Buddhist Revivalist Movements ― Comparing Zen Buddhism and the Thai Forest Movement

This text provides a comparative investigation of the affinities and differences of two of the most dynamic currents in World Buddhism: Zen Buddhism and the Thai Forest Movement. Defying differences in denomination, culture, and historical epochs, these schools revived an unfettered quest for enlightenment and proceeded to independently forge like practices and doctrines. The author examines the teaching gambits and tactics, the methods of practice, the place and story line of teacher biography, and the nature and role of the awakening experience, revealing similar forms deriving from an uncompromising pursuit of awaking, the insistence on self-cultivation, and the preeminent role of the charismatic master. Offering a pertinent review of their encounters with modernism, the book provides a new coherence to these seemingly disparate movements, opening up new avenues for scholars and possibilities for practitioners.

Alan Robert Lopez, Ph.D. was born and raised in New York City. He maintained a psychotherapy private practice in New England for more than twenty years and was a trainer in multi-year training programs for mental health professionals in the USA and Germany. Dr. Lopez has taught Buddhism at several universities in the US and Thailand, and been the Director of the Buddhist Forum, the educational department of the World Buddhist Fellowship. Dr. Lopez has had extensive exposure to Buddhism in each of its primary branches placing him in a unique position to comparatively study its schools and practices.