David Loy - Buddhism and the West

The Non-Duality of Personal & Social Transformation: A Talk with David Loy

Buddhism has come to the West and the West has come to Buddhism. Every time Buddhism spreads to a new culture they interact with each other, and one result in the West has been the development of socially engaged Buddhism. This does not merely mean that Buddhism has incorporated a concern for social justice; Buddhism offers a completely different perspective on social suffering (dukkha). Our obsessions with entertainment, money, and fame are more than an individual problem: it reveals where our society is stuck. The 'three poisons' that the Buddha identified have become institutionalized and taken on a life of their own: our economic system institutionalizes greed, racism and militarism institutionalize ill will, and the corporate media institutionalizes delusion. Our collective sense of separation from the rest of the biosphere lies at the heart of the ecological crisis. This is the first time in history that Buddhism does not need to align itself with feudal power structures: Buddhism has arrived in a modern/post-modern society, and because of these social freedoms there is the possibility of a real social awakening.

David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a prolific author whose essays and books have been translated into many languages. His articles appear regularly in the pages of major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist magazines including Tricycle, Turning Wheel, Shambhala Sun, and Buddhadharma as well as in a variety of scholarly journals. He has served on the editorial boards of the journals Contemporary Buddhism, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and World Fellowship of Buddhist Review. He is also on the advisory boards of Buddhist Global Relief, the Clear View Project, Zen Peacemakers, and the Ernest Becker Foundation.

David lectures nationally and internationally on various topics, focusing primarily on the encounter between Buddhism and modernity: what each can learn from the other. He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues. Loy is a professor of Buddhist and comparative philosophy. From 1990 until 2005 he was professor in the Faculty of International Studies, Bunkyo University, Chigasaki, Japan. In January 2006 he became the Besl Family Chair Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society with Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, a visiting position that ended in September 2010. In April 2007 David Loy was visiting scholar at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. From January to August 2009 he was a research scholar with the Institute for Advanced Study, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. From September through December 2012 he was in residence at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, with a Lenz Fellowship.