CIAO DATE: 04/2010

JOURNEYS BEYOND THE WEST: World Orders and a 7th-Century, Buddhist Monk

January 2010

The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

Abstract

Novice Lee (“Frank”) seeks world peace and thinks he has found it in the liberal world order. He informs the Learned One, head of the monastery. Through their discussions, Frank discovers that the liberal world order, despite its promises, offers neither “democracy” nor “peace.” Turning to the Confucian world order of “all-under-heaven” (tianxia), they find it similarly top-down and one-way. Finally, Frank and the Learned One, now joined by their brother monks and sister nuns, consider the life of the 7thcentury monk, Xuanzang. He inspires Frank to imagine a “worldly world order” where humility and learning drive one’s engagements with others, rather than what we have today: hegemony and imperialism

Resource link: JOURNEYS BEYOND THE WEST: World Orders and a 7th-Century, Buddhist Monk [PDF] - 524K