Abstract
Chapter 7 cross-reads the Foucauldian and Buddhist arts of living to elucidate how the Vipassana meditator: (1) adopts as ethical substance bodily sensation and contemplates on it as an object of meditation to develop insight about the utter contingency of the experience of phenomenal reality and selfhood; (2) constantly remakes the decision to ‘let go’ and thus accepts the open-endedness of existence as a mode of subjection; (3) performs the ethical work of desubjectification by using the contemplation of bodily sensations to defuse habitual tendencies; and (4) cultivates the telos of the ongoing work of freedom by exposing the body to unexpected limit-experiences that may usher in new ways of becoming. This analysis will be sensitive to constructivist understandings of the historical and cultural forces that shape experience, whilst remaining hospitable to the Buddhist sacred claim of unmediated awareness. This chapter will show that Foucault’s criticopolitical itinerary joins Derridean deconstruction and Buddhism in affirming unconditional unconditionality unconditionally.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anālayo, B. 2007. Satipatthāna: The Direct Path to Realization. Birmingham: Windhorse Publication.
Bodhi, B. 2005. In the Words of the Buddha: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, Foreword by the Dalai Lama. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.
Butler, J. 1993. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J 2002, ‘What is Critique? An Essay on Foucault’s Virtue’, in D Ingram (ed.), The Political: Readings in Continental Philosophy, Basil Blackwell, London, pp. 212–226.
Caputo, J.D. 2003. On Not Knowing Who We Are: Madness, Hermeneutics and the Night of Truth in Foucault. In Michel Foucault and Theology: The Politics of Religious Experience, ed. J. Bernauer and J. Carrette, 117–139. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Carlisle, C. 2006. Becoming and Unbecoming: The Theory and Practice of Anatta. Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal 7(1): 75–89.
Carrette, J. 2000. Foucault and Religion: Spiritual Corporality and Political Spirituality. London: Routledge.
Deleuze, G. 1991. Empiricism and Subjectivity. Trans. CV Boundas. New York: Columbia University Press.
Foucault, M. 1982. Is it Really Important to Think? An Interview Translated by Thomas Keenan. Philosophy and Social Criticism 9(1): 29–40.
Foucault, M. 1984. What is Enlightenment? In The Foucault Reader, ed. P. Rabinow, 32–50. New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. 1991. Questions of Method. In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 73–86. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Foucault, M. 1999. Religion and Culture, ed. J. Carrette. London: Routledge.
Gilson, E.C. 2007. Becomings Yet to Come: Thought as Movement in Derrida and Deleuze. Philosophy Today 5(4): 383–392.
Halperin, D.M. 1995. Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hart, W. 1987. The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S.N. Goenka. Igatpuri: Vipassana Research Institute.
Hoy, D.C. 2004. Critical Resistance: From Poststructuralism to Post-Critique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lemke, T. 2011. Critique and Experience in Foucault. Theory, Culture & Society 28(4): 26–48.
Mabbett, I. 2006. Nāgārjuna and Buddhism. In Buddhisms and Deconstructions, ed. J.Y. Park, 21–39. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Nyanaponika, T. 2006. Alagaddupama Sutta: The Snake Similie. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.022.nypo.html. Accessed 16 Oct 2013.
O’Leary, T. 2002. Foucault and the Art of Ethics. London: Continuum.
Oksala, J. 2004. Anarchic Bodies: Foucault and the Feminist Question of Experience. Hypatia 19(4): 97–119.
Patton, P. 2003. Future Politics. In Between Deleuze and Derrida, ed. P. Patton and J. Protevi, 16–29. London: Continuum.
Thānissaro, B. 2001. Questions of Skill. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/Thānissaro/questions.html. Accessed 16 Oct 2013.
Thānissaro, B. (trans.). 1997d. Rohitassa Sutta: To Rohitassa. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.045.than.html. Accessed 16 Oct 2013.
Thānissaro, B. (trans.). 1997e. Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.077.than.html. Accessed 16 Oct 2013.
Thānissaro, B. (trans.). 1997f. Pañha Sutta: Questions. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.042.than.html. Accessed 16 Oct 2013.
Thānissaro, B. (trans.). 2004. Ananda Sutta: To Ananda. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn44/sn44.010.than.html. Accessed 16 Oct 2013.
William, J. 1977. Psychology, Briefer Course. In The Writings of William James, ed. J. McDermott. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ng, E. (2016). A Foucauldian Analysis of Vipassana and a Buddhist Art of Living. In: Buddhism and Cultural Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54990-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54990-7_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54989-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54990-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)