Western Buddhism
Cathy-Mae Karelse
Manchester University Press eBooks May 23, 2023 DOI: 10.7765/9781526162076.00012 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that White Mindfulness and Buddhist modernisation are political processes whose depoliticised, context-free presentation is rooted in anti-colonial developments in Southeast Asia and the Western vipassana movement, and that normative defaults of whiteness are perpetuated by White Mindfulness's lack of engagement with Asian Buddhist voices in the West. |
Abstract
Levins-Morales's powerful quote opens this chapter: 'There is no neutral body from which our bodies deviate. Society has written deep into each strand of tissue of every living person on earth.' She sets the stage for an appreciation of how all bodies, ecosystems, organisations, institutions, and societies are shaped by the circumstances of their emergence. The notion is used to understand the influences that forge Buddhist modernisation and the secularisation of White Mindfulness – both of which are regarded as political processes. The advent of Western Buddhism, contextualised by anti-colonial developments in Southeast Asia, paved the way for White Buddhist converts to access Buddhist teachings and form the Western vipassana movement. Both these developments are mapped as primary antecedents in the rise of White Mindfulness. They depoliticise teaching contexts and authoritatively re-present the 'authentic, original teachings of the Buddha', independently of traditional Buddhists. White Mindfulness is located in this history. Normative defaults of whiteness that overlay the rise of the vipassana movement are perpetuated by White Mindfulness' lack of engagement with Asian Buddhist voices in the West. The emergence of an 'apolitical' mindfulness, unfettered by context, is believed to be seeded in these developments that ironically train a 'forgetfulness' of context and of People of the Global Majority.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |