A talk hosted by the Society for Buddhist Studies.

Even after his demise in 2013, S. N. Goenka’s vipassana meditation in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin continues to flourish as one of the most significant and influential meditation movements with a strong emphasis on non-sectarian, universal, and scientific Dhamma as an ideal way of life. However, Daniel Stuart’s recent biography – the only one available in English – challenges this emphasis, portraying Goenka’s life and teaching as coming out of clashing “identities” – between a global teacher of non-sectarian vipassana and a traditional guru of Burmese and Indian descent with cultic, conservative and devotional backgrounds and commitments. This talk critically examines these assertions and provides how best to understand a global meditation movement such as Goenka’s, especially when it comes to claims like secular, non-sectarian and universal practice in response to modern secular episteme. Furthermore, it argues that the failure to recognize religion as a discursive category and a lack of critical self-reflexivity in knowledge production inevitably leads to a complete misunderstanding of the movements, the Buddhist cultural logic, and its leaders in a typical Orientalist fashion.

About the Speaker:
Htet Min Lwin is a scholar of religion, social movement and revolution. Currently at York University in Toronto, he is writing a dissertation on the state's institutionalization of Buddhist monastics in Southeast Asia, for which he has been awarded the American Council of Learned Societies' 2024 Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies. He is also co-chair of Burma Studies Group under the Association for Asian Studies, and student director (2022-24) of EIR of the American Academy of Religion. He is a visiting scholar at Cornell's Southeast Asia Program for archival research during summer 2025.

Under Guest Director Heri Purwanto, a freelance musician from Surakarta, Indonesia, the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble presents a varied program of traditional Javanese music in the Klarman Hall Atrium.

Co-sponsors: The Department of Music, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Department of Asian Studies, and the Southeast Asia Program.

This event has been postponed until fall 2025.

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Join the Einaudi Center and researchers from across campus for three-minute speed talks and community conversation on ways to organize and push back against fast-moving federal actions.

Speakers will jump off from interdisciplinary and international research to provide a fresh perspective on current U.S. public policy and the potential for effective collective action. Together we'll look at challenges faced and solutions found in a variety of academic fields and places around the world—to help us think through how to unify disparate interests and find allies to resist democratic backsliding.

The event features clusters of speed talks on related topics, with time for Q&A and conversation on each topic.

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Speakers

David A. Bateman | GovernmentSidney Tarrow (IES) | GovernmentPrisca Jöst | Public Policy

More speakers to be confirmed.

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Sponsors

This conversation is hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, partnering with Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy's Governance and Local Development Institute and Data and Democracy Lab.

Find out how graduate and undergraduate students can get started at Einaudi.

Are you considering starting a career that utilizes regional expertise, language skills, or experience with foreign policy? Ever wondered what it's like to work in various capacities in governments, how to prepare yourself to be a successful applicant for jobs, or what work will let you utilize your knowledge of the world? Are you curious to learn more about current events, history, or the broader global implications of your major? Whether you are interested in a possible career in public service, academia, or the private sector, the international relations undergraduate minor can help you explore these opportunities.

Please join the Einaudi Center for International Studies for a discussion about career paths and opportunities at the State Department and in public service, featuring Cornell alumni who will share their insights:

Jason Oaks, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, U.S. Department of StateAngie Yucht Swenson, Founder and Principal of AYS Tutoring and Consulting, LLC
To attend virtually, register here.

This session is presented by the Einaudi Center and the faculty advisor of the international relations minor, Oumar Ba. The minor is open to all Cornell undergraduate students interested in learning about the politics, economics, history, languages, and cultures of the world.