Conclusion

By the Conclusion, the diversity that exists among psychotherapists’ approaches to Buddhist traditions is clear. However, Prescribing the Dharma also informs larger questions in religious studies by observing that this diversity is generated out of therapists’ shifting definitions of what is religious and not-religious. Examining common operative understandings of categories like religion, science, and medicine yields a number of conclusions not only about the interpretive utility of these categories, but their function in the lives of communities in the United States. The Conclusion delineates six central findings that can be derived from Prescribing the Dharma’s research. It is then divided into six sections each of which expands upon those findings and their application to the field.