The Sociological Implications of Suixi

Suixi 随喜 , or suixi zantan 随喜赞叹 , is frequently heard in daily conversations among Buddhist temple volunteers in contemporary China. It is mostly meant as a candid and heartfelt compliment of others’ good deeds, and thus indicates that one rejoices in the merit of others. While the term suixi has philosophical and liturgical origins in various Buddhist doctrines, its use as jargon in everyday communication is not always indexed to the doctrines. This article offers a sociological analysis of suixi as a vernacular symbol whose meaning is not intrinsic but is interpreted through social interactions among temple volunteers. The practice of saying suixi therefore informs an entire realm of emotional and bodily expressions governing social courtesy and the communal identity of the temple volunteer community. Such mundane narratives of suixi open a creative mutual space for meaning making and constitute a crucial aspect of religious experience embedded in interpersonal exchanges, rather than human-superhuman relationships

Buddhism · Everyday life · Identity (music) · Interpersonal communication · Meaning (existential) · Realm · Symbol (formal) · Symbolic interactionism · The Symbolic · Vernacular · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Indian and Buddhist Studies