Whose Dharma Is It Anyway? Identity and Belonging in American Buddhist (Post)Modernities

• Main Author: Joyce Janca-Aji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-12-01
• Series: Genealogy
• Subjects: religious nationalism; american buddhism; god and country; minority religion in the u.s.; engaged buddhism
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/4/1/4

This study engages some aspects of the conversations, implicit and explicit, between American(ized) Buddhism in non-heritage/convert communities and religious nationalism in the U.S. Specifically, how does a Buddhist understanding of emptiness and interdependence call into question some of the fundamental assumptions behind conflations of divine and political order, as expressed through ideologies of “God and Country”, or ideas about American providence or exceptionalism? What does belonging to a nation or transnational community mean when all individual and collective formations of identity are understood to be nonessential, contingent and impermanent? Finally, how can some of the discourses within American Buddhism contribute to a more inclusive national identity and a reconfigured understanding of the intersection of spiritual and national belonging? The focus here will be on exploring how an understanding of identity and lineage in Buddhist contexts offers a counter-narrative to the way national and spiritual belonging is expressed through tribalist formations of family genealogy, nationalism and transnational religious affiliation in the dominant Judeo-Christian context, and how this understanding has been, and is being, expressed in non-heritage American(ized) Buddhist communities.