Spirituality, subjectivity, and idividuality in the experience of yoga and meditation practitioners

Abstract

The article analyses the process of otherness and identity construction in yoga and meditation practices, through the ethnography of a middle-class group of Vedanta students in Rio de Janeiro. The tensions involved in the processes of ‘expanding’ the inner world through techniques, strategies, and technologies of the self such as yoga and meditation are examined. A shared existential field is observed, where subjectivity is intensified while simultaneously transcending individuality. These practices seem to dissolve individuality through conformity with an external model and through the embodiment of tradition. Moreover, they prove effective due to the kind of subjectivity they allow practitioners to cultivate through their personal appropriation of tradition. Fieldwork suggests these practices are intertwined with broader ethical, social, and existential transformations that contribute to the creation of new forms of interaction.