The Spiritual Migrants of Sogenji: Notes of Participant Observation in a Rinzai Zen Temple

Anomie is a cultural pathology that is becoming chronic in the West, characterized by the erosion of values, disintegration and deregulation. Amongst its symptoms we find anxiety, isolation, depression, tribalism, incoherence and loss of meaning. Individuo-globalism is a new ideology that permeates the religious market created by globalisation, encouraging individuals to discover, nurture and express their ‘true self’. This new spirituality forms the background for a journey that our ‘heroes’, a handful of non-Japanese inhabitants of a Japanese Rinzai Zen monastery, have been undertaking for years in search of the philosopher’s stone that could cure anomie and its symptoms. At first glance, they seem to have become authentic Buddhist monks. Our research tries to go beyond appearances.