Hybrid form of Buddhist meditation practice in contemporary China: Discussing the case of mahasati dynamic meditation

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in mainland China, this paper will examine how some Chinese today practising Buddhist meditation in a hybrid way aiming at liberation in contemporary China. Since the century turn, there has been an increasing number of Han Chinese monastics and lay people attending various kinds of transnational meditation retreats, highlighting insight (vipassanā) and the foundations of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) from the Theravāda tradition. In this paper, I will explore the case of mahasati dynamic meditation introduced from Thailand to China by Han Chinese. Drawing on recent fieldwork in mainland China, this paper discusses how some Chinese Buddhists today interpret and adapt Theravāda meditation in a Chinese Buddhist cultural setting. Copyright © 2020 Center for the Study of Chan Buddhism and Human Civilization, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.