Annual Meeting 2024 Program Book

By the eleventh century, Tibetan contemplatives devised practices to intentionally dispel obstructions to their health and wellbeing. These new practices were designed to both counteract challenging experiences that emerged during meditation and to enhance meditative performance. Meditators integrated novel and known principles of Buddhist contemplation to remedy psychosomatic and psychosocial disorders. Contemplative remedial interventions for dispelling and methods of enhancement were recorded in Tibetan meditation manuals, compiled in anthologies, and circulated among practitioner communities. This paper gives attention to a suite of practices that were innovated from the eleventh through the fifteenth centuries and recorded in anthologies by the founder of the Drikung Kagyü order, Jigten Gönpo Rinchen Pel (1143-1217) and the Sakya scholar Minyak Drakap Dorjé (d. 1491). Our analysis of select practices will provide an understanding of the generative processes employed in the design of practices for human health and insights about an ethnopsychology of Tibetan contemplative practices.

Most psychological and clinical research in the United States on “adverse meditation effects” has studied “meditators-in-distress” of European descent who utilize modern(ist) meditation forms. This paper, written from my dual perspective as both religious studies scholar and psychotherapist, offers a counterpoint, drawing on ethnographic interviews with Nepali psychiatrist Pawan Sharma and his treatment of “meditation-related psychosis.” Practicing in what he calls a “meditation culture,” Sharma argues that contemporary clinicians should better account for religio-cultural difference. For example, he doesn’t pathologize Nepalese temple-goers who experience “transient possession” because such episodes are socially normative. But Sharma is also resolutely biomedically-minded asserting that, ultimately, it’s “all about the neurochemicals.” He believes a “core psychopathology” remains consistent among “meditators-in-distress” throughout history across cultures. Nonetheless, Sharma is also open to healing resources typically categorized as “religious.” I conclude by considering Sharma’s vision “that clinicians and religious scholars should work together” to care for meditators-in-distress.

The paper investigates the concepts of “meditation sickness” within Chinese Buddhism, with a focus on lectures delivered by a Taiwanese monk Shengyan (1931-2009). Shengyan's approach to addressing this issue is marked by a rational perspective, contrasting with the mythical beliefs prevalent in Taiwanese religions. He distinguishes between “inner demons” (unwholesome thoughts and incorrect attitudes) and “external demons” (demonic interference) in meditation, emphasizing the importance of cultivating a healthy and confident mind to overcome these challenges. Furthermore, Shengyan highlights the necessity of having qualified teachers and recognized lineages in meditative practices to avoid adverse effects. He advocates for the preservation of the “Han transmission of Chinese Buddhism” by establishing the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chinese Chan, emphasizing standardized training and religious professionalism. This study offers a unique perspective on meditation sickness within the contexts of individual protection and institutional authenticity.

Cheung Seng Kan is a contemporary Chinese American healer in the New York City area. He is a node of transnational religious healing using acupuncture, qigong, reiki, Buddhist chants, and more. In 2012, he became the center of an immigrant healing community consisting of over three dozen relatives, friends, students, and patients. In contemporary Chinese culture, zouhuorumo or “leaving the path and demons entering,” describes deviation from proper self-cultivation or spiritual practices. It applies to martial arts, qigong, Buddhist and Daoist contexts. I interviewed Cheung on what he has learned and what he teaches to his community regarding zouhuorumo, especially qigong deviation and zen sickness. He elaborates on the various types of deviation, along with their causes and ways to avoid them. I argue that to understand his explanations, we should consider how he interweaves Confucian (filial piety), Buddhist (dukkha), Daoist (effortless action wuwei), and popular Chinese religious (astrology) principles.

This paper explores some of the particularities of the meditation-teaching models of the Burmese lay meditation master and first Accountant General of Independent Burma, Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899–1971). While much scholarship has glossed over his and his students’ charismatic-healing modalities, I argue here that charismatic healing was at the center of U Ba Khin’s teaching practices. Because U Ba Khin’s experimentalist approach to meditation often entailed healing modalities that called for intensive approaches to meditation, he also dealt with many cases in which his students encountered serious difficulties and found themselves in states of unwellness that had to be negotiated in various ways, both medical and meditative. Through an analysis of several anecdotes related by U Ba Khin in his oral discourses, I bring to light a range of meditation challenges—and context-specific solutions to those challenges—encountered by those coming to learn vipassanā from U Ba Khin.

Institutions of Theravada Buddhism do not socially recognize women as female monks. Nevertheless, women – known as Bhikkhunis – continue to receive ordination and practice, despite this lack of formal recognition. While prior literature on bhikkhunis has focused on the personal narrative and charismatic qualities of the movement’s founder, Venerable Dhammananda, this paper instead focuses on the meditation techniques bhikkhunis apply to not only train toward enlightenment, but also ‘undo’ meditator’s prior meditation techniques that have led to forms of meditation sickness. Through a presentation of the visions some meditators experience at this bhikkhuni temple, accompanied by personal interpretations, I argue for the importance of gendered mentorship in meditation practice to alleviate the negative effects of meditation, a topic that has been generally neglected in Buddhist studies. Implicit to this argument is the prevailing cultural beliefs of female rebirth as a karmic consequence, and how these bhikkhunis’ meditation techniques and explanations reconstitute gender roles in Buddhism.

Ghanaian Pentecostal agents who emphasize ritual praxis for migrants live in two worlds as far as questions of socio-religious capital are concerned. One world is informed by a quest to internationalize, have diaspora membership, engage in overseas itinerant missions, and have a global-modern presence. The other is the efforts to indigenize their ritual praxis to appeal to the indigenous sensibilities of local clientele who may become tomorrow’s diaspora members and distinguish themselves from the European mission churches in Ghana. The intense competition in Ghana’s volatile Pentecostal religious field is engendering an open enlisting of indigenous religious models by churches in a bid to gain an edge over other competitors.

The paper involves fieldwork research among two Ghanaian Pentecostal churches in exploring ways the Pentecostals deploy a tapestry of indigenous models and symbols to appeal to the indigenous sensibilities to negotiate socio-religious capital in the Ghanaian religious landscape thereby indigenizing Christianity.

This paper explores the intricate interactions of politics, religion, and law in shaping contemporary Nigeria. The focal point of the inquiry is the amended Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020), which eventually turned to be a bone of contention that has sparked heated discussions and differing viewpoints. The contentious issues surrounding CAMA 2020 centre on its clauses pertaining to religious organizations. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with some key actors, it examines the responses and reactions of Christian and Muslim leaders. These leaders shared their opinions about the new law, which some analysts describe as a deliberate attack on faith-based organisations (FBOs). The findings underpin the tension that exists between Islam and Christianity and the ways in which they relate to and view the state. It also highlights the mistrust and suspicion that characterise the relationship between the government and the people. The CAMA 2020 is a segment of broader tensions in determining the future course of Nigeria in terms of its interaction with religion and politics.

Though the Ethiopian contemporary modern governments have tried to divide state and religion, Ethiopians have maintained Covenant thinking to unite religious, political, and social principles. Covenant thinking and cultural and religious relationships created a unified Ethiopia, beyond their ethnic differences, resulting not only in religious unity but also political unity in the Ethiopian context. The surplus, or lived history, of covenant thinking has created values, social and cultural identity, and national consciousness for Ethiopians.

Key Words: Identity Politics, Lived Religion, Covenant Thinking, Greater Ethiopian Discourse

This paper examines the motivations underlying the rise and expansion of African Christian immigrant communities in Canada. It focuses on three churches, two Ghanaian and one Nigerian, situated in Toronto and Kingston, Ontario. The paper explores how these communities navigate intricate identities as ‘Canadian,’ ‘African,’ and ‘Christian,’ the implications of these identities on their integration into Canadian society, and their position within the global Christian landscape. This paper argues that African and more broadly, Black-initiated Christian communities in Canada continue to experience marginalization, existing on the periphery of the respectability enjoyed by the historic French Roman Catholic and English Protestant establishments. This marginalization is evident not only in the lack of public recognition but also in the relegation of their religious communities to the margins of Canadian scholarship. Despite this marginalization, African-initiated churches challenge stereotypes, assert multiple identities, and navigate the complexities of cultural preservation and religious expression with resilience.

Beginning in the early 1990s, a sub-genre of punk rock emerged known popularly as Krishnacore. Bands such as Shelter and 108 toured the country promoting Caitanya Vaiṣṇavism to thousands. Keeping with an established theme in punk rock, Krishnacore bands and fans announced their rejection of the consumerism of mainstream American society. However, they also explained their rejection as coming from a theological tradition rooted in the idea that "Kṛṣṇa owns everything." In lyrics and zines (homemade magazines), it was explained how one must go to the roots of the desires that drive capitalist culture in order to create real social change. In this regard, there was widespread talk of a "spiritual revolution" in which the bands and fans of Krishnacore were only one notable participant. This paper will explore the theology of consumption as expressed in Krishnacore and how it expresses the theological perspective of Caitanya Vaiṣṇavism in novel ways.

Since the dawn of the new millennium, the NYC-based but internationally recognized radical performance community, Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Church, has occupied, excavated, and politically exploited the discursive space between art activism and religious community in order to advance its sophisticated anti-capitalist critique. Over time, the group has traded in its early parody of the religious character of American capitalism for a mode of “eco-sincerity” and has evolved its anti-consumerism into a broader political ecology. Today, the group centers what they call “Earth Justice” and continue to partner with activist groups and allies around issues of anti-racism, immigration justice, and queer and feminist struggle. Based in six years of in-person and digital fieldwork with the Church of Stop Shopping, this paper analyzes the group’s “post-religious” religious saving of consumer souls, a project that also directly implicates the scholar’s imaginary in a battle for the soul of society.

Focusing on religious identification and interfaith work, what stories become obfuscated by a “fair trade” label? I base my discussion on ethnographic research with Ten Thousand Villages and one of their supplying artisan group, Bunyaad, in Lahore, Pakistan. I explore some of the overlapping but divergent meanings that fair trade may carry for customers and suppliers, with an eye to the challenges of articulating the religious aspects of projects through the standardized label. While supplier groups like Bunyaad do much more than simply prevent coercion in their production chains, their additional projects become difficult to see under “fair trade,” which emphasizes a libertarian perspective on labor economics. From consumer perspective, the label promises ethically neutral transactions, free from exploitation, rather than the ethically good transactions promoted within more insider fair trade communities. Moreover, while more expansive notions of additional good are constrained, religion is entirely excluded by the framing.

This paper draws upon temple-based ritual veneration of Shani, a Hindu planetary deity traditionally associated with misfortune. I argue that Shani temple ritual, while appearing to conform to the abundance-based economy of Hindu temple ritual, actually enacts a ritualization of the neoliberal market manipulations known as hedges. I show that these rituals, while couched in the language of devotional religion, are predicated on commodification, such that the exchange between devotee and the divine becomes a transaction that ensures prosperity. I suggest that the outward-directed flow of Shani temple rituals and his new association with a class of objects understood to ward off the evil eye consequently collapses boundaries between the sacred and the secular such that rituals performed in the temple sacralize class and conceal, but sustain, logics of caste hierarchy. As such, this new temple-focused veneration of Shani raises questions about Weber’s assertions about rationalization and secularization.