Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry

Practicing the Zen of Research

Valerie J Janesick

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781611329551
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315431673
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Research & Methodology in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Qualitative researchers incorporate the principles of holism, storytelling, ethics, body and mind links, relational focus, and creativity as key features of their practice. So do practitioners of Zen Buddhism. Leading qualitative researcher Valerie J. Janesick describes how qualitative inquiry can be informed and improved through an understanding of Zen principles. She calls for a contemplative qualitative inquiry that draws on the understandings of both East and West. In the book, she-explains how key Zen principles of impermanence, non-self, and nirvana apply to qualitative research projects;-advocates important Zen-based practices of meditation, journaling, and poetic thinking;-presents Zen stories, meditation techniques, and writing exercises to improve research practice.

CHAPTER ONE

About Zen and Contemplative Inquiry

A monk asked Chimon, “Before the lotus blossom emerged from the water, what is it?” Chimon replied, “A lotus blossom.” The monk persevered, “After it has come out of the water, what is it?” Chimon replied “Lotus leaves.”

Lotus koan

Introduction

What is Zen? I define it as follows. Zen is a form of Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation and intuition by following several principles. The Zen mind is a critical, meditative, and thoughtful mind. Zen relies on coming to know yourself and the world through meditation, which is called zazen. Here in the West, zazen is usually a combination of thirtyminutes of seated meditation facing a blank wall, with no distractions, and thirty minutes of walking meditation. This practice has been handed down for generations. Individuals who spend a great deal of the day meditating obviously elongate the process to a number of hours of both sitting and walking. Zen, which came from Asia, honors ancestry and the history of thought. A Zen student learns from a teacher, who learned from a teacher, etc., eventually becoming a teacher and extending the ancestral lineage of thinking. Thus the archeology of Zen helps to keep the memory and activity of the ancestry in process.

Using Zen as a metaphor, I see a way to approach qualitative research methods as contemplative inquiry. With this metaphor, we can move the field forward, as we more fully describe and explain impermanence, nonself, and nirvana. Likewise, Zen offers many koans, sutras or teachings, that help with the conduct of life. In this book, I use the concept of koans and sutras to add to our understanding of best practices of qualitative research in a mindful way. Mindfulness is important here, as it is a key goal of Zen practice. At the end of each chapter, I extend this notion to mindful activities and exercises. I use sutras about research in each chapter as well. Literally, in Sanskrit, sutra means a thread or line that holds something together. I borrow on that approach of holding things together with sutras about qualitative research techniques such as observation, interviewing, reflective journal writing, poetry, and document analysis. Finally, compassion figu es prominently in Zen thinking. Do no harm to any living thing is a basic tenet of Zen. I see the resonance with our work, as qualitative researchers are compassionate in the sense of doing no harm. As well, an entire arm of bureaucracy in public and educational institutions, the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), is dedicated to seeing that no harm, or at least minimal harm, is done in research settings.

Introducing Zen as a concept to frame qualitative research methods begins with a bit of history. Buddhism originated in India between the 6^th and 4^th centuries BCE. Zen is a school of Buddhism that began in China in the 6^th century CE. The Chinese word Chan became Zen from its Japanese pronunciation. A number of Buddhist traditions have developed around the globe with slightly different emphases, but all agree in the most critical and fundamental ideas and thinking. From China, Buddhism spread to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, and was adapted culturally to these countries.

Currently, Zen is practiced throughout the world. It is a way of thinking and for many represents a spiritual path. In that respect, you might think of Zen as a contemplative research method. I am focusing on the Zen tradition, because it is the tradition I am most familiar with and the one I continue to study. Zen uses storytelling, in that koans teach a lesson, from teacher to student, designed to provoke deeper thought. A koan is a type of riddle-like story, or thinking test. Zen also uses sutras, which are short bits or threads of wisdom and are also a type of storytelling. It is easy to see the connection between Zen and our work as qualitative researchers. Just as a Zen practitioner values the story, so do we value it in our research. After all the data are collected, we need to describe and interpret our participants’ stories. Zen also offers us a way to view the world completely apart from our own Western culture. By bringing sensibilities from Eastern culture, we can open up new ways of thinking and writing. This approach calls to mind Albert Einstein’s many statements that indicate that problems need to be addressed at a level of knowledge apart from the arena where they were created. Using Zen as a metaphor, we uncover new levels of awareness.

Zen also emphasizes mindfulness, which allows for enlightenment and insight into living. Mindfulness carries with it as well the notion of un-learning oppressive and harmful practices. The recently coined term anti-oppressive pedagogy resonates with Zen mindfulness, making the idea of Zen a powerful stimulus to thinking in a new, more expansive way. Zen has potential for influencing many fields, not the least of which is education. Certainly Zen has implications for research, and it is for this reason that I want to emphasize it as a way to understand and advance qualitative research projects. As mentioned in the Preface, Zen brings immediate awareness that impermanence is a fact of life. Everything changes. The capacity to realize and accept what impermanence means is in itself a big step in understanding Zen and in understanding qualitative research methods. Qualitative work allows for the impermanence of the social world: at any given moment things can and do change. Recently, after teaching advanced qualitative research classes, almost solely, I had the opportunity to teach a beginning qualitative methods class with eighteen students who were just beginning to understand research. What I learned from teaching beginners was that the beginner’s mind asks the beginning questions, and until those questions are addressed, no progress can be made in the research project. Beginners often take the qualitative methods class as an afterthought, following three statistics classes, and so their questions are often framed as statistical methods questions. My job as a teacher is to help beginners to realize that they will be thinking in a new way and will have to give up previously held notions about research and posing research questions. The beginner’s mind needs to be a clean mind. In Zen meditation, the beginner’s mind is wiped clean of the self. Similarly, in qualitative research methodology, the beginner’s mind is wiped clean of proving something, generalizing fi dings, or fitting them into a formula. Achieving a beginner’s mind means giving up the idea of permanence. This is the first step in mindfulness, and it includes, at the least, an eagerness to live without oppressive behaviors.

In addition, non-self, that is, the realization that we are connected to people and the entire universe, is a powerful frame for understanding the theory and practice of qualitative research. Rather than thinking of the self, which is a delusion in Zen thinking, qualitative researchers think of being connected to the entire world through the participants in their studies. Thes idea resembles the notion of refleivity and the ability to take on the perspectives of our participants. In other words, we are all participants in the research, struggling to make sense of our respective worlds. Finally, nirvana, which is the knowledge that we are one with and in the universe, can be useful here. The implication of nirvana is that the self is basically a delusion. How can there be a self, if each of us is connected to each other and to the universe? Again, we learn this powerful way of looking at the world from Eastern thinkers and writers. Once we are aware of our connections, we achieve a state of bliss, free of suffering. This practical concept is useful for those of us using qualitative methods to make sense of people’s lives: we are connected to our participant/s whether or not we wish to be. I call this approach contemplative qualitative inquiry. The contemplative component has to do with the stillness and silence of thinking with a meditative orientation. It is my intention that this book begin a conversation about these ideas.

About Koans and Sutras

Frames that help to capture the spirit and meaning of Zen include koan practice and sutra lessons. Koans, or riddle-like stories, offer a way to use metaphor throughout daily life. Qualitative researchers use metaphor on a regular basis. Since a koan always teaches a lesson, there most certainly is resonance here with qualitative work. Comparably, a sutra is a short saying that refers to a lesson in life. Because they capture life moments, koans and sutras very much capture the essence of our work, since we also capture life moments. When used in qualitative work, they connect us to our history.

One of the most famous definitions of a sutra is itself a sutra in Indian literature, and is from the text Vayu Purana, as described by Mani (1975). “A sutra is: Of minimal syllabary, unambiguous, pithy, comprehensive, continuous, and without flaw; who knows the sutra knows it to be thus.”

It is easy to see why a sutra can be useful and helpful to qualitative researchers. You might even think of creating sutras for your research. In the case of the koan, you will always find that the story contains a question and suggests an answer. Thes question is designed to give the student who asks the question the opportunity to go further in thinking. Following the Eastern tradition, the teacher does not answer the question before the student offers a response. In fact, the teacher often waits in silence to allow the learner to think through the question and to reflect on its meaning. Interestingly, the answer is most often embedded in the very question asked. As a result, research koans become a way to extend our practice, build theory, and answer conundrums. I am using Zen as a metaphor here, and purposely use it to c...

Table of contents

• Preface
• APPENDIX A Glossary of Terms
• APPENDIX B Meditation Applications
• APPENDIX C A Sampler of Meditation Resource Centers
• APPENDIX D A Sampler of Digital Resources for Qualitative Researchers
• APPENDIX E A Sampler of Poetry Blogs
• APPENDIX F Basic Technology: Tools and Trends for Qualitative Inquiry
• APPENDIX G An Example of a Meditation Journal Entry
• References
• Index
• About the Author