New Kadampa Tradition; Tibetan Buddhism; global Buddhism; modern Buddhism; Buddhist modernism; Buddhism in North America
摘要
This article examines the New Kadampa Tradition’s North American missionary deployment of the epithet “Modern Buddhism” in publicity, text, and teaching. I argue that while “Modern Buddhism” branding supports the NKT’s international growth by promoting its founder’s teachings as universally accessible and not Tibetan, those teachings are more continuous with traditional Geluk doctrine than with David McMahan’s (2008) portrayal of Buddhist modernism. Specifically, I find minimal evidence of detraditionalization, demythologization, and psychologization in the NKT founder’s 2011 book Modern Buddhism and in public meditation instruction derived therefrom at a Canadian NKT center. My findings locate the NKT’s deployment of the “Modern Buddhism” brand within a graduated missionizing strategy that combines promotional modernism and pedagogical traditionalism to attract North American non-Buddhists by offering culturally desired, this-worldly benefits (e.g., stress reduction) followed by less familiar, other-worldly Buddhist goals (e.g., happiness in future lives).
目次
New Kadampa Tradition 12 The Modernist Brand 14 1) modern Buddhism: universally practical 14 2) modern Buddhism: not Tibetan 15 The Traditionalist Book 16 1) detraditionalization 17 2) demythologization 18 3) psychologization 19 The Traditional as Modern 21 Promotional Modernism and Pedagogical Traditionalism 22 Institutional Modernism and Identity Traditionalism 23 Conclusion 25 Corresponding author: 26 References 26
