Buddhism and Transgression ― The Appropriation of Buddhism in the Contemporary West

Konik (cultural studies, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan U.) hones the argument and elaborates the intuitions more fully of his 2007 Ph.D. dissertation in religious studies for the University of South Africa. He warns Buddhist practitioners that the idea of a transcendental subject meditating on the evanescence of greed, hatred, and delusion has been rendered null and void by the discursive developments of the latter half of the 20th century, and suggests that modern Western Buddhism can--perhaps should--be seen as a completely different religion than what appeared in fifth century BCE. His topics are the emergence of disciplinary/bio-power and the arising of discursive tension in Western society, a reappraisal of Western interest in Tibet and Vajrayana Buddhism, and engaging with the discursive limits of transgression. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Adrian Konik, DLitt et Phil (2007) in Religious Studies, University of South Africa, is a Senior Lecturer of Cultural Studies at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. He publishes regularly in the South African Journal of Art History.