Comments on: Yavanayāna Buddhism: what it is

By: Neither supernatural nor political | Love of All Wisdom

Neither supernatural nor political | Love of All Wisdom — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:03:25 +0000

[...] part of their belief system, along with a refusal to believe in the supernatural. So too, in Yavanayāna Buddhism, a skepticism toward the supernatural tends to go hand in hand with political [...]

By: “You’re no Buddhist!” | Love of All Wisdom

“You’re no Buddhist!” | Love of All Wisdom — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:42:58 +0000

[...] recent discussions of what it means to be a Buddhist, among Buddhist bloggers mostly of the Yavanayāna persuasion. Blogger Marcus (no last name provided) threw down a strongly worded gauntlet last week: [...]

By: Did Hinduism exist? | Love of All Wisdom

Did Hinduism exist? | Love of All Wisdom — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:05:52 +0000

[...] Aurobindo, the Arya Samaj, or Swami Vivekananda). Hinduism, then, is something closely parallel to Yavanayāna Buddhism: a modern reform movement that can be intellectually honest as long as it recognizes itself as [...]

By: Yavanayāna Buddhism: a defence | Love of All Wisdom

Yavanayāna Buddhism: a defence | Love of All Wisdom — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:07:30 +0000

[...] Amod on Jul.16, 2009, under Buddhism, Chinese Tradition, M.T.S.R., Mahāyāna, Yavanayāna In my last post I spoke of Yavanayāna Buddhism, the new modernized, Western-influenced Buddhism (including Engaged [...]

By: Amod

Amod — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:32:23 +0000

Thanks, Stephen. I really like the word “yavana” here; it’s a descriptive classical Indian word for the philosophical ancestors of the modern West, without the kind of pejorative connotations associated with, say, “mleccha.” And I think it’s very important to acknowledge that “new” does not necessary mean “illegitimate” – I’m going to take that point up further in my next post tomorrow. I would love it if the term Yavanayana caught on. I think the most reasonable objection to the term is probably Queen’s – there are plenty of non-Westerners, like Goenka and TNH, who are integral parts of Yavanayana, so it’s not just a Western thing. Still, what they’re doing is very much a creative reaction to Western influence – and one which adapts Buddhism to Western ideals and situations (as it previously adapted to China) rather than reacting against them.

By: Stephen C. Walker

Stephen C. Walker — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:15:26 +0000

I find the declaration of a Yavanayāna absolutely fascinating. (Well, “cool/awesome” is more like it.) Silly reason: I guess I’m a Yavana, and the extent of my exposure to that word (by the kind of people who reference it) associates it mainly with “interlopers from the northwest” and anxieties about clash-of-civilizations. A 2nd-gen Indian-American friend of mine once told me a hilarious/telling anecdote about a medschool interview where Alexander’s victory at Hydaspes came up. My friend’s Greek-American interviewer seemed to take a certain pride in mentioning this victory, and the two of them engaged in a barely-suppressed power play for the rest of the interview.

Serious reason: I think that, as scholars of Asian thought, one of our self-appointed jobs tends to be correcting American misperceptions of the traditions we’re expert in. We get so used to telling people “that’s not how it really is” that we may end up overlooking the fact that Western appropriations of Asian thought may have created genuinely new and interesting intellectual products.