Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain

TIBETAN AND ZEN BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN This book analyses the transplantation, development and adaptation of the two largest Tibetan and Zen Buddhist organisations currently active on the British religious landscape: the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives (OBC). The key contributions of recent scholarship are evaluated and organised thematically to provide a framework for analysis, and the history and current landscape of contemporary Tibetan and Zen Buddhist practice in Britain are also mapped out. A number of patterns and processes identified elsewhere are exemplified, although certain assumptions made about the nature of ‘British Buddhism’ are subjected to critical scrutiny and challenged. David N. Kay has lectured on and conducted doctoral research into the development and adaptation of Tibetan and Zen forms of Buddhism in Britain at St Martin’s College, Lancaster. ROUTLEDGECURZON CRITICAL STUDIES IN BUDDHISM General Editors: Charles S. Prebish and Damien Keown RoutledgeCurzon Critical Studies in Buddhism is a comprehensive study of the Buddhist tradition. The series explores this complex and extensive tradition from a variety of perspectives, using a range of different methodologies. The series is diverse in its focus, including historical studies, textual transla- tions and commentaries, sociological investigations, bibliographic studies, and considerations of religious practice as an expression of Buddhism’s integral reli- giosity. It also presents materials on modern intellectual historical studies, including the role of Buddhist thought and scholarship in a contemporary, critical context and in the light of current social issues. The series is expansive and imaginative in scope, spanning more than two and a half millennia of Buddhist history. It is receptive to all research works that inform and advance our knowl- edge and understanding of the Buddhist tradition. THE REFLEXIVE NATURE OF AMERICAN BUDDHISM AWARENESS Edited by Duncan Ryuken Williams and Paul Williams Christopher Queen BUDDHISM AND HUMAN PAIN AND ITS ENDING RIGHTS Carol S. Anderson Edited by Damien Keown, Charles Prebish and Wayne Husted THE SOUND OF LIBERATING TRUTH ALTRUISM AND REALITY Edited by Sallie B. King and Paul Williams Paul O. Ingram WOMEN IN THE FOOTSTEPS BUDDHIST THEOLOGY OF THE BUDDHA Edited by Roger R Jackson and Kathryn R. Blackstone John J. Makransky THE RESONANCE OF EMPTINESS APPRAISED EMPTINESS David F. Burton Gay Watson THE GLORIOUS DEEDS OF IMAGING WISDOM PURNA Jacob N. Kinnard Joel Tatelman CONTEMPORARY BUDDHIST IN DEFENSE OF DHARMA ETHICS Tessa J. Bartholomeusz Edited by Damien Keown RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION AND INNOVATIVE BUDDHIST THE ORIGINS OF BUDDHISM WOMEN Torkel Brekke Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo DEVELOPMENTS IN TEACHING BUDDHISM IN THE AUSTRALIAN BUDDHISM WEST Michelle Spuler Edited by V. S. Hori, R. P. Hayes and J. M. Shields THE BUDDHIST UNCONSCIOUS EMPTY VISION William S. Waldron David L. McMahan ACTION DHARMA SELF, REALITY AND REASON Edited by Christopher Queen, Charles IN TIBETAN PHILOSOPHY Prebish and Damien Keown Thupten Jinpa INDIAN BUDDHIST THEORIES BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERSONS Dan Lusthaus James Duerlinger ZEN WAR STORIES TIBETAN AND ZEN BUDDHISM Brian Victoria IN BRITAIN David N. Kay TIBETAN AND ZEN BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN Transplantation, development and adaptation David N. Kay First published 2004 by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2004 David N. Kay All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0–203–96362–8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0–415–29765–6 (Print Edition) TO MY PARENTS AND MY WIFE, ANIMA CONTENTS List of illustrations xii Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv List of abbreviations xvi Part I Review and contextualisation 1 1 Buddhism in Britain: review and contextualisation 3 Introduction 3 Buddhism and British culture 4 The transplantation process 11 Policies and patterns of adaptation 18 Contextualising the NKT and OBC 25 Part II The New Kadampa Tradition 35 2 The New Kadampa Tradition: background and cross-cultural context 37 Introduction: contextualising the NKT 37 Divisions within the Gelug tradition 39 The Dorje Shugden controversy 44 3 The emergence of the NKT in Britain 53 Introduction 53 Gelug Buddhism in the West: the FPMT 53 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso 57 Problems at the priory 61 ix CONTENTS Geshe Kelsang’s network takes shape 66 Dorje Shugden reliance in Geshe Kelsang’s centres 70 The crystalisation of the NKT 73 The creation and announcement of the NKT 78 4 The identity of the NKT 81 Introduction 81 History and identity construction in the NKT 81 The NKT’s organisational structure 84 Purity and impurity 86 Critique of contemporary Buddhist practice 87 NKT exclusivism 91 The missionary imperative 95 Engagement and dialogue 97 Adaptation within the NKT 98 Dorje Shugden reliance 100 Crisis and response: the Dorje Shugden affair 104 A rejection of modernity? 109 The FPMT revisited 113 Part III The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives 117 5 The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives: background and early development 119 Introduction: contextualising the OBC 119 The emergence of the Zen Mission Society 120 The ideological development of the ZMS, 1962–76 126 Aspects of Kennett’s Zen 132 A Protestant form of Zen? 140 Religious innovation and charisma 143 6 The Lotus Blossom period, 1976–83 145 Introduction 145 Zen Buddhism and meditative experience 145 Kennett’s religious experience: preliminary considerations 147 The phenomenology of Kennett’s experience 150 A contextual explanation 155 Developments and innovations 159 Assimilation and rejection 164 x CONTENTS Strategies and arguments 171 Text and context in the OBC: The Wild, White Goose 177 The storm weathered 182 7 The later period: routinisation and consolidation 183 The routinising impulse 183 The structure and identity of the OBC 184 Kennett’s later teachings 188 Assimilation and stability in the later period 193 Growth and consolidation in Britain 197 The OBC and the British Buddhist context 203 Part IV Epilogue and conclusion 209 8 Epilogue and conclusion 211 Recent developments in the NKT 211 Recent developments in the OBC 215 Buddhism and British culture 218 The transplantation process 220 Policies and patterns of adaptation 222 Constructing history and resolving conflict 224 Conclusion 225 Notes 227 Bibliography 242 Index 250 xi ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 1.1 Tibetan Buddhist groups by school, 1981 27 1.2 Tibetan Buddhist groups by school, 1991 27 1.3 Tibetan Buddhist groups by school, 2000 27 1.4 Zen Buddhist groups by school, 1981 30 1.5 Zen Buddhist groups by school, 1991 30 1.6 Zen Buddhist groups by school, 2000 30 2.1 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, founder of the NKT 38 2.2 The protector-deity Dorje Shugden 44 5.1 Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, founder of the OBC 120 6.1 Jiyu-Kennett’s past-life experiences 152 6.2 Jiyu-Kennett’s vision of the five aspects of monkhood 154 xii PREFACE This book is the end result of my doctoral research into contemporary forms of British Buddhism, conducted between 1993 and 2000 through the Department of Religion and Ethics at St Martin’s College, Lancaster. The latter half of the twen- tieth century witnessed a growing interest in Buddhism as a religious option amongst British people and the increasing diversification of the British Buddhist landscape. The focus of my research from the outset was Tibetan and Zen forms of Buddhism owing to the fact that, whilst scholarly research into the nature and development of British Buddhism was making significant advances in some areas – notably the Theravada tradition and the self-consciously ‘Western’ movement called the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) – the Tibetan and Zen traditions remained a neglected area. An exhaustive examination of all Tibetan and Zen groups that were active on the British Buddhist landscape during the 1990s was beyond the scope of the study; selection was necessary in order to yield material that would give a meaningful insight into the processes of transplantation, development and adaptation. The New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), which has its roots in the Tibetan Gelug tradition, and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives (OBC), which is rooted in Japanese Soto Zen, were chosen because they were amongst the first wave of Tibetan and Zen groups to become established in Britain, each tracing their origins back to the early 1970s. After three decades of growth and development, these groups now represent the largest Tibetan and Zen Buddhist organisations, institutionally and numerically, that are currently active on British shores. The NKT and OBC are therefore significant to anyone who wishes to understand the nature and development of British Buddhism generally, and its Tibetan and Zen forms specifically. The present work aims to further this understanding and open up the scholarly discussion of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain by providing a detailed analysis of the transplantation, development and adaptation of the NKT and OBC. The variety of Tibetan and Zen traditions in Britain are surveyed as the immediate historical backdrop and broader institutional context of these groups, but the focus of the study is firmly upon the emergence and development of the NKT and OBC.

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