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. (Originally published Jan. 23, 2006.)
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.
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.
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?
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
• 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.
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.
TYPES OF BUDDHISM
Dharmanet.org, an online clearinghouse for Buddhist information, has listings of organizations, centers and practice groups from the major Buddhist traditions:
• Mahayana
• Jodo Shinshu/Pure Land (Shin Buddhism)
• Zen
BUDDHIST FESTIVALS
BuddhaNet offers listings of:
• Buddhist festivals and special days
• Buddhist marriage ceremonies and funeral rites
• The Thai Buddhist calendar, which is similar to the Laotian and Cambodian tradition.
BUDDHIST MEDIA
• Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
ON THE WEB
• 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
• 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.
Regional sources
STATE BY STATE
• BuddhaNet maintains a state-by-state list of Buddhist centers, meditation groups, monasteries and retreat centers, along with contact information for each.
IN THE NORTHEAST
• Stephanie Kaza is an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Vermont in Burlington, where she teaches about religion and ecology, eco-feminism and “unlearning consumerism.” She is a Soto Zen practitioner affiliated with Green Gulch Zen Center in California and holds a master’s degree in divinity and a doctorate in biology. She is editor of Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire and the Urge to Consume (Shambhala Publications, 2005); co-editor of Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism (Shambhala Publications, 2000); and the author of The Attentive Heart: Conversations with Trees (Shambhala Publications, 1996). Contact 802-656-0172, Stephanie.kaza@uvm.edu.
• Christopher S. Queen is a lecturer on the study of religion and dean of students for continuing education at Harvard University in Boston, where he teaches courses on Buddhism in America and Buddhism and social change. Read a June 18, 2004, interview he did with the Echo Chamber Project, in which he discusses Buddhism, war, peace and violence in movies. He is editor of Engaged Buddhism in the West (Wisdom Publications, 2000) and co-editor of Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). Contact 617-495-3481, queen@hudce.harvard.edu.
• Janice Willis is a professor of religion and social sciences at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. She is the author of Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey (Riverhead Books, 2001). Read an excerpt on Beliefnet.com. Also read a September 2005 Newsweek profile of Willis, in which she describes her journey from the segregated, revival-preacher South to the Buddhist monastery in Nepal where she began to find peace. Contact 860-685-2298, jwillis@wesleyan.edu.
• Stephen Prothero is chairman of the department of religion at Boston University. He specializes in Asian religions in the United States and is author of The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Indiana University Press, 1996). Contact 617-353-4426, prothero@bu.edu.
IN THE EAST
• Richard H. Seager is an associate professor of religious studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. He is studying the globalization and Americanization of Buddhism and is the author of Buddhism in America (Columbia University Press, 2000) and Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai and the Globalization of Buddhism Humanism (forthcoming from University of California Press, 2006). Contact 315-859-4132, rseager@hamilton.edu.
• Jin Y. Park is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy and religion at American University in Washington, D.C. She specializes in Buddhist philosophy; her doctoral dissertation was on Zen Buddhism and postmodern thought. Contact 202-885-2919, jypark@american.edu.
• Charles S. Prebish is a professor of religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. He is a co-founder of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics and can speak about the development of Buddhism in North America and the way the Internet has been used to connect Buddhists worldwide. Contact 814-865-1121, csp1@psu.edu.
IN THE SOUTHEAST
• John D. Dunne is an assistant professor in the religion department at Emory University in Atlanta. He is the author of Foundations of Dharmakirti’s Philosophy (Wisdom Publications, 2004), an examination of Buddhist epistemology. Dunne has also written about meditation and neuroscience, and his current research focuses on theories of Buddhist mysticism. Contact 404-712-9377, jdunne@emory.edu.
• Mario Poceski is assistant professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where his work focuses on the Chan school of Chinese Buddhism. Contact 352-392-1625 ext. 233, mpoceski@ufl.edu.
• Steven Heine is professor of religious studies and history and director of the Asian studies program at Florida International University in Miami, where he specializes in Japanese Buddhism and can also speak about contemporary Buddhism in the West. He is the author of White Collar Zen: Using Zen Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Your Career Goals (Oxford University Press, 2005). Contact 305-348-1788, heines@fiu.edu.
IN THE SOUTH
• Jeffrey Samuels is an assistant professor of religious studies at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, where he has studied monastic recruitment and the training of young children as Buddhist novices. He has interviewed monks in Sri Lanka and children in training to become monks, studying how the rituals and aesthetics of Buddhist life inform their decisions and giving them cameras to record their own lives. Contact 270-745-5748, Jeffrey.Samuels@wku.edu.
• Miriam Levering is professor of religious studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she is the editor of Zen Inspirations: Essential Meditations and Texts (Duncan Baird Publishers, 2004) and can speak about women in Zen Buddhism. Contact 865-974-6979, mleverin@utk.edu.
IN THE MIDWEST
• Paul D. Numrich is chairman of the Program in World Religions and Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus in Ohio, and affiliate research associate professor in the department of sociology at Loyola University Chicago. While working with the Religion in Urban America Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he directed the Buddhist Chicago Project, through which he visited more than 60 Buddhist temples, centers and groups in the Chicago area, studying Buddhist life in a particular metropolitan setting. Contact 740-362-3443, pnumrich@mtso.edu.
• Charles Hallisey is associate professor of languages and cultures of Asia with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is co-chairman of the American Academy of Religion’s Buddhism section and can speak about Theravada Buddhism and Buddhist ethics. Contact 608-262-4943, cshallisey@wisc.edu.
• Donald S. Lopez Jr. is Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is the author of Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West (University of Chicago Press, 1999) and editor of Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism (University of Chicago Press, 2005). Read an interview with Lopez from a university publication in which he describes the rising Western interest in Buddhism. Contact dlopez@umich.edu.
IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Anne C. Klein is a professor of Asian religions at Rice University in Houston. The author of five books, she can speak about Indo-Tibetan Buddhist thought and practice and about women in Buddhism. She is also co-founding director of Dawn Mountain, a center in Houston for contemplative study and practice. Contact 713-348-2711, ack@rice.edu.
• Juliane Schober is an associate professor of religious studies at Arizona State University. She has studied Theravada Buddhism in Burma, including Burmese rituals and the veneration of icons. Schober is editor of Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia (Hawaii University Press, 1997). Contact j.schober@asu.edu.
• Judith Simmer-Brown is a professor of Buddhist studies and chairwoman of the department of religious studies at Naropa University, a college founded in the Buddhist tradition in Boulder, Colo. She can speak about American Buddhism and about Buddhist-Christian dialogue. Read an article Simmer-Brown wrote called “American Buddhism: The Legacy for Our Children.” She is the author of Dakini’s Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism (Shambhala, 2001) and is co-author of Benedict’s Dharma: Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict (Riverhead, 2001). Contact 303-546-3502, jsb@naropa.edu.
IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• The Rev. Ejo McMullen is resident priest at the Eugene Zendo, a Soto Zen Buddhist temple in Eugene, Ore. Contact 541-302-4576, ejo@eugenezendo.org.
• James William Coleman is a sociology professor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He is the author of The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2002). Contact 805-756-1230, jcoleman@calpoly.edu.
• Richard Payne is dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies and professor of Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. He can speak about Tantric rituals and Buddhist spiritual practices. Contact 650-938-7192, rkpayne@earthlink.net.
• José Cabezón is a professor of Tibetan Buddhism and cultural studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan Gelukpa order for almost 10 years, living and studying for six years at the Jé College of Sera Monastery in South India. His current research involves Buddhism and sexuality, and the global commodification of Tibet and its culture. He’s also involved with the Sera Project, a digital multimedia effort designed to document life in one of Tibet’s great monasteries. Contact 805-893-3134, jcabezon@religion.ucsb.edu.
• Franz A. Metcalf teaches comparative religion at California State University in Los Angeles and edits the national newsletter of the Forge Guild of Spiritual Teachers and Leaders. He is the author of Buddha in Your Backpack: Everyday Buddhism for Teens (Seastone, 2003) and What Would Buddha Do?: 101 Answers to Life’s Daily Dilemmas (Seastone, 2002); and co-author of What Would Buddha Do at Work: 101 Answers to Workplace Dilemmas (Seastone, 2001). He wrote his doctoral dissertation on “Why Do Americans Practice Zen Buddhism?” Contact 323-467-3267, franzmetcalf@earthlink.net.
• Carl W. Bielefeldt is a professor of religious studies and director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University in California. He specializes in East Asian Buddhism and is editor of the Soto Zen Text Project, which is preparing annotated translations of the scriptures of the Soto school of Japanese Zen. Contact 650-723-0469, carl@stanford.edu.
• William M. Bodiford is professor of Asian languages and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (McMillan Reference USA, 2004) and editor of Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya (University of Hawaii Press, 2005). He can speak about Japanese Buddhism, including rituals and worship of local gods. Contact 310-794-8939, bodiford@ucla.edu.
