Renunciation and the Householder/Renouncer Relation in the New Kadampa Tradition by Christopher Emory-Moore A thesis presented to the University Of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2019 © Christopher Emory-Moore 2019 Examining Committee Membership The following served on the Examining Committee for this thesis. The decision of the Examining Committee is by majority vote. External Examiner DR. ANNE GLEIG Associate Professor University of Central Florida Supervisor(s) DR. JEFF WILSON Professor Renison University College Internal Members DR. MAVIS FENN Professor Emeritus University of Waterloo DR. JASON NEELIS Associate Professor Wilfrid Laurier University Internal-external Member DR. SARAH WILKINS-LAFLAMME Assistant Professor University of Waterloo ii I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii Abstract Founded by the Tibetan-British monk Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in 1991, the New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU) is a fast-growing and controversial transnational Buddhist network that has enthusiastically embraced an expansionist business model and major monastic reform. Toward an improved understanding of the group and of Tibetan Buddhism’s diasporic modernization more broadly, this dissertation examines the practice of Buddhism’s traditionally monastic soteriology of renunciation (the abandonment of “worldly concerns” on the path to liberation from cyclic rebirth) by members of urban NKT meditation centres in Canada and the United States. When China declared its sovereignty over the Tibetan cultural region in 1951, twenty-year old Kelsang Gyatso was one of over 6,000 monks residing at the Geluk monastery of Sera near Lhasa. Forty years later when he founded the NKT in northern England, Gyatso decided it would have no monasteries, only congregational teaching and meditation centers designed to spread his interpretation of Geluk Buddhism. Without monasteries to institutionally support the Buddhist praxis of renunciation, what does renunciation look like in the NKT? My ethnographic study of the North American NKT addresses this question by engaging field interviews, participant observations, publications, teachings, and media through a conceptual apparatus prominent in both Buddhism and Buddhist Studies: the householder/renouncer relation. I argue that the NKT’s market-driven expansionism not only supersedes its funding of a monastic community but replaces monasticism as the principal institutional framework for renunciation in the form of full-time subsistence missionary work on the part of ordained and lay Kadampa Buddhist virtuosos. Whereas Tibetan clerical renunciation looks like the monastic community’s dual abandonment of the household activities of economic and sexual production, my analysis of NKT labour reveals that these have been bifurcated between ordained Kadampa monastics who renounce sexual reproduction but not economic production, and Kadampa missionary managers who renounce the latter but not necessarily the former. Celibate monastic ordination becomes an optional lifestyle, the suitability of which is primarily a matter of personal preference rather than ritual specialization, and the arduous and austere life of a missionary (lay or ordained) becomes the principal model of a consecrated life of renunciation. Finally, I suggest that this hybrid business model of “missionary monasticism” has been a major factor in the NKT’s external growth, producing a diverse and motivated labour force whose renunciation of economic remuneration provides the organization with the fruits of their economic production, but also in some of the movement’s more visible internal fault lines: labour shortage, turnover, and disgruntled former members. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Jeff Wilson, for five years of wise counsel and unfaltering mentorship that have quietly pointed me in all the right directions. I am very grateful for the guidance of my committee members, Dr. Jason Neelis and Dr. Mavis Fenn, whose Buddhological expertise protected me from at least some embarrassment. I would also like to thank Dr. Anne Gleig and Dr. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme for evaluating my dissertation in its final stage. My path to Waterloo was paved by Dr. Katharine Streip who steered me toward graduate studies and by Dr. James Apple who honed my appreciation of Buddhism’s intellectual breadth. Several organizations have generously supported my doctoral studies and research. I would particularly like to thank the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion for a doctoral research travel scholarship, the Government of Ontario for three Ontario Graduate Scholarships, the University of Waterloo for two parental leaves, and the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo for a series of rewarding teaching assistantships. This dissertation would not have come to pass without the New Kadampa Tradition’s clearance of my field research, the flexible hospitality of my NKT field site communities, and the many uncompensated hours of interview attention graciously offered up by my NKT informants. My family has provided immeasurable logistical and emotional support. Papa, I will not forget your moral code. Mom, Dad, and Scott, you are my biggest fans. Alexandra, muse and muscle, holding house with you is my dawning vocation. Augustine and Odette, thank you for coming. v To my Spiritual Guide and all Spiritual Guides vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Examining Committee Membership …………………………………………………………….. ii Author’s Declaration …………………………………………………………………………… iii Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………. iv Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………………… v Dedication …………………………………………………………………………………….… vi Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………………………. vii List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………………… x INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………... 1 i. Research Question and Thesis ………………………………………………………………… 3 ii. Context and Overview ………………………………………………………………………... 4 iii. Methodology and Sources ………………………………………………………………….. 10 iv. Positionality ………………………………………………………………………………… 12 v. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………………………………… 14 vi. Chapter Outline ……………………………………………………………………………... 17 vii. Transliteration ……………………………………………………………………………… 23 CHAPTER 1. Renunciation and the Householder/Renouncer Relation in Buddhism …... 24 i. Renunciation and the Householder/Renouncer Relation in South Asian Buddhism ………… 25 ii. Renunciation and the Householder/Renouncer Relation in Central Asian Buddhism ……… 41 - Monks and Lamas - Monks and Tulkus iii. Renunciation and the Householder/Renouncer Relation in North American Buddhism …... 56 - Monks, Nuns, Lamas, and Tulkus in North American Tibetan Buddhism - Protestant Vajrayana Buddhism CHAPTER 2. The New Kadampa Tradition ……………………………………………….. 81 i. Context, Emergence, Expansion …………………………………………………………...… 82 ii. Neo-traditionalization: Identity and Doctrine ……………………………………………….. 98 - Dorje Shugden Reliance - Buddhist Fundamentalism? iii. Detraditionalization: Institutional Structures ……………………………………………… 113 - Education Reform - Authority Reform - Monastic Reform iv. Lineage and Adaptation …………………………………………………………...………. 123 - “The NKT is Not Tibetan Buddhism” vii CHAPTER 3. Therapy and Soteriology in NKT Publicity and Doctrine ………………... 135 i. The NKT’s Self-Identification as “Modern Buddhism” ……………………………….…… 137 - The Modernist Brand - The Traditionalist Book - The Traditional as Modern ii. Casting the Net and Recasting Problems in KMC Meditation Classes ……………………. 155 - Promotional Modernism - Pedagogical Traditionalism - Strong Medicine or False Advertising? iii. Children’s Meditation in the FPMT and NKT ……………………………………………. 169 - FPMT Children’s Meditation Manual - NKT Children’s Meditation Manual - Texts and Contexts Compared iv. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………… 183 CHAPTER 4. NKT Monastics: Sexual Renouncers, Symbolic Providers ……………….. 187 i. Therapy and Soteriology in NKT Doctrine and Praxis ……………………………………... 191 ii. Mūlasarvāstivāda and Kadampa Vinayas …………………………………………………. 206 iii. The Meaning of Ordination ……………………………………………………………….. 211 - Ordination as Aspiration of Renunciation - Ordination as Support of Renunciation - Ordination as Representation of Renunciation iv. Renunciation’s Exoteric Privatization and Esoteric Institutionalization ………………….. 248 CHAPTER 5. NKT Missionaries: Economic Renouncers, Practical Providers ………… 251 i. Introduction ……………………...………………………………………………………….. 251 ii. Dharma Work ...………………...………………………………………………………….. 254 - Teachings - Experiences iii. NKT Missionary Managers ……………...………………………………………………... 268 - NKT Missionaries and Geluk Monks - Manager Profiles iv. NKT Missionaries and DRBA Nuns ………...……………………………………………. 281 - Busyness - Austerity - Cenobitic Cultivation, “Hierarchy Shuffle,” and Self-Abnegation v. The Reproduction Question ……………...………………………………………………… 298 vi. The Business Model of Missionary Monasticism ……………….………………………… 306 - Cheap, Efficient Labour viii - Labour Shortage - Burnout - Disgruntled Former Members vii. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………... 323 CHAPTER 6. The Role of Guru Devotion in NKT Missionary Monasticism …………… 330 i. Guru Faith as Centripetal Draw from Self-Help to Self-Abnegation ……………………….