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Epilogue

‘Naturalised Buddhism’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2023

Philip C. Almond
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
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Summary

The Epilogue argues that, during the first decades of the twenty-first century, the Buddha has become part of Western popular culture, on occasion little more than a commodity on the shelf in the modern supermarket of individual spiritualities. Thus, whether the story of the Buddha is history or legend, fact or fiction, he remains an exemplary human figure, whose life provides a ‘romantic’ ideal to be followed. As the Oriental ‘other’, now acceptably disenchanted, the Buddha is a symbolic antidote to the ills of modernity in the West. The disenchanted Buddha is thus able to serve as the foundation of a new Western naturalised Buddhism. Naturalised Buddhism provides technologies of self-formation for everyday life in this world. Here, the Buddha is a this-worldly sage and the philosopher of a new form of human consciousness focused upon the practices of meditation and mindfulness.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Buddha
Life and Afterlife Between East and West
, pp. 324 - 329
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Epilogue
  • Philip C. Almond, University of Queensland
  • Book: The Buddha
  • Online publication: 09 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009346788.010
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Epilogue
  • Philip C. Almond, University of Queensland
  • Book: The Buddha
  • Online publication: 09 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009346788.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Epilogue
  • Philip C. Almond, University of Queensland
  • Book: The Buddha
  • Online publication: 09 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009346788.010
Available formats
×