In this dissertation I address why Americans turn away from traditional religions and embark on the arduous, painful, marginalized, and unending path of Zen. The dissertation falls into three parts.
In part one, "Introductions," I introduce myself and my project (no passive voice here: dissertations do not write themselves). Chapter two treats Zen's focus on practical meditation as its self-definition against other forms of Mahayana Buddhism. I then examine characteristics of Zen in Asia, in particular tracing practices found in Soto Zen and the lineage of Maezumi Roshi, the founder of Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA), where I did my field research. Finally I treat Zen's appearance and growth in America and position in today's religious marketplace. Chapter three introduces my primary analytical perspective: object relations psychology. I defend this analytical stance, then explore the developmental theory of D. W. Winnicott, which reveals the person as profoundly social and relational, and powerfully unites mind and culture, culminating in a movingly progressive view of religion. Chapter four introduces the ethnographic material I collected in the field. I begin by defending my field methodology, clinical ethnography, then I describe methods used and data collected.
Part two, "A Psychodynamic View of Zen Development," presents my fieldwork data and its simultaneous analysis from an object relations perspective. In these chapters I begin analyzing Zen practice, viewing the sangha (Buddhist community) as a holding environment, the teacher as a maternal object, and the Zen movement toward emptiness as an enrichment of the self and its object relations.
Part three, "Further Analysis and Final Thoughts," adds two new perspectives to my analysis. In chapter ten I portray Zen's double process of creation and destruction of illusions as an example of meaning-making in a decentered religious landscape. In chapter eleven I propose this Zen growth process creates a religion qua habitus, an excellent, non-defensive paradigm for religion in this relentlessly plural society. In the last chapter I follow my own work with a brief commentary. The appendix consists of the three protocols I used in my field interviews.
