Living Buddhism: Mind, Self, and Emotion in a Thai Community

Cassaniti, Julia; Terwiel, B. J.

doi:10.1355/sj32-1i

Cited by 29 publications

(33 citation statements)

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“…The kaleidoscopic theory of mind also helps decipher norms of psychosocial support in northern Thailand (Aulino 2019). As others have noted, most forcefully Julia Cassaniti (2015), Thai social worlds generally favour a type of placidity or even‐temperedness, with low arousal states preferable to excited emotions of any variety and frequent encouragement/admonishments to keep a ‘cool heart’ ( ใจเย็น , jai yen ). In contrast to hydraulic notions of ‘letting off steam’, psychotherapeutic ideals of sharing emotional tumult, or even Christian hermeneutics of confession and the ferreting out of impurity, Thai forms of reticence map closely onto ideals set out in the Pali Canon 9 .…”

Section: A Kaleidoscopic Theory Of Mind As Entrée To Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

From karma to sin: a kaleidoscopic theory of mind and Christian experience in northern Thailand

Aulino

2020

Royal Anthropological Inst

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In this essay, I argue for a 'kaleidoscopic' theory of mind implicit in people's common-sense awareness of themselves, others, and reality in northern Thailand. Phenomenal experience is here generally understood as contingent on a host of factors, from personal habits to the influence of others, such that sensory perceptions themselves are in part a consequence of prior action (karma) with moral import. When Thai people convert to Christianity, they reject karma in favour of a God who will absolve a believer of all offence. Drawing on both neo-Pentecostal and Buddhist Thais' rich descriptions of their encounters with the divine and a host of other 'supernatural' experiences, I show how many Thai Christians maintain an abridged sense of karmic contingency. With attention to local theory of mind, non-monotheistic knowledge formations come into focus, highlighting the unique nature of the individualism emerging among Thai congregants and the stakes such individuation has for them.Johnny Srisak 1 explained his conversion from Buddhism to Christianity as the result of a single Bible verse: Romans 8: 5. He was a young man at the time -before his marriage, before the launch of his successful architecture career, before the birth of his now teenaged sons. First his older sister had converted, which was an anomaly then in a northern Thai family. He and his father eventually followed her lead. As we talked in the open-air portico of his now long-established Pentecostal church in the urban centre of Chiang Mai, he recalled a question that had haunted him in his youth. Was there no power in the universe that could change our fate and clear us of our wrongdoings? The question was a rail against karma, the force taken for granted in his social world, that which can limit one's life chances regardless of even the most active striving. Then one day his sister presented him Romans 8: 5: 'But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us' . It was the answer to his rail. Christ could alleviate all the moral wrongdoing that could not be undone directly and immediately by any other means. Johnny traded karma for sin and felt himself absolved.

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Section: A Kaleidoscopic Theory Of Mind As Entrée To Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

From karma to sin: a kaleidoscopic theory of mind and Christian experience in northern Thailand

Aulino

2020

Royal Anthropological Inst

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“…In contrast, in Thai Buddhist contexts in which I work, many people understand thoughts and feelings as necessarily fleeting. The corresponding moral code generally involves distracting others from their anguish (Aulino ; Cassaniti ), which may circumvent the need or desire for the type of “recalibrating” transformations provided by nurses in Botswana. Understanding competing theories of interiority or mind, and their historical lineage, emerges as a crucial component of deciphering local conceptions and experiences of care.…”

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confidence: 99%

Rituals of care for the elderly in northern Thailand: Merit, morality, and the everyday of long‐term care

Aulino

2016

American Ethnologist

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Caregivers’ quotidian actions challenge prevailing views of care that rely on the emotional or attentive orientation of the caregiver. The routinized care tasks provided by two middle‐aged women for their bedridden mother in northern Thailand reveal the realities of long‐term caregiving. For these sisters, care transforms “merit” and “karma” without reliance on internal conviction. This context in turn reflects how people enact values and maintain social worlds through habituated physical practices of providing for others. Ordinary care in practice—termed “rituals of care”—dislodges fixation on particular personal sentiments and affirms the study of care as a powerful tool for assessing enduring modes of moral experience as well as subtle forms of social change. [care, ritual, phenomenology, Buddhism, Thailand, embodiment, morality]

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“…Indeed, polls suggest that Thailand is home to among the highest percentages of Buddhist adherents in the world (Pew Forum, ) and that it is among the most religious countries in the world (Gallup International Survey, ). Religious studies scholars and anthropologists have long pointed to the embeddedness of Buddhism in the everyday lives, psychological processes, and moral frameworks of Thais (e.g., Cassaniti, ; Eberhardt, ). Swearer () noted that the “moral ethos” of Theravada Buddhist countries such as Thailand is founded upon indigenous moral concepts of rebirth and karma (the belief that one's actions in this life or previous lives affect current or future lives).…”

Section: Globalization In Thailandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Divinity Revised: The De‐ and Re‐Contextualization of Adolescent Divinity Reasoning in Globalizing Thailand

McKenzie

2019

New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development

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This article explores how globalization reshapes moral development in northernThailand. Employing a cultural-developmental approach to examine interview data gathered over the course of one year, the article discusses variations in Divinity-based moral reasoning among adolescents residing in variously globalized Thai communities. Quantitative analysis shows that moral reasoning diverges across contexts of globalization, with rural adolescents reasoning more in terms of the Ethic of Divinity than urban adolescents. Qualitative analysis shows how the meaning urban adolescents. Analyses further indicate that rural and urban adolescents invoke distinct Divinity principles altogether. Findings suggest that in urban settings, Divinity is decontextualized from traditional community-driven Thai Buddhism and recontextualized to align with values that are adaptive in a globalized society. This article contributes to, and offers suggestions for, the empirical study of the moral psychology of globalization.

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Living Buddhism: Mind, Self, and Emotion in a Thai Community

Cited by 29 publications

References 0 publications

From karma to sin: a kaleidoscopic theory of mind and Christian experience in northern Thailand

From karma to sin: a kaleidoscopic theory of mind and Christian experience in northern Thailand

Rituals of care for the elderly in northern Thailand: Merit, morality, and the everyday of long‐term care

Divinity Revised: The De‐ and Re‐Contextualization of Adolescent Divinity Reasoning in Globalizing Thailand

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