BUDDHISM Ancient faith experiences an explosion of growth in U.S.
Buddha, from the
Sanskrit language, means "awakened" -- and in the United States today,
Buddhism has come wide awake. Originally spread from Asia, Buddhism is now considered
the fourth-largest religion in the United States. The ever-growing number of
U.S. practitioners is estimated
at 1.5 million or more. That growth is bringing awareness, influence and some
contentious issues.
Issues to explore
Buddhism takes
on the flavor of the land in which it's planted. In this country, it is flourishing
with considerable variety as both a religion and a philosophy of life, demonstrating
the influence both of Asian immigrants and Western converts. That can lead to
some tensions between groups from different cultural backgrounds and competing
ideas about what aspects of Buddhism should be stressed.
• Buddhism's
emphasis on mindfulness, peacefulness and social action - sometimes described
as "engaged Buddhism" - is having an impact on everything from environmental
justice to hospice care. Buddhist environmental groups include Earth
Sangha and the Zen
Environmental Studies Institute.
• Scientists are studying what goes on inside the brains of Buddhist monks
as they meditate to see if meditation and mindfulness actually change the way
the brain works. References to Buddhist thinking are popping up in the workplace,
medicine, conflict resolution, film and sports.
• Lots of folks are trying meditation techniques, including corporate executives,
prisoners and athletes seeking to reduce stress; people struggling to manage
pain; and people from all sorts of religious backgrounds looking for peace of
mind. One recent article about the rising popularity of Buddhism in the West
carried the subtitle, "Out of the monastery, into the living room."
• Some
American Buddhists have become active in the effort to end the Chinese occupation
of Tibet, through organizations such as the Free
Tibet Campaign. The Tibetan
& Himalayan Digital Library at the University of Virginia provides online
information about Tibet and the Himalayas, including information
about religion and Buddhist scholars.
• Buddhists
work with incarcerated people through groups such as the Prison
Dharma Network and the Engaged
Zen Foundation.
• DharmaPop,
from the Buddhist Temple of Chicago, tracks references to Buddhism in popular
culture.
• Web
sites concerned with Buddhist women include Sakyadhita,
the International Association of Buddhist Women; and Women
Active in Buddhism.
• Buddhists
have become involved in some interfaith conversations. Read a description
from the web site of
an ongoing Buddhist-Catholic dialogue in Los Angeles.
Questions for
reporters
• Find
out what versions of Buddhist practice can be found in your community. How did
they get there, what is each community's story, and what level of tension or
cooperation exists among them, particularly between Asian Buddhists and those
from other backgrounds?
• Explore
the links between Buddhist thinking and the popularity of ideas such as harmony
and simple living (check out the magazines at health food stores). How does
Buddhism tap into Americans' desire for spirituality and personal growth outside
institutionalized religion? Look for examples in popular culture, such as Nicole
Beland's book Girl Seeks Bliss: Zen and the Art of Modern Life Maintenance
(Plume, 2005).
• What
involvement do local Buddhists have with issues such as environmentalism, feminism
and the war in Iraq?
• What
conversations are taking place in your area about the connections between practices
such as meditation and mindfulness and the fields of science, mental health
and medicine?
• Who's
becoming Buddhist in your community? How popular is it among blacks, Latinos,
Americans Indians and low-income people, as well as Asians and educated, affluent
whites? What are the demographic trends, and why? How many are affiliating with
temples and how many are staying free of Buddhist institutions? What rituals
do local Buddhists practice?
• What
conversations are taking place locally between Buddhists and those of other
religious faiths?
Why it matters
While often not
fully understood in its complexity, Buddhist thinking quietly permeates the
American landscape. Ideas such as mindfulness, simple living and the interconnection
of all living things resonate with many, including increasing numbers who identify
themselves as Buddhist and others who consider themselves spiritual but not
religious.
Click
the map for interview sources
in your state and region
National
sources
ORGANIZATIONS
• Soka
Gakkai International (SGI)-USA is an American Buddhist association based
on the teachings of the Nichiren school of Mahayana Buddhism. Its web site includes
state-by-state
contact information for Soka Gakkai centers around the United States. Contact
Bill Aiken, public affairs director, 202-338-1750, waiken@sgi-usa.org.
• Zen
Peacemakers is a global community of individuals and Zen centers that want
to pursue peace and wholeness through combining social action and Zen practice.
The Zen Peacemakers operate the Maezumi
Institute in Montague, Mass., and have a list of Zen
Peacemaker Circles in the U.S. and overseas. Contact Grover Genro Gauntt,
413-367-2048 ext. 7, grover@zpf-motherhouse.org.
• The
Mind and Life Institute,
based in Colorado, is working to foster discussion and a research partnership
involving science and Buddhism - studying, for example, the impact of meditation
on the brain. It sponsors conferences exploring these issues, holds a summer
research institute and publishes a newsletter.
Contact 303-665-7659, info@mindandlife.org.
• The
Buddhist Association
of the United States operates the Chuang
Yen Monastery, an education center in Carmel, N.Y., dedicated to explaining
the different schools of Buddhism and the common beliefs uniting them. Contact
845-225-1819 or 845-228-4288, programs@baus.org.
• The
Pluralism Project at Harvard University posts a list
of more than 2,000 Buddhist centers around the country with contact information,
statistics
and online
resources.
INDIVIDUALS
• Ruben
L.F. Habito, a native of the Philippines and a Catholic, has been trained
in Zen practices and is past president of the Society
for Buddhist-Christian Studies. He completed doctoral studies in the department
of Indology and Buddhist studies at Tokyo University and is a professor of world
religions and spirituality at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas. He directs the Maria Kannon
Zen Center in Dallas and is the author of Experiencing Buddhism: Ways
of Wisdom and Compassion (Orbis Books, 2005) and Living Zen, Loving God
(Wisdom Publications, 2004). Contact 214-768-4334, rhabito@smu.edu.
• Robert
A.F. Thurman is chairman of the religion department and Jey Tsong Khapa
Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York,
where The New York Times described him as "the leading American expert
on Tibetan Buddhism." He has been a personal student of the Dalai Lama.
He is the author of The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of
Tibetan Buddhism (Free Press, 2005). Contact 212-854-3218, tbt7@columbia.edu
or mipamthurman@yahoo.com.
• Charles
Muller is a professor in the humanities department at Toyo Gakuen University
in Japan. He is the author of The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment: Korean
Buddhism's Guide to Meditation (SUNY Press, 1999) and can speak about Buddhism
among Koreans. He also runs the web site Resources
for East Asian Language and Thought and has become interested in how the
Internet can be used to share information about East Asian religions and philosophy.
He has worked to electronically translate and interpret classical Buddhist works
for Western audiences, including producing the Digital
Dictionary of Buddhism. Contact acmuller@jj.em-net.ne.jp.
• Janet
Gyatso is Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School
in Boston, where she is co-chairwoman of the American Academy of Religion's
Buddhism section and president of the International Association of Tibetan Studies.
Her work focuses on Tibetan Buddhism and religious culture, including issues
of sex and gender. She is co-author of Women in Tibet: Past and Present (Columbia
University Press, 2004). Contact through Charlene Higbe, 617-495-4518, Charlene_higbe@harvard.edu.
• Jack
Kornfield, a Buddhist monk, is founding teacher of the Insight Meditation
Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, Calif. Kornfield is the
author of Buddha's Little Instruction Book (Bantam Books, 1994) and After
the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path
(Bantam Books, 2001), and other books on Buddhist life. Contact through Karen
Gutowski, 415-488-0164 ext. 267, kareng@spiritrock.org.
Background
BUDDHISM
BASICS
Buddhism, now a
worldwide religion with an estimated 350 million adherents, began about 2,500
years ago in India and has spread, in a variety of forms and incarnations, around
the world. The type of Buddhism practiced varies from country to country, shaped
by the culture of each place. While teachings and rituals differ by time and
place, the concept of following the "dharma" or the Buddha's fundamental
teachings and doctrines as a way of avoiding suffering holds constant.
For summaries of
basic Buddhist teachings, read:
• The
Basic
Buddhism Guide posted by BuddhaNet,
the web site of the Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc., based in Australia.
BuddhaNet is an effort to create a nonprofit, online "cyber sangha"
of people committed to the Buddha's teachings and lifestyle - an effort to combine
an ancient tradition with the information superhighway.
• An
introduction
to Buddhism posted in connection with a PBS documentary on Thailand.
• A
list
of resources for the study of Buddhism compiled by Ron Epstein, who is now
retired as a professor from San Francisco State University. It includes links
to background information on Buddhist history, teachings in the Theravada and
Mahayana traditions, Buddhist texts and such subjects as Buddhism and children
and Buddhism and science.
• An
adult education
study on the history, philosophy and practice of Buddhism, posted by Australian
writer Mary Hendriks.
ON
THE WEB
• A
Buddhist
blog webring has links to Buddhist bloggers.
• E-Sangha
links Buddhists around the world through discussion forums from the main traditions.
It also includes links to Buddhist blogs and more.
• WZEN
offers a webcast ("Sounds from Zen Mountain") from the teachers of
the Mountains and Rivers order, along with Cybermonk,
through which a senior monk will answer online questions about dharma.
• The
Buddhist
Channel provides online Buddhist news and features.
• Urban
Dharma is a web site offering articles, essays and photographs describing
Buddhism in America. Recent offerings have included pieces on fasting, politics,
psychedelics and a "meditation on a Coke can."
DEFINITIONS
• Buddha:
A royal prince named Siddhartha Gautama founded Buddhism in northern India.
Gautama, now known as the Buddha, was born about 563 B.C. in the Himalayan foothills
of what's now Nepal. He was the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya. While
sheltered in his youth, Gautama later left the palace and saw the four sights
- an old man, a sick man, a dead man and a holy man. Exposure to their suffering
led him to spend the rest of his life seeking truth. While meditating under
a tree, he finally understood how to become free from suffering, and became
known as the Buddha, or the "Enlightened One." The Buddha claimed
to have found a path to freedom that had been lost, but he is considered one
of many buddhas, not the first and not the last.
• The
Four Noble Truths: These four truths about suffering are at the heart of
the Buddha's teaching. They are: suffering exists; suffering is caused by attachment
to desires, by wanting things to be different than they are; suffering can be
eliminated by ceasing to want things to be different; and there is a path to
eliminating those desires - a path known as the Noble Eightfold Path.
• Noble
Eightfold Path: These are the steps to attaining nirvana - the end of suffering:
right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood,
right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
• Dharma:
The Buddha referred to what he taught as the "dharma vinaya." Dharma
is often referred to as teachings or doctrine, and vinaya as the rules of monastic
discipline. In practice, dharma can involve anything from chanting to meditation
to studying the Buddha's words.
• Sangha:
A community of people who walk the Buddhist path and practice together. It is
one of the three Buddhist treasures, along with Buddha and dharma.
• Karma:
Good or bad actions one takes during one's lifetime.
• Cycle
of rebirth: Any living being can be reborn into one of six planes. Three
are fortunate realms and three unfortunate.
ARTICLES
• Listen
to a July
26, 2005, story from NPR's Morning Edition in which scientists explore
the idea that mindfulness and meditation can bring about a sense of well-being
by changing the way the brain works. Part of that research involves studies
of the brain activity of Buddhist monks.
• Read
an account
from the Mind and Life Institute web site of a presentation the Dalai Lama
made on Nov. 12, 2005, to the Society for Neuroscience, exploring the connections
between science and the mind. Read a Nov.
9, 2005, Washington Post story describing the controversy linked
to the Buddhist leader's involvement with such scientific work.
• View
a multimedia
presentation on the National Geographic web site based on a December
2005 story in the magazine about the growth of Buddhism in the West. There is
a link
to an excerpt from the story (the full text is only available to subscribers).
• Read
a profile from the Aug.
13, 2005, Battle Creek Enquirer about a Michigan woman who was ordained
as a Buddhist priest.
• Read
an Aug.
1, 2005, story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch about a Buddhist
worship service at the National Boy Scout Jamboree.
• Read
the journal
entries of two Buddhist monks, one from California and one from Colorado,
who from May to July 2005 made a walking journey from New Orleans to Thunder
Bay, Ontario. They were following the Thai Forest tradition in Theravadan Buddhism
of making pilgrimages, living simply and depending on the kindness and generosity
of others.
• Read
an interview
from the May 2, 2005, San Francisco Chronicle with a Methodist-turned-Buddhist
who took a six-year vow of silence.
• Listen
to a March
17, 2005, program from Minnesota Public Radio's Speaking of Faith
in which Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn speaks of "engaged Buddhism,"
peace and mindfulness.
• Read
a Nov.
6, 2004, story from The Dallas Morning News, posted on the Buddhist
Channel web site, about the practice of mindfulness in American culture.
• Read
a Sept.
19, 2004, story from The Boston Globe about Buddhist punk rockers.
• Read
a story from the May
2004 issue of Smithsonian magazine exploring what the Dalai Lama
has to say about happiness, contentment and science.
• Read
commentaries from Beliefnet.com,
by Rodger Kamenetz from Sept. 2, 2003, and from MyJewishLearning.com
by Ira Rifkin, about Jews who are attracted to Buddhism (some call them
JuBus).
• Read
an Aug.
8, 2002, article on Beliefnet.com (reprinted from The Dallas Morning
News) about a Buddhist summer program for children, a kind of Buddhist version
of Vacation Bible School.
• Read
a story
from the June 27, 2001, Village Voice about the involvement of black
women in Buddhism.
• Read
the transcript of a July
6, 2001, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly story on PBS about tensions
in American Buddhism, in part between the religion as it's practiced by Asian
immigrants and by converts in the West. Read a commentary
on that program by several scholars of Buddhism who explore such ideas as why
Buddhists are viewed differently in the popular view than Muslims or Hindus.
• Read
a Feb.
26, 2001, story from Salon.com about baby boomer Buddhists who favor a more
secularized style of practice ("no chanting, no incense, no monks and certainly
no bowing").
• Read
a Jan.
19, 2000, story from Beliefnet.com exploring whether there's a divide in
American Buddhism between "Asian Buddhists" and "New Buddhists"
- converts from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
