From Buddhist Hippies to Buddhist Geeks: The Emergence of Buddhist Postmodernism?

Abstract

Drawing on discourse analysis and ethnography, this paper will critically examine the effects of generational differences emerging in North American Buddhism through an analysis of the Buddhist Geeks network. Buddhist Geeks is an online Buddhist media company and community that launched in 2007. It consists of a weekly audio podcast and a digital magazine component and since 2011, has hosted an annual conference. I will discuss the main characteristics and concerns of the Buddhist Geeks community and explore how it can be situated both in relationship to traditional Buddhism and Buddhist modernism. In conclusion, I reflect on whether Buddhist Geeks signals the emergence of a new, distinctly postmodern stage in the wider assimilation of Buddhism in America.