Transcendent: Art and Dharma in a Time of Collapse

by Curtis White

Acclaimed cultural critic Curtis White examines current fissures in Western Buddhism and argues against  the growth of scientific and corporate dharma, particularly in Stephen Batchelor's Secular Buddhist movement.

In Transcendent, celebrated cultural critic Curtis White, asks what Buddhism will look like in the future. Do we want a secular Buddhism that looks like corporations and neuroscience? Or do we want a Buddhism that still provides refuge from the debased world of money and things? Transcendence is not about magic realms where spirits fly about; the world is, as Shunryu Suzuki  put it, its own magic. We only need to reclaim it and reclaim our humanity while we’re at it.
 
The problem White suggests is a culture that recognizes only "things," capitalist things and science things, and aggressively denies the idea that the world of things has a beyond.  We're told by science ideologues like the New Atheists that we live in a secular age and that philosophy is dead, and art is only an amusement, and transcendence is not wanted because science can provide all the wonder and beauty we need.
 
Transcendent is a call for the re-enchantment not only of Buddhism but also of our Western art traditions. White recalls the risks and the raptures of the English Romantics, Beat poets, and the children of the counterculture, all in the name of a living world, and in defiance of our current world of climate catastrophe, contagious disease, and social collapse. 
 

Genres: Literature

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2023

Reviews

[Kamakana · Rating 4 out of 5]

240107: surprisingly, or maybe not, found discussion of the 'hard problem' of consciousness in analytic dealt with supremely in the arts, in buddhism, in continental philosophy, most interesting. this seems to be confusion of ideal substance or process (analytic) or 'what', with ambiguity born through art or 'how' (continental) that slips very easily into Buddhist seeing of true reality...

this is the first chapter. followed by essays which often seem more political than buddhist, often seem parochial. these chapters are less interesting... 'time of collapse' seems all times, but perhaps this is melancholy remembrance of and author...

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

More hyperlink-riddled current events posts than book-length, well-reasoned social critique.

[Tom Booker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Curtis White is who I wanted to be at some point in my younger life. A highly educated man of letters who knew lots of Buddhist concepts but didn't call himself a Buddhist. He thinks that the spirit of Buddhism has been alive and well in Europe way before the 20th century, in the form of artistic expression, and that's why it felt 'so familiar'.

And yet, there is something annoying about this book. It feels like it's been written for American liberals who like literature and worrying about climate change. I think everyone has the right to pick and choose from different religions and apply that to their life, but sometimes it felt like he was passing off his own views of the world as authentic Buddhism.

This is also a collection of articles and therefore there is some repetition, although thematically it does all match up.

So if you are a liberal that likes Buddhism, counterculture, and complaining about Trump, you will like. He's a very good writer, obviously.

[Wyatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

These essays are at their best when focusing on the transcendent in art and in Buddhism. The “preaching to the choir” tone of some of the political commentary is a bit tiresome even if I agree with it. My favorite essays are the two long ones at the beginning and the last two at the end. (I just wish Thich Nhat Hanh’s name was not consistently misspelled throughout.)

I have never read a book that brings together so many of my personal obsessions: Buddhism (especially Zen), anarchist politics, the legacy of Romanticism in art and literature, Surrealism (by way of a reference to Breton, Trotsky, and Rivera’s “Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art”), and even psychoanalysis (a brief reference to the fort-da game from Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle).

[Suzanne]

"In spite of the near death of the liberal arts in academia, I will continue to think of myself as a citizen of the humanities because when I was a student who had rejected all the forms offered to me by the nation state, capitalism, and family, I found a home with a warm hearth in the study of literature. In this home I felt that I had bene returned to what the German idealist philosopher Friendrich Schiller called an "original power," or Nature, something like what Buddhists call Buddha Mind. And in this home, I felt for the first time a freedom from the goals and desires that defined the world around me." (185)

[Richard]

- not sure i fully understand the intent and message(s) of this book but definitely thought-provoking
- reminds me of the 'superabundance' book in that it presents a different/alternative explanation of the western world by using buddhism as a contrast
- also reminds me of the left/right brain dichotomy where the right brain (?) is the more feminine/esoteric/fantastic
- seems he says a lot about how bad capitalism is for mankind. it's funny that one is taught that the invention of money opened up the world to trade and no longer limited by bartering

[Chris Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lively and intermittently interesting read that would've benefited from better editing and focus. Curtis White has some cool ideas and a lot of (righteous) anger about the state of the world. Fair enough! But an axe to grind is only as sharp as the holder's clarity of purpose, and I wasn't always certain what White's was. Agreed with some of the other comments that this would've read better as a blog post or something. As a book it feels a little lacking. But I still found some fun stuff to sink my teeth into.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had more patience to be a buddhist. This book made me want to try harder and to appreciate that art cannot be quantified no matter what our parasitic overlords try to do. A nice companion to the film "the menu" which I happen to see at the same time as reading these essays.

[SueB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skipped a bunch in these essays. Some interesting stuff but mostly political critique with splashes of Buddhism. Not what I was expecting

[Jeff Harper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great...but should really have a different title...maybe Previously Published Musings on Art and Dharma....

[C Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant bits mixed with soliloquies that barely relate to the title. May confuse inner peace with nihilism.