Social Discourses of Meditation
Buddhism entered the popular imagination of English-speaking societies for the first time in the late nineteenth century. The world of Buddhism described in these books and other ideas, values and images of Buddhism that quickly became public knowledge through various routes presented a challenge to this audience as it confounded the characteristics of other known religions. Alternately praised and derided for stepping outside the fixed religious categories known to the western world, Buddhism has continued to be a particularly contentious religious and philosophical category in Western countries. Orientalists praised the pure, rational and scientific origins of the Buddhist tradition while at the same time derided the belief system as nihilistic and pessimistic in contrast to the optimism of Christianity. The early interpretations were based on the historical context of colonialism in Asian Buddhist countries as well as fear of conversion to this new and interesting religion.
The current context of interpretation of Buddhism among scholars and practitioners is much changed. Today Buddhism is still seen as a challenge to religious categories, but with the negative ideas of religion in the modern world, this is seen as a positive for Buddhism. There is no longer much discussion of conversion or competition of Buddhism with Christianity except in perhaps the more extreme missionary Christians. How did these changes occur? Certainly this change concerns the present postcolonial context of the interpretation of Buddhism, but it also has to do with the one topic that was not discussed much for nineteenth century interpreters: meditation. Non-self, paticca samupada, atheism, the biography of the Buddha were all major discussion points for early scholars. But today Buddhism is completely intertwined with meditation in the popular imagination and this has changed the interpretations of Buddhism in significant ways.
It is not the existence of meditation as a popular image of Buddhism that is the mo! st signi ficant, however, it is the idea that meditation can be divorced from the tradition of Buddhism and can be practiced by everyone. This idea is what has changed the popular imagination of Buddhism so that it is no longer in competition with Christianity or other religious and non-religious systems, but can be a complement to them. Evidence of this can be seen in the many instances of hybrid religiosities mixing Christianity and other religions with Buddhism (see previous article). People that identify as a hybrid Buddhist do so mainly because they have a regular meditation practice. Others who practice meditation call themselves non-religious or practice mindfulness for pain, stress-reduction, addiction, and a whole host of daily life, mundane goals. These ideas are not only in Western countries, but do affect Asian Buddhist communities as well. Asian Buddhists were certainly both influenced by these non-religious meditative discourses but also contributed to them.
These discourses are affirmed and recognized in the interesting and illuminating example of Thailands international meditation centers. International meditation teachers in Thailand often argue that there is a need to dereligionize meditation in Thailand for foreigners. Because of the location of the practice in a Buddhist country and Buddhist temple, there is a heightened atmosphere of religious practices that some international meditators find confusing and disconcerting. This is, of course, in contrast to Thai meditators. Thai monk international meditation teachers who cater to both Thai and international communities have different roles they assume and only one of these is presenting the practice of meditation to international travelers. For Thai meditators the meditation center exposes a religiosity with meditation as one part but for international meditators it is dereligionized with meditation heightened and ritualized forms ! separate d and deemphasized.
In this context it is clear to see the self-conscious changes made to teach and present meditation to a foreign audience. Therefore there are dual processes at work here: the international meditators attitudes and feedback as well as the meditation teachers adaptations and innovations for this audience. The use of Western categories such as culture and religion to describe meditation in a favorable and appealing light are used frequently by teachers. International meditators are assumed to be interested in meditation without the culture. Meditation teachers apply these categories and allow adaptations and flexibility in international meditation centers accordingly. Therefore these teachers are aware of the international communities perceptions of meditation and are interested in creating spaces for international meditators to practice in the ways they already perceive of the practice.
This history of the interpretation of meditation from its silence in the nineteenth century to its prominence currently has created much change for the ideas about Buddhism. From a religion that was compared with Christianity to one that can be a supplement to it, from a practice that was barely mentioned to one that most people travelling to Thailand would like to try, the ideas of meditation have created a discourse within the popular imagination that this Buddhist practice isnt for only Buddhists, but for everyone and has manifold benefits. The consequences of this message can be seen clearly in Thailands international meditation centers where meditation is divorced from the Buddhist worldview specifically for foreign travelers. Particular adaptations, reinterpretations and much flexibility is needed to maintain this discourse of openness while practicing in a Thai templedepending on the teacher this is carried out to varying degrees.
