In Vietnam, the decision for young women to ordain as Mahayana Buddhist nuns is navigated through careful interpretations of feeling. Nuns state their decisions to “go forth” ( đi tu ) in youth were precipitated by feelings of peace and comfort in monasteries even before they understood Buddhist teachings. Such feelings are interpreted as indicators of past-life karmic bonds, which create “predestined affinities” in this life (nhân duyen ). Youth determine pre-inclination for monasticism early in life by reading their bodily reactions to Buddhist spaces with or without adults’ assistance. Nuns reclaim local cultural concepts of femininity by declaring that women have special capacities for discerning these predestined affinities and that they must assume unequal monastic rules because of their innate gendered nobility. This article nuances understandings of women’s agency in global Buddhism by exploring how Vietnamese nuns interpret local concepts of the feminine body as resources for pursuing Buddhist ordination.
{"title":"Feeling for Fate: Karma and the Senses in Buddhist Nuns’ Ordination Narratives","authors":"S. Swenson","doi":"10.5281/ZENODO.4030985","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.4030985","url":null,"abstract":"In Vietnam, the decision for young women to ordain as Mahayana Buddhist nuns is navigated through careful interpretations of feeling. Nuns state their decisions to “go forth” ( đi tu ) in youth were precipitated by feelings of peace and comfort in monasteries even before they understood Buddhist teachings. Such feelings are interpreted as indicators of past-life karmic bonds, which create “predestined affinities” in this life (nhân duyen ). Youth determine pre-inclination for monasticism early in life by reading their bodily reactions to Buddhist spaces with or without adults’ assistance. Nuns reclaim local cultural concepts of femininity by declaring that women have special capacities for discerning these predestined affinities and that they must assume unequal monastic rules because of their innate gendered nobility. This article nuances understandings of women’s agency in global Buddhism by exploring how Vietnamese nuns interpret local concepts of the feminine body as resources for pursuing Buddhist ordination.","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"21 1","pages":"71-86"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48237227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shinnyo-en, and other twentieth-century Buddhist lay movements emerging from older monastic and temple institutions, reconfigures elements of “traditional” Buddhism and “folk” religion to meet the conditions of modernity. Shinnyo-en’s founders and their successors envisioned a particular strategy for being Buddhist in modernity, one which aligns with some, but not all, scholarly characterizations of Buddhist modernism. As a result, Shinnyo-en and other lay organizations have largely remained on the margins of Buddhist studies despite their apparent popularity and proliferation. This article offers a new category for theorizing and positioning such organizations as contramodern —connected with, but divergent from mainstream forms of Buddhist modernism. In this light the emergence of Shinnyo-en in the 1930s, and the soteriological centrality of its founders’ lives, can be better understood in their historical and social contexts as being both connected to over one-thousand years of Shingon tradition and completely unique. The concept of contramodernism opens scholarly discussion of the many forms of Buddhism extant in modernity to those movements and organizations that are historically new, yet not entirely modernist.
{"title":"Buddhist Contramodernism: Shinnyo-en’s Reconfigurations of Tradition for Modernity","authors":"Casey Collins","doi":"10.5281/ZENODO.4030975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.4030975","url":null,"abstract":"Shinnyo-en, and other twentieth-century Buddhist lay movements emerging from older monastic and temple institutions, reconfigures elements of “traditional” Buddhism and “folk” religion to meet the conditions of modernity. Shinnyo-en’s founders and their successors envisioned a particular strategy for being Buddhist in modernity, one which aligns with some, but not all, scholarly characterizations of Buddhist modernism. As a result, Shinnyo-en and other lay organizations have largely remained on the margins of Buddhist studies despite their apparent popularity and proliferation. This article offers a new category for theorizing and positioning such organizations as contramodern —connected with, but divergent from mainstream forms of Buddhist modernism. In this light the emergence of Shinnyo-en in the 1930s, and the soteriological centrality of its founders’ lives, can be better understood in their historical and social contexts as being both connected to over one-thousand years of Shingon tradition and completely unique. The concept of contramodernism opens scholarly discussion of the many forms of Buddhism extant in modernity to those movements and organizations that are historically new, yet not entirely modernist.","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"21 1","pages":"51-69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47516274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the New Kadampa Tradition’s North American missionary deployment of the epithet “Modern Buddhism” in publicity, text, and teaching. I argue that while “Modern Buddhism” branding supports the NKT’s international growth by promoting its founder’s teachings as universally accessible and not Tibetan, those teachings are more continuous with traditional Geluk doctrine than with David McMahan’s (2008) portrayal of Buddhist modernism. Specifically, I find minimal evidence of detraditionalization, demythologization, and psychologization in the NKT founder’s 2011 book Modern Buddhism and in public meditation instruction derived therefrom at a Canadian NKT center. My findings locate the NKT’s deployment of the “Modern Buddhism” brand within a graduated missionizing strategy that combines promotional modernism and pedagogical traditionalism to attract North American non-Buddhists by offering culturally desired, this-worldly benefits (e.g., stress reduction) followed by less familiar, other-worldly Buddhist goals (e.g., happiness in future lives).
{"title":"Branding a New Buddhist Movement: The New Kadampa Tradition’s Self- Identification as “Modern Buddhism”","authors":"Christopher Emory-Moore","doi":"10.5281/4030961","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/4030961","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the New Kadampa Tradition’s North American missionary deployment of the epithet “Modern Buddhism” in publicity, text, and teaching. I argue that while “Modern Buddhism” branding supports the NKT’s international growth by promoting its founder’s teachings as universally accessible and not Tibetan, those teachings are more continuous with traditional Geluk doctrine than with David McMahan’s (2008) portrayal of Buddhist modernism. Specifically, I find minimal evidence of detraditionalization, demythologization, and psychologization in the NKT founder’s 2011 book Modern Buddhism and in public meditation instruction derived therefrom at a Canadian NKT center. My findings locate the NKT’s deployment of the “Modern Buddhism” brand within a graduated missionizing strategy that combines promotional modernism and pedagogical traditionalism to attract North American non-Buddhists by offering culturally desired, this-worldly benefits (e.g., stress reduction) followed by less familiar, other-worldly Buddhist goals (e.g., happiness in future lives).","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"21 1","pages":"11-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41911659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: Alternate Buddhist Modernities","authors":"J. Harding, V. Hori, A. Soucy","doi":"10.5281/ZENODO.4030971","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.4030971","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"21 1","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48098489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The modernization of Buddhism since the late nineteenth century has mostly been interpreted as a process of adaptation to rationalist trends of Western modernity. This understanding is particularly influential in the interpretation of modernized Buddhism in Sri Lanka via the use of the compelling term ‘Protestant Buddhism’, which emphasizes not only rationalist interpretations of Buddhism but also practices imitative of Protestant Christianity such as Sunday schools. This article argues that the modernizing efforts of Sri Lankan Buddhists were far more diverse than the above characterization. Further, the modernization of Buddhism was not just a project of the bourgeoisie. This paper reveals how both elite and non-elite Buddhist activists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made use of the newly acquired print technology to promote the devotional ritual of venerating the Buddha through printed liturgical booklets, while also recasting this ritual as a principal marker of Buddhist identity. This new emphasis on devotionalism, while seemingly traditional, was in fact another form of modernist response to colonialism and globalization.
{"title":"Reviving the Buddha: The Use of the Devotional Ritual of Buddha-Vandanā in the Modernization of Buddhism in Colonial Sri Lanka","authors":"Soorakkulame Pemaratana","doi":"10.5281/ZENODO.4030979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.4030979","url":null,"abstract":"The modernization of Buddhism since the late nineteenth century has mostly been interpreted as a process of adaptation to rationalist trends of Western modernity. This understanding is particularly influential in the interpretation of modernized Buddhism in Sri Lanka via the use of the compelling term ‘Protestant Buddhism’, which emphasizes not only rationalist interpretations of Buddhism but also practices imitative of Protestant Christianity such as Sunday schools. This article argues that the modernizing efforts of Sri Lankan Buddhists were far more diverse than the above characterization. Further, the modernization of Buddhism was not just a project of the bourgeoisie. This paper reveals how both elite and non-elite Buddhist activists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made use of the newly acquired print technology to promote the devotional ritual of venerating the Buddha through printed liturgical booklets, while also recasting this ritual as a principal marker of Buddhist identity. This new emphasis on devotionalism, while seemingly traditional, was in fact another form of modernist response to colonialism and globalization.","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"21 1","pages":"29-50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45016720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay explores the possibility of a complete secular redefinition of Buddhism. It argues that such a secular re-formation would go beyond modifying a traditional Buddhist school, practice or ideology to make it more compatible with modernity, but would involve rethinking the core ideas on which the very notion of “Buddhism” is based. Starting with a critical reading of the four noble truths, as presented in the Buddha’s first discourse, the author proposes that instead of thinking of awakening in terms of “truths” to be understood one thinks of it in terms of “tasks” to be accomplished. Such a pragmatic approach may open up the possibility of going beyond the belief-based metaphysics of classical Indian soteriology (Buddhism 1.0) to a praxis-based, post-metaphysical vision of the dharma (Buddhism 2.0).
{"title":"Secular Buddhism","authors":"Stephen Batchelor","doi":"10.12987/9780300227581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300227581","url":null,"abstract":"This essay explores the possibility of a complete secular redefinition of Buddhism. It argues that such a secular re-formation would go beyond modifying a traditional Buddhist school, practice or ideology to make it more compatible with modernity, but would involve rethinking the core ideas on which the very notion of “Buddhism” is based. Starting with a critical reading of the four noble truths, as presented in the Buddha’s first discourse, the author proposes that instead of thinking of awakening in terms of “truths” to be understood one thinks of it in terms of “tasks” to be accomplished. Such a pragmatic approach may open up the possibility of going beyond the belief-based metaphysics of classical Indian soteriology (Buddhism 1.0) to a praxis-based, post-metaphysical vision of the dharma (Buddhism 2.0).","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"13 1","pages":"87-107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43310737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"American Dharma, by Ann Gleig","authors":"Natalie Fisk Quli","doi":"10.5281/ZENODO.3490822","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3490822","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"139-142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49191133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article discusses material religion in a commercial setting and sets off this discussion with Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936). Benjamin argues that mechanical reproduction emancipated works of art from religious rituals and evaporated the aura of art. This has resonance among some Tibetan Buddhists in the context of mass-produced Buddhist material objects. Are such objects fit to be given as gifts, implemented in rituals, and worshipped on altars? Based upon ethnographic work at a Tibetan Buddhist market in urban China, the article argues that although objects manufactured in factories for profit are not made or handled according to Buddhist tradition, the aura can be produced in different ways and at different points of an object’s life.
{"title":"The Aura of Buddhist Material Objects in the Age of Mass-Production","authors":"Trine Brox","doi":"10.5281/ZENODO.3238213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3238213","url":null,"abstract":"The article discusses material religion in a commercial setting and sets off this discussion with Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936). Benjamin argues that mechanical reproduction emancipated works of art from religious rituals and evaporated the aura of art. This has resonance among some Tibetan Buddhists in the context of mass-produced Buddhist material objects. Are such objects fit to be given as gifts, implemented in rituals, and worshipped on altars? Based upon ethnographic work at a Tibetan Buddhist market in urban China, the article argues that although objects manufactured in factories for profit are not made or handled according to Buddhist tradition, the aura can be produced in different ways and at different points of an object’s life.","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"105-125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45006996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes the historical and contemporary relations between Buddhism, economy, and materiality. It shows how, on the one hand, the sangha has been a preconditioning catalyst for and continuous generator of economic development, while, on the other hand, economic transactions and wealth generation have been preconditioning contexts for the development and maintenance of the Buddhist sangha. This is argued for by referring to two modes of economic transactions: a “secular economy,” a byproduct of the sangha’s engagement with the secular world, and a “religious economy,” based on economic transactions related to Buddhist ideas, practices, objects, and institutions. Max Weber’s ideas of the “Protestant ethic” and Robert Bellah’s model of religious evolution are used as theoretical frameworks to analyze possible correspondences between religion, economy, and cultural evolution. It is suggested that Buddhism has also played a significant role in economic and civilizational development in (especially East) Asia.
{"title":"Spiritual Capital and Religious Evolution: Buddhist Values and Transactions in Historical and Contemporary Perspective","authors":"J. Borup","doi":"10.5281/ZENODO.3238217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3238217","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the historical and contemporary relations between Buddhism, economy, and materiality. It shows how, on the one hand, the sangha has been a preconditioning catalyst for and continuous generator of economic development, while, on the other hand, economic transactions and wealth generation have been preconditioning contexts for the development and maintenance of the Buddhist sangha. This is argued for by referring to two modes of economic transactions: a “secular economy,” a byproduct of the sangha’s engagement with the secular world, and a “religious economy,” based on economic transactions related to Buddhist ideas, practices, objects, and institutions. Max Weber’s ideas of the “Protestant ethic” and Robert Bellah’s model of religious evolution are used as theoretical frameworks to analyze possible correspondences between religion, economy, and cultural evolution. It is suggested that Buddhism has also played a significant role in economic and civilizational development in (especially East) Asia.","PeriodicalId":37110,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"49-68"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46486050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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