The Dalai Lama’s Reinvention of Buddhism Supporting Religious Pluralism: The Middle Way between Traditionalism and Secularism

Abstract

The HH 14^th Dalai Lama (HH) is one of the most influential Buddhist figures nowadays. My research will focus on the HH’s role in promoting religious pluralism in the contemporary period. Particularly, I will discuss how HH skillfully highlights some Buddhist doctrines to adapt contemporary audiences from different religious backgrounds. He strongly advocates that Buddhism is a pluralistic religion par excellence that is suited to the modern pluralistic society. I am aware that some authors have the same idea of mine that HH is promoting religious pluralism in modern society. Further elaborating on the authors’s idea that HH actively reimagines and portrays Buddhism as modern, I will argue that his presentation of Buddhism as a pluralistic religion can be analyzed as his attempt or “skillful means” to bridge and find the “middle way” between traditionalism and secularism for his contemporary audiences.