BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//School of Public Policy and Global Affairs//NONSGML Events//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/
X-WR-CALDESC:School of Public Policy and Global Affairs - Events
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:20160724T1906Z-1469387188.155-EO-20733-2671@137.82.234.16
STATUS:CONFIRMED
DTSTAMP:20261010T171750Z
CREATED:20160721T165113Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20181214T233215Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20160811T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20160811T210000
SUMMARY: Buddhism and Global Secularisms
DESCRIPTION: The standard modernization-as-westernization narrative of Budd
hism closely parallels the twentieth-century narrative of secularism as a g
lobal\, linear\, and uniform process of religion waning and becoming less r
elevant to public life. The processes of disenchantment\, social differenti
ation\, displacement\, and the growing dominance of instrumental reasoning
and scientific thinking\, according to this narrative\, would gradually com
e to occupy the spaces once inhabited […]
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: 
The standard modernization-as-westernization nar
rative of Buddhism closely parallels the twentieth-century narrative of sec
ularism as a global\, linear\, and uniform process of religion waning and b
ecoming less relevant to public life. The processes of disenchantment\, soc
ial differentiation\, displacement\, and the growing dominance of instrumen
tal reasoning and scientific thinking\, according to this narrative\, would
gradually come to occupy the spaces once inhabited by religion. New ways o
f thinking about secularism\, however\, suggest that Buddhism in the modern
world offers an example of (1) the porousness of the boundary between secu
lar and religious; (2) the diversity\, fluidity\, and constructedness of th
e very categories of religious and secular\, since they appear in different
ways among different Buddhist cultures in divergent national contexts; and
(3) the way these categories nevertheless have very real-world effects and
become drivers of substantial change in belief and practice. Drawing from
a few examples of Buddhism in various geographical and political settings\,
I hope to take a some modest steps toward illuminating some of the broad c
ontours of the interlacing of secularism and Buddhism. In doing so\, I am s
ynthesizing some of my past research on Buddhist modernism\, integrating it
with some current research I am doing on meditation\, and considering thei
r implications for thinking about secularism and the modernization of Buddh
ism. Particular examples include certain meditation practices that have gon
e global\, but take on very specific forms in different countries due to la
ws governing how “secular” and “religious” are understood (US\, China\, Ind
ia). Another example is how Buddhism is being shaped by political forces in
China\, again\, by the state conceptions of “religious” and “secular.” The
examples complicate any linear understanding of modernization and seculari
zation and\, instead\, suggest a multinodal process.
***Lectures
are free and open to the public. No registration required. Seating on a fir
st-come\, first-served basis.***
Full Event Details Here
David L. McMahan is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin & M
arshall College in Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in religious studies
from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is the editor of B<
em>uddhism in the Modern World (Routledge 2012) and author of The
Making of Buddhist Modernism (Oxford\, 2008)\, Empty Vision: Metap
hor and Visionary Imagery in Mahāyāna Buddhism (Routledge Curzon\, 200
2)\, and a number of articles on Mahāyāna Buddhism in South Asia and Buddhi
sm in the modern world. He has written on Indian Buddhist literature\, visu
al metaphors and practice\, and the early history of the Mahāyāna movement
in India. More recently\, his work has focused on the interface of Buddhism
and modernity\, including its interactions with science\, psychology\, mod
ernist literature\, romanticism\, and transcendentalism.
LOCATION:Asian Centre Auditorium
GEO:49.266835;-123.258576
URL;VALUE=URI:https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/buddhism-and-global-secular
isms/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sppga.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/07/McMahan-Slider-300x128-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Vancouver
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
DTSTART:20160313T100000
TZNAME:PDT
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
END:VCALENDAR
The standard modernization-as-westernization nar
rative of Buddhism closely parallels the twentieth-century narrative of sec
ularism as a global\, linear\, and uniform process of religion waning and b
ecoming less relevant to public life. The processes of disenchantment\, soc
ial differentiation\, displacement\, and the growing dominance of instrumen
tal reasoning and scientific thinking\, according to this narrative\, would
gradually come to occupy the spaces once inhabited by religion. New ways o
f thinking about secularism\, however\, suggest that Buddhism in the modern
world offers an example of (1) the porousness of the boundary between secu
lar and religious; (2) the diversity\, fluidity\, and constructedness of th
e very categories of religious and secular\, since they appear in different
ways among different Buddhist cultures in divergent national contexts; and
(3) the way these categories nevertheless have very real-world effects and
become drivers of substantial change in belief and practice. Drawing from
a few examples of Buddhism in various geographical and political settings\,
I hope to take a some modest steps toward illuminating some of the broad c
ontours of the interlacing of secularism and Buddhism. In doing so\, I am s
ynthesizing some of my past research on Buddhist modernism\, integrating it
with some current research I am doing on meditation\, and considering thei
r implications for thinking about secularism and the modernization of Buddh
ism. Particular examples include certain meditation practices that have gon
e global\, but take on very specific forms in different countries due to la
ws governing how “secular” and “religious” are understood (US\, China\, Ind
ia). Another example is how Buddhism is being shaped by political forces in
China\, again\, by the state conceptions of “religious” and “secular.” The
examples complicate any linear understanding of modernization and seculari
zation and\, instead\, suggest a multinodal process.