Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia / Edition 1

by Charles S. Prebish, Martin Baumann

Overview

The first authoritative volume on the totality of Buddhism in the West, Westward Dharma establishes a comparative and theoretical perspective for considering the amazing variety of Buddhist traditions, schools, centers, and teachers that have developed outside of Asia. Leading scholars from North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia explore the plurality and heterogeneity of traditions and practices that are characteristic of Buddhism in the West.

This recent, dramatic growth in Western Buddhism is accompanied by an expansion of topics and issues of Buddhist concern. The contributors to this volume treat such topics as the broadening spirit of egalitarianism; the increasing emphasis on the psychological, as opposed to the purely religious, nature of practice; scandals within Buddhist movements; the erosion of the distinction between professional and lay Buddhists; Buddhist settlement in Israel; the history of Buddhism in internment camps; repackaging Zen for the West; and women's dharma in the West. The interconnections of historical and theoretical approaches in the volume make it a rich, multi-layered resource.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520234901
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	12/04/2002
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	436
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	1470L (what's this?)

About the Author

Charles S. Prebish is Professor of Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University and author and editor of numerous works, including Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (California, 1999), A Survey of Vinaya Literature (1994), and American Buddhism (1979). He is coeditor of The Faces of Buddhism in America (California, 1998) and the electronic Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Martin Baumann is Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland, and research fellow in the Department of Religious Studies at Hannover University, Germany. He is the author of Diaspora: Hindus and Trinidad (2002), Migration, Religion, Integration (2000), and Deutsche Buddhisten: Geschichte and Gemeinschaften (1993). He is also coeditor of Religions fo the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices (2002). Prebish and Buamann are coeditors of the electronic Journal of Global Buddhism (http://www.globalbuddhism.org).

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Introduction: Paying Homage to the Buddha in the West
Martin Baumann and Charles S. Prebish

PART I: PROFILING GLOBAL BUDDHISM: A DESCRIPTION OF THE LANDSCAPE
1. Who Is a Buddhist? Night-Stand Buddhists and Other Creatures
Thomas A. Tweed
2. The Spectrum of Buddhist Practice in the West
B. Alan Wallace
3. Protective Amulets and Awareness Techniques, or How to Make Sense of Buddhism in the West
Martin Baumann
4. Studying the Spread and Histories of Buddhism in the West: The Emergence of Western Buddhism as a New Subdiscipline within Buddhist Studies
Charles S. Prebish

PART II: DIFFUSION: THE HISTORIES OF BUDDHISM IN WESTERN COUNTRIES
5. Buddhism in Europe: Past, Present, Prospects
Martin Baumann
6. American Buddhism in the Making
Richard Hughes Seager
7. Buddhism in Canada
Bruce Matthews
8. The Development of Buddhism in Australia and New Zealand
Michelle Spuler
9. Buddhism in South Africa
Michel Clasquin
10. Buddhism in Brazil and Its Impact on the Larger Brazilian Society
Frank Usarski
11. Buddha in the Promised Land: Outlines of the Buddhist Settlement in Israel
Lionel Obadia

PART III: CHANGE: ADAPTATIONS AND INNOVATIONS
12. Camp Dharma: Japanese-American Buddhist Identity and the Internment Experience of World War II
Duncan Ryuken Williams
13. The Translating Temple: Diasporic Buddhism in Florida
Douglas M. Padgett
14. Repackaging Zen for the West
David L. McMahan
15. Scandals in Emerging Western Buddhism
Sandra Bell

PART IV: LIFESTYLE: BEING A BUDDHIST IN WESTERN SOCIETIES
16. The Challenge of Community
Ajahn Tiradhammo
17. Buddhist Nuns: Changes and Challenges
Karma Lekshe Tsomo
18. Neither Monk nor Nun: Western Buddhists as Full-Time Practitioners
Sylvia Wetzel
19. Virtues without Rules: Ethics in the Insight Meditation Movement
Gil Fronsdal

PART V: BUDDHISM FACING NEW CHALLENGES
20. The Roar of the Lioness: Women's Dharma in the West
Judith Simmer-Brown
21. Engaged Buddhism: Agnosticism, Interdependence, Globalization
Christopher S. Queen
22. The Encounter of Buddhism and Psychology
Franz Aubrey Metcalf
23. A "Commodius Vicus Recirculation:: Buddhism, Art, and Modernity
Ian Harris

Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

Like seeds on the wind, Buddhist teachings continue to reach new lands. This outstanding book brings to light, in rich detail, the current flowering of Buddhism in the West. Long a world religion, Buddhism is now a global one.

Kenneth Kraft

Westward Dharma deserves a place on the growing bookshelf of contemporary Buddhist studies. Prebish and Baumann broaden our horizons from North America to the wider Western world, exploring key aspects of Buddhism's most recent geographical and cultural expansion.

Paul David Numrich