Contemporary Buddhist Research Articles

Can Mindful Politics Be Meaningful Politics? Socially Engaged Buddhism as a Political Project within a Liberal Political Order

Throughout the Western political world, and particularly in the United States, contemporary Buddhist political thought has largely become synonymous with the movement of mindful politics, also known as Socially Engaged Buddhism. Focusing primarily on issues of social, economic, and environmental justice, mindful politics has found a natural ally in Western left-wing and progressive movements to the degree that Buddhist political thought in the United States is now seemingly indistinguishable from these Western political positions as a practical matter. While the practical alliance of Socially Engaged Buddhism and progressivism is well established, what is less clear is what the movement of mindful politics brings to this relationship beyond its Buddhist veneer. By basing its political project on the secularization of Buddhist compassion (karuṇā), mindful politics fails in creating a political project which can be compelling to those outside of the confines of Buddhist religious belief and practice. While the mindful politics movement and contemporary liberal progressivism share an overlap in policy commitments, the religious roots of Buddhist mindful politics ultimately preclude it from properly aligning with the pluralistic requirements of the prevailing liberal political order. This article will examine the foundations of Socially Engaged Buddhism and explore the standing of the possibility of Socially Engaged Buddhism as the foundation for a political project within the confines of a liberal political order.

Eating Like a Buddhist: Vegetarianism and Ethical Foodscapes in the Twenty-First Century

This paper focuses on oft-overlooked vegan and vegetarian practices among contemporary Buddhist communities in Asia and Europe. It synthesises findings from a range of Buddhism-related contexts with an emphasis on transnational and Internet-based communities. Exploring multifaceted food imaginaries, foodways and placemaking practices, it argues that communities of engaged Buddhists, at different scales, deliberately resist mainstream food markets.

The “Kammatthan Buddhist Tradition” of Mainland Southeast Asia: Where Do We Stand?

This review article explores the distinctive Tai–Khmer Buddhist tradition of meditation, so-called kammaṭṭhān(a) or yogāvacar(a) tradition in recent literature, initially identified by T.W. Rhys Davids in the late 19th century. French scholars like F. Bizot and British scholar K. Crosby have continued to study this tradition, revealing its unique practices and vernacular literature in mainland Southeast Asia. Crosby’s recent work, Esoteric Theravada: The Story of the Forgotten Meditation Tradition of Southeast Asia (2020), is critically examined in this study. The analysis assesses her new findings, discusses her sources, and offers reflections to enhance understanding within contemporary Buddhist studies.

Buddhist Heritage With(out) Borders: The Mahābodhi Temple in the Thai National Imagination and Cultural Practices

ABSTRACT This article seeks to examine Thailand’s involvement in the revival of Bodh Gayā, the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment during the twentieth century, and shed light on the motives and results stemming from Thai cultural practices. To this end, I will analyse the specific elements of Thai culture at the original site, primarily through the symbolism of Thai Buddhism, art, and the theory of the righteous rulership, and explore the virtual evocations of the Mahābodhi in Thailand. I argue that the re-invention resulted in two things. On the one hand, it provided tools for the legitimation of the Thai monarch through the concept of righteous kingship, as well as for the demonstration of Thailand as the paramount contemporary Buddhist centre of the world. On the other hand, it has revived and popularised the practice of constructing life-size replicas in Thailand, thereby enriching, and changing previous habits of pilgrimage.

Western Buddhism and Transpersonal Psychology: Cross-Hermeneutic and Engaged Approaches

Contemporary Buddhism has been fashioned from cross-cultural interactions between a long history of Asian traditions and the expansionist drive of modernity. As part of this engagement, Buddhism, particularly in the West, has developed a close relation with transpersonal psychology. This essay forms an introduction to the special issue of articles approaching this relation between Buddhism and psychology in different ways. While some articles probe the difference in aims of the two disciplines, some are concerned with the decontextualized uses of Buddhist techniques such as mindfulness, some explore the possibilities of Buddhist practice in cognitive or other psychological terms and some ground Buddhism in ecopsychological concerns as forms of engagement. This paper outlines the historiography of modern Buddhism and introduces the papers in this special issue of IJTS.

Buddhist Transformation in the Digital Age: AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Humanistic Buddhism

Humanistic Buddhism is one of the mainstreams of modern Buddhism, with special emphasis on the humanistic dimension. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Humanistic Buddhism is also at an important stage of modernization and transformation, thus facing a continuous negotiation between religious values and technological innovations. This paper first argues that AI is technically beneficial to the propagation of Buddhism by citing several cases in which AI technology has been used in Buddhism. Then, by comparing Master Hsing Yun’s Buddhist ethics to “Posthuman” ethics, it points out that the theories of Humanistic Buddhism share similarities with AI and Posthuman ethics. Among them, Master Hsing Yun’s theory of “the nature of insentient beings” provides an important theoretical reference for the question of “whether AI can become a Buddha”. From the technical and ethical dimensions, it points out that the interaction between Humanistic Buddhism and AI can promote original uses or implementations of AI technology. However, it should also be noted that compared to the cases of “Artificial Narrow Intelligence”discussed in the paper, the “Strong AI” could lead to much more ethical crises. It is also likely to cause the cult of science and technology, and thus subvert the humanistic tradition of Buddhism with a new instrumental rationality. In addition, there are some potential pitfalls that Humanistic Buddhism may encounter when using AI. Hence, while it is necessary to encourage the use of technologies such as AI in contemporary Buddhism, it is also important for Buddhism to keep a critical distance from digital technologies.

Unveiling Hangzhou’s Intellectual Legacy: Chinese Buddhist Reference Works and Knowledge Production in the Song and Beyond

This article explores Hangzhou’s multifaceted role in shaping Chinese Buddhist culture and contributing to knowledge production. As a vital hub of Chinese material and intellectual culture, Hangzhou’s significant contributions to Buddhism are emphasized, shedding light on its key role in disseminating Buddhist teachings and preserving knowledge. The study delves into the rich history of Buddhist reference works, particularly leishu, showcasing how these compilations were pivotal in organizing and transmitting Buddhist wisdom. The article connects Hangzhou’s intellectual legacy to the broader context of Chinese Buddhism, emphasizing its crucial position in the development and dissemination of Buddhist doctrines. Additionally, it highlights ongoing academic efforts to compile an Encyclopedia of Hangzhou Buddhist Culture, underscoring Hangzhou’s continued importance in contemporary Buddhist scholarship.

Response to Focus Issue: Buddhist Moral Emotions

ABSTRACTHeim responds to the five articles by anthropologists concerned with contemporary Buddhist practices and ideologies of emotions, arguing that a history of emotions approach that attends to the centrality of emotions and their evaluations can be important for ethics. She submits that while sometimes studies of moral psychology in Buddhist ethics have focused on individuals, these articles suggest how emotions can have a very public and collective impact on social, economic, and political life. She is also interested in how these anthropological studies of contemporary Buddhist communities trouble textual accounts of Buddhist ethics on central questions of giving, karma, merit, and compassion.

Chinese Lunar Stations and Indian Nakṣatras in the Sui and Tang Periods

The twenty-eight “lunar stations” (ershiba xiu 二十八宿) are unique in Chinese intellectual history in that they served as functional equivalents for Indian nakṣatras, which are also a type of lunar station (or mansion), but in practice these were quite different from the comparable Chinese system. The native Chinese lore of lunar stations as it was understood in the Sui period was outlined in the Wuxing dayi 五行大義 by Xiao Ji 蕭吉 (c. 530–610), which is a manual of Chinese metaphysics free of any Buddhist influences. We might compare the content in this text to writings by contemporary Buddhists, such as Jizang 吉藏 (549–623) and Zhiyi 智顗 (539–598), to illustrate the extent to which native, rather than foreign, astral lore took precedence in the writings of Buddhists in the Sui and Tang periods. This study will demonstrate that Buddhists in China struggled with understanding the nakṣatras and even when faced with the opportunity to adopt an orthodox Indian model, they shifted toward a kind of hybridized system.

The Transnational Experience of a Chinese Buddhist Master in the Asian Buddhist Network

Wuqian (1922–2010) was one of the most important modern Buddhist masters in the modern history of Sino-Indian Buddhist relations. In his early years, he studied all the major schools of the Buddhist tradition, focusing on Yogācāra philosophy, probably due to Xuanzang’s influence and in alignment with contemporary Buddhist trends. Furthermore, he became one of the few masters from the Central Plains who received systematic training in Tibetan Buddhist tantric rituals. He went to India in the middle of the 20th century. He dedicated his life to the revival of Buddhist thought in India, especially promoting Chinese Buddhism in Calcutta by establishing Buddhist institutions, managing Buddhist sites, organizing Buddhist activities, and building the Xuanzang Temple. In his later years, he devoted himself to facilitating mutual Buddhist exchanges and monastic visits between Buddhist organizations in mainland China, Taiwan, and India. In 1998, he presented two Buddhist relics to the Daci’en Temple in Xi’an. At the beginning of the 21st century, he established the Institute of Buddhist Studies at Xuanzang Temple in Calcutta. He organized the translation of many important Buddhist treatises, again reflecting his intention of following the spirit of Xuanzang to contribute to Chinese Buddhism. His transnational journey manifested that there was an active Asian Buddhist network during the Cold War era, despite various difficulties.

The Subject’s Guide to the Realms of Karma

This article analyses the work of the Dharma Master Taixu, one of the leading figures of Chinese Buddhism in the Republican Period. Its analysis focuses on the meaning of concepts such as “human life,” “freedom,” and “karma” in Taixu’s seminal writings on the role of Buddhism in modern society, politics, and science from the 1920s and early 1930s. The succession of reading notes and reflections on these quintessential concepts in Taixu’s works aims at shedding some light on the relationship between subject and object, and the key question of the autonomy of the subject in modern Chinese Buddhism. Finally, by trying to illuminate the content of the ideas of subject and freedom in the work of this key figure, whose work is a foundational building block in the modernization of Buddhism in East Asia, the present discussion aims at casting some new light on the origins and theoretical foundations of contemporary Buddhism in Taiwan as well as in the broader Chinese cultural sphere.

Rationalising the Business Structure of Contemporary Buddhist Organisations in Malaysia: A Case Study of Five Buddhist Charities

Many contemporary Buddhist organisations have registered in Malaysia since the early 21st century. This article aims to analyse the issues of rationalisation in terms of the structure of organisational and the business concepts of five contemporary Buddhist organisations. In-depth interview, telephone interview, and observation were the methods used to gather qualitative data from the informants and the websites of the selected organisations. Weber’s concepts of rationalisation were employed to analyse data collected from the field as well as the secondary data. In terms of the organisational structure, our analysis revealed that two out of five selected Buddhist organisations, namely Kechara and Tzu Chi, are highly structured and formalised. In addition, their bureaucracy is in line with Weber’s rationalisation model that emphasised calculability, predictability, control, and capitalism. In terms of business, two out of five selected Buddhist organisations, namely the Buddha’s Light International Association and the Nalanda Buddhist Society do not participate in business. In other words, these two organisations showed that the Buddhist’s norm and values do not rationalise the believers into accumulating wealth as their goal and then creating the spirit of capitalism. However, the Kechara, Tzu Chi, and Buddhist Business Network do actively participate in business activities to generate their own income. The elements of calculability, predictability, control, and capitalism are significant in all the three organisations’ business involvement too. Overall, this study has indirectly highlighted the similarities and differences of the five selected contemporary Buddhist organisations in Malaysia with respect to their structure of organisation and business involvement based on Weber’s concepts of rationalisation.

Relationships between Religious and Scientific Worldviews in the Narratives of Western Buddhists Reporting Meditation-Related Challenges

Contemporary Buddhist meditators in the West are likely to find themselves engaged in practices with rich associations with both religious and scientific worldviews. Meditation-related challenges can provoke existential concerns that make unexplored relationships between religious and scientific worldviews more important and explicit for Western Buddhist meditators, who may turn to both religion and science for making sense of these challenges. Interviews with 68 meditators and 33 meditation experts were analyzed to examine how meditators and meditation teachers understand the roles of, and relationships between, scientific and religious worldviews in the context of meditation-related challenges. Observed themes included: conflict between science and religion, compatibility between science and religion, nested relationships between science and religion, science and religion as discrete domains, and complementarity between science and religion. These themes suggest an expansion of existing understandings of the relationships between religion and science as they apply to Buddhist meditators, especially in the context of meditation-related challenges. The variety of relationships between religion and science, their existential relevance for meditators, and their interaction with responses to meditation-related challenges suggest that varied relationships between religious and scientific worldviews are important considerations in the scientific study of contemplative practices. Nuanced understandings of how religion and science relate may also benefit practitioners, experts, and their communities when addressing meditation-related challenges.

Rights talk in a genocide: Myanmar as a lens for the problem of rights in Buddhist political thought

ABSTRACT With their integration into the global political world, the historically Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia have begun to augment, sometimes to the point of replacement, their traditional political structures with Westernized political institutions. Despite these formal changes, far less development has been made as a matter of underlying political theory. Though the language of contemporary Buddhist political thought and action is colored with talk of rights, it remains unclear how firmly this new orientation is founded. The consequences of this mixture of Western democratic political forms built upon an underlying foundation of Buddhist political theory can be seen in the developing human rights crisis in Myanmar. On the subject of the Muslim Rohingya, advocates of Burmese democracy, such as Aung San Suu Kyi, have seemingly found common cause with the military junta, with the country’s newly-minted democratic institutions proving themselves to be inadequate as a means of sustaining rights protections for the religious minority group. This paper examines the standing of rights-language in Buddhist political thought and how these concepts have thus far proven insufficient as a surrogate to similar conceptions in the liberal tradition as a foundation for political protections.

BUDDHISM AND BUSINESS: MERIT, MATERIAL WEALTH, AND MORALITY IN THE GLOBAL MARKET ECONOMY . Edited by TrineBrox and ElizabethWilliams‐Oerberg, Contemporary Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2020 . Hardback, $80.00; Paperback, $30.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 49, Issue 1 p. 106-106 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Buddhism BUDDHISM AND BUSINESS: MERIT, MATERIAL WEALTH, AND MORALITY IN THE GLOBAL MARKET ECONOMY . Edited by Trine Brox and Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg, Contemporary Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2020 . Hardback, $80.00; Paperback, $30.00. First published: 24 April 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.16319Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume49, Issue1Special Issue: Unique Approaches to Christianity in Africa and BeyondMarch 2023Pages 106-106 RelatedInformation

Umandawa: Buddhist Transformation in Modern Sri Lanka

Charismatic Buddhist monks are instrumental in modernising Buddhism as they have been entrusted with an important role of resurrecting religion and Sinhala society throughout the course of Sri Lankan history. Ven. Pitaduwe Siridhamma, later known as Siri Samanthabhadra Arahat Thero, is known as a cosmopolitan modernist monk figure who envisions a modernised form of Buddhism in recent times, which is derived creatively from the discourses and practical ideals in traditional Buddhism. He went further by founding his style initiatives to address Buddhist transformations in modern Sri Lanka. Samanthabhadra revolutionised the monastery space, allowing his supporters to embrace ideals and incorporate them into their everyday life. His project includes a wide range of such activities, expanding opportunities for Buddhist women to pursue their religious vocations, favouring traditional forms of meditation over farming and similar activities. The mission to reform Buddhism in Sri Lanka is not entirely modern, as it also incorporates elements of tradition, as shown in the case study at Umandawa. The modernist ideals and societal demands that define contemporary Buddhism are reflected in the transformation of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra Valley: History and Modernity. Part II

The second part of the paper (see Part I [Челышева, 2023]) reveals the role of legendary Rewalsar lake in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, underlines the role of mahasiddha’s ancient spiritual tradition in the formation of its teachings. Detailed description of monasteries, located on its banks are also provided. Apart from this the author dwells upon the history and present life of the most significant contemporary Buddhist monasteries in Kangra Valley. The description of their religious life and practice, based on personal impressions, are provided. Parallel to this the author traces the process of these religious centers’ incorporation into new cultural, social and confessional background. Article is based on the personal impressions of the author’s several trips to this region in the late 1990s — beginning of 2000s and supplemented by personal photos.

Case study on the Consecration of Space at Mahidol University Salaya Campus

This article presents the phenomenon of religious revival in the twentieth century through a case study of phenomenology at Mahidol University Salaya campus, Thailand. The principal scope of this study is on the socio-religious construct of the contemporary Buddhist community at Mahidol University Salaya campus. The revival of religion at the university has transformed the campus into a religious space that juxtapositions its secular academic framework.

Buddhist Environmentalism as Seen through Religious Change

This article considers the disagreement between scholars of Buddhism around whether the tradition is or is not amenable to environmental concerns. It identifies the gap between the two sides as arising from a problem in how historical-critical methods divorce moral concepts from materiality in the study of religious history. This paper considers paticca-samuppada as a central moral concept in Buddhist tradition, one that has indeed changed via translation over the course of Buddhist history. This is the moral concept that leads directly into current environmentalist discourse, in its translation as interdependence. The paper first considers the translation of paticca-samuppada in historical tradition as well as in the hands of environmentalist authors. It then considers why paticca-samuppada as interdependence is a context-appropriate contribution, in settings of industrial political economy heavily directed by an abstract, mathematical concept of capital in connection with the moral concept of unlimited growth. The paper concludes by suggesting that contemporary Buddhist environmentalism be understood as a case of religious change. It concludes that the Buddhist eco-critical position is untenable, in light of processes of change in religious traditions, and suggests that the study of religious history should better account for how it is that religious change occurs.

History as a Source of Rhetorical Strategics in a Change Process: Case of Buddhist Temple

Contemporary Buddhist temples face a significant strategic dilemma. They must change to secure financial resources, yet the changes inevitably involve modifying their sacred traditions. This study investigates how a Master Monk—an organizational leader of the temple—addresses this dilemma. To deeply immerse myself into the context, I engaged in four months of fieldwork in a Korean temple where the dilemma was salient. In the data analysis, my focus moved from the changes to a set of historical narratives the Master Monk used to facilitate the changes. A systematic analysis of the narratives shows that the leader interpreted history in his own ways and strategically narrated it to reduce internal resistance to change. The findings join conversations about the role of history in a change context.