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Performing Meditation: Vipassana and Zen As Technologies of the Self

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Performing Meditation: Vipassana and Zen As Technologies of the Self Performing Meditation: Vipassana and Zen as Technologies of the Self Submitted by António Manuel Simões Lopes Paiva de Carvalho to the University of Exeter as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. September 2013. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. “I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University.” Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 ABSTRACT The aim of this dissertation is to reflect on technologies of the self, a term coined by Michel Foucault to study western practices of self-formation. Influenced by his work on subjectivity and by Science and Technology Studies (STS), I explore two forms of meditation – Vipassana meditation in the tradition of S. N. Goenka and Thich Nhat Hanh’s practices of mindfulness – in order to analyze the entanglements between technologies, associations and subjectivity. Two research questions guided this study. First, how do Vipassana and Zen assemblages bring forth subjective transformations? Second, what are the politics of meditation practice, considering that Vipassana and Zen perform particular paradigms of subjectivity and aim at transforming the “social”? In order to address these questions, I relied on qualitative research methods, developing a multifaceted methodology that included participant observation at four meditation retreats, semi-structured interviews with meditators, the analysis of relevant literature and my own personal experiences as a beginner. I argue that the mechanisms of subjectification employed by meditation rely on two main devices: the transformation of habitual webs of associations, including couplings between selves, other humans, nonhumans and spaces and the installation of new automatisms. Vipassana and Zen technologies invite subjects to become aware of particular automatisms – regular ways of eating, sitting, walking and breathing - and to direct their attention towards them in novel ways, installing specific ways of managing their selves (stopping and breathing whenever they hear the sounds of bells; developing an attitude of equanimity when they are looking for sensations in their bodies). Vipassana and Zen are mediators that generate new experiences and ways of being informed by meditation, as well as a number of social applications that rely on the paradigmatic changes enacted by these practices. Informed by the dualism between modern and nonmodern, I argue that Zen and Vipassana can be understood as technologies of the nonmodern self (Pickering, 2 2010), suspending the dualism between body and mind, self and others, humans and nonhumans, contributing towards the establishment of nondual paradigms of selfhood and innovative forms of social organization that include new ways of performing human reformation, social action and human- environment couplings. The theoretical contributions of this dissertation are threefold. First, I want to extend current STS scholarly work on the self. Second, I want to contribute towards a post-humanist understanding of meditation assemblages. Finally, I am informed by Michel Foucault’s insights on technologies of the self to study meditation, but instead of focusing on the history or genealogy of the western self, I analyze a number of devices of subjectification mobilized to operate subjective changes and to transform the social. Keywords : Technologies of the Self; Meditation; Zen; Vipassana; Subjectification 3 LIST OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .................................................................................................. 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... 8 I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 10 I.I Foucault goes to Japan .............................................................................................................. 10 I.II Meditation and the self .............................................................................................................. 12 I.III The case studies ....................................................................................................................... 17 I.IV Research Questions and Hypotheses ................................................................................... 22 I.V Why meditation? ........................................................................................................................ 24 I.VI Dissertation Outline .................................................................................................................. 24 II. MEDITATION, TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SELF AND STS ............................. 28 II.I Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 28 II.II.I Meditation Research .................................................................................................................. 30 II.II.II Sociological and Anthropological Research on Meditation ................................................. 33 II. III Technologies of the self ........................................................................................................ 40 II.III.I Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 40 II.III.II Performances ............................................................................................................................ 45 II.III.III Materials and Spaces ............................................................................................................. 47 II.III.IV Power ........................................................................................................................................ 50 II.IV STS ............................................................................................................................................. 52 II.IV.I Relationality ............................................................................................................................... 52 II.IV.II Ontological Politics and Performativity ................................................................................. 55 II.V Interpretation ............................................................................................................................. 59 II.VI Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 67 III. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 69 III.I Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 69 III.II Participant Observation .......................................................................................................... 73 III.III The Semi-Structured Interviews ........................................................................................... 75 4 III.IV Autoethnography .................................................................................................................... 82 III.V Literature ................................................................................................................................... 86 III.VI Other sources .......................................................................................................................... 89 III.VII Critical reflection on the sources of information ............................................................. 91 III.VIII Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 92 IV. SETTING .......................................................................................................................... 94 IV.I Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 94 IV.II Entering the retreat assemblage ........................................................................................... 97 IV.III.I Regulations ............................................................................................................................. 100 IV.III. II Regulations and the battle of automatisms ...................................................................... 108 IV. IV Meditative Spaces ............................................................................................................... 113 IV.IV.I Spatial Reconfiguration ........................................................................................................ 115 IV.IV.II Managing Interactions ......................................................................................................... 117 IV.IV.III Inscriptions
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