Conferences

There are Buddhist monastic rules, stories, and teachings that directly address those of lesser years and the issues that are thought to be unique to their stage of life. And Buddhist individuals and groups have created literature, activities, and organizations for boys, girls, and young people in general. Although young people have appeared throughout Buddhist history, Buddhists have engaged most intensively with the category of youth and young people during the modern and contemporary periods. This symposium is a chance to explore this theme and learn together.

This conference has been called to re-examine the widely held assumption that modern Buddhism is Buddhism with Western characteristics, and to attempt to map out a better paradigm for explaining the modernization of Buddhism. It takes seriously the concept of globalization: Buddhist transformation in Asia and in the West are not seen as distinct but as related, taking place in communication across multiple nodes that cross East-West lines.

Throughout its history, Buddhism has been a resource for practices, ideas, and worldviews that relate to wellbeing–whether this is understood as flourishing in the physical, mental, or soteriological sense. Beginning with the physical, Buddhism has served as a repository for therapeutic and pharmaceutical knowledge, and its clerics, have served as doctors, healers, and nurses.