenlaan: Peeters, 1–10.
Guba, E., and Y. Lincoln. 2005. “Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences,” in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, eds, Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 191–215.
Gwynn, R. 2003. “Processes of Reconfiguration: Shifting Identities in Cancer Narratives,” in J. Coupland and R. Gwynn, eds, Discourse, the Body and Identity. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 209–24.
Hall, W., and P. Callery. 2001. “Enhancing the Rigour of Grounded Theory: Incorporating Reflexivity and Relationality,” Qualitative Health Research, 11.2, 257–72. http://dx.doi. org/10.1177/104973201129119082
Hill, P., V. Lee and M. Jennaway. 2010. “Researching Reflexivity: Negotiating Identity and Ambiguity in a Cross-Cultural Research Project,” Field Methods, 22.4, 319–39. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1177/1525822X10380869
Johnson, C. 2009. “Reflections on a Silent Meditation Retreat: A Beginner’s Perspective,” International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 28, 134–38.
Kornfield, J. 1979. “Intensive Insight Meditation: A Phenomenological Study,” Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2.1, 42.
Lewis, S. J., and A. J. Russell. 2011. “Being Embedded: A Way Forward for Ethnographic Research,” Ethnography, 12.3, 398–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1466138110393786
Lofland, J., and N. Skonovd. 1981. “Conversion Motifs,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 20.4, 373–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1386185
Mahasi Sayadaw. 1958. Discourse on the Basic Practice of the Satipatthana Vipasanna. Trans. U Pe Thin. Burma Art Press.
—1971. Practical Insight Meditation: Basic and Progressive Stages. Trans. U Pe Thin and Myanaung U Tin. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society.
McCutcheon, R. 1999. The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader. London and New York: Cassell.
Nyanaponika Thera. 1965. The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: A Handbook of Mental Training Based on the Buddha’s Way of Mindfulness. San Francisco and Newburyport: Weiser Books.
Pagis, M. 2010. “Producing Intersubjectivity in Silence: An Ethnographic Study of Meditation Practice,” Ethnography, 11.2, 309–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1466138109339041
Preston, D. 1988. The Social Organization of Zen Practice: Constructing Transcultural Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Queen, C. 1998. “Professing Buddhism: The Harvard Conference on Buddhism in America,” Buddhist-Christian Studies, 18, 217–20.
Rambo, L. 1993. Understanding Religious Conversion. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Reinharz, S. 2011. Observing the Observer: Understanding Ourselves in Field Research. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sharf, R. 1998. “Experience,” in M. Taylor, ed., Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 94–116.
Snow, D., C. Morrill, and L. Anderson. 2003. “Elaborating Analytic Ethnography: Linking Fieldwork and Theory,” Ethnography, 4.2, 181–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 14661381030042002
Soma Thera. 1999. The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipatthana Sutta and its Commentary, 6th edn. Kuala Lumpur: Buddhist Publication Society.
Spencer Lewis, H. 1978. Rosicrucian Manual, 25th edn. San Jose: Rosicrucian Press.
Trzebiatowska, M. 2010. “When Reflexivity is Not Enough: Doing Research with Polish Catholics,” Fieldwork in Religion, 5.1, 78–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/firn.v5i1.78
Tweed, T. 2002. “On Moving Across: Translocative Religion and the Interpreter’s Position,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 70.2, 253–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ jaar/70.2.253
Williams, D. 2008. “At Ease in Between: The Middle Position of a Scholar-Practicioner,” Journal of Global Buddhism, 9, 155–63.
Published
2015-03-20
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Section
Articles
How to Cite
Eddy, G. (2015). An Ethnography of the Vipassana Meditation Retreat: A Reflexive Evaluation of the Participant-Observer’s Meditation Experience as an Interpretive Tool. Fieldwork in Religion, 9(1), 68-86. https://doi.org/10.1558/fiel.v9i1.68
