Secularization and its ethical consequences: orthodox Israeli Jews sanctifying ‘mundane’ Buddhist meditation

Abstract

‘Insight’ or vipassanā meditation refers to meditative practices employed within Buddhist traditions. But following the secularization of vipassanā in recent decades – that is, its differentiation from Buddhism – orthodox Jewish Israeli meditators frame it as a religiously neutral, therapeutic technique centred on the mundane human body. They thus consider it as involving no forbidden ‘Eastern’ religious contents. Nevertheless, these ‘Jewish Vipassanā’ meditators also utilize insight meditation for improving their Jewish practice, characters, and ability to experience closeness to God; and some situate it within a national-religious historical narrative culminating in redemption. The secularization of vipassanā enables orthodox Jewish practitioners to engage with it in ways that are significant for them as observant Jews, and without continually being concerned over ‘idolatry’. Secularization therefore has important implications for people's ethical projects, or attempts to foster what they consider good. Examining these implications can both stimulate secular studies and contribute to anthropological research on ethics.