Ann Gleig is an assistant professor the University of Central Florida at Orlando. She has published numerous chapters and articles and is co-editor (with Lola Williamson) of the forthcoming Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American (Suny Press, 2012). She is also an editor for Religious Studies Review for the sociology, anthropology and psychology of religion.Address: University of Central Florida (PSY 226), 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, Fl 32816-1352, USA.
This paper examines recent innovations in the American vipassana or insight community, specifically a current I identify as ‘West Coast Vipassana’ that has revisioned the Theravadin Buddhist goal of liberation, from a transcendental condition that demands a renunciation of the world, to an ‘embodied enlightenment’ that affirms everyday householder life as a site for awakening. I draw on Jeffrey J. Kripal's tantric transmission thesis to advance an essentially tantric hermeneutic of West Coast Vipassana. I argue that while West Coast Vipassana is originally based in Theravada Buddhism, an Asian renouncer tradition that sharply differentiates between the immanent and transcendent, it has taken a markedly tantric turn in America. I also note, however, that it considerably differs from traditional Buddhist tantric traditions such as Tibetan Buddhism or esoteric Japanese Buddhism in being distinctively modern and American.
目次
The emergence of West Coast Vipassana 222 Reading Spirit Rock: dilution or development? 227 West Coast Vipassana: an American tantric tradition in the making? 229 Why American Tantra? The value of a cultural-metaphysical hermeneutic 233 Notes 236 References 236
