Series Four Volume 6

What Hope? Staying with the Trouble of America’s Racial Karma

Part of a special section on American Buddhism, Race, and Power. This article examines “America’s racial karma,” a concept coined by Larry Ward, to critique the temporal logic underpinning narratives of progress in the US. Drawing from Buddhist conceptions of karma, alongside queer theory, Black studies, and postcolonial critiques, I argue that America’s linear, future-oriented historical narrative functions as a…

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Series Four Volume 4

Performing Time in Buddhist Literature:Creative Reimaginings of Past, Present, and Future

This special section of Pacific World Journal is a continuation of the conversations held during a panel that I organized for the Buddhism Unit of the 2022 American Academy of Religion (AAR) conference. The panel, titled “Performing Time in Buddhist Literature: Creative Reimaginings of Past, Present, and Future,” included myself and co-panelists Shayne Dahl, Sinae Kim, and Adam Miller, with…

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Series Four Volume 4

An Uncommon Narrative Opening: Five Perfections in Tantra of the Sun

Shifting nidānas in Buddhist scripture signal different possibilities for what it means to embody the time of liberation, in short, buddhahood. This paper provides a close reading of the nidāna of an important, never-before studied Dzogchen Heart Essence (Tib. Snying thig) tantra called Secret Tantra of the Sun: Blazing Luminous Matrix of Samantabhadrī (Tib. Kun tu bzang mo klong gsal…

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