Coffee, Ethnography, and the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra

Many members of the Taego Order scoff at the idea that one  needs to be celibate and cloistered to be authentically Buddhist, or specifically Korean Buddhist. Members of the Taego Order emphasize their practical similarities with the dominant Jogye Order and their strong affiliation with the Korean Seon tradition, but many also emphasize their own regional uniqueness vis-à-vis dominant mainland South Korean Buddhisms. This paper considers the self-perception of the Taego Order’s place within the larger category of “Korean” Buddhism but also explores the locality of place. I shall reexamine how the questions of place and “Korean” Buddhism played out in distinct ways during the coffee break pauses—the spaces in which self-perceptions tend to be the least fitted into conventional frameworks—in my 2012-2018 field research in Jeju Island, South Korea and Osaka, Japan as well as interviews in Anaheim Hills, California between 2014 and 2024.