Buddhism in America

December 12th, 2007 · 1 Comment

For over 20 years, all denominations of the Buddhist religion have experienced an unparalleled growth in the United States of America. From the years 1990 to 2007, Buddhism grew 190% and transformed itself into the 4^th most practiced religion in America. Today it is estimated that there are over 6.5 million believers in the Buddhist faith.

Although Buddhism spread throughout Asia it remained virtually unknown in the West until modern times.

Knowledge of Buddhism has come through three main channels: Western scholars; the work of philosophers, writers and artists; and the arrival of Asian immigrants who have brought various forms of Buddhism with them to North America.

The ‘come and see for yourself’ attitude of Buddhism attracts many Westerners. They are not asked to believe in anything, but to follow the Buddha’s advice of testing ideas first.

With the growth of easy travel and communications, the West has been able to discover more about Buddhism in the last fifty years than in all the time before. The Buddhist faith’s informality and emphasis on practice have wide appeal to many Westerners.

Buddhist attitudes of peace, mindfulness and care for all living creatures appeal to many Westerners. Buddhism believes that all things should be looked after: the earth, plants, birds, insects and animals. This is close to the feeling among many people in recent years that the human race should stop polluting the atmosphere and destroying the surface of the earth by cutting down forests and plundering our waterways and oceans. The teachings of mutual respect without exception are part of the Buddhist message.

Although the Buddha’s teachings have been known in countries throughout Asia for over 2,500 years, very few people in North America would have known what the word ‘Buddhist’ meant unless they had been born in the last 50 years.

More recently, as refugees from wars and conflicts, many Buddhist people have moved to the West. Many Tibetans, for example, fled from their country after the Chinese takeover in 1959. The wars in Indochina in the 1950s and 1960s led many Vietnamese people to move to and settle in Europe, Australia and North America. Other Buddhists from countries such as Thailand have established businesses in the larger Western cities. They have all brought their Buddhist beliefs to their new homes, and helped to set up Buddhist centers across America.

Why is Buddhism so successful in America?

• Buddhism’s success in this country is due to it’s central theme. Buddha’s central message of personal assurance, social and religious tolerance and optimism combined with personal experience and inner spiritual transformation is a stark contrast to the traditional western religions.

• Archetypal Christian faiths are based mainly on a petitionary style of prayer and dogmatic faith in the teachings. The fear and blind faith required of its believers, in the West, is beginning to break down. People are not willing to accept blindly the teachings of the traditional western faiths.

• Buddhism’s growth is also attributed to the new generation of native-born American Buddhist teachers and accessibility to the teachings of Buddhism. American Buddhist Dharma instructors have learned to communicate the dharma in a language contemporary to the American audience. Use of common language and an ever increasing technical communications savvy and style are helping to organize and maintain a clear message of the benefits of Buddhism for the contemporary world.

• In the past two decades a deep and growing dissatisfaction of many Americans with fundamentalism and conservative Christianity has helped Buddhism. The message of the Dharma is clean, pure and simple. “The Come and See” attitude does not require adherences, but rather asks the person to take an experiential perusal of the faith itself and how Buddhism works in the everyday walk of life. Buddhism stresses personal acceptance and responsibility. Because of this the Buddhist faith has become an alternative to western religions.

• Christian faiths are centered outside the self. In quiet contrast, Buddhism stresses the interior self of the mind. The mind is the key element. Not a belief in a being outside the self. Rather, the belief that goodness exists inside and peace and joy come from understanding the nature of our lives.

• Buddhism does not ask you to hold onto beliefs you have trouble relating to. If there is a message or part of a teaching that does not “fit” well in your practice, Buddhism tells you to expel the idea. It simply is not for you at the present time. Every good dharma teacher, monk and laity alike, will tell you, “if it doesn’t fit, throw it out of the window”.

The concepts or practices of over-indulgence on one hand, and self mortification on the other, are viewed as extremes. Over-indulgence is seen as a vehicle to retard spiritual growth and moral progress. Self mortification, often practiced in many religions, is seen as damaging the body and mental processes which affect the person’s ability to gain knowledge of the self.

Buddhism emanated from what is modern day Nepal. The growth of Buddhism in the world was in no doubt due to the practicality of the faith itself. The teachings are a common sense approach to the problems of life. Buddhism breaks down the need to appear helpless against the many problems of human life. Siddhartha simply says:

All life is suffering. We recognize this as the First Noble Truth. That statement frightens many people. Even though we know it is true we still find it difficult to accept. It is in the acknowledgment of a problem that we begin to address and solve it.

The Buddha states the reason for suffering is attachment. This is his Second Noble Truth.

Isn’t this another not-so-foreign-idea; to which we do not wish to pay any attention? As if not addressing the statement will make it disappear. All of us know it is not enough to point out a problem without offering a solution. So what is the solution here?

The complete cessation of suffering which is Nibbāna, is the Third Noble Truth. There are many reasons for attachments; once we identify the reasons, then we can see the problem and address it. Buddha then gives us the tools by which we learn to disengage ourselves from attachment:

The eradication of attachment is realized through the practices described in the Eight Fold Path, which is the Fourth Noble Truth. This and meditation are the bases for Buddhist practice. Following the Eight Fold Path is what we call the middle path.

The Buddhism which has evolved in America today, with its emphasis on meditation practices, is the natural distillation of the Buddhism found throughout Asia, which has a stronger focus on religious theory.

Buddhism has arrived in America. And not the Buddhism that teaches simply the philosophy of the faith. Specifically, it is the practice of the practical side of Buddhism combined with meditation that Americans find appealing. This is what is so different from the notion that Buddhism is a philosophy. As in any religion there exists a component of philosophical discussion and understanding. However, accepting the definition of philosophy as a quest for knowledge in the effort to gain that knowledge, philosophy is not solely what Buddhism is trying to be in America. It is the strong component of effort and engagement that is very important. It is the action of engagement and effort that shows results in positive change. Personal changes — transformations — are the reasons Buddhism is successful in America.

Western style religion can be defined as a system of faith. The belief in power or powers, god or gods manifesting outside the self and the practice of adoration or worship of these entities, is a basic component of that faith. A belief in the supernatural being with powers beyond the scope of humans is a common component of modern day religion. Buddhism does not demand a faith from its followers. The idea of faith is substituted with a ‘confidence based on knowledge and experience.’

The confidence of a lay follower in Buddhism is that of a patient to a noted physician or more like a student revering a very gifted professor. Followers seek “refuge in the Buddha,” as an incomparable guide and teacher who is able to instruct them on the Path of Purity. The followers of Buddhism make no servile surrender to the Buddha.

Buddhists do not think that they may attain enlightenment or purity by seeking refuge in the Buddha or by having a ‘faith’ in Him. It is not within the scope of any human being to wash away the impurities of others. The Buddha was a human being. Per his teachings, no one can purify or defile another. The Buddha as a teacher may be instrumental, but the responsibility of purification is ours.

Buddhism, and the message of the Buddha, has caught on in America. The reasons are varied. The chief reason for the acceptability and popularity is the message of compassion for the self as well as others.

Buddhism stresses the need for self responsibility. When you take your present, past and future out of the hands of a supernatural being there is no one else to be responsible. Our present is the off-spring of our past and the parent of our future.

Buddhism teaches neither blame nor judgment of any person or situation, only to be responsible for ourselves without the element of prejudice. Meaning: we can take responsibility only for ourselves. Something someone else does is not for us to judge.

Our only position is to love every living person without exception and with equanimity. That we do not judge nor assign any standard to, nor reproach nor have any prejudicial feelings nor actions toward anyone, is a most important teaching. Buddhism is a system of personal responsibility and accountability to self. Buddhists believe that goodness comes from good action which is brought about by good intention, right thought, and right concentration. Very basically, Buddhism teaches us that no one has the right to judge anyone or any incidents that happen to us. This is the message of Buddhism.

The Principle of Impermanence

One of the principles of the Buddha’s teachings is that of Impermanence.

The difficulty of teaching impermanence lies in the fact that we naturally form attachments. We must realize that all things pass. Everything arises, and then falls away.

Our lives are a process of light and dark, day and night, winter and spring, summer and fall. Each time passes into another. Nothing remains the same. This is what we acknowledge as a universal law. We can be sad over death and dying yet it is as natural as a blossom, once finished, falling to the ground. All things are transient: happiness and sadness.

We have to come to an understanding of our place in nature and the natural laws that govern all of us. We can live only in the present. We can not change the past and the future remains unfolded until it becomes today. We can acknowledge our transient nature by a comparison to all things found in nature. We are as much a part of each other as the air we share. What we share that is unique is our memory.

The pali word anicca (ah-NEE-chah) is translated into English as impermanence or change. But anicca is not merely a concept.

One of the core teachings of the Buddhist tradition, the Buddhist Dharma, is that all things are impermanent. Nothing lasts forever. There is nothing that can be held on to, no form that provides a secure, eternal presence. The universe is in a constant state of flux.

All sensations, feelings, happenings, incidents arise, stay for a time, and fall away, existing as energy through the rising and falling. The truth of impermanence, of anicca must be realized if there is to be an understanding of our true nature.

America has always enjoyed a great confidence in itself. Recently America’s great confidence has been shattered. The truth of suffering has arrived at our doors in a way we can not ignore. The lesson for us is to realize the suffering that exists in far off-lands now exists here at home. The uncertainty of these times – the insecurity, threats, and suffering, is very real. What we need to remember is we have a question to answer. How will this affect my life? How does it affect the lives of the people around me, of people everywhere? If in our meditations we come to realize that all things are transient, then we can apply that knowledge to events outside the self with the same outcome. What happens to us when we realize the entire universe we live in is impermanent by its own nature? We mature in our thinking. It is then that the actions of everyday living become important.

How we treat ourselves, how we treat others. Keeping a positive outlook on life’s changes helps us a great deal. We must begin learning how to live with a greater understanding of the need for compassion in ourselves, for ourselves and others. This is attainable through Vipassana meditation and following the Noble Eightfold Path.

The technique of Vipassana meditation is a path that leads to freedom from all suffering. Through the realization that attachment and craving are the root of suffering and ignorance, we discover the causes of all our miseries. As we practice meditation and gain greater self knowledge we are able, little by little, to remove the causes of suffering and steadily emerge from a life of misery and ignorance to lead happy, healthy, and productive lives.

The connection to suffering is clearly that of grasping at what is fleeting and impermanent. By wanting what we cannot attain, or by holding onto past expectations and desires, we further embroil ourselves in the cycle of annica.

Only by understanding the impermanent nature of everything, including ourselves, are we able to “let go” and begin to live a happier and more joyful life.

Buddhism has the capacity to transform the human mind and character. It is an opportunity awaiting all who sincerely wish to make the effort. It is surely worth the effort.

“When human kind is sorrowed by loss and death,
the surest way to comfort is through extending loving kindness to each of them.
In the same way if world peace is ever to be realized
it must be embraced internally by each and every one of us.”
- Bhante Kassapa

I Wish You Peace,

Bhante Kassapa

Bhante n. Kassapa Bhikkhu
bhante_kassapa@yahoo.com
Buu Mon Temple
Port Arthur, Texas, 77640
409.982.9319