Enacting religious submission: between doing religion and being done by religion

Religious practitioners actively cultivate experiences of being overtaken by a divine or transcendent force. Through ethnographic studies of Buddhist meditation retreats and Torah study in a Haredi yeshiva, the paper shows that achieving submission requires deliberate, embodied effort. In Torah study, students alternate between vigorous debate and surrendering to 'divine thinking' within partnerships. In Buddhist meditation, practitioners shift from conscious bodily performance to passive synchronization with 'ultimate reality.' This paradox—exercising agency to reach states that negate it—reveals how religious doctrines become personally felt through practice, making religious experience an accomplished, interactive achievement.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the interactive process in which religious practitioners work to achieve states that appear to contradict individual agency. Drawing on ethnographic studies of Buddhist meditation retreats and Torah study in a Haredi yeshiva, we track the delicate balance between ‘doing religion’ (active engagement) and ‘being done by religion" (experiencing religious forces as taking over). In Torah study, students move from vigorous textual debate to submission to ‘divine thinking’ through group partnerships. In Buddhist meditation, practitioners shift from conscious bodily performance to passive synchronization, enabling embodied submission to ‘ultimate reality.’ Both cases reveal how practitioners create interactive spaces where religious submission unfolds as both deeply personal and transcendently powerful. The paradox at the heart of this process, that practitioners must exercise agency to achieve states that appear to negate it, illuminates how religious doctrines become personalized through embodied practice, offering insights into the accomplished nature of religious experience.