The Future of Buddhist Exceptionalism

Dr Evan Thompson is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia an Associate Member of the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of Psychology, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
 Evan recounts his upbringing in his father’s intentional community, the Lindisfarne Association, and shares stories of childhood encounters with teachers of Zen, Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, Yoga, and more. Evan traces his intellectual and academic trajectories, and reflects on the problems of community dynamics and religious perennialism that his father’s community faced. Evan then outlines his critique of what he calls ‘Buddhist Exceptionalism’, as laid out in his book ‘Why I Am Not A Buddhist’. As part of this critique, Evan addresses subjects such as why Buddhism is not a science of the mind (or of anything else), why presentations of the historical Buddha used by figures such as Goenka are a useful fiction, the problems of borrowing the authority of science for the purposes of Buddhist evangelism, and the surprising influence of Protestantism on Buddhism’s development in Asia. Evan also reflects on the future of Buddhism and explores the question, ‘what is enlightenment?’. … Video version: www.guruviking.com/podcast/158-why-i-am-not-a-buddhist-evan-thompson 
Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’. … Topics include: 00:00 - Intro 01:23 - Evan’s upbringing in his father’s intentional community 06:38 - Exposure to Zen via Richard Baker Roshi 09:34 - Zen takeover of the Lindisfarne Association 11:13 - Childhood encounters with Buddhist, Sufi, Yoga, and Christian teachers 14:29 - Evan’s distaste for Chogyam Trungpa’s scene 16:48 - Fractious community dynamics and the Zen takeover 21:19 - Problems of perennialism 25:03 - An ecology of mysticism 26:32 - Religious superiority 28:18 - Evan’s intellectual development and academic trajectory 35:36 - Buddhist exceptionalism and the Mind & Life Institute 41:20 - What is Buddhist modernism 44:065 - Evan’s misgivings about Buddhist exceptionalism 47:37 - Evan summarises his critique 49:21 - Reactions from colleagues 54:44 - Why do elite academics engage in Buddhist apologetics? 56:58 - Goenka’s useful fiction of the historical Buddha 01:01:09 - B Alan Wallace and religious vs academic register 01:04:19 - Exceptionalism as evangelism and exhortation 01:05:20 - The core philosophical engine of Buddhism 01:07:41 - Buddhism is not scientific 01:10:56 - Personal experience and ‘test and see’ 01:15:59 - Is Buddhist philosophy uniquely rich? 01:21:12 - What is enlightenment? 01:25:00 - Awakening as a regulative ideal 01:27:20 - What counts as the experience of awakening? 01:32:28 - Protestant Christianity’s surprising influence on Buddhism in Asia 01:40:23 - What would convert Evan to Buddhism 01:42:22 - Exceptionalism harms Buddhism and science … To find out more about Evan Thompson, visit: - https://evanthompson.me/ For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James