Temple of Great Happiness: a Soto Zen Community in Hawai’i

FAIN: FT-291741-23

Jessica Marie Falcone
Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS 66506-0100)

Research and writing of a book chapter on how worshippers at a Buddhist temple in Hawai'i create a shared identity through music and dance practices.

I am applying for an NEH summer stipend to support an intensive writing period—mid-June through mid-August of 2023— that will allow me to make substantive progress on chapter five of my second book, Temple of Great Happiness: a Soto Zen Community in Hawai’i. This book project will address contemporary Zen Buddhist religious and social life in Hawai’i by focusing on the evolving cultural practices of Daifukuji Soto Mission, a particular hundred-year-old Soto-Shu Zen congregation in Kona that is increasingly comprised of a unique mix of heritage and non-heritage practitioners.