| Summary: | 博士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 成人教育研究所 === 105 === Abstract
This study is aimed to investigate the path of religious conversion into practicing Buddhism in the Chinese American entrepreneurs. The subjects of this study are six Chinese American Buddhist entrepreneurs who emigrated to the United States in 1980s. This study is based on the broad definition of transformative learning theory according to Mezirow’s views and employs qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews. This study closely inspects how the Chinese American entrepreneurs drifted and converted their faiths as well as the process, phenomenon and the practice of learning Buddhism.
The conclusions are summarized as follows:
A.Family backgrounds, growth processes, immigration history and other personal experience shape the religious perspectives of the Chinese American entrepreneurs.
B.The events that trigger Chinese American entrepreneurs to look for religious beliefs can be divided into the doubt and confusion from the intrinsic perception and the extrinsic impacts.
C.When the Chinese American entrepreneurs started to look for religious beliefs in order to cope with the triggered events, they have various options due to the diversity of the religions and the inclusive atmospheres in the United States. In that case, their beliefs were divided into three different types which are "Affiliation", "Tradition transition" and "intensification".
D.There are several factors that contribute to the religious conversion in the Chinese American entrepreneurs. First, some of them were not adapted to the teaching style of the preachers and the atmosphere in the religious group. Secondly, the doctrines couldn’t clarify their confusion. Moreover, the effect of their practice wasn’t quite satisfying as expected.
E.Chinese American entrepreneurs built up their Buddhist beliefs by using multiple methods including “listening to the Dharma preachers and reading the scriptures to inspire their thinking”, “reciting the scriptures and chanting the incantations to reach flow experience”, “meditating and introspecting” as well as “volunteering and cultivating wisdom”, which merit and accord with the four phases of Dharma practice — “faith, understanding, practicing, and realization”.
F.The religious conversion processes in the Chinese American entrepreneurs can be divided into three stages — initiation, introspection and integration.
G.The contents and forms of Chinese American entrepreneurs’ religious conversion include the psychological aspect — the capabilities of self-awareness and self-reflection, the convictional aspect — the decision and beliefs to conquer obstacles, and behavioral aspect — the behavior progress from the standpoints of the individual to the society.
H.The Dharma practice of Chinese American entrepreneurs after the faith conversion into Buddhism are classified into two categories: (a) world-transcending aspects (self-cultivation and spiritual growth) and (b) participating in the charity events of helping others in which they could get the balance of practicing Dharma and running the business.
Based on the findings, this study would provide specific approaches and suggestions for the religion followers, professional preachers and temple representatives as well as provide directions for the future studies on faith transformation (conversion).
Keywords： Chinese American entrepreneur, Conversion, Buddhism,
Transformative learning.
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