Zen meets New Thought

The Erhard Seminars Training and Changing Ideas About Zen

Bibliographic Data

ID15350367
AuthorsJoseph P Laycock (corresponding author), Joseph Laycock
Year2014
Volume15
Issue2
Pages332-355
Publication date2014-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueContemporary Buddhism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1463-9947 • E-ISSN: 1476-7953
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14639947.2014.932490
OpenAlexW2151768224
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited18

‘Est’ was a human potential movement founded by Werner Erhard in San Francisco. At the height of the movement in the mid-1970s, thousands of trainees in the United States and Japan participated in gruelling 60-hour seminars intended to shock the participant into a more direct experience of reality. Est and derivative seminars became popular in North American business culture and several corporations have required employees to undergo the training. This article locates the est seminars within the context of an going dialogue between Japan and the West. Erhard combined New Thought with Zen ideas about satori and sesshin. This adaptation intensified a movement, already begun by thinkers such as D. T. Suzuki and Yasutani Hakuun, that presented Zen as a ‘technology’ for achieving a particular experience of reality. Est was then successfully exported back to Japan. Examination of the historical relationship of est and Zen explains many of the most controversial aspects of est. It also reveals an important channel through which ‘Zen’ ideas were disseminated into American culture. Finally, the reciprocal exchange of ideas between Japan and the West raises important questions about such categories as ‘traditional’ Zen and ‘Americanized’ Zen

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