| 摘要 | From a theoretical perspective, the Four Noble Truths, which are inextricably intertwined with a doctrine of 'rebirth', constitute the basis of 'early' Buddhism and 'traditional' Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. However, because of the incompatibility between the teachings on 'rebirth' and the discourses of the disciplinary terrain, within which contemporary Western Vajrayana Buddhism and the disciplinary subjects who practice it, are situated, and because involvement, by Westerners, with contemporary Western Vajrayana Buddhism, can be attributed to their discontent with the discursive crisis of disciplinary society, rather than to an experience of the Hindu doctrine of perpetual reincarnation as 'unbearable', to which 'early' and 'traditional' Buddhism responded with the doctrine of 'rebirth', the relevance of the Four Noble Truths, for contemporary Western Vajrayana Buddhism, has become questionable. Yet, despite this, for the most part, contemporary Western Vajrayana Buddhism continues to couch itself in terms of a response to the discursive crisis of the Buddha's era, namely a perceived problem in relation to the Hindu doctrine of perpetual reincarnation, such that it has, thereby, condemned itself to operate at a purely ornamental level within the disciplinary era. To remedy this situation, this thesis advances that it is necessary to couch contemporary Western Vajrayana Buddhism within critical theoretical perspectives that not only take into account discursive developments within the context of Western society, but which have also identified possible discursive problems in relation to such developments that stand to constitute points of 'crisis' for Westerners. As part of this general discursive endeavor, and in a manner that is in no way normative or prescriptive, this thesis takes as its point of departure the validity of both Foucault's archeological/genealogical analyses and his later work on subjectivity, in an effort to rearticulate the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism both in disciplinary terms, in order to facilitate the emergence of proposed forms of contemporary Western Vajrayana Buddhist 'subcultures of the self' from out of the realm of the ornament, and within a disciplinary context, in order to facilitate the entry of such proposed contemporary Western Vajrayana Buddhist 'subcultures of the self into the domain of 'utility'. |
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