Transformative Metaphors: Humanistic Buddhism and the Future of Interreligious Dialogue

This paper explores how Humanistic Buddhism can contribute to reimagining the future of interreligious dialogue in a world marked by polarization and ethical uncertainty. It places Hsing Yun’s teaching “I Am Buddha” in dialogue with Søren Kierkegaard’s claim that “subjectivity is truth.” Although arising from different traditions—Chinese Mahayana Buddhism and nineteenth-century Danish Christianity—both expressions suggest that religious truth becomes meaningful only when it is existentially appropriated and embodied in lived practice. Drawing on Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the paper argues that these teachings function as transformative metaphors that reshape how practitioners understand themselves in relation to religious truth. By highlighting the formative role of metaphor in spiritual life, the study proposes a model of interreligious dialogue grounded in shared processes of existential transformation, demonstrating how Humanistic Buddhist thought can deepen contemporary approaches to dialogue across religious traditions.