From Nostalgia to Nirvana: A Buddhist Epistemological Approach to Diasporic Literary Forms

Abstract

Like the diasporian, the Buddhist knows the displacement from home to homelessness. Practicing, the Buddhist makes homelessness her home. Writing, the diasporic writer (re)constructs a movable home in words. Using the Buddhist five thesis on form, this paper attempts to apply these principles to the notion of diaspora. Five new insights to the experience of diaspora are gained from this approach. The method is then applied to the diasporic Filipino poet Jose Garcia Villa’s poem “Before, One, becomes, One.” In conclusion, it is argued that the Buddhist perspective offers a new critique useful in understanding the challenges of the postmodern world.