The Fourth Chung Hwa International Conference on Buddhism: The Role of Buddhism in the 21st Century=第四屆中華國際佛學會議 -- 「佛教與廿一世紀」
出版日期
2002.01.19
頁次
11
出版者
中華佛學研究所=The Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies
出版地
臺北縣, 臺灣 [Taipei hsien, Taiwan]
資料類型
會議論文=Proceeding Article
使用語言
英文=English
附註項
The Fourth Chung Hwa International Conference on Buddhism：The Role of Buddhism in the 21st Century, Organized by Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, DDMBA; January 18-20, 2002, Auditorium of Acemic Activity Center, Acemia Sinica. 第四屆中華國際佛學會議 -- 「佛教與廿一世紀」, 法鼓山中華佛學研究所主辦, 2002年1月18-20日, 中央研究院學術活動中心.
關鍵詞
Buddhism in 21st Century; 佛教與廿一世紀
摘要
The eyes of Eastern Buddhists are for several reasons -- one of the outstanding being the presence of a huge number of Asian emigrants -- quite naturally directed to the East：to what is going on in America. American scholars of Buddhism -- at least in the last generations -- are very often at the same time practicing Buddhists or at least heavily sympathetic with the religion and researchers, while the European scenery appears to be somewhat different. For Europe or for the country the author comes from，Germany，the interplay between Buddhism as an object of research from the end of the 19th century，mainly based on the study of the Pali-canon，and Buddhism as a practiced religion and "Lebensentwurf" (conception of life)，also starting around the same time，there are not too many studies available，and the two mainstreams of the reception of Buddhism in the West，research and religion in practice，have to be read together in the European context. The paper will give a short historical overview on the developments in Buddhist studies in Europe，especially in the German-speaking part of Europe，and the rise and growth of Buddhist communities with their main periods in the German "Kaiserreich" (Empire) and the "Weimarer Republik" (Republic of Weimar)，the period of prosecution of practiced religion during the Nazi-period，and the two main waves of development after World War II，the Zen-reception，which was mainly influenced and dominated from America, and the advent of Tibetan Buddhism，which shows some features being described as a European model differing from America. The difference between periods lies, in the author's opinion，in the fact that the first was instigated by Buddhist studies in the academic field and met with general social factors, while the last period has its outcome from the special social fact of society moving towards different，individual lifestyles and here the turn to Buddhism as an object of academic studies very often follows this first impetus of interest and practiced Buddhism. At the end of the paper the author will try to give a short prospective for the future，showing that the way，in which Buddhism，in terms of its own religious and social goals, could be successfully and effectively integrated in European societies, respectively in German society，will have to be paved between the traditional patterns of a European / German culture(s) towards religion in general and the traditional ways of Buddhism practiced in its Asian cultural contexts.
