The new volume of Contemporary Buddhism presents a rich discussion on Buddhism in Asia, North America, and Africa, and pays attention to texts, practices, and key figures of the Buddhist institutions. This volume reflects on the entanglement between Buddhism and human values, politics, law, diaspora communities, cross-tradition hybridity, mindfulness and health, and heritage. The second part of the volume includes reviews of several new publications in the field.
Lin’s article adds to the conversation on synergies between Buddhism and international humanitarian law that was core of the previous guest-edited volume of the journal (vol. 22, published in 2021); Lin addresses especially Mahāyāna values and focuses on contemporary Buddhist masters like the Chinese monk Yinshun (1906–2005) and the 14th Dalai Lama. We move to Buddhism in North America with the article by Donna Brown on the value and practice of forgiveness; Brown also starts a more comprehensive discussion on the topic by highlighting similar Buddhist practices in other regions. Hyland’s study contributes to our understanding of mindfulness and its application today, a topic that has been highly relevant to Contemporary Buddhism since its foundation. Tseng reminds us of the role of Buddhists and Buddhist practices during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, continuing a discussion on Buddhism and health that Hyland has also undertaken. Shi Xuefei and Li Hangwei assess Buddhism in diaspora communities, with a focus on Africa where Chinese Buddhism has been increasingly present and active. Harcey’s article discusses the discourse of Buddhist material culture, and how it has developed in Buddha’s birthplace within the context of modern Theravāda missionisation, reform and preservation. Finally, Cai analyses the connections and merging between Buddhism and cultural traditions native to China through the case study of popular songs.
We are very grateful to the authors who chose Contemporary Buddhism as the venue for publishing their research, and to all the anonymous reviewers for their time and support.