Tibetan Buddhism in the Digital Age: Exploring Online Buddhist Study, Practice, and Community on Ocean: The Vast Teachings of Chögyam Trungpa

This article investigates the growth of online religion through a study of Ocean: The Vast Teachings of Chögyam Trungpa. Opened to the public in the spring of 2015 with a series of courses, practices, and gatherings, Ocean describes itself as an online site of practice, study, and community dedicated to the life and teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist reincarnate teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939/40-1987). Closely examining Ocean’s history, design, and programs, I illustrate how Ocean exemplifies a shift from religion online primarily comprised of individuals consuming information toward the increasing presence of spaces that support more participatory, accessible, and interactive relationships among their users. I draw upon Heidi Campbell’s concept of “networked religion,” to examine Ocean as a novel space for the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism that is both becoming entangled with users’ offline religious lives and practices and a new site for the negotiation of participation and authority.

Guangxiao Temple (Guangzhou) and its Multi Roles in the Development of Asia-Pacific Buddhism

<p class="1Body">Guangxiao Temple is located in Guangzhou (a coastal city in Southern China), and has a long history. The present study conducted an onsite investigation of Guangxiao’s precious Buddhist relics, and combined this with a textual analysis of <em>Annals of Guangxiao Temple</em>, to discuss its history and multi-roles in Asia-Pacific Buddhism. It is argued that Guangxiao’s 1,700-year history can be seen as a microcosm of Chinese Buddhist history. As the special geographical position, Guangxiao Temple often acted as a stopover point for Asian missionary monks in the past. It also played a central role in propagating various elements of Buddhism, including precepts school, Chan (Zen), esoteric (Shingon) Buddhism, and Pure Land. Particulary, Huineng, the sixth Chinese patriarch of Chan Buddhism, made his first public Chan lecture and was tonsured in Guangxiao Temple; Esoteric Buddhist master Amoghavajra’s first teaching of esoteric Buddhism is thought to have been in Guangxiao Temple. It was also a translation center in Southern China, where Buddhist scriptures were translated by Yijing and the Shurangama-sūtra was translated by Paramitiin ­– these texts served to promote the establishment of Mahāyāna Buddhism as the mainstream philosophy of Chinese (even Asia-Pacific) Buddhism. With the development of globalization, Guangxiao Temple is now exerting even more positive effects on the propagation of Buddhism via international communications and Buddhist tourism. Our onsite investigation also identificated the words in the mantra pillar (826 B.C). This significant finding suggests the popularity of esoteric Buddhism in Sourthern China, and will be helpful for Buddhist study in the future.</p>

““Beyond This World of Transiency and Impermanence””: Japanese Americans, Dharma Bums, and the Making of American Buddhism during the Early Cold War Years

This article examines the growing interest in Buddhism in the United States during the Cold War, analyzing discussions and debates around the authenticity of various Buddhist teachings and practices that emerged in an interracial Buddhist study group and its related publications. Japanese American Buddhists had developed a modified form of Jōōdo Shinshūū devotional practice as a strategy for building ethnic community and countering racialization as religious and racial Others. The authenticity of these practices was challenged by European and European American scholars and artists, especially the Beats, who drew upon Orientalist representations of Buddhism as ancient, exotic, and mysterious. In response, Japanese American Buddhists crafted their own definition of ““tradition”” by drawing from institutional and devotional developments dating back to fourteenth-century Japan as well as more recent Japanese American history. The article contextualizes these debates within the broader discussion of cultural pluralism and race relations during the Cold War.