Silent suasions: interpersonal mediation in Thai meditation

Abstract

AbstractDiscourse is the typical modus operandi for persuasive practices, but silence also has an important role to play in many religious contexts. In this essay, I examine how silence works as a mechanism of persuasion in Thailand, where Buddhist logics of meditation permeate social life. Through a close analysis of a meditative retreat at Wat Pradhatu Sri Chom Thong Voravihan in Northern Thailand, I suggest three ways that silence comes to create its persuasive effects: it works in contrastive relation to speech; it is symbolic of moral personhood; and it points to interpersonal corporeal attunement. Attention to the corporeal aspect of silence is especially significant, I argue, because it is through the body that the practice in Thailand acts to alter intersubjective space. Such an approach to silence as disciplinary practice, rather than attention just to its supposed effects, allows us to see how religious forms of silent persuasion can be seen as a particularly powerful force for personal and political change.