Over the past few decades, Buddhism has deepened its presence in the West. Therapists, scholars and scientists have now had extended contact with authentic teachings. As a result, Buddhist teachings and practices are becoming integrated with those of Western psychology in a more productive way. At the same time, developments within and around science have open up the Western world view. The decline of mechanism and positivism offers new opportunities to bring together Western and Buddhist views of the mind and its relationship to its surroundings. The purpose of this collection of essays is to present some contemporary views on this progressive integration.
Buddhist traditions can sometimes appear inaccessible and too firmly fixed to a cultural framework, leading some people to feel alienated or undervalued. However, responding to this by attempting to systhesis Buddhism an contemporary Western culture can raise doubts about authenticity and dilution.
Issues like these form the focus of this collection of essays which come from psychologists, scholars and others who in their work and lives seek to bring Buddhism into a realistic and informed relationship with contemporary Western thought.

Authority of Experience : Essays on Buddhism and Psychology, John Pickering, Routledge Curzon, Paperback, 250 pp, $34.95

John Pickering makes the case as to why it is timely to engage with Eastern traditions, particularly in light of our ecological precarity. While many scholars have pointed to similarities between Whitehead�s philosophy and Eastern traditions, Pickering stress that this has largely been an intellectual exercise that has lacked practical application. By contrast, what is needed is an exploration of how Whitehead and Eastern thought might actually aid responses to urgent geopolitical issues of our time. In recounting the complex social, economic and technological dimensions inherent in the ecological crisis, Pickering also points to the dark side of science with its damaging metaphysical assumptions. The use of Eastern concepts, allied with Whiteheadian thought and contemporary developments in science, however, aid the construction of a process-relational metaphysics which can limit and perhaps even repair the living systems of the world.