Week 4: early 21st century US convert Buddhism: The Tibetan/Vajrayana; Thich Nhat Hanh

Arguably the two most widely known Buddhist modernizers in the world are the Dalai Lama and the late Thich Nhat Hanh. Both became political exiles; both worked extensively to adapt, or at least explain, Buddhism to Western audiences. Beyond that, the two approaches are quite different with very different paths.

The Tibetan/Vajrayana is relatively small on a global scale—probably about 10% of Buddhists—but is disproportionately influential in the US due to the Tibetan diaspora which found refuge here following the Chinese conquest of Tibet, as well the charismatic influence of the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan tradition is also interesting in developing far later than the Theravadan and Mahayana, around 1000CE, and incorporates both Indian and Chinese elements as well as older Tibetan practices.

Thich Nhat Hanh was exiled from his native Vietnam due to his anti-war efforts—notably persuading Martin Luther King to oppose the U.S. intervention—and spent the next forty years developing a global community, based out of Plum Village in France, which adapts Mahayana principles to the contemporary mix of lay and monastic practice. His many, many books are read widely on both sides of the Atlantic.

Suggested reading:

Link to slides from talk (pdf file)

Link to 3-page rough outline for the talk (pdf file)

Other resources