Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantation, Development and Adaptation

by Kay; David N

• ISBN13: 9780415297653
• ISBN10: 0415297656
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-01-15
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

This book analyses the transplantation, development and adaptation of the two largest Tibetan and Zen Buddhist organizations currently active on the British religious landscape: the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives (OBC). The key contributions of recent scholarship are evaluated and organized thematically to provide a framework for analysis, and the history and current landscape of contemporary Tibetan and Zen Buddhist practice in Britain are also mapped out. A number of patterns and processes identified elsewhere are exemplified, although certain assumptions made about the nature of 'British Buddhism' are subjected to critical scrutiny and challenged.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xii
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgements	xv
List of abbreviations	xvi
Part I Review and contextualisation	1	(34)
1 Buddhism in Britain: review and contextualisation	3	(32)
Introduction	3	(1)
Buddhism and British culture	4	(7)
The transplantation process	11	(7)
Policies and patterns of adaptation	18	(7)
Contextualising the NKT and OBC	25	(10)
Part II The New Kadampa Tradition	35	(82)
2 The New Kadampa Tradition: background and cross-cultural context	37	(16)
Introduction: contextualising the NKT	37	(2)
Divisions within the Gelug tradition	39	(5)
The Dorje Shugden controversy	44	(9)
3 The emergence of the NKT in Britain	53	(28)
Introduction	53	(1)
Gelug Buddhism in the West: the FPMT	53	(4)
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso	57	(4)
Problems at the priory	61	(5)
Geshe Kelsang's network takes shape	66	(4)
Dorje Shugden reliance in Geshe Kelsang's centres	70	(3)
The crystalisation of the NKT	73	(5)
The creation and announcement of the NKT	78	(3)
4 The identity of the NKT	81	(36)
Introduction	81	(1)
History and identity construction in the NKT	81	(3)
The NKT's organisational structure	84	(2)
Purity and impurity	86	(1)
Critique of contemporary Buddhist practice	87	(4)
NKT exclusivism	91	(4)
The missionary imperative	95	(2)
Engagement and dialogue	97	(1)
Adaptation within the NKT	98	(2)
Dorje Shugden reliance	100	(4)
Crisis and response: the Dorje Shugden affair	104	(5)
A rejection of modernity?	109	(4)
The FPMT revisited	113	(4)
Part III The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives	117	(92)
5 The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives: background and early development	119	(26)
Introduction: contextualising the OBC	119	(1)
The emergence of the Zen Mission Society	120	(6)
The ideological development of the ZMS, 1962-76	126	(6)
Aspects of Kennett's Zen	132	(8)
A Protestant form of Zen?	140	(3)
Religious innovation and charisma	143	(2)
6 The Lotus Blossom period, 1976-83	145	(38)
Introduction	145	(1)
Zen Buddhism and meditative experience	145	(2)
Kennett's religious experience: preliminary considerations	147	(3)
The phenomenology of Kennett's experience	150	(5)
A contextual explanation	155	(4)
Developments and innovations	159	(5)
Assimilation and rejection	164	(7)
Strategies and arguments	171	(6)
Text and context in the OBC: The Wild, White Goose	177	(5)
The storm weathered	182	(1)
7 The later period: routinisation and consolidation	183	(26)
The routinising impulse	183	(1)
The structure and identity of the OBC	184	(4)
Kennett's later teachings	188	(5)
Assimilation and stability in the later period	193	(4)
Growth and consolidation in Britain	197	(6)
The OBC and the British Buddhist context	203	(6)
Part IV Epilogue and conclusion	209	(18)
8 Epilogue and conclusion	211	(16)
Recent developments in the NKT	211	(4)
Recent developments in the OBC	215	(3)
Buddhism and British culture	218	(2)
The transplantation process	220	(2)
Policies and patterns of adaptation	222	(2)
Constructing history and resolving conflict	224	(1)
Conclusion	225	(2)
Notes	227	(15)
Bibliography	242	(8)
Index	250