UNIVERSAL BUDDHISM, INDIVIDUAL BUDDHISM: ANALYSIS OF THE INCREASING WESTERN INTEREST IN EASTERN SPIRITUALITY

Abstract

The article analyses the increasing interest in Buddhism among Western Culture. Based on different historical and sociological researches, a critical review of this phenomenon is undertaken in the light of theories concerning Modernity. First, it considers the evolution of western representations of Buddhism and Tibet -bearing in mind that the culture of the latter has been generally seen as purely Buddhist. Second, it shows the existent relation between the studied phenomenon and the new forms of believing -which are dominant in a significant sector of Western society. Then, it highlights the relevance of considering the phenomenon of Buddhism within the contemporary pluralism that values a certain idea of Otherness. Therefore, it is concluded that the rise of Buddhism, though apparently might be the expression of a turn in the opposite direction of Modernity, might be understood within the background of quite modern processes such as deinstitutionalization of religion, individualization and the cultural critique that is resultant of the so-called crisis of meaning in the West.