Luminous Passage - The Practice & Study of Buddhism in America (Paper) - Charles S Prebish

In this volume a well-known Buddhologist and longtime observer of Buddhism in the United States presents a scholarly study of American Buddhism. Charles S. Prebish revisits the expanding frontier of the fastest growing religion in North America and describes its historical development, its diversity, and the significance of this ancient tradition at century's end.;More than anything else, this is a book about American Buddhist communities ("sanghas") and about life within those commmunities. Prebish considers various Buddhist practices, rituals, and liturgies, as well as the ways these communities have confronted the changing American spiritual landscape. In profiling several different "sanghas" Prebish reveals the ways that Buddhism is being both reinvented and Westernized. He includes an exploration of the American Buddhist "cybersangha", a community that has emerged from recent developments in information-exchange technology, and discusses the growing community of "scholar-practitioners". The interactions of Buddhist identities that are related to ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social engagement, and the healing professions are also examined.