{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T11:09:58Z","timestamp":1788952198833,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788912000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Sociol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study examines how lay women engage with, adapt, and transmit the heart-mind esoteric Buddhist tradition known as Foxin Jing (\u4f5b\u5fc3\u7ecf) in contemporary China. Previous scholarship on Chinese esoteric Buddhism has predominantly focused on issues related to legitimacy, lineage, institutional power, and master-disciple relations. However, there has been a relative lack of focus on the role played by women in maintaining esoteric Buddhist practice via the domestic, affective, and embodied dimensions of religion. Drawing on qualitative research with twenty lay women practitioners, this study shows that Foxin Jing is experienced not merely as an esoteric ritual or protective dh\u0101ra\u1e47\u012b, but as an embodied heart-mind discipline integrated into domestic routines, interpersonal relationships, and personal cultivation. The findings demonstrate that women sustain the practice through domestic and informal lay settings, relational networks, and bodily-affective experiences involving voice, breath, silence, emotional composure, and changes in bodily tension. The article further develops the concept of somatic authority to explain how embodied transformation becomes socially recognizable as evidence of religious efficacy and a basis for interpersonal trust. These findings show that the continuity of Foxin Jing depends not only on formal institutions and lineage authority, but also on women\u2019s everyday discipline, relational transmission, and embodied religious credibility.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1867040","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T10:15:16Z","timestamp":1788948916000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Domesticating esoteric Buddhism: lay women, Foxin Jing practice, and somatic authority in contemporary China"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Tianyan","family":"Yin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Global Buddhism, Institute of Science Innovation and Culture, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep","place":["Bangkok, Thailand"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yaoping","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Global Buddhism, Institute of Science Innovation and Culture, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep","place":["Bangkok, Thailand"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daohua","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Global Buddhism, Institute of Science Innovation and Culture, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep","place":["Bangkok, Thailand"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","volume-title":"Sacred Stories, spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday life","author":"Ammerman","year":"2014"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1163\/9789004340503","volume-title":"Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism","author":"Bentor","year":"2017"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"357","DOI":"10.1163\/15685322-10534p04","article-title":"Becoming Chinese buddhas: claims to authority and the making of Chan Buddhist identity","volume":"105","author":"Buckelew","year":"2019","journal-title":"T'oung Pao"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.14324\/111.9781800085541","volume-title":"Gurus and Media: Sound, Image, Machine, Text and the Digital","author":"Copeman","year":"2023"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-137-08286-2","volume-title":"Body\/Meaning\/Healing","author":"Csordas","year":"2002"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"785","DOI":"10.3390\/rel14060785","article-title":"\u201cEveryone drinks from the same well\u201d: charismatic female gurus as \u201creligious feminist influencers\u201d in south Asian Hinduism","volume":"14","author":"DeNapoli","year":"2023","journal-title":"Religion"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"226","DOI":"10.1177\/00377686231166516","article-title":"Praying interaction rituals: prayer, ritual, and spiritual capital in a contemporary neo-guru movement","volume":"70","author":"Di Placido","year":"2023","journal-title":"Soc. 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