Contemporary Buddhism

An Interdisciplinary Journal

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcbh20

Coping with the quarter-life crisis the buddhist

way in the Czech Republic

Mgr. Jitka Cirklová

To cite this article: Mgr. Jitka Cirklová (2021): Coping with the quarter-life crisis the buddhist way
in the Czech Republic, Contemporary Buddhism, DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2021.1929603

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2021.1929603

Published online: 27 Jul 2021.

Submit your article to this journal

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcbh20
CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM
https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2021.1929603

Coping with the quarter-life crisis the buddhist way

in the Czech Republic
Mgr. Jitka Cirklová
Department of Marketing Communication, University of Finance and Administration, Prague,
The Czech Republic

ABSTRACT
The article examines the phenomenon known as the quarter-life crisis. The aim
was to explore how young people in the Czech Republic practising Buddhism
experience this crisis and how Buddhism influences the way they cope.
Qualitative research was used to gain insight into how respondents experience
this life phase and whether they perceive the world of too many opportunities
as a challenge or a problem. The relationship with consumer culture and
material consumption was discussed along with the practice of Buddhism and
the way Buddhism-based values play a role in influencing respondents’ lives.
Respondents showed they are missing a set of principles and values to ease
their orientation in the world and their decision-making process. They found in
Buddhism a structure that helps them form a delimitation against consumer
and non-sustainable production. As a result of adhering to Buddhism and
engaging in some practices based on Buddhism, they reported more control
in self-directing together with a growth in self-confidence during the decision-
making process. At the same time, they overcame feelings of exclusion,
observed as one of the manifestations of a young age crisis. They reported
that establishing contacts with like-minded young people, whether in medita­
tion, sports centres or discussion forums on social networking sites, gave them
a sense of belonging to a group.

Introduction
It is not possible to remain ignorant of the growing number of media outputs
on topics pointing to millennials’ working habits, lifestyle demands, delaying
entry to the labour market or long-term living with parents. However, there is
not yet enough academic work addressing the phenomenon known as the
young age crisis or the quarter-life crisis, which is associated with the gen­
eration of young people between 21 and 31 years old. Therefore, the first part
of this article presents this crisis of young age on the basis of research studies
outlining specifications associated with the generation known as millennials.
The most significant social changes that have influenced this age cohort since
their early childhood are taken into consideration: the changing

CONTACT Mgr. Jitka Cirklová jitka.cirklova@vsfs.cz

© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

attitudes towards children in families, individualism and independence, with

a great variety of possibilities for professional and personal lives. The reality of
these many opportunities strongly contradicts the pressure put on young
people with an emphasis on performance or fulfiling the ideals of their
parents.
Qualitative research methodology was used to obtain a deeper under­
standing of lived personal experience to better elucidate this emerging
phenomenon, following the main theoretical approach to perceive the crisis
of young age as directly related to identity development, the dynamics of
social normativity changes and the transformation of value structures.
According to Bauman (2007), one of the main backgrounds for contemporary
identity is contemporary consumer culture; therefore, questions were asked
concerning the relationship of the respondents to the material dimension of
consumerism to shed some light on the perspective of material consumer
culture and its link to identity intensification among the young respondents.
The research results are presented in three sections. The first section
outlines the forms of experiencing quarter-life crises as they were discussed
by respondents, with a focus on the main sources of intensification of the
experience of crisis. The second section follows with a discussion of the issue
of identity rooted in consumer culture, presenting the respondents’ aware­
ness of the impact of consumerism on their life. In the third section strategies
of minimalising the negative impact of overconsumption and marketing-
constructed identity are described, with the link to Buddhism-based values
as motivation for action related to sustainability and basic self-definition.

Young age in crisis

‘We Are Having a Quarter-Life Crisis, Moan Six out of Ten Millennials’
headlined a Daily Mail article on 13 March 2018. The article was based on
research by a marketing company, highlighting a phenomenon whose exis­
tence is still rather neglected. The crisis of young age is a popular topic,
especially on Internet lifestyle forums and in human resources material or
popular psychology.
Marc McCrindle (2009) argues that the greatest threat of division in eco­
nomically advanced societies is not based on gender, racial, economic or
technological inequalities. This threat lies in the deepening of the interge­
nerational divide and subsequent intergenerational splitting. Exploring
a phenomenon that has not occurred in previous generations seems impor­
tant, not only because it can be an important part of the lives of a large group
of people, but also because it is necessary to understand the current value
models and identity transformation patterns of wider society. The crisis of
young age is a relatively new phenomenon, widespread in the popular-
science literature, and is currently associated with the millennial generation.
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 3

Strauss and Howe, who first used the name in the publication Millennials
Rising: The Next Great Generation in 1991, ensured the wide spread of the term
‘millennials’, which began to be used in the media and society in a massive
way (Simonson 2010, 79). How successful these authors have been with the
notion of ‘millennials’ can be fully appreciated by the reader when discussing
the press, especially from English-speaking countries. Ben Ishtai and Stanley
point out that the term ‘millennials’ is currently so widespread that it is
difficult to avoid encountering it, and that is almost overused in the media
(Ben Ishtai and Stanley 2017, 1054). Topics dealing with millennials as an
emerging generation and the changes they bring have dominated the dis­
cussion in several segments such as the labour market, the transformation of
family life, parenting values, consumer culture and the economic impact of
this generation’s entry into productive age. The English-language press men­
tions millennials very frequently, especially as a generation that ‘reportedly
has very different values, attitudes and expectations from the generations
[. . .] that preceded them’ (Ng, Schweitzer, and Lyons 2010, 80).
In particular, two narratives focusing on millennials and the nature of their
generation predominate in the media and popular literature. According to
Ben Ishtai and Stanley (2017), these two narratives are closely linked to the
financial situation of millennials, from which most of the other characteristics
of this generation are derived. Observing the higher level of indebtedness of
millennials and the lower value of their accumulated assets relative to other
generations, the first narrative stream sees this as a combination of rising
education and living costs, a lack of affordable housing and an increasingly
competitive environment in the labour market. This narrative takes into
account the unfavourable financial situation of millennials as a result of global
processes, considering both the negative and positive nature of globalisation.
The second narrative denies the view that millennials are the victims of
external influences, stressing that each generation has faced a difficult situa­
tion and blaming the millennials for having a low work ethic and poorly
managed money. It locates the origin of these character deficiencies of this
generation in living with a sufficiency and freedom that the previous genera­
tion never experienced (Ben Ishtai and Stanley 2017, 1055). The central motif
of this narrative is the nature of the millennials who, due to socio-economic
conditions, have not developed desirable work and life habits, especially in
comparison with previous generations. A number of social phenomena spe­
cific to the generation of millennials – in addition to the unsatisfactory
financial situation, postponing starting a family to a later age – are perceived
as a result of character deficiencies or a decline of values, and are labelled as
the result of an excessive need for comfort. This view mainly appears in the
media and popular literature, and these narratives are only partially true.
According to Ben Ishtai and Stanley, they are taken out of context but they
4 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

show that their influence on opinion formation and their power should
therefore not be underestimated (Ben Ishtai and Stanley 2017, 1055).
When the Pew Research Center conducted inter-population research, it
also examined what members of individual generations think are the char­
acteristics that make their generation unique. Millennials responded ‘clothes’,
whereas members of the baby boomer generation replied with values such as
their ‘work ethic’ (Lowrey 2013, 1). Thus, the intergenerational difference in
values often seems to be insurmountable, and the overall discourse does not
always look with favour at millennials, especially if statistics are taken into
account stating that millennials spend most of their income on three main
items: entertainment, travel and food (Jenkins in Kruger and Saayman 2015).
Neil Howe, an academic and author of 1991 Millennials Rising, responded to
these findings:
‘Call it materialism if you want’ [. . .]. It seems more like financial melan­
choly. ‘They look at the house their parents live in and say, “I could work for
100 years and I couldn’t afford this place”’, Howe said. ‘If that doesn’t make
you focus on money, what would? Millennials have a very conventional
notion of the American dream – a spouse, a house, a kid – but it is not
going to be easy for them to get those things’. (Howe quoted in Lowreys
2013, 2)
Defining millennials, like most generations, encounters problems of the
accurate timing of life transition moments. However, the current consensus in
the social sciences is that ‘millennial’ refers to the generation of people born
between 1988 and 2005 – the generation that currently accounts for the vast
majority of students and recent graduates entering the labour market
(Simonson 2010, 80). The generation has been described by various names
relating to the major events defining their lives (e.g. globalisation, massive
technological advancements or increasing population diversity), such as
Generation Y, Nexters or Nexus Generation or Echo Boomers, the last referring
to their parents mostly being baby boomers. ‘Millennial’ is, however, the most
widespread designation for this group in popular literature and society (Ng,
Schweitzer, and Lyons 2010, 80).
This generation is also characterised by its enthusiasm, the desire to
experience the new, and the desire to have everything as soon as possible
and in the highest possible quality (Žítek and Klímová 2018, 79). Most
importantly, however, the nature of their generation is influenced by the
state of the world in which they grew up. Millennials in developed nations live
in a world characterised by the fact, unprecedented in history, that they ‘live
in abundance, in a borderless environment, not endangered by immediate
war conflicts, and surrounded by modern, telecommunication means from
birth’ (Klímová and Žítek 2018, 80).
How are millennials different from previous generations? While the desire
to quickly enter a stable adult role used to be dominant, the situation is
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 5

currently significantly different, and efforts towards early adulthood are

rather the exception (Zibrinyiová and Ráczová 2016, 6). According to
Robbins, one reason why young people once adopted adult roles is that life
itself was shorter – America’s average life expectancy was about 68 years, so
around 30 years was half of a human life. This is currently changing with
a rapid increase in life expectancy, as half of a life is perceived as up to
40 years of the life of an individual – together with extended individual stages
of life. The aspects of one’s 20s, with traditionally the most significant
changes involving the institution of marriage and family formation as well
as the full acceptance of the stable role of an adult, are being postponed by
present-day 20-year-olds to much later than was the case for their predeces­
sors (Robbins 2004, 5–12). This is the result of multiple processes, in addition
to extending individual life stages, according to Robbins. One is that in the
past – and for the previous generation (the baby boomers) – gender identities
and their roles were more defined.
Defining identities and roles in an era of an unbearable number of choices
Today, young people experience a markedly unstructured and unstable
phase of life, in which the identity of the individual prevails, especially in the
area of relationships and work, with independence becoming the dominant
element (Arnett 2001), and which ‘has become something that young adults
consciously prize and try to maintain for many years to settle down’ (Robbins
2004, 6).
Atwood and Schultz define nine areas where millennials have undergone
a significant change from previous generations and explain how these
changes affect the nature of their generation (2014, 233–241). The most
significant change is identified as the massive increase in technologies that
have influenced the development of young people since early childhood. The
process of extremely easy gathering and receiving of information has pro­
duced, they argue, a generation with an expectation of immediate satisfac­
tion, and a sense of entitlement.
The changing attitude towards the child in families is another influence
shaping the personality of members of the millennium generation. Together
with family changes – millennials are the first generation where most grew up
with both parents working – the family is de-hierarchised and democratised,
and the child enjoys a privileged position compared to previous generations.
Individualism and independence is another factor that plays an important
role in the concept of maturity in Western societies. For young people
growing up in post-industrial societies, often accepting one role is perceived
as leaving all other opportunities behind. There are too many choices sur­
rounding young people in Western societies, without clear guidance as to the
‘right’ option or strong guidance toward one particular direction given by
their social surroundings.
6 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

Changes in residential behaviour, as Robbins (2004) noted, are among the

key changes that have taken place in this respect. For various reasons, young
people leave their parents’ homes at a later age, or move in with a roommate
or partner. Millennials in post-industrial societies, despite the high material
standards assured by their parents, face difficult conditions in the areas of
financial security, rising livelihood costs, and – especially in American society –
student loan and credit card debt. According to Atwood and Schulz (2008), in
contemporary Western societies, young people are marginalised on the basis
of their economic strength, which is particularly problematic as ‘marginaliza­
tion sets seeds for emerging emotional problems while increasing the possi­
bility of alternative patterns of behavior’ (Atwood and Schulz 2008, 238).
Generational conflict and a lack of understanding on the part of previous
generations can aggravate the already problematic situation. Atwood and
Schulz (2008) point out that this pressure has been exerted on millennials
from early childhood – to be successful at school, to choose a suitable
university, to find a suitable career and partner. This dynamic
can cause a vicious circle where parents try to ensure the happiness of
their children (through accomplishing achievement goals) and young people
try to meet the goals in order to please their parents, which may add even
more concern to the family system. (Atwood and Schulz 2008, 238)
This is a counterproductive loop of parents trying to ensure their children`s
happiness and young people getting anxious to please their parents, perhaps
adding even more anxiety to the family system. These pressures begin at an
increasingly early age. At the same time, millennials have witnessed their
parents’ marriages, which show a high divorce rate. Therefore, they not only
spend longer waiting for a compatible partner themselves, but also experi­
ence a long period of cohabitation before marriage becomes a logical step.
Finally, the rites of passage that determine individual development phases
throughout social history may no longer work in post-modern society. This
can be well illustrated by adolescence, which is perceived as a period of
confusion when a person seeks a sense of identity. In post-industrial societies,
however, this period occurs only at a young adult age. Delaying the change in
the developmental phase of a person’s life is related to the socio-economic
development of society and the increase in school years, thus delaying the
start of employment, which was formerly considered a sign of adulthood. On
the basis of age a young adult does not fall into the category of child, but
because they are still attending school/college as a student they are not
considered an adult.
In this article, the young age crisis is seen as an identity crisis where
a young person is depressed, full of anxiety and doubt. They see that they
have to make a number of key decisions that will have a significant impact in
their future years. The main issues include their form of housing, of career
versus volunteering, and the question of seeking a lasting partnership versus
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 7

the lifestyle of a singleton. The crisis arises when a young person has to justify
and defend their choices and decisions, because there is not enough self-
fulfilment on the path set by their parents, teachers or society. At that
moment, the familiar paths have failed and they experience feelings of
confusion, insecurity and fear of too many available options.
Robinson, one of the prominent academics dealing with the crisis of young
age, claims that this crisis usually occurs at the age of 25–29 (2015a, 10).
According to him, the crisis of young age is basically a crisis of identity, but
also of normativity, which leads to doubts about oneself and the direction of
one’s life and to states of anxiety and depression (2015b).

Identity as a Project
We can name many factors that characterise the multiplicity of dimensions of
contemporary society. Among others, Petrusek (2006) points to the signifi­
cant features that link together society as a plurality of lifestyles, new patterns
of consumerism, the platform economy, the influence of the new media and
the shift in value models. The term consumer society only started to emerge in
the Czech Republic from the 2010s. According to Lipovetsky (2007), consumer
society can be characterised by the quest to find affluence and comfort. This
type of society, where consumer culture becomes more and more dominant,
is linked to eras of economic prosperity. Individuals, as well as groups, use
consumer culture to define their sense of belonging or as a denial of a specific
lifestyle, attitude or value models. The extensive range of consumer goods
allows us to consume or refuse to consume in such a way as to demonstrate
our ethical or political standpoints (Stillerman 2015, 224).
Identity becomes a problem like never before. Experience with yourself
unfolds against a background of concern, discontent, and an attempt to
stylise into the identity of others, hoping to find your own. If, according to
Bauman (2007), in the environment of liquid modernity we are nothing more
than what we buy, then the feelings of total frustration of a young person are
completely understandable. The main feature of identity-based consumption
is the constant search for resources that provide instructions and solid
landmarks.
This was considered by Bauman (2007) to be the main characteristic of
consumer culture. Consumerism values mobility rather than stability. The
excessive mobility of shifting trends, never-ending newness and change of
things that were known is generated by marketing communication to
increase the consumption of everything – necessary as well as unnecessary
goods.
According to Bauman, we consume in order to establish our identities in
the consumer society. People’s lives are no longer defined by what they
produce and create but by what they buy, consume, refuse to buy or refuse
8 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

to consume. Bauman also connects contemporary consumerism with the

fragmentation and instability of the communities of which we are part.
Bauman’s thesis introduced is being tested by sociologists in order to explore
the interplay of arbitrary norms of current consumerism with the values and
other cultural elements of society.
Prudký (2009) sees values as the theoretical background and concepts that
trigger the activity of the individual. According to Schwartz (1992), values are
beliefs linked inextricably to affect and emotions. Values also refer to desir­
able goals and motivate us to take action (Schwartz, 1992). In his basic model,
Schwartz presents four groups of value sets. The first concerns individual
interest or personal focus: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation and self-
direction. In opposition are values regulating the relation to society and
others: tradition, conformity, security. Even though the values of self-direction
and tradition are placed in opposition, in the framework of contemporary
consumer culture they are both activated to ease orientation in the fluid and
constantly changing market environment.

Methodology and respondents

When we think of the generation of millennials as commonly defined, current
millennials now range in age between 17 and 31 years. As of 1 January 2018,
this demographic group included 1,762,801 citizens of the Czech Republic.
Taking into account the age group most vulnerable to the crisis of young
age – young people about 25–29 years old – in 2018 the Czech Statistical
Office registered in this age group about 700,000 Czech citizens (CSO 2018).
The phenomenon of the quarter-life crisis thus touches a significant segment
of the population.
In the Czech Republic, as well as abroad, there has been a large increase in
the number of Buddhist centres over the past 15 years. The number is still
growing, with the trend of including meditation practice as part of sport and
yoga practice and making elements of Buddhism widely available to a large
segment of the population. According to I. Štampach (1991), it is only
a matter of time before Christianity and Buddhism will be commensurable
in the country. Buddhism ranks relatively successfully on the list of evaluated
ideological directions, along with yoga, transpersonal psychology and the
New Age movement, especially in the sense that its influence is on the
youngest group of respondents. The production of cultural commodities
based on Buddhism reflects the social demand for a new lifestyle and value
system.
Research carried out by Robinson (2019) is practically the only academic
work dealing with the crisis of young age at length and in a systematic way.
I mention, for example, his longitudinal study involving 200 undergraduate
bachelor’s degree students, which allowed Robinson to develop a theory
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 9

about two types of young age crisis – imprisonment and exclusion. Research
participants provided data through in-depth interviews in three phases over
the course of 18 months, close to graduation and leaving university. In the
end, Robinson not only revealed two major types of crisis of young age, but
also found that the state of crisis, defined in this research as an increased level
of anxiety and depression and a reduced level of self-control, was suffered by
a quarter of respondents (Robinson 2019). Notwithstanding this work, there is
still considerable scope for exploring this phenomenon.
To explore this phenomenon for the present article, the use of qualitative
methods was considered the most appropriate approach. The research
questions were formulated as follows: ‘How do young people practising
Buddhism experience the quarter-life crisis? Does Buddhism influence the
way they cope with the crisis?’ The research questions were chosen quite
generally to allow space for understanding the experience. The methodology
and analysis selected for the topic was interpretative phenomenological
analysis (IPA). It seemed to be the most suitable for the research area, as
a method whose main ‘research focus [. . .] is the understanding of living
experience’ (Řicháček and Čermák 2013, 9). Through understanding indivi­
dual subjective experiences, IPA enables understanding of a particular phe­
nomenon. Using snowball sampling, the final number of eight respondents
was reached for in-depth interviews. Respondent demographic information is
provided in Table 1.
According to the Czech Statistical Office, 7000 people identified as
Buddhists in the population census in 2001 (Cirklová 2009). Additionally, we
can identify some groups of people who are varying degrees active partici­
pants at and sympathisers with Buddhist centres, and their number exceeds
the number of regular centre visitors (Henry 2006). Buddhism in the Czech
Republic, as in other Western countries, remains a matter of few people.
However, the traditional religions of these countries (various Christian
denominations) have also become a matter for smaller, closed groups.
According to Štampach (1991), it is only a matter of time until Christianity

Table 1. Respondent demographic information.

Level of Practice of Duration of the interview (hours:
Pseudonym Gender Age education Buddhism (years) minutes:seconds)
Jan Male 28 MA completed 7
0:52:00
Michael Male 26 MA student 5 0:47:48
Iva Female 23 MA student 4 0:42:00
Max Male 29 MA completed 3
0:45:00
Martina Female 21 BA student 3 0:57:49
Karolina Female 21 BA student 4 1:15:25
Veronika Female 24 BA student 3 0:58:25
Karel Male 25 BA student 5 1:24:36
10 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

and Buddhism are considered equal partners. His claim is based on evaluating
Buddhism as successful along with yoga, transpersonal psychology and deep
ecology, in the sense that the largest group that identifies as Buddhists is the
youngest group of respondents.
Students from the University of Finance and Administration were
approached first, followed by respondents who were recommended by the
students or responded to a call for research participants published via a social
media platform.
People who met the following criteria were selected as research
participants:

(1) They identify themselves as Czech.

(2) They were in the age category of 20–29 years.
(3) They would call themselves Buddhists. They have at least three years of
experience in meditation practice, e.g. mindfulness technique, or
otherwise consciously work with their mind. Respondents indicated
they ‘meditate’, or ‘practise Buddhism’, but only two were members of
a Zen meditation group, two were introduced to meditation in
a Vipassana meditation group, and one became interested in
Buddhism after his psychologist recommended mindfulness medita­
tion as a tool to improve concentration. The rest of the respondents
developed their interest in Buddhism while practising yoga in local
sports centres. We can identify the trend to perceive Buddhism by the
Czech society as a variation of a universal humanistic philosophy of
human rights and equality, or a method of working with the human
mind, rather than a religion.
(4) They have been going through a very stressful period for a long time,
linked to the life phase they are in and the difficulty of coping with the
challenges of adulthood.

The interviewees were students or graduates of Czech universities (social

science, law, business and finance, medicine). Two had completed secondary
school and returned to the university after a short period without study. The
sample is missing people with a lower level of education, but it reflects the social
and educational strata of the Buddhist scene in the Czech Republic. Age and
identification with Buddhism were chosen instead as a guide, inspired by the
aforementioned research by Robinson (2019) and Macek, Bejček, and Kol (2007).
Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with respondents
individually, outside the university, and were recorded if permitted by the
participant; otherwise, detailed notes were taken during the interview.
Additional data were gathered by observing discussion of the topic on
a social media platform that one student initiated. Questions raised during
the interviews and in the online discussion were the following:
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 11

(1) How do you feel about this phase of life?

(2) Too many opportunities – is it a challenge or a problem?
(3) Consumer culture and material consumption – what is your relation­
ship with them?
(4) Does Buddhism or any other work with the mind help you to cope with
a personal crisis?

A range of issues were touched on during the interviews and discussions,

including personal history, overprotective parenting and achievement-
oriented education. A topic of significant importance to the respondents
was ecology and sustainability. A master’s student was involved as
a research assistant and moderator of the online discussion. The findings
are presented in the same order as they were discussed with the respondents.

Experiencing a quarter-life crisis

Research has shown that respondents perceive the crisis of young age as
a period of stress and uncertainty, comparing it to a too-long toboggan run in
which nothing is under their control. They discover and experiment with the
opportunities offered to them at the same time, but experience feelings of
confusion and uncertainty about where their choices will lead them.
I get confused enough about this phase, I think every mistake will affect my
future. When I decided to go for a career, I am losing all the possible contacts
I could make as a volunteer abroad . . . I also feel that I must be as ambitious as
possible. I’m not. So I’m just worried that I’m not doing enough for my future.
(Karolina, 21 years)

One possible option excludes all other scenarios. At the same time, respon­
dents were aware that the time when they are not bound by family and
career responsibilities will be shortened and it will be harder to change if
decisions are made that they do not feel satisfied with or fulfilled by.
Eventually, they will lose further opportunities.
I studied law. Like everyone in the family. But I don’t like it. I didn’t know during
my studies, I realised it only after I started to work in a law firm. Everyone told
me that I would get used to it, but I don’t want to. I didn’t find myself in it. I work
with people, I train, coach . . . I learn a lot of psychology, use meditation
techniques and reach out to others via my business. (Max, 29 years)

There was a repeated problem with meeting the expectations of others –

most often parents, who greatly influenced the choice of higher education,
which respondents also successfully completed, only to realise after gradua­
tion that the field does not fully meet, or even contradicts, their internal
beliefs. At the time of the interviews, the respondents had already settled this
matter and were doing business or working in an area that brought them
12 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

satisfaction. From the field of finance and law, they moved into education and
entrepreneurship in environmental technologies. However, the change was
accompanied by a profound personal and family crisis. The extensive period
of study and economic dependence together with the prolonged time living
with parents postponed the process of selecting their own career or profes­
sion. Alternative patterns of behaviour to the ideals their parents had outlined
for the respondents led to a crisis of identity and generational conflicts.

When I was finishing my studies in finance I had a crisis. I found out that the
world of finance doesn’t interest me at all, that working in a corporation is a lot
of nonsense, superficial, and that money does not provide me with the deeper
fulfilment I have from that [Buddhist] philosophy and meditation. I don’t want
to do anything that I am pushed into any longer. (Michael, 26 years)

The respondents were equally critical of educational institutions or loved

ones who pointed out the importance of performance, results and victory.
In retrospect, this performance orientation is considered to be a significant
source of concern and stress about personal insufficiency.

When I finally finished my bachelor degree, my mother started to see me as an

adult. Then I found a job elsewhere because I couldn’t work it in the industry,
I didn’t cope with it mentally. But the family left me alone. They had achieved
their goal – I graduated. (Jan, 28 years)

They tried to motivate me by telling me to imagine how I would feel when I win.
But I found out over time that I don’t care who wins, I don’t care if I win. I want
to feel good all the time. Not just at the moment I win and then be frustrated for
the rest of the time. So I just do the same things, but slower and enjoy it . . ..
Sport, work, school . . . I came back to school. (Iva, 22 years)

From the discussion of how it is experienced and what forms the crisis of
young age, we can summarise that the respondents have a major fear of
being imprisoned in the consequences of wrong choices and of losing control
over their decisions. They went through a very frustrating period when they
decided to leave their parents’ prescribed education and work scenario.
Almost a third of the respondents have changed their career or study plan
in this way. From an area that is profit- and achievement-oriented, they have
moved into education or started their own business in an area where they
find their inner fulfilment – be it ecological technologies, design or their
artistic creations or handicrafts. They also criticised the institutions and
persons who educated them in a way focused on performance, rivalry and
achievement. They consider this an issue that only deepens the crisis of
young age.
Delayed adulthood is linked to the areas of residential patterns and gen­
erational conflict. We can observe the paradox of too many possibilities that
industrial society makes available to millennials and the contradictory pres­
sure of parents and institutions to control and moderate their choices for
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 13

a very extended period of time. This situation leads to identity crises and
feelings of being imprisoned in a life trajectory that the respondents do not
feel they control.

Identity rooted in consumer culture

All of the respondents became aware of the impact of their own consumption
and started to look for strategies to minimalise the negative impact of over­
consumption and a lifestyle constructed by marketers. The focus of the
respondents was more on quality than on quantity, the reason for this
being ecological. The quality the respondents are searching for can be
defined as informed quality. The aim is to look for goods that are in balance
and in accordance with the value models, image and identity of the indivi­
duals and their reference group.

I have accepted that it is part of the current culture that surrounds me. It’s part
of my life, but I know it doesn’t control me like a lot of people I know. (Max, 29
years)

I used to be part of a group where my friends acted like that, brands as a guide
to a happy life. It pulled me in a completely different direction than I am today.
I stay away from them. (Michael, 26 years)

One of the respondents admitted to using high-quality goods as a strategy in

his business, to create a more prestigious image, to be more influential on his
clients. But he was fully aware of this and considered it to be one of his PR
instruments.

I use it as a trick on my clients, I’m a luxurious-looking entrepreneur. It has

a credible effect on them, they see my success and try what I offer them in my
programme. But I don’t buy anything unnecessarily, no nonsense plastics and
so . . . I invest in technology, quality things. I enjoy a lot of free time, which is also
a kind of consumerism. (Max, 29 years)

Variety of lifestyle and trends was also discussed with respondents – includ­
ing among many others issues of mindful eating, slow fashion, and ethical
treatment of workers and animals in the process of production – all consid­
ered important to the young people who took part in the research. The
phrase ethically responsible consumer – one who takes into consideration
the impact of their own purchasing behaviour and who understands it as
a tool to enforce social or environmental changes – can be used to describe
our respondents. The idea is discussed by Irving, Harrison, and Rayner (2002)
and covers a broad spectrum of issues from environmental problems and
animal well-being to workers’ rights. Informed or ethically responsible forms
of consumption can also be understood as a process of inclusion in a specific
reference group or a process of creating a social identity (ibid). In Schwartz’s
14 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

theoretical model of relations among motivational types of values (1992),

feelings of belonging to a community are classified as a manifestation of
value security. In a similar way, Petrusek (2006) looked at Czech consumer
society and pointed out the interplay of material and spiritual values in the
period of late modernity. According to Lipovetsky (2007), a consumer from
the above-mentioned group is not looking primarily for social status but
rather for independence, mobility, experience and a good-quality, healthy
life.
For the respondents, Buddhism provides a substantive basis for a better
understanding of the forms of ethical consumption and sustainability. The
two concepts were approached by respondents as closely interlinked.
Buddhism is perceived as an alternative value system to conventional secu­
larism and conventional consumerism.

Buddhism as a tool and a map

In Buddhism, the emphasis on the structure of ‘to be’, compared to the
structure ‘to have’, is even more obvious and fundamental than in mono­
theistic religions. To discern this, however, we must discard the distorted and
misleading but often shared image of Buddhism, perceiving it as some sort of
ascetic philosophy. Instead of a philosophy of withdrawal from the world,
Buddhism for the respondents provides a set of norms and instructions on
how to structure and justify life choices that are not in accordance with, or are
even in contradiction to, mainstream trends and lifestyles. Buddhism is
closely connected with the process of structuring of individual identity, of
the sense of self. The construction of self-identity can be discussed within the
theoretical framework of ‘representation’ as addressed by Hall (1997, 24). In
Hall’s definition, representation is how we
make sense of the world of people, objects and events, and how someone
is able to express a complex thought about those things to other people or
communicate about them through language in ways which other people are
able to understand. (Hall 1997, 16)
According to Hall, the ‘meaning-system’ consists of writing, spoken lan­
guage and visual images, all connected in one system producing the mean­
ings for us – ‘to express and to communicate thoughts to other people’ (Hall
1997b, 18). This case study of young Buddhists constructing their self is
documenting processes of negotiating their own identity that is grounded
in a set of norms and the cultural context of contemporary society.

I’m learning much faster now, I can make my own decisions. I’m calmer and
happier. I understand that I am responsible for my own happiness. (Iva, 23
years)
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 15

I think it gave me a lot of freedom, I have a structure for every day, making
everyday decisions much faster. It’s a simpler life, it helps me every day, not only
when I have a crisis. Many of my acquaintances don’t understand me. They
endlessly solve one problem while repeating the same mistakes cyclically. (Jan,
28 years)

I totally enjoy the feeling of life in the present moment. When I hear all this
talk about shopping and anxiety about failure . . . I feel I’m elsewhere. I don’t
feel like a sheep in the crowd, but I don’t feel excluded either – just because
I have found like-minded friends in yoga, I don’t even feel alone. (Veronika, 24
years)

Identification with Buddhism-engaged groups – finding like-minded

friends – helps, too, to a very significant degree, to overcome the feeling
of exclusion, which was previously identified as one of the characteristic
aspects of the quarter-life crisis. The practice of being present in the
moment was mentioned by the respondents as an achievement, advan­
tage or benefit they realise they have in comparison with their non-
Buddhist peers. Along with perceiving victories and social success as
volatile, they are aware of the impermanence of the crisis. Therefore,
they do not feel immersed in crisis and overwhelmed by numerous possi­
bilities and choices.
Buddhist values that were emphasised can be summarised in the key
terms interconnectedness, moderation and empathy. These concepts are in
direct opposition to the values in Schwartz’s definitions of power, achieve­
ment and hedonism, with their focus on the individual’s interest. Young
Buddhist millennials structure their identity around concepts that emphasise
the relationship of the self to the society and to the environment. Buddhism
provides a road map while they are looking for a career direction and also
provides tools that help them solve issues of personal identity while they try
to establish desired patterns of relating to people and to the social or natural
environment.
Values related to sustainability and personal well-being, as defined
above, are ranked as important stable orientation points in the process of
the daily decision-making of the respondents. These values are to
a considerable degree helping them to cope with the situational pressure
to make decisions that the young adults consider right, and also to justify
non-conventional choices. The overlapping concepts of sustainability and
Buddhist values, with their focus on ideas, make Buddhism accessible to
a generation that is lacking a meaningful existential structure in contem­
porary society. Buddhism is perceived as an authentic value system
through which sustainability is not approached as just another marketing
strategy or a consumption trend. Values are trans-situational, connecting
the individual with the group, providing a sense of belonging, motivating
16 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

for action and activity and at the same time serving as a base for self-
definition.

Conclusion
The aim of this work was not to decide whether or not this crisis exists,
because the current academic consensus is not uniform. The goal was to
find out how young people practising Buddhism experience the phenom­
enon that can be described as the quarter-life crisis and how Buddhism
influences the way they are experiencing this crisis.
The age group 20–29 being at immediate risk of young age crisis is related
to the period of young adulthood. I argue that the crisis is due to permanent
social changes young people have to live through in contemporary post-
industrial societies. Young age crisis potentially affects a significant propor­
tion of the population, now or in the future. It is therefore desirable that the
period of emerging adulthood and the phenomena associated with it should
be researched in more detail.
Qualitative research was used to gain insight into how respondents experi­
ence this life phase and whether they perceive the world of too many oppor­
tunities as a challenge or as a problem. The relationship to consumer culture
and material consumption was discussed along with the practice of Buddhism
and the way Buddhism-based values influence respondents’ lives. Respondents
showed they are missing a set of principles and values to ease their orientation
in the world and their decision-making. Their search for value structures takes
the form of a strong delimitation against consumerism and non-sustainable
production. The lived reality of respondents is different from the historical
experience of the previous generation, and value and preference models are
not mutually compatible in the two generations. Different ideals and strong
and long-term interventions of parents into the trajectories of already grown-
up children intensify the experience of frustration and uncertainty, which,
along with other factors, manifest themselves as a crisis of young age.
Although the characteristics of the young age crisis can be considered very
similar in industrial societies, it can be assumed that there will be regional
specificities and differences. The current record-low unemployment rate in
the Czech Republic significantly reduces feelings of insecurity in this area and
at the same time opens the space for a stronger experience of frustration in
other areas. Respondents were knowledgeable about this and aware of it as
an advantage compared to the experience of previous generations, because
with education, computer skills and knowledge of foreign languages they are
able to freely experiment with a variety of career tracks.
They observed and accepted that the current consumerism-based society
is the given social background in which they live. They do not feel over­
whelmed and driven by marketing-based trends and lifestyles. They have
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 17

intentionally worked out a way to form an identity other than one based on
consumption. Although this meant reducing or breaking contact with peers
they had known for a long time, their value models in the area of consump­
tion began to vary widely.
As a result of adhering to Buddhism and engaging in some practices based
on Buddhism, they reported more control in self-directing and self-
confidence during the decision-making process. At the same time, they over­
came feelings of exclusion, which are observed to be one manifestation of the
young age crisis. By establishing contacts with like-minded young people,
whether in meditation, sports centres or discussion forums on social network­
ing sites, they once again gained a sense of belonging to a group.
Value structures in Buddhism identified by the respondents added impor­
tance and supported their inner convictions about the alternative roads they
chose in the market-based environment. Their actions were given inner
meaning, an existential and spiritual point of view they were lacking in the
achievement-oriented social and family environment.
The results reveal some patterns and strategies of young people coping with
the phenomenon of quarter-life crisis. On a more general level, we can observe
the contemporary form of identity development models that are combining
personal spiritual practice with responsible consumerism to overcome the crisis
of identity while replacing dysfunctional or missing value structures.

Acknowledgements
This output was created in pursuing the student project Processes of Commodification
in Contemporary Consumer Culture from the Perspective of Alternative Hedonism, using
objective-oriented support for specific university research of the University of Finance
and Administration. I thank all the students who took part in this study and all the
respondents who shared their thoughts with me.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Mgr. Jitka Cirklová, MA, PhD, is a sociologist at the University of Finance and
Administration in Prague, the Czech Republic. She completed her PhD in sociology
at the Charles University in Prague and her MA studies at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, Israel. Articles based on her PhD research have been published in the
Routledge Journal Series. She currently teaches graduate courses in sociology, socio­
logical research and consumer culture. The focus of her research work is on the
sociology of culture, identity and transformation of lifestyles, and intergeneration
changes of value models.
18 M. J. CIRKLOVÁ

Address: Department of Marketing Communication, University of Finance and

Administration, Estonská 500, Prague 10, 101 00 The Czech Republic. Email: jitka.
cirklova@vsfs.cz

ORCID
Mgr. Jitka Cirklová http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2728-8203

References
Arnett, J. 2001. “Conception of the Transition to Adulthood.” Journal of Adult
Development 8 (2) : 133 - 143.
Atwood, J. D., and Scholtz, D. 2008. “The Quarter-life Time Period: An Age of
Indulgence, Crisis or Both?” Contemporary Family Therapy 30 4, 233–250.
doi:10.1007/s10591-008-9066-2
Bauman, Z. 2007. Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty, 115. Cambridge: Polity.
Ben Ishtai, S., and T. Stanley. 2017. “Millennials in Crisis: Myth-busting Millenial Debt
Naratives.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 54 (4): 1051 - 1090.
Christina, S. 2009. “Generation Alpha Is Coming And It Will Change The World Forever.”
Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/generation-alpha–2014–7
Cirklová, J. 2009. “Development of Interest in Buddhism in the Czech Republic
Compared with Other Countries.” Journal of Global Buddhism 10 (5): 5–16.
Český Statistický úřad| ČSÚ. 2018. https://www.czso.cz/documents/10180/91917716/
130064
ČSÚ.2018a. “The Czech Statistical Office - CSO. Age Composition.” Věkové složení
obyvatel k 1.1.2018.
Hall, S., Ed. 1997. Culture, Media and Identities. Representation: Cultural Representations
and Signifying Practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc; Maidenhead,
BRK, England: Open University Press.
Henry, P. 2006. “The Sociological Implications for Contemporary Buddhism in the
United Kingdom: Socially Engaged Buddhism, a Case Study.” Journal of Buddhist
Ethics 13: 3 - 43.
Irving, S., R. Harrison, and M. Rayner. 2002. “Ethical Consumerism: Democracy through
the Wallet.” Journal of Research for Consumers 3 (3): 63 - 83.
Kruger, M., and M. Saayman. 2015. “Music Preferences of Generation Y.” Journal of
Vacation Marketing 21 (4): 366 - 382.
Lipovetsky, G. 2007. Paradoxní Štěstí: Esej O Hyperkonzumní Společnosti, 400. Prague:
Kosmas.
“Do Millennials Stand a Chance in the Real World? (Published 2013).” The New York
Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. Last modified March 26,
2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/magazine/do-millennials-stand-a-
chance-in-the-real-world.html .
Macek, P., J. Bejček, and A. Kol. 2007. “Contemporary Czech Emerging Adults.” Journal
of Adolescent Research 22 (5): 444–475. doi:10.1177/0743558407305417.
Ng, E., L. Schweitzer, and S. Lyons. 2010. “New Generation: Great Expectations: A Field
Study of the Millennial Generation.” Journal of Business and Psychology 25 (2):
281–292. doi:10.1007/s10869-010-9159-4.
Petrusek, M. 2006. Společnosti Pozdní Doby, 464. Prague: Slon.
Prudký, L. 2009. Studie O Hodnotách, 236. Plzeň: Čeněk.
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 19

Řicháček, T., and I. Čermák. 2013. Kvalitativní Analýza Textů: Čtyři Přístupy. Brno:
Masarykova univerzita.
Robbins, A. 2004. Conquering Your Quarter-life Crisis: Advice from Twentysomethings
Who Have Been There and Survived. New York: Tarcher Perigee.
Robinson, O. 2015a. Emerging Adulthood, Early Adulthod and Quarter-life Crisis:
Updating Erikson for the 21st Century [Online], 66. New York: Routledge.
Robinson, O. 2015b. “Later-life Crisis: Towards a Hollistic Model.” Journal of Adult
Development 22 (1): 38–49. doi:10.1007/s10804-014-9199-5.
Robinson, O. 2019. “A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Case Study of Quarter-Life Crisis
during the Postuniversity Transition: Locked-Out and Locked-In Forms in
Combination.” Emerging Adulthood 7 (3): 167 - 179.
Schwartz, S. H. 1992. “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical
Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries.” Advances in Experimental Social
Psychology: 1–65. doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60281-6
Simonson, P. 2010. Refiguring Mass Communication: A History, 229. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press.
Štampach, I. O. 1991. “Buddhismus Si Získává Místo Na Naší Náboženské Scéně.
Buddhismus V Českých Zemích.” Dingir 2.
Stillerman, J. 2015. The Sociology of Consumption: A Global Approach, 224. John Wiley &
Sons, Cambridge, UK.
Žítek, V., and Klímová, V. 2018. “Prostorová koncentrace podnikatelského výzkumu a
vývoje.” XXI. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách, Kurdějov, 13–15.
června 2018. doi:10.5817/cz.muni.p210-8970-2018-12
Zibryniová, V., Ráczová, B. 2016. Kríza mladého věku – nový fenomén? Psychologie a
její kontexty. 7(2).
Štampach, I. O. 1991. “Buddhismus si získává místo na naší náboženské scéně.
Buddhismus v českých zemích.”Dingir 2. http://www.dingir.cz/dingir/1998_4/
clanky/D1998_4_09.html