A critique of Western Buddhism
Subtitle: ruins of the Buddhist real
By: Glenn Wallis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2019
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9781474283557; 9781474283571; 9781474283564
Copyright date: 2019
Subjects: Buddhism; Philosophy; Continental philosophy; Buddhist philosophy
Description: "What are we to make of Western Buddhism? Glenn Wallis argues that in aligning their tradition with the contemporary self-help industry, Western Buddhists evade the consequences of Buddhist thought. This book shows that with concepts such as vanishing, nihility, extinction, contingency, and no-self, Buddhism, like all potent systems of thought, articulates a notion of the "real." Raw, unflinching acceptance of this real is held by Buddhism to be at the very core of human "awakening." Yet these preeminent human truths are universally shored up against in contemporary Buddhist practice, which contradicts the very heart of Buddhism. The author's critique of Western Buddhism is threefold. It is immanent, in emerging out of Buddhist thought but taking it beyond what it itself publicly concedes; negative, in employing the "democratizing" deconstructive methods of François Laruelle's non-philosophy; and re-descriptive, in applying Laruelle's concept of philofiction. Through applying resources of Continental philosophy to Western Buddhism, A Critique of Western Buddhism suggests a possible practice for our time, an "anthropotechnic", or religion transposed from its seductive, but misguiding, idealist haven"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 204-215) and index.
Table of contents: title: Raise the curtain on the theater of Western Buddhism!; title: The snares of wisdom; title: Specters of the real; title: First names of the Buddhist real; title: Non-buddhism; title: Immanent practice; title: Buddhofiction; title: Meditation in ruin.