Zen meets New Thought

The Erhard Seminars Training and Changing Ideas About Zen

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15350367
AutoresJoseph P Laycock (autor de correspondencia), Joseph Laycock
Año2014
Volumen15
Número2
Páginas332-355
Fecha de publicación2014-07-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaContemporary Buddhism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1463-9947 • E-ISSN: 1476-7953
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14639947.2014.932490
OpenAlexW2151768224
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas18

‘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

Adaptation (eye · Context (archaeology · Reciprocal · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · History · Management Theory and Practice · Philosophy · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Psychology