American Buddhism Research Articles

Buddhism: introducing the Buddhist experience

Boxes, Figures, and Maps Acknowledgments Pronunciation Guide Introduction 1. THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA The Early Life of Siddhartha Gautama The Great Renunciation The Awakening of the Buddha The Mission of the Buddha The Last Days of Gautama Buddha 2. THE TEACHINGS OF THE BUDDHA The Three Characteristics The Five Aggregates Dependent Arising Karma and Rebirth The Four Noble Truths The First Noble Truth: Life Is Duhkha The Second Noble Truth: The Cause of Duhkha The Third Noble Truth: The Cessation of Duhkha The Fourth Noble Truth: The Eightfold Path to the Cessation of Duhkha The Eightfold Path Nirvana 3. THE WAY OF THE ELDERS The Three Baskets The Sutra Pitaka The Vinaya Pitaka The Abhidharma Pitaka The Second and Third Councils King Asoka Theravada's Path of Purification Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE OF THAI BUDDHISM TODAY, METTANANDO BHIKKU 4. THE GREAT VEHICLE The Mahayana Sutras The Great Journey of the Bodhisattva Celestial Bodhisattvas and Buddhas 5. THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE OF BUDDHISM The Abhidharma Schools The Mahayana Schools Logic, Tantra, and the Extinction of Buddhism in India 6. THE TIBETAN EXPERIENCE OF BUDDHISM The First Dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet The Second Dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet The Geluk School and the Dalai Lama The Tantric Experience Schools of Tibetan Buddhism: Distinctive Practices Recent Events in Tibet THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM TODAY, GESHE DAMDUL NAMGYAL 7. THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE OF BUDDHISM Translation and Inculturation New Translations and Scholarship Persecution and Reform The Chinese Schools I: Laying the Foundation of the Chinese Experience The Chinese Schools II: Defining the Chinese Experience Persecution and Decline Later Developments THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE OF CHINESE BUDDHISM TODAY, DEDONG WEI 8. THE KOREAN EXPERIENCE OF BUDDHISM The Advent of Buddhism during the Three Kingdoms Period Buddhism during the Unified Silla Dynasty: Innovation and Scholarship Buddhism during the Koryo Dynasty: Searching for Unity Repression during the Choson Dynasty The Japanese Occupation and Recent Developments THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE OF KOREAN BUDDHISM TODAY, JONGMYUNG KIM 9. THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE OF BUDDHISM Prince Shotoku The Nara Period (710-784): The Six Schools The Heian Period (794-1185): The Tendai and Shingon Schools The Kamakura Period (1185-1333): Pure Land, Zen, and Nichiren The Muromachi Period (1338-1573): Zen and Japanese Culture The Tokugawa Period (1603-1868): Struggle and Reform The Meiji Period (1868-1912) and Recent Developments THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE OF JAPANESE BUDDHISM TODAY, TOMONOBU SHINOZAKI O-bon Festival 10. MODERN BUDDHISM IN ASIA New Buddhist Movements in Asia Women's Experience of Buddhism in Modern Asia 11. BUDDHISM IN THE WEST Buddhism in Europe Buddhism in Canada Buddhism in Australia Western Buddhism and Globalization Buddhism in the United States The Experience of Buddhism in the United States THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE OF AMERICAN BUDDHISM TODAY, REV. HENG SURE

Movable Peace: Engaging the Transnational in Cambodia’s Dhammayietra

The Dhammayietra is an annual peace walk in Cambodia that originated at the historic repatriation of refugees in the Thai border camps at the U.N.‐monitored transition to democracy in 1992. It situates itself within the discourse and practice of “socially engaged Buddhism” that has gained visibility in Asia and American Buddhism during the last two decades. As Cambodia’s particular form of socially engaged Buddhism is marked by refugee return, I will argue that the Dhammayietra’s revival of Buddhism in postsocialist Cambodia is only possible because of its transnational formation. Represented as a quintessential Khmer Buddhist response to Cambodia’s entrenched conflicts, the networks forged beyond the border of Cambodia have been instrumental in fashioning the face of the Dhammayietra. Though it forges its discursive identity vis a vis the “local” space of the nation, this local space is mobile. Maha Ghosananda’s instruction to move “step by step” toward peace reappropriates dangerous mobility—the massive relocations during the Khmer Rouge era, refugee flight, the danger of treading on land fed with mines—and turns walking into a religious act. It is this discursive “move” that loosens the Dhammayietra’s ties to the nation and allows it to slip across political and religious borders and ally itself with a diverse network of interfaith peace groups that are its transnational public forum.

Buddhism in America , and: Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (review)

Buddhism in America , and: Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (review)

Limited Engagements: Revisiting the Non-encounter between American Buddhism and the Shin Tradition

An apparent discrepancy exists between (on one hand) recent interests among non-Asian American Buddhists (that is, persons of European extraction, hereafter referred to as NAABs) in inventing a democratic, egalitarian form of the and (on the other hand) the simultaneous, continuing disinterest regarding conversation with the large Shin Buddhist tradition in Japan. The discrepancy is not best explained by Asian ethnicity in the familiar sense. A better analysis considers the peculiar minority position of any relatively religion in the USA. The sector of Americans who are currently communalist are Judeo-Christian and are not shopping for Buddhism; on the other hand the NAAB sector, which is looking for non-Christian alternatives, may express a surface interest in egalitarianism but at the same time favors individualistic, non-communalistic forms of religious practice. In the absence of deeper cultural shifts, the pattern suggests that social or engaged Buddhism in the USA will remain quite limited in scope.

Immigrant Buddhism in America: A Model of Religious Change

ABSTRACT: There have been several attempts to classify the variety of Buddhist religions present in America. This paper compares the two most widely used classification schemes and shows how they can be combined to form a model with both descriptive and predictive power. The resulting model shows how demand-side and supply-side influences propel immigrant religions on a path toward Americanization. The utility of the model is demonstrated by comparing the developmental histories of two major Japanese Buddhist organizations in America: Soka Gakkai International-USA and Buddhist Churches of America.

Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America. Charles S. Prebish

<i>Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America</i>. Charles S. Prebish

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Measures of Religiosity. Edited by Peter C. Hill and Ralph W. Hood, Jr. Soka Gakkai in America: Accommodation and Conversion. By Phillip Hammond and David Machacek. Starving for Salvation: The Spiritual Dimensions of Eating Problems Among American Girls and Women. By Michelle Mary Lelwica. Religion and Popular Culture in America. Edited by Bruce David Forbes and Jeffrey H. Mahan. The Newer Deal: Social Work and Religion in Partnership. By Ram A. Cnaan with Robert J. Wineburg and Stephanie C. Boddie. Passionate Journeys: Why Successful Women Joined a Cult. By Marion S. Goldman. Buddhism in America. By Richard Hughes Seager. Towards A European Islam. By Jurgen S. Nielsen. Life's End: Technocratic Dying in an Age of Spiritual Yearning. By David Wendell Moller. Catholics in England 1950–2000: Historical and Sociological Perspectives. Edited by Michael P.Hornsby‐Smith.

Describing the Elephant: Buddhism in America

The expanding volume of publications on Buddhism in America in the last two and a half decades bears witness to the emergence of an exciting new subfield within American religion, on the one hand, and within Buddhist studies, on the other. For Americanists, it reflects a growing recognition of the ways in which non-Western religions are altering the American religious landscape. As such, it is part of an emerging awareness of the increasingly pluralistic and multicultural nature of American society at the turn of the millennium. For Buddhologists, the spread of Buddhism in America opens a new chapter in the long history of the geographical and cultural diffusion of the religion since its founding in India some 2,500 years ago. This new subfield thus holds the prospect of studying what promises to be a momentous development in the history of Buddhism, and it affords an opportunity to study the acculturation of the tradition as it is actually occurring. Clearly this is a field where both Americanists and Buddhologists have much to contribute and much to learn from one another.

Review Essays

Book reviewed in this article:THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HOMOSEXUALITY: ARE WE GETTING ANYWHERE?BIBLICAL ETHICS AND HOMOSEXUALITY: LISTENING TO SCRIPTUREEdited by Robert L. BrawleyHOMOSEXUALITY AND CHRISTIAN COMMUNITYEdited by Choon‐Leong SeowLOVE BETWEEN WOMEN: EARLY CHRISTIAN RESPONSES TO FEMALE HOMOEROTICISMBy Bernadette J. BrootenHOMOEROTICISM IN THE BIBLICAL WORLD: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEBy Martti NissinenRECLAIMING THE SACRED: THE BIBLE IN GAY AND LESBIAN CULTUREEdited by Raymond‐Jean FrontainMOSES, MONOTHEISM, AND MEMORYMOSES: A LIFEBy Jonathan KirschFREUD AND THE LEGACY OF MOSESBy Richard BernsteinLIKE UNTO MOSESBy James NohrnbergMOSES THE EGYPTIANBy Jan AssmannPaperback Reprint !The Coptic Gnostic LibraryA Complete Edition of the Nag Hammadi CodicesREASSESSING RELIGION'S PLACE IN A LIBERAL DEMOCRACYRELIGION AND CONTEMPORARY LIBERALISMEdited by Paul J. WeithmanRELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE: THE PLACE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS IN POLITICAL DEBATEBy Robert Audi and Nicholas WolterstorffRELIGION IN PUBLIC LIFE: A DILEMMA FOR DEMOCRACYBy Ronald F. ThiemannCHRISTIAN JUSTICE AND PUBLIC POLICYBy Duncan B. ForresterNew reference sources from OxfordORALITY AND LITERACY IN ANCIENT ISRAELSCRIBES AND SCHOOLS IN MONARCHIC JUDAH: A SOCIO‐ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACHBy David W. Jamieson‐DrakeORAL WORLD AND WRITTEN WORDBy Susan NiditchSTORIES IN SCRDPTURE AND INSCRD7TIONS: COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN NORTHWEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS AND THE HEBREW BIBLEBy Simon B. ParkerSCRIBES AND SCHOOLS: THE CANONIZATION OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURESBy Philip R. DaviesTHE SCHOOL TRADITION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: THE BAMPTON LECTURES FOR 1994By E. W. HeatonEDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL: ACROSS THE DEAFENING SILENCEBy James CrenshawRELIGIOUS PLURALISM, IDENTITY, AND GLOBALIZATION IN THE AMERICASBLESSED ANASTACIA: WOMEN, RACE, AND POPULAR CHRISTIANITY IN BRAZILBy John BurdickLIVING IN THE NEW JERUSALEM: PROTESTANTISM IN GUATEMALABy Virginia Garrard‐BurnettBORN AGAIN IN BRAZIL: THE PENTECOSTAL BOOM AND THE PATHOGENS OF POVERTYBy R. Andrew ChesnutRELIGIOUS POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA, PENTECOSTAL VS. CATHOLICBy Brian H. SmithLATIN AMERICAN RELIGION IN MOTION: TRACKING INNOVATION, UNEXPECTED CHANGE AND COMPLEXITYEdited by Christian Smith and Joshua ProkopyRENDERING UNTO CAESAR: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE STATE IN LATIN AMERICABy Anthony GillOUR LADY OF THE EXILE: DIASPORIC RELIGION AT A CUBAN AMERICAN CATHOLIC SHRINE IN MIAMIBy Thomas A. TweedBUDDHISM IN THE WEST: AN EMERGING GENRETHE FACES OF BUDDHISM IN AMERICAEdited by Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. TanakaLUMINOUS PASSAGE: THE PRACTICE AND STUDY OF BUDDHISM IN AMERICABy Charles S. PrebishAMERICAN BUDDHISM: METHODS AND FINDINGS IN RECENT SCHOLARSHIPEdited by Duncan Ryūken Williams and Christopher S. QueenTHE AWAKENING OF THE WEST: THE ENCOUNTER OF BUDDHISM AND WESTERN CULTUREBy Stephen BatchelorBUDDHISM AND AFRICAEdited by M. Clasquin and J. S. Krüger

Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America

Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America

Review of: Duncan Ryuken Williams and Christopher S. Queen, American Buddhism: Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship

Review of: Duncan Ryuken Williams and Christopher S. Queen, American Buddhism: Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship

Luminous passage: the practice and study of Buddhism in America

In Luminous Passage, a well-known Buddhologist and longtime observer of Buddhism in the United States presents the first comprehensive scholarly study of American Buddhism in nearly two decades. Charles S. Prebish revisits the expanding frontier of the fastest growing religion in North America and describes its historical development, its diversity, and the significance of this ancient tradition at century's end. More than anything else, this is a book about American Buddhist communities (sanghas) and about life within those communities. Prebish considers various Buddhist practices, rituals, and liturgies, as well as the ways these communities have confronted the changing American spiritual landscape. In profiling several different sanghas Prebish reveals the ways that Buddhism is being both reinvented and Westernized. He includes the first exploration of the American Buddhist 'cybersangha', a community that has emerged from recent developments in information-exchange technology, and discusses the growing community of 'scholar-practitioners'. The interactions of Buddhist identities that are related to ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social engagement, and the healing professions are also examined. This book fully captures the vibrancy and importance of Buddhism in American religious life today. Finally, Prebish appraises the state of Buddhism at the millennium. Placing the development of American Buddhism squarely in the midst of the religion's general globalization, he argues for an ecumenical movement which will embrace Buddhist communities worldwide.

New Frontiers in Buddhism: Three Recent Works on Buddhism in America - A Review Article

New Frontiers in Buddhism: Three Recent Works on Buddhism in America - A Review Article

American Buddhism: Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship. Edited by Duncan Ryuuken Williams and Christopher S. Queen.

American Buddhism: Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship. Edited by Duncan Ryuuken Williams and Christopher S. Queen.

The Faces of Buddhism in America

The Faces of Buddhism in America

The Re-Orientation of Buddhism in North America!

AbstractThis paper applies Edward Said's thesis on the ideology of 'orientalism' to an analysis of the transplantation of Buddhism in North America. To do this, the article examines Martin Bauntann's recent model of transplantation as a strategic adaptation model for the transplantation of Buddhism to North America. In addition to this, the paper looks at the ways, in which a reoriented North American Buddhism has inherited the latent notions of orientalism.

“Crazy Wisdom,” Charisma, and the Transmission of Buddhism in the United States

“Crazy Wisdom,” Charisma, and the Transmission of Buddhism in the United States

Journey to the Far West: Chinese Buddhism in America

The direct application of Western religious studies classification schemes and labels to the study of Chinese religions and practices in the United States is problematic. Given the classification issues, the existing scholarship on Chinese religions and their establishments can be roughly grouped into three types. The first covers research on indigenous Chinese religions which were transplanted to the United States by the earliest Chinese immigrants between1854–1883 and the Chinese temples of Northern California built by these immigrants. The second focuses on Chinese Buddhism in the larger context of Buddhist traditions in America. The third includes short descriptions of selected Chinese Buddhist organizations in America, primarily found in encyclopedias of American religions. Hsi Lai's stated goal is threefold: to offer a spiritual and cultural center for the United States, to provide Westerners a place for learning about the Dharma, and to facilitate the exchange of culture between East and West.

Solitary Retreat in American Buddhism and Buddhist-Christian Dialogue

Intensive meditation has always been a central feature of Buddhism, even if it has been variously practiced. Such is not the case with the Christian tradition. Learning about intensive meditation in the Buddhist tradition-its history, theory, and practice-can helpfully inform Christians who may discover useful parallels. One way to begin this discovery is to read about a typical one-month Buddhist meditation retreat as a way of seeing new possibilities for Christian spiritual practice. INTENSIVE MEDITATION IN BUDDHISM AND THE CONTEXT OF DIALOGUE Meditation within Buddhism is most simply characterized as the development of awareness through the practice of silent, mindful attention to the phenomena of body and mind. As is well known, this practice is espoused throughout the tradition as the heart of Buddhist spiritual life. Most Westerners think of Buddhist meditation in terms of the relatively short periods of quiet sitting, typically carried out in the midst of other responsibilities, that characterize most lay or monastic life throughout Asia and now in the West. Yet this was not the original way in which meditation was practiced in Buddhism. In fact, for the Buddha as well as for the other great saints of the tradition, meditation meant withdrawing into solitude for extended periods of time and practicing meditation intensively. Westerners who do know about retreat practice in Buddhism tend to regard it as a more extreme version of daily meditation, which they see as the norm. However, from another viewpoint, retreat practice can be taken as the norm, and the short periods of meditation that layand settled monastic people can generally manage are a reflection and foretaste of the retreat experience. From this angle, in order to appreciate the intention of meditation in Buddhism fully, it is necessary to understand its historically original form in the context of intensive retreat. If meditation is the core of Buddhism, retreat practice is the core of meditation.1 Buddhist-Christian Studies 16 (1996). ? by University of Hawai'i Press. All rights reserved. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.192 on Wed, 24 Aug 2016 04:21:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

The Academic Study of Buddhism in the United States: A Current Analysis

This paper presents the results of a survey of 125 scholars in the discipline of Buddhist Studies, conducted during the academic year 1992-3. The results document the age range of the respondents, their gender, the schools at which they earned their academic degrees, their rank, geographic area of expertise, professional societies to which they belong and hold positions of authority in, journals and presses in which they publish, as well as the editorial positions they maintain, citation of grants obtained, and comparative publication data. The survey is presented in a contextual demographic framework relative to the discipline of Religious Studies and is nominally self-reflective.