RELS 1506 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Buddhist Cosmology, Buddhist Modernism, Kfc
19 May 2018
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Week 15 Buddhism, Media, and Popular Culture
• Pop-cultural media representations of Buddhism is everywhere in the modern world.
• Many Buddhist concepts and memes have become part of global popular culture.
• This can be seen as associated with major markers of Buddhist modernism-
detraditionalization, demythologization, and the psychologization of Buddhist
cosmology.
What is popular culture (pop culture)?
“high culture is gourmet meal, folk culture is grandma’s casserole, and popular culture is a
McDonald’s hamburger’ (Bruce David Forbes)
Question: How is pop culture associated with media?
Buddhism in pop culture, two aspects:
1. Using pop culture to promote Buddhism and Buddhist values, or Buddhist ritual products.
Question: What kind of examples can you think of?
2. Using Buddhist imagery or memes to promote certain commercial products.
Question: Is this cultural appropriation or neo-colonialism? What kind of examples can
you think of?
“Dharma- Burger”
Any example of Buddhist thought or imagery that’s been co-opted or otherwise infused into
advertising or marketing- and, therefore, pop/mass-culture. (Rod Meade Sperry)
“KFC Comfort Zone | The Zen of Steam”
Some people think steam is a way to tell how warm something is. At KFC, we also see it as the
evaporation of stress and existential pain.
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