Dynamic Encounters Between Buddhism and the West: Introduction

This issue explores the manifold encounters between “Buddhism” and “Western culture” broadly conceived. It aims to problematize the assumption that an “encounter” is the meeting point in a third space between two monolithic, largely isolated, stable entities. Indeed, as the range of articles in this issue demonstrates, encounters between “Buddhism” and “the West” have historically been and often actively continue to be dynamic, mutually co-constituting, and interdependent. This issue represents one of the first attempts to both analyze such historical encounters, in an effort to highlight their dynamic transculturality, as well as actively engage with new possible dialogues forged through encounters across disciplines, cultures, and time periods. From the perspectives of various disciplines, such as German studies, Japanese studies, music, history of philosophy and comparative philosophy, this issue illustrates the multi-faceted and evolving domains commonly denoted by the umbrella terms “Buddh-ism” and “Western culture.”