At Ease in Between: The Middle Position of a Scholar-Practitioner

Abstract

This essay explores the recent state of the field of Buddhist Studies in the United States and how scholar-practitioners of Buddhism might position themselves within these institutional contexts. I propose that Buddhists scholar-practitioners have two major responsibilities vis-à-vis our students: 1) encourage students to “sympathetically understand” the tradition and 2) develop some critical perspective on a tradition with its lengthy history, multiplicity of sectarian forms, and great diversity of ways in which the religion has had and continues to have impact on culture, art, politics, and so forth.