Buddhist Therapeutics and The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care: a social science of mindfulness.

Abstract

Drawing on a 2-year ethnography at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care (NYZCCC, 2020-2022), this article examines the growth of online Dharma groups developing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. At meetings, contemplative practices (eg, meditation and mindfulness) are made amenable to secular expectations of mental healthcare. Treating these as social productions, rather than biomedical reproductions, of mind, I describe Buddhist Therapeutics as the process in which experiences of moral injury resulting from systemic inequity are collectively authenticated as aspects of mental health. This article illustrates how Dharma sharing activates its participants to confront the status quo, including matters related to the #MeToo movement, the murder of George Floyd, the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the rise of anti-Asian American hate crimes. Ultimately, I position Buddhist Therapeutics in a genealogy of injury and repair beginning with the division between mind and body in European philosophy.