Buddhism in America

[Dan R]

This was on the internet news:

 

American Buddhism on the rise By Jane Lampman, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Thu Sep 14, 4:00 AM ET

 

 

 

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. - That genial face has become familiar across the globe - almost as recognizable when it comes to religious leaders, perhaps, as Pope John Paul II. When in America, the Dalai Lama is a sought-after speaker, sharing his compassionate message and engaging aura well beyond the Buddhist community.

 

After inaugurating a new Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education in Vancouver, B.C., the Tibetan leader this week begins a visit to several US cities for public talks, sessions with young peacemakers, scientists, university faculty, corporate executives, and a California women's conference. But he'll also sit down for teach-ins among the burgeoning American faithful.

 

Buddhism is growing apace in the United States, and an identifiably American Buddhism is emerging. Teaching centers and sanghas (communities of people who practice together) are spreading here as American-born leaders reframe ancient principles in contemporary Western terms.

 

Though the religion born in India has been in the US since the 19th century, the number of adherents rose by 170 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to the American Religious Identity Survey. An ARIS estimate puts the total in 2004 at 1.5 million, while others have estimated twice that. "The 1.5 million is a low reasonable number," says Richard Seager, author of "Buddhism in America."

 

That makes Buddhism the country's fourth-largest religion, after Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Immigrants from Asia probably account for two-thirds of the total, and converts about one-third, says Dr. Seager, a professor of religious studies at Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y.

 

What is drawing people (after that fascination with Zen Buddhism in the '50s and '60s)? The Dalai Lama himself has played a role, some say, and Buddhism's nonmissionizing approach fits well with Americans' search for meaningful spiritual paths.

 

"People feel that Buddhist figures like the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh of Vietnam are contributing something, not trying to convert people," says Lama Surya Das, a highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition. "They are not building big temples, but offering wisdom and ways of reconciliation and peacemaking, which are so much needed."

 

Even a larger factor, he suggests, is that Buddhism offers spiritual practices that Western religions haven't emphasized.

 

"People are looking for experiential practices, not just a new belief system or a new set of ethical rules which we already have, and are much the same in all religions," Surya Das says. "It's the transformative practices like meditation which people are really attracted to."

 

At a sangha "sitting" in Cambridge, Mass., last week, some 20 devotees sat cross-legged on four rows of large burgundy-colored cushions before a small candlelit altar. A practice leader led a quiet hour of meditation interspersed with the chanting of prayers and mantras. The group then gathered in a circle for a half hour of discussion.

 

Carol Marsh, an architect who served as practice leader for the evening, had an interest in finding a spiritual path for years, but was "resistant to anything nonrationalist," she says afterward in an interview. "Then I read 'Awakening the Buddha Within,' [surya Das's first book on 'Tibetan wisdom for the Western world'], and it spoke to me directly.... My ultimate aim is liberation."

 

After eight years of practicing, "I am happier, more grateful, more able to roll with whatever punches or moments of annoyance may present themselves," Ms. Marsh says.

 

What's so valuable to Jane Moss, who's been practicing 15 years, is learning how "to be in the present moment." And also to accept that reality involves perfection and "to view the world as good and people as basically loving." Each month, the group holds a meditation focused on love and compassion.

 

The sangha has been meeting since 1991, when Surya Das opened the Dzogchen Center here after decades of training with Tibetan teachers. Before becoming a lama, he was Jeffrey Miller, raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Brooklyn. An anti-Vietnam-War activist while at the University of Buffalo (N.Y.), he was stunned when his good friend Allison Krause was shot and killed by the National Guard at Kent State in 1970.

 

"When I graduated in 1972, I was disillusioned with radical politics - I realized fighting for peace was a contradiction in terms, and I wanted to find inner peace," he explains. Instead of graduate school, the young Miller headed off on a search that ended up in the Himalayas, where he spent the rest of the '70s and '80s learning from Buddhist teachers while teaching some of them English.

 

There were plenty of struggles and moments of doubt, but also illumination, he says. Following a centuries-old path to cultivate awareness, his training included two three-year retreats of intensely focused practice.

 

"One of the great lessons of that monastic brotherhood was learning to love even those people I didn't like," he says, speaking by phone from a retreat in Texas where he's training others.

 

There are many schools of Buddhism, but "everyone agrees that the purpose is the individual and collective realization of Enlightenment," Surya Das continues. "That is defined as nirvanic peace, wisdom, and selfless love. It involves a practice path that depends on meditation, ethical behavior, and developing insight and active love."

 

Buddha means "awakened" in Sanskrit, a language of ancient India, where Siddhartha Gautama founded the faith and an Eightfold Path some 2,500 years ago. Buddhists believe that through that path one awakens to what already is - "the natural great perfection." They do not speak of God, but of the human or ego mind with a small "m," and the Buddha (awakened) Mind with a big "m."

 

"Healing energy takes place through an agency far greater than, yet immanent in each of us," Surya Das has written. "We are all Buddhas."

 

One doesn't have to subscribe to a catechism or creed, or be a vegetarian. Nor do people have to give up their religion. That's why some Americans speak of being Jewish Buddhists, for instance.

 

The Dalai Lama, in fact, often encourages people to stay with the faith of their cultural upbringing, to avoid the confusion that can sometimes result from a mixing of Eastern and Western perspectives.

 

Yet others are going more fully into Buddhist study, particularly as the writings and training by American-born teachers increase its accessibility.

 

The Dzogchen Center (Dzogchen means "the innate great completeness"), which has sanghas in several states, teaches an advanced Tibetan practice; annually, it offers numerous retreats, from one-day to two-week gatherings. Surya Das - whose Tibetan teacher gave him his name, which means "follower or disciple of the light" - is the spiritual director.

 

Thirty devotees are currently cloistered in a 100-day retreat for advanced students at the Dzogchen retreat center outside Austin, Texas. They are in the third of a 12-year cycle of silent retreats - which will likely produce new teachers.

 

Several Tibetan teachers helped introduce Buddhism in the US, and one, Chogyam Trungpa, founded Naropa University in Boulder, Colo. But the teacher succumbed to excesses that tempt clergy of various faiths - alcoholism and sexual misconduct.

 

The Dalai Lama has warned, too, of some teachers who seek leadership for financial rather than spiritual reasons. The issue of students and teachers is today one of the most controversial in transmission of teaching from East to West, says Surya Das.

 

Still, a healthy American Buddhism with its own characteristics is emerging. It is less doctrinal and ritualistic than in the East and more meditation oriented, less hierarchical and more democratic and egalitarian. It is more lay-oriented than monastic, and more socially and ecologically engaged.

 

Perhaps most noticeably, "the role of women as leaders and teachers is very significant here," Seager says.

 

The Dalai Lama speaks of Buddhism naturally taking new forms in each culture. As he travels the globe, he also emphasizes building bridges between faiths, as well as finding nonviolent means for resolving differences. This weekend, the Nobel Peace Laureate will spend time with youths in Denver engaged in conflict-resolution projects. He'll bless the Great Stupa, the largest example of Buddhist sacred architecture in the US, located at Colorado's Shambhala Mountain Center.

 

Next week he'll speak to 20,000 at a football stadium in Buffalo, and at the alma mater of Surya Das, who was one of his attendants for several years. The American lama will also speak.

 

"Buddhism made me a mensch and brought me happiness," Surya Das concludes contentedly, "and helped me find my place in life and the universe."

Edited September 17, 2006 by Dan R (see edit history)

[SmilingAsia]

If a Christian Chinese woman and a Buddhist American man raise a family together, what kind of conflicts are they to expect?

[Dan R]

If a Christian Chinese woman and a Buddhist American man raise a family together, what kind of conflicts are they to expect?

 

None if both follow their religions and give each other and the children unselfish love. I would guess though that it will depend largely on the couple and outside pressure on them. If the Christian believes the rest of the family will go to hell without becoming Christian then it will continually put pressure on the other family members as well as the Christian to do what they think is right.

 

If you are speaking of two spiritual people who are not so concerned with the dogma of organized religion, then I go back to my first sentence.

[BillV 8-16-2004]

My wife and I attend a Chinese Buddhist Temple in Sacramento that is very similar to the temples in China. My wife and I are very comfortable and at peace there.

 

The teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct, wisdom, and meditation releases one from desire, suffering, and rebirth.

 

From the beginning, meditation and observance of moral precepts were the foundation of Buddhist practice. The five basic moral precepts, undertaken by members of monastic orders and the laity, are to refrain from taking life, stealing, acting unchastely, speaking falsely, and drinking intoxicants.

 

The Five Precepts are not given in the form of commands such as "thou shalt not...¡± but are training rules in order to live a better life in which one can meditate well.

1. To refrain from taking life.

2. To refrain from taking that which is not freely given (stealing).

3. To refrain from sensual misconduct (improper sexual behavior, gluttony etc.)

4. To refrain from incorrect speech (lying, harsh language, slander, idle chit-chat).

5. To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness.

 

The eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism are:

¡¤ The Conch Shell

¡¤ The Lotus

¡¤ The Wheel

¡¤ The Parasol (Umbrella)

¡¤ The Endless Knot

¡¤ The Pair of Golden Fishes

¡¤ The Banner Proclaiming Victory

¡¤ The Treasure Vase

[david_dawei]

Still, you question is a very good one.

 

agreed.. what I find most interesting in this scenario (chinese christian) is that the brand of christianity that I have seen some chinese profess is not the ultra conservative brand of exclusive religion. I'm not sure if they are more pre-disposed not to fall into separating out the heretic and believer as strongly as most [dualistic] westerns are, who embrace christianity.

 

But I'm sure there's going to be both westerns or easterns who could embrace both conservative and liberal forms of christianity.

 

So it really depends on the doctrincal stance of the christianity they embrace, as Don says..

[SheLikesME?]

Most of the really nasty wars are based on teaching the heathens a lesson. If the christian leads a christian live and has tolerance for those who believe differently, then there should be no problem. One who takes it too seriously is termed a 'bible thumper' and tends to be very intolerant of anyone or anything that questions their belief system.

Hey Don maybe your right in a way, but usually I feel that wars fought in the name of Christianity was not really done for religious reasons or by true Christians, unless we look in the old testement in a few casses in defense. Going on the theme that true Christianity was killed by putting to death Christ and the apostles, there really was nothing but underground Chrsitianity until unification of a nation was desired to keep people under control. So a government decided to control people by adopting a form of Christianity, in my opinoon. Luther and others started the rebelion against the unfair mandatory doctrine of what ever country, and at risk to their lives. Even science was at threat. I feel the goal of those governments was to keep people in the dark and keep them undercontrol. Even though the bible was not being published, creeds generally replaced bible references. Unlike most Christians today I cannot accept a church or organization that decends from a government run church, no matter the true intentions. Yet I feel those people were inspried to break away as they did and form a new church. It is part of our heritage in this country, to seek religious freedom. IN fact the first meeting of elected representative government in the America's was held in a church.

 

ONe thread about a year ago I was surprised that some here in CFL questioned if religious freedom was all that important and it implied to me that it is not important for China to have it.

 

So I guess I would like to distinguish governments on a crusade, from true Christianity. Now we get to what is truth again, hahahaha.

 

ON the topic at hand I have a sister in law who is really shoving Budhism down our daughters throat, much to the displeasure of my wife. She says this sister has done the same with all her relatives. She is sort of a Budhist thumper, if you will. Before that she was into some other kind of religion that she thumped on all her family too. So it gets down to personality of people. I never met a more unpleasant Chinese lady in my life, than this sister-in-law.

 

Christians I associate with will only teach those who listen and want to know. Ask yes they will, but never force it, and we are taught the un-godlike action to argue and force it. So there you are. But I understand what you mean Don. I have lost friends growing up, because I was not main stream and did not accept the thumpers beliefe.

[SheLikesME?]

If a Christian Chinese woman and a Buddhist American man raise a family together, what kind of conflicts are they to expect?

I like what the article says that one does not have to get rid of their religion to practice Buddhism. Unfortunatly for me, my sister in law has mentioned to my wife that she should embrace my religion with me, because I will not like her not being part of it. This has had an adverse affect on my wife who does not like the thumping of her sister. So my wife has not been back to my church since. So I stay quiet until we are together and I go every Sunday and maybe she will go with me sometimes. We will see. No pressure and her choice. What good does it do any partner in marriage to have the other do their religion if they don't seek it and decide it is for them and embrace it on their own? I just can't do that because it will do no good at all to just make a false showing.