There is Transmodernism, a program en vogue among the new rationalists emerging from the ruins of the speculative realism meme in contemporary philosophy (cf. Reza Negarastani, Ray Brassier, Fernando Zalamea, the Collapse Journal, Uberty.com, Glass-Bead.org. The orienting coordinates I am aware of here are the philosophy of mathematics, rationalism, realism, and, as far as anything like practice goes, a certain contact with Confucianism.

There is metamodernism as well. From an initial survey this seems less philosophically rigorous. That could be from ignorance on my own part. The metamodern does seem more open, more humorous and playful. For instance the watchword in metamodernism is “Oscillate!”

From what I can see metamodernism could be useful to the development of practice in post-traditional contexts. It characterises itself as a step outside of the closed circle of postmodern nostalgia and muscular modernist futurism. Does it move outside by moving forward? That is another question. The outside seems to be a navigational movement within: “metamodernism oscillates between the modern and the postmodern. It oscillates between
a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony.”

For the practitioner what does it mean? An oscillation between tradition and the where we’re at. Fundamentally it does not demand that we decide. It wants to adapt in real time. My personal motto for our catastrophic age is that we must build from the ruins. This is echoed in a metamodernist slogan: “Reconstruction must follow deconstruction.”

I suppose this is all in line with the logic of networked society. The ethic is plasticity. Is the relationship of living practice to the ruin of traditional forms necessarily ironic? Plasticity does not equate to infinite flexibility but to an ongoing ability to adapt in light of historical experience. Think about neural plasticity. The tradition is a kind of general intelligence in disarray. The catastrophe is akin to significant neural pruning, the selective loss of synaptic connections. This pruning or cutting back is how the brain grows and is necessary for it to function.

I don’t know how helpful this is. Suffice to say I appreciate your post and share your feeling this is a question of significance.

yes, these names are taken from Yamasaki, though #4 and #5 have been modified slightly.

It will be an interesting conference and an interesting era for Buddhists and other contemplative types.

can you kindly get in touch with me to discuss and explore further the future of Vajrayana in the West, something many of us Dharma teachers are presently discussing among ourselves? I appreciate very much your thoughtful writings and teachings.

Surya

Thank you very much re: email notification.

Re email notification, it’s a plugin, and I promise to look into it.