The Social Organization of Zen Practice by David L. Preston - 9780521183987

The Social Organization of Zen PracticeConstructing Transcultural Reality\nAuthor(s): David L. Preston\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521183987, 978-0521183987\nSynopsis\nThis book, first published in 1998, provides both a first-hand account and a theoretical analysis of the way an American Zen community works. The form Zen practice takes in the United States is described in detail through close study of two Zen groups in southern California. Preston leads readers through the buildings and grounds of a Zen residential community and introduces them to the main forms of Zen practice, paying special attention to the styles and implications of meditation. The book's second half develops a theory of the nature of religious reality as it is shared by Zen practitioners. Preston attempts to explain how this reality - based on a group's ethnography yet at the same time transcending it - relates to me.