ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Buddhism and its various sub-schools of thought. It then focuses on Buddhism in the western world and more specifically on its westernization. The chapter explores the thesis of the easternisation' of the west and analyses western spiritual consumer practices within Buddhism. Hamilton argues from a broader perspective that processes of easternisation and westernisation might simply be aspects of globalisation. Buddhism is thus more of an experimental religion rather than one that asks for blind faith and obedience, and it is not perceived as a dogmatic religion with a fixed set of beliefs. Training in Tibetan Buddhism, according to Hahlbohm-Helmus, became less traditional and was adapted to a western model. The Zen Buddhism that originally spread in the west before being totally westernised was not even the so-called traditional Japanese version. Eastern religions, and especially Buddhism, have been westernised in the west, and through this process of hybridisation, the west is paradoxically being easternised.
