Thitirat Pongprajuc (Nuch)

Buddhism in America

Buddhism is one of the largest religious groups in the world. Statistics from the

organization, the Future of World Religions, shows that the Buddhist population worldwide was

about 488 million in 2010 (Buddhist Religion, n.d.). Ninety-nine percent of Buddhists live in

Asia, particularly East and South East Asia (Buddhist Religion, n.d.). Only about one percent

of Buddhists live in the West. In the United States, Buddhism ranks as the 4th largest religious

group, which makes it a religious minority compared to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

(Religious Landscape, 2010).

Buddhism came to America in the 1840s through Chinese immigrants (How

Buddhism, n.d.). During the time of the Immigration Act in 1965, other Asian immigrants such

as Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetan and Burmese also brought various sects of Buddhism to

America (Mitchell, 2008). Buddhism has adapted to American culture, which has been molded

by other western religions for a long time. So, this is not an easy task for Buddhism to survive in

this country. The factors that have influenced the growth of Buddhism in America are teaching

Buddhism in colleges and universities, the use of meditation in medical interventions, and

Buddhist social engagements.

Teaching Buddhism in Modern Colleges and Universities

In Asian countries, Buddhist philosophy is blended with the culture. So, lay people have

common beliefs that have been transferred from generation to generation. Intensive Dharma

courses such as Dharma talk and formal Vipassana are mostly provided in temples or monastic

universities. Therefore, Asian lay people know where to go when they want to intensively learn

Dharma and formally practice rituals. On the other hand, in America, culture has been blended in
with western religions, specifically Christianity, which makes Americans to not familiar with

such an Eastern religion. Buddhism is foreign, so it makes Americans curious about this religion.

This curiosity leads some Americans who are interested to learn more about it.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, there were several attempts by Americans and Asian-

Americans to bring Buddhism into the light by publishing books and establishing Buddhist study

centers. Back as far as 1875, Henry Steel Olcott and Madame Helena Petrovna Blavastsky had

gone to Sri Lanka and taken the five precepts of lay Buddhists. Because they came back to the

United States to establish the Theosophical Society, people were able to study Buddhism in New

York. Olcott also published a popular book called Buddhist Catechism in 1881. The Buddhist

Studies Center was founded in Berkeley in 1949. The Cambridge Buddhist Association, a

meditation and study center, was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1957 (Eck, n.d.).

Nowadays, Buddhist studies are not limited to religious centers. It has flourished in

academic careers for decades. Because the interest in Buddhism is growing in America, there are

more than twenty-six universities including Harvard University, Stanford University, and Cornell

University that offer Buddhist studies or Religious studies emphasizing Buddhist studies in

undergraduate and graduate levels (Williams, 2016). When a foreign religion is put into an

American educational context, it makes the religion itself become more secular and tangible for

American people who want to study Buddhist Philosophy without converting to Buddhism.

Therefore, this appeals Americans who want to deepen their understanding of Buddhism.

The Use of Meditation in Medical interventions

In the America, meditation and the idea of mindfulness attract many American people to

Buddhism. Actually, there are various forms of mediation, but Mindfulness meditation goes

mainstream because of the publication of American meditation gurus. Mindfulness mediation has
been addressed in the best-selling books such as Jon Kabat-Zinns FULL CATASTROPHE

LIVING and WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE; and Daniel Golemans

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (Bielefeldt et al, 2015). Some Americans practice meditation

practice on daily basis. The study of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative

Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that eighteen million of

U.S. adults practiced meditation to learn to focus attention (8.0% of U.S., 2016). The study

also indicated that meditation may influence health, which motivates more westerners to

experience Buddhist meditation.

Recent SLCCs Religious Diversity Awareness events included a Buddhist meditation

demonstration by a Buddhist monk named Ajahn Sombat Khippabhinyo and a lecture on the

topic Mind-Body Research and its Implication for health and well-being by David L.

Lipschitz, PhD, from Pain Research Center, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Utah.

Lipschitz stated that there is a connection between mind and body. If mind (brain) is stressed, it

affects body (health) of an individual. The solution to deal with stress is mediation because

meditation helps calm mind (Lipschitz, 2017). According to researchers from John Hopkins

University in Baltimore, mindful meditation can help ease psychological stresses like anxiety,

depression, and pain (Corliss, 2016). Buddhist meditation has been practiced as an alternative

therapy in medical conventions for years, helping promote Buddhism in American Society.

Buddhist Social Engagement

The term Social Engagement refers to being actively involved in social problems. The

very first socially engaged Buddhist in the United States was the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat

Hanh who coined the term Engaged Buddhism in his book, Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.

During the war period, Hanh refused to take sides, but what he did was lead monks to service
victims from the war. He came to America to speak about the conflict of the war (The Archive,

n.d.) and to offer a peace proposal (Eck, n.d.). In 1977, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF)

was founded as nonsectarian Buddhist lineages in America in order to promote peace protection

for all beings. BPF has involved American social concerns such as anti-land mine campaigns and

disarmament activities.

Numbers of Buddhist centers and organizations have been working on prison ministry

program, which have also been implemented in the criminal justice system. BPF offers Dharma

sessions for prisoners at San Quentin and Soledad prisons. Zen Mountain Monastery serves New

York prisoners with meditation training, Dharma talks, and other services. Zen Peacemakers

Order teaches mindfulness and meditation at a maximum-security penitentiary in Santa Fe, New

Mexico (Mitchell, 2008).

Another type of Buddhist social engagement is the concern for environment. This

includes people who address environmental concerns from the standpoint of Buddhist beliefs

such as mindfulness, non-harming, and serving all living beings. In 1969, Gary Snyder pointed

out that humans in the last century polluted the environment. Consequently, pollution harmed

life on the Earth. So, he encouraged humans to be a good member of the great community of

living creatures (Mitchell, 2008).

Conclusion

It has been almost two centuries that Buddhism was brought to America. Asian and

American Buddhists have tried to adapt and disseminated the religion to American culture

standards. This is done through designating the academic level of Buddhism as Buddhist studies

in colleges and universities. Moreover, in the medical career, Buddhist meditation has been used

as an alternative therapy for the pain-and-stress-related disorder and is gain popularity. Also,
socially engaged Buddhists strengthen positive perception for Buddhism as a whole group.

Buddhism is slowly gaining popularity in the United States, but still remains a minority religion.

With the help of these all factors added all together, Buddhism is slowly integrating and adapting

into the American religious landscape.

 References

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