Welcome to Enlightenment Legacies, a growing collection of stories illuminating the world of Buddhism and its storytelling tradition. This journey takes us beyond individual traditions, regional boundaries, and interpretive frameworks, offering a view on how the narratives of Buddhism’s enlightened founder, his teachings, and his world reverberate in contemporary society.
In this collection, you will encounter insights into revered masters, teachings, and lineages. Yet, the journey extends further. It encompasses an examination of the cultural and historical interactions that have charted Buddhism’s trajectory from its Asian origins to its spread across Europe and the Americas, and their modern re-emergence in Asia.
Ever since my late teens, when I began reading about Buddhism, and even more so in my early twenties, when I began my formal training in Buddhist Studies, a question kept surfacing in my mind, as to why, in the European languages, we employed the word “enlightenment” to talk about what, I thought, we should best call the Buddha’s “awakening” (in Sanskrit, bodhi बोधि): and so we had “Illuminazione” in Italian, “Illumination” in French, “Enlightenment” in English, “Erleuchtung” in German, and so on. How did earlier generations of scholars, in particular during and after the Age of Enlightenment, came to conceive of the Buddha’s perfect, complete knowledge in connection with the “light” of reason?
I sought to find answers to this question in my readings. My curiosity intensified over my grad school years, and in particular, after a conversation I had with my cohort during a Seminar in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan. Indeed, it appears that in the decades around the French Revolution, the Buddha, or “Fo” (the Chinese name of the Buddha), as the French called him at the time, was still perceived as an idol. His teachings were recognized as a philosophy only around the turn of the nineteenth century. In this sense, the Buddha became “enlightened” only after early Orientalists began to regard him as a philosopher. Throughout the European Enlightenment, the Buddha’s teachings were still regarded as false dogmas that infected Asia with the sin of Idolatry. Could he, then, be enlightened?
I offer this preamble to say the following. The aim of Enlightenment Legacies is not limited to portraying aspects of Buddhism and its presence in diverse cultural landscapes. It also invites readers to pause in moments of self-reflection and step out of conventional narratives about Buddhism. In so doing, it considers the enduring influences of the European Enlightenment in the context and reception of early-modern and contemporary works in the Study of Buddhism.
In this encounter of Enlightenment ideals and Buddhist traditions, then, I invite exploration in the realms of various legacies:
Consider, for example, the impact of the Enlightenment in grasping the history of Buddhism. We confront the dilemma of Buddhism’s varied teachers, doctrines, and traditions, lacking a central, unifying authority. It is tempting to describe their history as a variety of similar, yet distinct “Buddhisms.” Still, I believe there exist alternative ways to explore and talk about the history of the Buddhist religion beyond the modern taxonomies dividing the single, global tradition stemming from the Buddha’s teachings, into numerous “isms.”
The grand tale of Buddhism’s development from simplicity to complexity, as interpreted by early-modern and modern scholars of Asian religion, should not merely convey a recollection of historical facts, or a chronicle of a “world religion.” Instead, it should be the unfolding of a narrative about the historical encounter of a constellation of stories, each with its unique account of the Buddha, his teaching, his world.
I invite you to embrace the term “story,” then, alongside “history,” gifting you a keyword that steps beyond traditional Enlightenment narratives of the Buddha. As we tell the tale of this historical encounter in a different way and beyond the modernist paradigm, we may then paint the story of Buddhism as a vast constellation of interwoven narratives.
In conclusion, Enlightenment Legacies embarks on a unique journey to discuss how early-modern and contemporary theories on Buddhist thought and practice continue to resonate in both popular and academic culture today. This discussion illuminates not only the enduring significance of British and French Enlightenment ideas but also their political legacy and relevance in today’s cultural and academic landscapes.
Recent essays in Enlightenment Legacies
Recent keywords in Enlightenment Legacies
