Buddhism and Modernity

http://www.smith.edu/philosophy/docs/garfield_buddhism_modernity.pdf

Buddhism and Modernity 

Jay L Garfield,  Smith College, University of Melbourne, Central University of Tibetan Studies

1. Introduction: Authenticity and Impermanence
2. Historical comparisons
3. Modern Differences
4. The Modern Western Inflection of Buddhism
5. The Problem of Authenticity in Modernity

Also : HH Dalai Lama and Modernity

http://info-buddhism.com/Dalai_Lama_between_Modernity_and_Buddhism_by_Georges_Dreyfus.html

Also from the Tricycle magazine:

http://www.tricycle.com/buddhism-and-modernity

Buddhism and Modernity

With support from the John Templeton Foundation, Tricycle’s Buddhism and Modernity project is initiating a conversation between Buddhists and leading thinkers across the humanities and social sciences. Tricycle is exploring how perspectives drawn from research about the nature of religion, culture, science, and secularism can shed light on unexamined assumptions shaping the transmission of Buddhism to modernity. This project offers Western Buddhists new ways of thinking about their spiritual experiences by demonstrating how reason can be used as a tool to open up—rather than shut down—access to traditional faith.

Linda Heuman, a Tricycle contributing editor who is heading up the project, is a freelance journalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Below are her online Tricycle pieces that we hope will initiate dialogue on the interaction between Buddhism and modernity.

A More Human Science | An interview with Amadeo Giorgi. The Western intellectual tradition of human science could help recast the dialogue between Buddhism and the contemporary world.

Don't Believe the Hype | Neuroscientist Catherine Kerr is concerned about how mindfulness meditation research is being portrayed in the media. Tricycle speaks with her to understand the significance of an emerging meta-discourse—the conversation about the conversation about meditation.

Meditation Nation | How convincing is the science driving the popularity of mindfulness meditation? A Brown University researcher has some surprising answers.

Given the widespread belief that meditation practice is scientifically certified to be good for just about everything, the results of a recent major analysis of the research might come as some surprise... 

Culture Wars | As science invades the humanities, our understanding of Buddhism hangs in the balanceIn view of Western Buddhists’ eagerness to collaborate with the scientific study of Buddhism, it might be a good idea to consider whether this collaboration is likely, in the long run, to affirm or prove injurious to the very values and understandings...



Eastern Self/Western Self RevisitedMy previous blog post reflecting on Gish Jen’s new book Tiger Writing: Art, Culture, and the Independent Self, generated quite a bit of discussion. Some respondents dismissed as mere “personal observation” the claim that people from Western and Eastern cultures tend toward different types of self-construal...



Eastern Self/Western SelfWe in the West are quite concerned these days with how to make the dharma authentically Western. But caution please, folks. Before we start inventing a new flavor of Buddhism to suit Western palettes, it is important to look closely at the implicit assumptions we are bringing to this project. To start, we might examine more closely our underlying picture...