Podcast appearances and mentions of brooke schedneck

Religious studies professor Brooke Schedneck is the author of Living Theravada: Demystifying the People, Places, and Practices of a Buddhist Tradition. She talks about Theravada Buddhism in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, from ordinary lay people to elite monks.

Kenan and Maggie wrap up this season's celebration of the women of Rhodes with two of our most notable: Jessie L. Clough and Floy K. Hanson. Joined by Bill Short, Rosie Meindel, and Brooke Schedneck, this episode takes a deep dive into the lives and legacies of these two globe-trotting artists.

The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as English teachers, discuss Buddhism with student monks, and experiment with meditation. In her new book, Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand: Encounters with Buddhist Monks (University of Washington Press, 2021), Brooke Schedneck examines this growing phenomenon. While such interactions may constitute yet another case of the commodification of Buddhism, religious tourism in Buddhist Chiang Mai can also be seen as another way in which Thai Buddhism is adapting to a more globalized, market-oriented society. It may even constitute a new opportunity for Buddhist missionary work. Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand has been shortlisted for the EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize for 2022. Patrick Jory teaches Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He can be reached at: p.jory@uq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as English teachers, discuss Buddhism with student monks, and experiment with meditation. In her new book, Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand: Encounters with Buddhist Monks (University of Washington Press, 2021), Brooke Schedneck examines this growing phenomenon. While such interactions may constitute yet another case of the commodification of Buddhism, religious tourism in Buddhist Chiang Mai can also be seen as another way in which Thai Buddhism is adapting to a more globalized, market-oriented society. It may even constitute a new opportunity for Buddhist missionary work. Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand has been shortlisted for the EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize for 2022. Patrick Jory teaches Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He can be reached at: p.jory@uq.edu.au. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies

The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as English teachers, discuss Buddhism with student monks, and experiment with meditation. In her new book, Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand: Encounters with Buddhist Monks (University of Washington Press, 2021), Brooke Schedneck examines this growing phenomenon. While such interactions may constitute yet another case of the commodification of Buddhism, religious tourism in Buddhist Chiang Mai can also be seen as another way in which Thai Buddhism is adapting to a more globalized, market-oriented society. It may even constitute a new opportunity for Buddhist missionary work. Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand has been shortlisted for the EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize for 2022. Patrick Jory teaches Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He can be reached at: p.jory@uq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as English teachers, discuss Buddhism with student monks, and experiment with meditation. In her new book, Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand: Encounters with Buddhist Monks (University of Washington Press, 2021), Brooke Schedneck examines this growing phenomenon. While such interactions may constitute yet another case of the commodification of Buddhism, religious tourism in Buddhist Chiang Mai can also be seen as another way in which Thai Buddhism is adapting to a more globalized, market-oriented society. It may even constitute a new opportunity for Buddhist missionary work. Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand has been shortlisted for the EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize for 2022. Patrick Jory teaches Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He can be reached at: p.jory@uq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as English teachers, discuss Buddhism with student monks, and experiment with meditation. In her new book, Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand: Encounters with Buddhist Monks (University of Washington Press, 2021), Brooke Schedneck examines this growing phenomenon. While such interactions may constitute yet another case of the commodification of Buddhism, religious tourism in Buddhist Chiang Mai can also be seen as another way in which Thai Buddhism is adapting to a more globalized, market-oriented society. It may even constitute a new opportunity for Buddhist missionary work. Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand has been shortlisted for the EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize for 2022. Patrick Jory teaches Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He can be reached at: p.jory@uq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies

The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as English teachers, discuss Buddhism with student monks, and experiment with meditation. In her new book, Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand: Encounters with Buddhist Monks (University of Washington Press, 2021), Brooke Schedneck examines this growing phenomenon. While such interactions may constitute yet another case of the commodification of Buddhism, religious tourism in Buddhist Chiang Mai can also be seen as another way in which Thai Buddhism is adapting to a more globalized, market-oriented society. It may even constitute a new opportunity for Buddhist missionary work. Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand has been shortlisted for the EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize for 2022. Patrick Jory teaches Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He can be reached at: p.jory@uq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) explores themes of Buddhist imaginaries, place-making, secularization, and commodification in three parts. The first part, Buddhist Imaginaries and Place-Making features four interesting chapters on how Buddhism is marketed and promoted to domestic and international tourists, as well as how these imaginaries “sediments” over time. The chapters in Part II, Secularizing the Sacred, reveal interestingly that Buddhist tourism tends to create alliances with secular forces as strategies to promote their traditions and sacred sites. Part III of the volume shifts to discussions of commodification in Buddhism and its consequences. Here, contributors show that commodification is not necessarily at odds with Buddhism nor is it a new phenomenon. Covering a wide range of Buddhist sites across Asia and their multi-layered participants in Buddhist tourism, this book uses the unique lens of tourism to offer fresh perspectives on Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices. Courtney Bruntz is Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, at Doane University Brooke Schedneck is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, at Rhodes College Daigengna Duoer is a PhD student at the Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation researches on transnational and transregional Buddhist networks connecting twentieth-century Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Republican China, Tibet, and the Japanese Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) explores themes of Buddhist imaginaries, place-making, secularization, and commodification in three parts. The first part, Buddhist Imaginaries and Place-Making features four interesting chapters on how Buddhism is marketed and promoted to domestic and international tourists, as well as how these imaginaries “sediments” over time. The chapters in Part II, Secularizing the Sacred, reveal interestingly that Buddhist tourism tends to create alliances with secular forces as strategies to promote their traditions and sacred sites. Part III of the volume shifts to discussions of commodification in Buddhism and its consequences. Here, contributors show that commodification is not necessarily at odds with Buddhism nor is it a new phenomenon. Covering a wide range of Buddhist sites across Asia and their multi-layered participants in Buddhist tourism, this book uses the unique lens of tourism to offer fresh perspectives on Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices. Courtney Bruntz is Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, at Doane University Brooke Schedneck is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, at Rhodes College Daigengna Duoer is a PhD student at the Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation researches on transnational and transregional Buddhist networks connecting twentieth-century Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Republican China, Tibet, and the Japanese Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) explores themes of Buddhist imaginaries, place-making, secularization, and commodification in three parts. The first part, Buddhist Imaginaries and Place-Making features four interesting chapters on how Buddhism is marketed and promoted to domestic and international tourists, as well as how these imaginaries “sediments” over time. The chapters in Part II, Secularizing the Sacred, reveal interestingly that Buddhist tourism tends to create alliances with secular forces as strategies to promote their traditions and sacred sites. Part III of the volume shifts to discussions of commodification in Buddhism and its consequences. Here, contributors show that commodification is not necessarily at odds with Buddhism nor is it a new phenomenon. Covering a wide range of Buddhist sites across Asia and their multi-layered participants in Buddhist tourism, this book uses the unique lens of tourism to offer fresh perspectives on Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices. Courtney Bruntz is Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, at Doane University Brooke Schedneck is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, at Rhodes College Daigengna Duoer is a PhD student at the Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation researches on transnational and transregional Buddhist networks connecting twentieth-century Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Republican China, Tibet, and the Japanese Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) explores themes of Buddhist imaginaries, place-making, secularization, and commodification in three parts. The first part, Buddhist Imaginaries and Place-Making features four interesting chapters on how Buddhism is marketed and promoted to domestic and international tourists, as well as how these imaginaries “sediments” over time. The chapters in Part II, Secularizing the Sacred, reveal interestingly that Buddhist tourism tends to create alliances with secular forces as strategies to promote their traditions and sacred sites. Part III of the volume shifts to discussions of commodification in Buddhism and its consequences. Here, contributors show that commodification is not necessarily at odds with Buddhism nor is it a new phenomenon. Covering a wide range of Buddhist sites across Asia and their multi-layered participants in Buddhist tourism, this book uses the unique lens of tourism to offer fresh perspectives on Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices. Courtney Bruntz is Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, at Doane University Brooke Schedneck is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, at Rhodes College Daigengna Duoer is a PhD student at the Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation researches on transnational and transregional Buddhist networks connecting twentieth-century Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Republican China, Tibet, and the Japanese Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) explores themes of Buddhist imaginaries, place-making, secularization, and commodification in three parts. The first part, Buddhist Imaginaries and Place-Making features four interesting chapters on how Buddhism is marketed and promoted to domestic and international tourists, as well as how these imaginaries “sediments” over time. The chapters in Part II, Secularizing the Sacred, reveal interestingly that Buddhist tourism tends to create alliances with secular forces as strategies to promote their traditions and sacred sites. Part III of the volume shifts to discussions of commodification in Buddhism and its consequences. Here, contributors show that commodification is not necessarily at odds with Buddhism nor is it a new phenomenon. Covering a wide range of Buddhist sites across Asia and their multi-layered participants in Buddhist tourism, this book uses the unique lens of tourism to offer fresh perspectives on Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices. Courtney Bruntz is Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, at Doane University Brooke Schedneck is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, at Rhodes College Daigengna Duoer is a PhD student at the Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation researches on transnational and transregional Buddhist networks connecting twentieth-century Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Republican China, Tibet, and the Japanese Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) explores themes of Buddhist imaginaries, place-making, secularization, and commodification in three parts. The first part, Buddhist Imaginaries and Place-Making features four interesting chapters on how Buddhism is marketed and promoted to domestic and international tourists, as well as how these imaginaries “sediments” over time. The chapters in Part II, Secularizing the Sacred, reveal interestingly that Buddhist tourism tends to create alliances with secular forces as strategies to promote their traditions and sacred sites. Part III of the volume shifts to discussions of commodification in Buddhism and its consequences. Here, contributors show that commodification is not necessarily at odds with Buddhism nor is it a new phenomenon. Covering a wide range of Buddhist sites across Asia and their multi-layered participants in Buddhist tourism, this book uses the unique lens of tourism to offer fresh perspectives on Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices. Courtney Bruntz is Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, at Doane University Brooke Schedneck is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, at Rhodes College Daigengna Duoer is a PhD student at the Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation researches on transnational and transregional Buddhist networks connecting twentieth-century Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Republican China, Tibet, and the Japanese Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) explores themes of Buddhist imaginaries, place-making, secularization, and commodification in three parts. The first part, Buddhist Imaginaries and Place-Making features four interesting chapters on how Buddhism is marketed and promoted to domestic and international tourists, as well as how these imaginaries “sediments” over time. The chapters in Part II, Secularizing the Sacred, reveal interestingly that Buddhist tourism tends to create alliances with secular forces as strategies to promote their traditions and sacred sites. Part III of the volume shifts to discussions of commodification in Buddhism and its consequences. Here, contributors show that commodification is not necessarily at odds with Buddhism nor is it a new phenomenon. Covering a wide range of Buddhist sites across Asia and their multi-layered participants in Buddhist tourism, this book uses the unique lens of tourism to offer fresh perspectives on Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices. Courtney Bruntz is Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, at Doane University Brooke Schedneck is Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, at Rhodes College Daigengna Duoer is a PhD student at the Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation researches on transnational and transregional Buddhist networks connecting twentieth-century Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Republican China, Tibet, and the Japanese Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her recent monograph, Thailand’s International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation centers in Thailand and draws our attention to the way in which these institutions have creatively (though not always intentionally) altered Buddhist meditation and the meditation retreat format so as to make them accessible to the large number of non-Thai meditators who come to these centers. While at first sight the topic of meditation centers in Thailand might appear fairly narrow and easy to delimit, Schedneck shows that to understand both the histories of these centers and the ways in which they currently operate, one must locate these institutions in the broader contexts of Southeast Asian history, European intellectual and colonial history, and Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. After covering the rise of mass meditation movements (a process that can be traced in part to developments in late nineteenth-century Burma), Schedneck turns to the way in which the meditation centers where she conducted her fieldwork have created two systems within a single institution: one for Thai retreatants, and the other for foreigners. Not only does the social interaction between teacher and student differ in the two systems, but so too does the way in which meditation is taught. Thai participants understand meditation as but one of a number of activities that are meaningful according to a worldview based on Buddhist ideas and values, and they are taught accordingly. Non-Thai meditators, who are almost exclusively from the West, are instead presented with meditation as a secular practice that is to be understood in psychological and universalistic terms, and is largely a matter of individual development. This difference is in turn related to the motivations and preconceptions about Buddhism and Asia that foreign meditators bring to the retreat. Schedneck positions such motives and assumptions in the larger contexts of Buddhist modernism, Orientalism, and the history of European views of Buddhism (both of the Enlightenment and Romantic varieties). As part of this discussion, she clarifies the way in which many first-time retreatants’ associate Buddhist meditation with nature, or, alternatively, see it as a form of therapy through which individual transformation and healing can be realized. However, Western objectifications of Buddhism constitute but one aspect of Schedneck’s multi-faceted exploration of the international meditation centers. Her novel research into the ways in which individual meditation centers, the World Buddhist Federation, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have portrayed and promoted these centers, is the “commodification” in the subtitle of the book. Schedneck demonstrates that the repackaging of Buddhist meditation is neither a wholesale adaptation of Western modernity nor a conscious attempt at securing tourist spending, but rather a creative adaptation through which Buddhism and meditation are rendered intelligible and meaningful to those who are culturally unfamiliar with both. And Schedneck is careful to point out that this dynamic is as old as Buddhism itself, for Buddhism’s two-and-a-half-millennia survival was possible only because Buddhism was translated into the languages of, and adapted to the thinking of, those cultures to which it spread. One of the most satisfying features of the book is the inclusion of excerpts from some of the interviews that Schedneck conducted with over sixty international meditation teachers and students. In addition, we find fascinating descriptions of the retreat centers at the center of her research and of the details of daily life during a retreat: schedu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her recent monograph, Thailand’s International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation centers in Thailand and draws our attention to the way in which these institutions have creatively (though not always intentionally) altered Buddhist meditation and the meditation retreat format so as to make them accessible to the large number of non-Thai meditators who come to these centers. While at first sight the topic of meditation centers in Thailand might appear fairly narrow and easy to delimit, Schedneck shows that to understand both the histories of these centers and the ways in which they currently operate, one must locate these institutions in the broader contexts of Southeast Asian history, European intellectual and colonial history, and Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. After covering the rise of mass meditation movements (a process that can be traced in part to developments in late nineteenth-century Burma), Schedneck turns to the way in which the meditation centers where she conducted her fieldwork have created two systems within a single institution: one for Thai retreatants, and the other for foreigners. Not only does the social interaction between teacher and student differ in the two systems, but so too does the way in which meditation is taught. Thai participants understand meditation as but one of a number of activities that are meaningful according to a worldview based on Buddhist ideas and values, and they are taught accordingly. Non-Thai meditators, who are almost exclusively from the West, are instead presented with meditation as a secular practice that is to be understood in psychological and universalistic terms, and is largely a matter of individual development. This difference is in turn related to the motivations and preconceptions about Buddhism and Asia that foreign meditators bring to the retreat. Schedneck positions such motives and assumptions in the larger contexts of Buddhist modernism, Orientalism, and the history of European views of Buddhism (both of the Enlightenment and Romantic varieties). As part of this discussion, she clarifies the way in which many first-time retreatants’ associate Buddhist meditation with nature, or, alternatively, see it as a form of therapy through which individual transformation and healing can be realized. However, Western objectifications of Buddhism constitute but one aspect of Schedneck’s multi-faceted exploration of the international meditation centers. Her novel research into the ways in which individual meditation centers, the World Buddhist Federation, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have portrayed and promoted these centers, is the “commodification” in the subtitle of the book. Schedneck demonstrates that the repackaging of Buddhist meditation is neither a wholesale adaptation of Western modernity nor a conscious attempt at securing tourist spending, but rather a creative adaptation through which Buddhism and meditation are rendered intelligible and meaningful to those who are culturally unfamiliar with both. And Schedneck is careful to point out that this dynamic is as old as Buddhism itself, for Buddhism’s two-and-a-half-millennia survival was possible only because Buddhism was translated into the languages of, and adapted to the thinking of, those cultures to which it spread. One of the most satisfying features of the book is the inclusion of excerpts from some of the interviews that Schedneck conducted with over sixty international meditation teachers and students. In addition, we find fascinating descriptions of the retreat centers at the center of her research and of the details of daily life during a retreat: schedu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her recent monograph, Thailand’s International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation centers in Thailand and draws our attention to the way in which these institutions have creatively (though not always intentionally) altered Buddhist meditation and the meditation retreat format so as to make them accessible to the large number of non-Thai meditators who come to these centers. While at first sight the topic of meditation centers in Thailand might appear fairly narrow and easy to delimit, Schedneck shows that to understand both the histories of these centers and the ways in which they currently operate, one must locate these institutions in the broader contexts of Southeast Asian history, European intellectual and colonial history, and Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. After covering the rise of mass meditation movements (a process that can be traced in part to developments in late nineteenth-century Burma), Schedneck turns to the way in which the meditation centers where she conducted her fieldwork have created two systems within a single institution: one for Thai retreatants, and the other for foreigners. Not only does the social interaction between teacher and student differ in the two systems, but so too does the way in which meditation is taught. Thai participants understand meditation as but one of a number of activities that are meaningful according to a worldview based on Buddhist ideas and values, and they are taught accordingly. Non-Thai meditators, who are almost exclusively from the West, are instead presented with meditation as a secular practice that is to be understood in psychological and universalistic terms, and is largely a matter of individual development. This difference is in turn related to the motivations and preconceptions about Buddhism and Asia that foreign meditators bring to the retreat. Schedneck positions such motives and assumptions in the larger contexts of Buddhist modernism, Orientalism, and the history of European views of Buddhism (both of the Enlightenment and Romantic varieties). As part of this discussion, she clarifies the way in which many first-time retreatants’ associate Buddhist meditation with nature, or, alternatively, see it as a form of therapy through which individual transformation and healing can be realized. However, Western objectifications of Buddhism constitute but one aspect of Schedneck’s multi-faceted exploration of the international meditation centers. Her novel research into the ways in which individual meditation centers, the World Buddhist Federation, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have portrayed and promoted these centers, is the “commodification” in the subtitle of the book. Schedneck demonstrates that the repackaging of Buddhist meditation is neither a wholesale adaptation of Western modernity nor a conscious attempt at securing tourist spending, but rather a creative adaptation through which Buddhism and meditation are rendered intelligible and meaningful to those who are culturally unfamiliar with both. And Schedneck is careful to point out that this dynamic is as old as Buddhism itself, for Buddhism’s two-and-a-half-millennia survival was possible only because Buddhism was translated into the languages of, and adapted to the thinking of, those cultures to which it spread. One of the most satisfying features of the book is the inclusion of excerpts from some of the interviews that Schedneck conducted with over sixty international meditation teachers and students. In addition, we find fascinating descriptions of the retreat centers at the center of her research and of the details of daily life during a retreat: schedu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her recent monograph, Thailand’s International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation centers in Thailand and draws our attention to the way in which these institutions have creatively (though not always intentionally) altered Buddhist meditation and the meditation retreat format so as to make them accessible to the large number of non-Thai meditators who come to these centers. While at first sight the topic of meditation centers in Thailand might appear fairly narrow and easy to delimit, Schedneck shows that to understand both the histories of these centers and the ways in which they currently operate, one must locate these institutions in the broader contexts of Southeast Asian history, European intellectual and colonial history, and Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. After covering the rise of mass meditation movements (a process that can be traced in part to developments in late nineteenth-century Burma), Schedneck turns to the way in which the meditation centers where she conducted her fieldwork have created two systems within a single institution: one for Thai retreatants, and the other for foreigners. Not only does the social interaction between teacher and student differ in the two systems, but so too does the way in which meditation is taught. Thai participants understand meditation as but one of a number of activities that are meaningful according to a worldview based on Buddhist ideas and values, and they are taught accordingly. Non-Thai meditators, who are almost exclusively from the West, are instead presented with meditation as a secular practice that is to be understood in psychological and universalistic terms, and is largely a matter of individual development. This difference is in turn related to the motivations and preconceptions about Buddhism and Asia that foreign meditators bring to the retreat. Schedneck positions such motives and assumptions in the larger contexts of Buddhist modernism, Orientalism, and the history of European views of Buddhism (both of the Enlightenment and Romantic varieties). As part of this discussion, she clarifies the way in which many first-time retreatants’ associate Buddhist meditation with nature, or, alternatively, see it as a form of therapy through which individual transformation and healing can be realized. However, Western objectifications of Buddhism constitute but one aspect of Schedneck’s multi-faceted exploration of the international meditation centers. Her novel research into the ways in which individual meditation centers, the World Buddhist Federation, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have portrayed and promoted these centers, is the “commodification” in the subtitle of the book. Schedneck demonstrates that the repackaging of Buddhist meditation is neither a wholesale adaptation of Western modernity nor a conscious attempt at securing tourist spending, but rather a creative adaptation through which Buddhism and meditation are rendered intelligible and meaningful to those who are culturally unfamiliar with both. And Schedneck is careful to point out that this dynamic is as old as Buddhism itself, for Buddhism’s two-and-a-half-millennia survival was possible only because Buddhism was translated into the languages of, and adapted to the thinking of, those cultures to which it spread. One of the most satisfying features of the book is the inclusion of excerpts from some of the interviews that Schedneck conducted with over sixty international meditation teachers and students. In addition, we find fascinating descriptions of the retreat centers at the center of her research and of the details of daily life during a retreat: schedu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her recent monograph, Thailand’s International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation centers in Thailand and draws our attention to the way in which these institutions have creatively (though not always intentionally) altered Buddhist meditation and the meditation retreat format so as to make them accessible to the large number of non-Thai meditators who come to these centers. While at first sight the topic of meditation centers in Thailand might appear fairly narrow and easy to delimit, Schedneck shows that to understand both the histories of these centers and the ways in which they currently operate, one must locate these institutions in the broader contexts of Southeast Asian history, European intellectual and colonial history, and Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. After covering the rise of mass meditation movements (a process that can be traced in part to developments in late nineteenth-century Burma), Schedneck turns to the way in which the meditation centers where she conducted her fieldwork have created two systems within a single institution: one for Thai retreatants, and the other for foreigners. Not only does the social interaction between teacher and student differ in the two systems, but so too does the way in which meditation is taught. Thai participants understand meditation as but one of a number of activities that are meaningful according to a worldview based on Buddhist ideas and values, and they are taught accordingly. Non-Thai meditators, who are almost exclusively from the West, are instead presented with meditation as a secular practice that is to be understood in psychological and universalistic terms, and is largely a matter of individual development. This difference is in turn related to the motivations and preconceptions about Buddhism and Asia that foreign meditators bring to the retreat. Schedneck positions such motives and assumptions in the larger contexts of Buddhist modernism, Orientalism, and the history of European views of Buddhism (both of the Enlightenment and Romantic varieties). As part of this discussion, she clarifies the way in which many first-time retreatants’ associate Buddhist meditation with nature, or, alternatively, see it as a form of therapy through which individual transformation and healing can be realized. However, Western objectifications of Buddhism constitute but one aspect of Schedneck’s multi-faceted exploration of the international meditation centers. Her novel research into the ways in which individual meditation centers, the World Buddhist Federation, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have portrayed and promoted these centers, is the “commodification” in the subtitle of the book. Schedneck demonstrates that the repackaging of Buddhist meditation is neither a wholesale adaptation of Western modernity nor a conscious attempt at securing tourist spending, but rather a creative adaptation through which Buddhism and meditation are rendered intelligible and meaningful to those who are culturally unfamiliar with both. And Schedneck is careful to point out that this dynamic is as old as Buddhism itself, for Buddhism’s two-and-a-half-millennia survival was possible only because Buddhism was translated into the languages of, and adapted to the thinking of, those cultures to which it spread. One of the most satisfying features of the book is the inclusion of excerpts from some of the interviews that Schedneck conducted with over sixty international meditation teachers and students. In addition, we find fascinating descriptions of the retreat centers at the center of her research and of the details of daily life during a retreat: schedu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her recent monograph, Thailand’s International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation centers in Thailand and draws our attention to the way in which these institutions have creatively (though not always intentionally) altered Buddhist meditation and the meditation retreat format so as to make them accessible to the large number of non-Thai meditators who come to these centers. While at first sight the topic of meditation centers in Thailand might appear fairly narrow and easy to delimit, Schedneck shows that to understand both the histories of these centers and the ways in which they currently operate, one must locate these institutions in the broader contexts of Southeast Asian history, European intellectual and colonial history, and Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. After covering the rise of mass meditation movements (a process that can be traced in part to developments in late nineteenth-century Burma), Schedneck turns to the way in which the meditation centers where she conducted her fieldwork have created two systems within a single institution: one for Thai retreatants, and the other for foreigners. Not only does the social interaction between teacher and student differ in the two systems, but so too does the way in which meditation is taught. Thai participants understand meditation as but one of a number of activities that are meaningful according to a worldview based on Buddhist ideas and values, and they are taught accordingly. Non-Thai meditators, who are almost exclusively from the West, are instead presented with meditation as a secular practice that is to be understood in psychological and universalistic terms, and is largely a matter of individual development. This difference is in turn related to the motivations and preconceptions about Buddhism and Asia that foreign meditators bring to the retreat. Schedneck positions such motives and assumptions in the larger contexts of Buddhist modernism, Orientalism, and the history of European views of Buddhism (both of the Enlightenment and Romantic varieties). As part of this discussion, she clarifies the way in which many first-time retreatants’ associate Buddhist meditation with nature, or, alternatively, see it as a form of therapy through which individual transformation and healing can be realized. However, Western objectifications of Buddhism constitute but one aspect of Schedneck’s multi-faceted exploration of the international meditation centers. Her novel research into the ways in which individual meditation centers, the World Buddhist Federation, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have portrayed and promoted these centers, is the “commodification” in the subtitle of the book. Schedneck demonstrates that the repackaging of Buddhist meditation is neither a wholesale adaptation of Western modernity nor a conscious attempt at securing tourist spending, but rather a creative adaptation through which Buddhism and meditation are rendered intelligible and meaningful to those who are culturally unfamiliar with both. And Schedneck is careful to point out that this dynamic is as old as Buddhism itself, for Buddhism’s two-and-a-half-millennia survival was possible only because Buddhism was translated into the languages of, and adapted to the thinking of, those cultures to which it spread. One of the most satisfying features of the book is the inclusion of excerpts from some of the interviews that Schedneck conducted with over sixty international meditation teachers and students. In addition, we find fascinating descriptions of the retreat centers at the center of her research and of the details of daily life during a retreat: schedu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re joined this week by Ph.D Candidate and Buddhist blogger Brooke Schedneck, to explore her research into several emerging patterns in Western Buddhist communities. We begin with how, as a training academic, she got into Buddhism and how she ended up combining both 1st and 3rd person observation into her research. We also explore her current research at International meditation centers in Thailand, and how this research highlights larger trends in how Buddhism is interacting with modernity. She goes into several broad trends that she is tracking including 1) The ongoing relationship between lay and monastic forms 2) the pragmatic dharma movement 3) practitioners having a strong interest in the future of Western Buddhism & 4) an overall sense of a movement toward greater balance in Buddhist communities. Episode Links: Wandering Dhamma ( http://wanderingdhamma.wordpress.com/ ) Cambridge Insight Meditation Center ( http://www.cimc.info/ ) The Hardcore Dharma Movement ( http://wanderingdhamma.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/the-hardcore-dharma-movement/ ) The Blogisattva Awards ( http://www.blogisattva.org ) Turning the Wheel of Truth: Commentary on the Buddha’s First Teaching ( http://amzn.to/hk7G65 )