Copyright © 1995 Midwest Sociological Society DERHHCA11ON ~NZEN BUDDHISM

In this article, the concept of dereification in religion is developed, both theoretically and empirically, by analyzing Zen Buddhism. The central thesis is that Zen Buddhism, by virtue of the Mahayana conceptof “emptiness ” (sunyata), constitutes a dereifying perspective. In addition, using the phenomenology of Alfred Schutz, the experience of dereifying perception, which is acquired through Zen meditation, is described as a statç.of focused durée. Furthermore, several of the interactional methods through which Zen prac~1fioners demonstrate their dereifying perspective are analyzed from an ethnomethodological and conversation analytic perspective, and the role of these methods in koan training is explained. Conversion to Zen Buddhism has distinctive features that are not found in most other religions. While some sociologists (Bell 1979; Preston 1988; Wilson 1984) have characterized the process of becoming a Zen Buddhist as “desocialization, ” I will argue that this process is better characterized as resocialization in which dere~fying perception is acquired. According to Berger’s (1967) social constructionist approach, ’ religions tend to legitimate alienated and reifying views of the social world. That is, the belief systems ofreligious institutions obscur