New Books in Buddhist Studies

On the podcast today I am joined by Kirin Narayan, emerita professor at the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Kirin is joining me to talk about her new book, Cave of my Ancestors: Vishwakarma and the Artisans of Ellora published by Chicago University Press in 2024, and in 2025 as an Indian edition by HarperCollins India. As a young girl in Bombay, Kirin Narayan was enthralled by her father’s stories about how their ancestors had made the ancient rock-cut cave temples at Ellora. Recalling those stories as an adult, she was inspired to learn more about the caves, especially the Buddhist worship hall known as the “Vishwakarma cave.” Immersing herself in family history, oral traditions, and works by archaeologists, art historians, scholars of Buddhism, Indologists, and Sanskritists, in Cave of my Ancestors Narayan set out to answer the question of how this cave came to be venerated as the home of Vishwakarma, the god of making in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Part scholarship, part detective story, and memoir, Narayan’s book leads readers through centuries of history, offering a sensitive meditation on devotion, wonder, and all that connects us to place, family, the past, and the divine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies

Today I sit down with Willoughby Britton and Jared Lindahl, the interdisciplinary team from Brown University that is responsible for the “Varieties of Contemplative Experience” study on the challenges and adverse effects of meditation. We talk about the design, findings, and outcomes of the study, and how it opened up a new field of interdisciplinary investigation. Along the way we ask: if someone suffers harm from practicing meditation, whose fault is it? What is the ultimate cause? And who gets to interpret the experience? If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in deep conversations about the dark side of Asian religions and medicines, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members-only benefits on Substack.com to see what our guests have shared with you. Enjoy the show! Resources mentioned in this episode: Complete Varieties of Contemplative Experience study publications list Willoughby on the Mind & Life Podcast Willoughby & Jared on The Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Podcast “The Varieties of Contemplative Experience: A Mixed-Methods Study of Meditation-Related Challenges in Western Buddhists” (2017) “The Roles and Impacts of Worldviews on the Onset and Trajectory of Meditation-Related Challenges” (2022) “The Teacher Matters: The Role and Impact of Meditation Teachers in the Trajectories of Western Buddhist Meditators Experiencing Meditation-Related Challenges” (2025) “Progress or Pathology? Differential Diagnosis and Intervention Criteria for Meditation-Related Challenges: Perspectives from Buddhist Meditation Teachers and Practitioners.” CheetahHouse.org Become a paid subscriber on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including PDFs of these resources. Pierce Salguero is a transdisciplinary scholar of health humanities who is fascinated by historical and contemporary intersections between Buddhism, medicine, and crosscultural exchange. He has a Ph.D. in History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2010), and teaches Asian history, medicine, and religion at Penn State University’s Abington College, located near Philadelphia. www.piercesalguero.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies

Anne Blackburn, Old Dominion Foundation Professor at Cornell University, explores the emergence of new kingdoms influenced by Theravada Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia between the 13th and 15th centuries. She discusses the significance of the Pali language in defining sovereignty and the unique role of Sri Lanka in this historical narrative. Blackburn also delves into Emperor Ashoka's impact on Buddhist leadership ideals and the evolving scholarship on Pali texts, revealing the complex interactions that shaped the intellectual landscape of the region.

Magdalena Maria Turek is an independent research scholar. She received her PhD from Humboldt University, Germany, and was a Research Fellow with the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies at the American Council of Learned Societies, USA. Her research examines how contemporary reiterations of Tibetan Buddhist orthopraxy, local narratives, and religious historiography shape Buddhist identities among Tibetans in China and the diaspora. She just published Buddhist Hermits in Eastern Tibet: Saint Making and Ascetic Performance (Routledge, 2025), a fascinating ethnography of the meditation school of Lapchi in Kham, which is in Eastern Tibet in modern day Yushu Prefecture in Qinghai Province. This is a relatively modern hermitage founded by a charismatic ascetic master named Tsultrim Tarchen, and populated by various nuns and monks who are studying meditation under Tsultrim Tarchen. Her book explores the rise of Tsultrim Tarchen, the activities practiced by the students there, and the how their contemplative practices and ascetic regimes allow for self-formation and empowerment on the part of the meditators, participate in ethno-religious revival, and articulate a counter-cultural position against Chinese domination of Tibetan culture. I found this book rich with ethnographic detail about the various nuns and why they were there. It was able to help me understand modern Buddhist practices on their own terms, but also how they relate to broader social and historical forces. It's very readable, but also deeply researched both in the field and in terms of the theoretical literature.  Note: Early on in the podcast, we mention a film made by some traveling companions of Dr. Turek's around the same area she did fieldwork. The film was not made by Dr. Turek and does not reflect her views, but gives a sense of the area where she did her fieldwork. The link to the trailer can be found here. Kate Hartmann is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Wyoming. She recently published Making the Invisible Real: Practices of Seeing in Tibetan Pilgrimage (Oxford University Press, 2025). Her other work can be found on her personal website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies

Dr. Daniel M. Ingram, a retired ER physician and co-founder of the Emergent Phenomena Research Consortium, dives deep into unique spiritual experiences. The conversation explores mystical phenomena, the challenges of spiritual practices, and the intersection of modern science with meditation. Ingram discusses the importance of informed consent around meditation's risks and the significance of language in understanding spiritual experiences. They also touch on the implications of AI in mental health and advocate for a nuanced approach to spirituality.

Myth and Identity in the Martial Arts: Creating the Dragon (Lexington Books, 2025) is a study of the role of myth and ideology in the formation of social identity, focusing on a variety of communities of practice involving the martial arts in East Asian and Western history. Alexus McLeod argues that myths of the martial arts should not be understood as “falsehoods” created as means of legitimizing modern practices, but should instead be understood as narratives that enable individuals and communities to formulate social identities and to accord meaning to their practices. This book covers six influential sources of myth and identity formation in the history of martial arts: early Chinese and Indian philosophy, the formation bushido thought in the Edo period of Japan, Republican-era Chinese conceptions of nationhood and physical culture, Western contributions and the innovations of Bruce Lee, African American conceptions of martial arts as a response to oppression in the twentieth century, and the contemporary ideologies of mixed martial arts. On doing philosophy with non-textual sources, see Alexus McLeod, An Introduction to Mesoamerican Philosophy.  On violence as the preferred weapon of the stupid (so they can avoid doing any interpretative labour), see David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies

Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) (Cambria Press, 2023) is a fascinating book that sits at the intersection of Buddhist studies and premodern Korean literary history. Gregory N. Evon’s book unfolds in two parts: the first charts the history of the place, position, and status of Buddhism in Chosŏn Korea, charting how Buddhism went from being outright attacked to grudgingly tolerated. The second part looks at how this background and court intrigue led the Chosŏn official Kim Manjung 金萬重 (1637–1692) — someone typically thought of as a stalwart Neo-Confucian — to find value in Buddhism, so much so that he wove into his novel Lady Sa’s Journey to the South (Sassi namjŏng-gi 謝氏南征記) the idea that Buddhism might even hold the key to save Confucianism. Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea should be of interest to those interested in the history of Buddhism, Chosŏn Korea, and premodern literature. It should particularly appeal to readers who might be more familiar with Kim Manjung’s more well-known work, A Nine Cloud Dream (Kuunmong 九雲夢). For such readers in particular, this book offers a new and more complex way to think about this author — and the place of Buddhism in early modern Korea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies

Brook Ziporyn, a Professor at the University of Chicago, introduces listeners to his groundbreaking work on mystical atheism. He challenges conventional theism and atheism, advocating for a positive rejection of God that preserves spirituality. The conversation ranges from the intersection of Daoism and Spinoza to the ethical implications of 'ui' in Chinese thought versus Western philosophies. Ziporyn also explores the transformative potential of Buddhist teachings on truth, karma, and purpose, ultimately encouraging a deeper understanding of existence beyond binary beliefs.

Sven Trakulhun, a history professor at the University of Hamburg, delves into the fascinating interactions between 19th-century Protestant missionaries and Theravada Buddhism in Siam. He discusses how these missionaries, while largely unsuccessful in conversions, inadvertently influenced Siam's Buddhist reform led by Prince Mongkut. The conversation highlights themes of cultural identity, inter-religious dialogue, and the complex relationship between modernity and tradition as Siam faced colonial pressures. Trakulhun also reflects on the evolving interest in this topic among Thai scholars.

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies