At the tail end of the twentieth century, a monk transformed a
small village temple on the outskirts of Hanoi into a monastery and
meditation center called Thiền Viện Sùng Phúc—a place where
monastics and lay Buddhists could learn and practice Zen
meditation. In time the original temple was replaced by numerous
large buildings to accommodate meditation sessions, youth events,
weddings, classes, and a variety of other activities designed to
keep practitioners engaged. Thiền Viện Sùng Phúc’s approach
to Buddhism as a life commitment for all ages and genders has been
very successful, attracting more than a thousand Buddhists to its
weekly services. It joined Thiền phái Trúc Lâm, a much larger
organization started by Thích Thanh Từ in southern Vietnam that
has expanded to northern Vietnam and internationally. In Zen
Conquests, Alexander Soucy presents not only the first ethnography
of Thiền Viện Sùng Phúc and its followers, but also a
compelling look at how the discourses of Buddhist Modernism were
incorporated at a local level into this new space on the outskirts
of Hanoi and how and why new constituencies of followers are drawn
to Zen Buddhism in contemporary Vietnam. Thiền Viện Sùng
Phúc’s Zen tradition purports to be a continuation of the only
Zen Buddhist sect founded in Vietnam: the fourteenth-century Trúc
Lâm Zen School. However, the movement can also be seen as the
product of Buddhism’s globalization, born from the D. T.
Suzuki-inspired interest in Zen in South Vietnam during the
American War. Despite its claims to be authentically Vietnamese
Zen, it more closely resembles Modernist versions of Buddhism
practiced by Western converts in North America than anything
Vietnamese. Soucy maintains that it is only by looking at the
processes of globalization that Vietnamese Buddhism (both in the
context of Vietnam but also in the Vietnamese diaspora) can be
properly understood. He argues convincingly for acknowledging the
continued influence of transnational, pan-Asian, and global flows
of migration and communication on the development of multiple forms
of Buddhism worldwide.
General
Imprint: |
University of Hawaii Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
April 2023 |
Authors: |
Alexander Soucy
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
256 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8248-9313-2 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-8248-9313-1 |
Barcode: |
9780824893132 |
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