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First brought to the United States in the nineteenth century by Chinese and Japanese immigrants, Buddhism has become a major feature of the North American religious, cultural, and social landscape. Nearly every form of Asian Buddhism has some presence in North America in addition to a variety of Buddhist “convert” communities, hybrid communities, and “secular” Buddhist networks. Buddhist-derived practices such as mindfulness meditation have been deployed in health care and educational settings, the military, and the business sector. The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism guides readers through the rich terrain of American Buddhism, illuminating the diversity of Buddhist communities and identities, exploring the innovations that have emerged from the cross-fertilization of Buddhism and American culture, and extending the theoretical and methodological boundaries that have shaped the study of American Buddhism. The Handbook is organized into four parts: Foundations, Traditions, Practices, and Frames. The essays in this volume both build upon and go beyond previous scholarship, reexamining foundational topics while recovering neglected histories, centering marginalized identities, and analyzing the intersections between Buddhist practice and scholarship.

The past couple of decades have witnessed Buddhist communities both continuing the modernization of Buddhism and questioning some of its limitations. In this fascinating portrait of a rapidly changing religious landscape, Ann Gleig illuminates the aspirations and struggles of younger North American Buddhists during a period she identifies as a distinct stage in the assimilation of Buddhism to the West. She observes both the emergence of new innovative forms of deinstitutionalized Buddhism that blur the boundaries between the religious and secular, and a revalorization of traditional elements of Buddhism such as ethics and community that were discarded in the modernization process. Based on extensive ethnographic and textual research, the book ranges from mindfulness debates in the Vipassana network to the sex scandals in American Zen, while exploring issues around racial diversity and social justice, the impact of new technologies, and generational differences between baby boomer, Gen X, and millennial teachers.

Today, a new stage in the development of Hinduism in America is taking shape. After a century of experimentation during which Americans welcomed Indian gurus who adjusted their teachings to accommodate the New World context,'American Hinduism'can now rightly be called its own tradition rather than an imported religion. Accordingly, this spiritual path is now headed by leaders born in North America. Homegrown Gurus explores this phenomenon in essays about these figures and their networks. A variety of teachers and movements are considered, including Ram Dass, Siddha Yoga, and Amrit Desai and Kripalu Yoga, among others. Two contradictory trends quickly become apparent: an increasing Westernization of Hindu practices and values alongside a renewed interest in traditional forms of Hinduism. These opposed sensibilities—innovation and preservation, radicalism and recovery—are characteristic of postmodernity and denote a new chapter in the American assimilation of Hinduism.