Journal of Buddhist Ethics ISSN 1076-9005 http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/ Volume 28, 2021 Is Buddhism Individualistic? The Trouble with a Term Donna Lynn Brown University of Manitoba Copyright Notice: Digital copies of this work may be made and distributed provided no change is made and no alteration is made to the content. Reproduction in any other format, with the exception of a single copy for private study, requires the written permission of the author. All en- quiries to:
[email protected]. Is Buddhism Individualistic? The Trouble with a Term Donna Lynn Brown 1 Abstract Western scholars have been calling expressions of Bud- dhism “individualistic”—or denying the charge—since the 1800s. This article argues that “individualism” and related terms are sometimes problematic when applied to Bud- dhism. Because they are associated with Western moder- nity, they contribute to hegemonic discourses about Asia and Buddhism, skew representations, and reinforce stere- otypes. Because their referents have been many and var- ied—including escaping caste and family, asociality, lay practice, and racism—their use leads to imprecision, con- fusion, and lack of comparability among analyses. And be- cause they have moral connotations, they can blend ob- servation with valuation and polemic. The article exam- ines selected scholarly works that maintain or deny that 1 Department of Religion, University of Manitoba.
[email protected]. The au- thor would like to thank Roger Jackson, Victor Forte, Jason Brown, Rory Dickson, and JBE’s anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. 56 Brown, Is Buddhism Individualistic? Buddhism is individualistic, highlights problems associat- ed with the term, and concludes that, in many cases, more precise and less value-laden descriptors should be found.