Buddhism and Cultural Studies (eBook)

Edwin Ng is a cultural theorist who explores the translation of Buddhism in popular culture, the ethics and politics of contemporary mindfulness, and contemplative approaches to learning, inquiry, and activism. He has taught media and communication studies at Deakin University, Australia.

Contents 6
Acknowledgments 10
References 12
Chapter 1: Introduction 13
Refusing the Presumptive Secularism of Cultural Studies 15
The Ethics of Cultural Studies and, Perhaps, Faith? 20
An Enunciative Practice of a Spiritual-Scholarly Profession 22
A Profession of Faith on the Contested Ground of ‘Spirituality’ 23
Notes 27
References 28
Chapter 2: Towards a Spiritually Engaged Cultural Studies 31
Who or What Is Embarrassed by Matters of Faith? 32
Governmentality, the Neoliberal Subject, and a Politics of Spirituality 37
The Spirituality of White Collar Zen 43
The Spirituality of Engaged Buddhism 46
The Question of Meditative Experience 50
Conclusion 51
Notes 52
References 53
Chapter 3: Methods, Traditions, Liminal Identities 57
A ‘Cultural Thing’ 57
Buddhist Theology and Buddhist Critical-­Constructive Reflection 60
Autoethnographical Reflections of a Postcolonial ‘Western Buddhist’ Convert 64
Portraits and Legacies of Buddhist Modernism 70
The Insight (vipassan?) Meditation Movement 77
The Reciprocal Development of Buddhist Critical-­Constructive Reflection and Spiritually Engaged Cultural Studies 81
Conclusion 85
Notes 86
References 87
Chapter 4: Of Intellectual Hospitality, Buddhism and Deconstruction 91
Constructivist Critique and the Soteriological Claim of Unmediated Awareness 93
Dependent Co-arising and Différance 96
Reconsidering the Buddhist Critique of Deconstruction 101
Unconditional Unconditionality Unconditionally 107
Conclusion 112
References 114
Chapter 5: The ‘Religious Question’ in Foucault’s Genealogies of Experience 117
Part I: The Role of Experience in Foucault’s Oeuvre 119
‘Experience’ as Constitutive Historical Conditions 119
‘Experience’ as a Transformative Force 120
‘Limit-Experience’, ‘Transgression’ and ‘Spiritual Corporality’ 124
Part II: The Turn to the Subject and Ethics 127
The ‘Nietzschean Legacy’ and the Quest for a Different Morality 127
Foucault’s ‘Iranian Experiment’ 131
Is ‘Political Spirituality’ Religious or Secular? 134
Affirming the Messianicity of a Futural Politics 140
Conclusion 143
Note 144
References 145
Chapter 6: The Care of Self and Spiritually Engaged Cultural Studies 149
Problematisation and the Arts of Existence 150
Foucault’s Fourfold Analysis of Ethics and the Care of Self 152
The Double Articulation of the Self in Spiritually Engaged Cultural Studies 156
Conclusion 160
References 161
Chapter 7: A Foucauldian Analysis of Vipassana and a Buddhist Art of Living 163
Mindfulness of Bodily Sensation (Ethical Substance/the Material Fold) 165
The Decision to ‘Let Go’ (Mode of Subjection/the Fold of Relations Between Forces) 169
Dissolving the Habits of the Self (Ethical Work/the Fold of Truth) 172
Limit-Experience and the Body as Event (Telos/the Fold of the Outside) 178
Conclusion 184
Notes 187
References 189
Chapter 8: Buddhist Critical Thought and an Affective Micropolitics of (Un)Becoming 191
An Emergent Buddhist Critical/Social Theory 192
Affect and Biopower 198
The Intersensory Dynamics of Perception 205
The Anticipatory Triggers of Perception 207
The Influence of Discipline on Perceptual Processes 209
The Ethico-Political Fecundity of Dwelling in Moments of Duration 213
Conclusion 215
Notes 216
References 217
Chapter 9: A Profession of Faith 220
Is Buddhist Faith Blind? 221
The Undecidability of Faith and Faith in Undecidability 232
Debating the Im-possible: Radical Atheism Against God 234
Between an Immanent and Transcendent Horizon of Faith 240
Awaiting the ‘Perhaps’ with Derrida and Foucault 247
The Faith of Cultural Studies, Perhaps? 249
Conclusion 252
Notes 254
References 255
Chapter 10: Conclusion 258
The Micropolitics of the Neoliberal University 259
A Profession of Faith for the University Without Condition 264
Scholarly Affect and the Work of Friendship 268
Note 271
References 271
Bibliography 274
Index 275