Buddhism in the United States, Essay Example

Abstract

Over the past few decades, an enormous interest and/or adoption of Buddhist principles has arisen in Western cultures, most notably American. Buddhism’s vast history and extraordinary scope, coupled with its perceived foundations of gentleness and respect for all things living, have served to render it an ancient faith that is actually gaining in popularity. After taking a necessarily cursory view of its rich and widespread history, we will focus on the precepts of the faith itself, utilizing opinions from a modern practitioner of it. Then a comparison will be drawn with Roman Catholicism, a religion on a par with Buddhism in terms of antiquity and global following.

Historical Overview

The roots of Buddhism evolved from origins similar to the beginnings of most of the world’s predominant faiths, in that its existence was born from rebellion. The culture of India for the greater part of the first half of the first millennium BC was in an ‘Iron Age’, and the faith of Vedic Brahmanism held sway. This was essentially an Eastern counterpoint to coeval Western paganism, with worship of the elements and rituals of sacrifice. Deities were identified in the manner of Greco-Roman mythology, and animal and human sacrifices were executed at specific seasonal junctures. Magic, both black and white, flourished and the faith is largely built upon components of fear and ignorance.

The established legend has it that young prince Siddhartha Gautama was identified as the ‘Buddha’ by an itinerant wise man, sometime around 500 BC. No tests of any kind were administered, as has been the tradition in discovering the Dalai Lama, the Buddhist spiritual center for Tibetans; purportedly, it was simply a case of the boy’s destiny being foretold from an impression made. No matter the circumstances of Gautama’s ascent to the seat of founder of Buddhism, however, it is notable that his humanity has never been in dispute, as with the founders of other faiths. Touched by divinity or in some manner sharing in it, the Buddha was always acknowledged as, first and foremost, a human man.

Siddhartha Gautama’s teachings as the Buddha, or ‘enlightened one’, were in stark opposition to the prevalent modes of worship and resonated with a populace deeply dissatisfied with the Vedic codes. In an extraordinary parallel to the rise of Christianity, Buddha garnered an ever-increasing band of disciples and adherents through a steadfast condemnation of the current faith. He decried the priests as fraudulent and the sacrifices of animals as barbaric, and the timing of this was such as to perfectly coincide with an unfocused rebellion. The followers were, in a very real sense, ready for the Buddha just as he appeared to them.

For approximately forty-five years, the former prince wandered and spoke. Once again, the similarity to the accepted trajectories of Christ’s life is glaringly evident, for a great deal of Buddha’s exhortations were based upon identical creeds: “’Your suffering is my suffering and your happiness is my happiness,’ said the Buddha…for it is the nature of Buddhahood to be compassionate” (Kyonkai, 2004, p.11). Ultimately, in a period of time notorious for superstition and violent worship, a gradual shift towards self-denial and the dismissal of worldly pursuits was adopted as the only true means to salvation, and some centuries before such ideologies would take hold in the West.

With the spread of Buddhism came an inevitable divisions into sects, wherein certain aspects of its precepts were either most upheld or dismissed as unimportant. Then, the infusion of Buddhist thought into other nations created unique variations born from the people embracing it. Tibetan Buddhism is commonly thought to apply also to Mongolian worship, as well as regions of Russia and China, and is marked by a more introspective philosophy. While the Theravada and Mahayana ‘schools’ of Buddhism remain the largest divisional groupings, there is enormous variety within these, and a sampling of practiced faiths with Buddhism include Zen, Tantric, Yogacara, Newar, Amido, and Japanese Shinto. Each is characterized, again, by varying degrees of adherence to certain Buddhist principles. There sects are not static, as well, and evolving themes and doctrines are manifested today.

There is, not surprisingly, some dispute as to the size of the world’s Buddhist population. Some surveys place it as the fourth largest organized religion, trailing behind Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, while others number its followers at approximately four hundred million, rendering it Christianity’s greatest rival. No matter the exact standing, it is indisputable that Buddhism in all its various forms and sects is a cornerstone of global spiritual life, and has been such for thousands of years.

Western Buddhism

As has been mentioned, this originally Eastern theology has slowly and steadily made a substantial imprint in Western cultures, a process strikingly at variance with more ordinary cultural exchanges. As with any increasing, popular embracing of a foreign creed, as with the taking root of a new faith in its own soil, an evident lack in the prevalent modes of spirituality must be at least partially responsible.

This is more easily identified in the United States. Traditionally a predominantly Christian nation, modern life has bred a dissatisfaction with standard worship. It is estimated that roughly six million Americans now practice Buddhism, and the number is growing. “The transmission of Buddhism into America is an epoch-making undertaking….It has taken on fascinatingly different shapes as it has adapted to different cultures, and this process is repeating itself as Buddhism moves west and enters the United States” (Seager, 1999, p.12).

The question arises: why? What conditions in America have led to a turning to of so ancient and fundamentally Eastern a form of worship? Not unexpectedly, the great surge of interest in Buddhism in the US was most apparent in the 1960’s, when unrest and rebellion were running high. As standardized religion was viewed as constricting as governmental practices, it was largely dismissed as inadequate to meet the needs of a changing, young nation. Buddhism  was not a studied and carefully chosen alternative to the various forms of Christianity then in force; it was rather seen as intrinsically more promising because it seemed to esteem values abandoned in modern American culture. In particular, American consumerism and devotion to material goods was despicable to US youth, and Buddhism offered, at least ostensibly, a simplicity deeply attractive to those seeking something new. It is ironic that this very yearning for a novel approach to faith would lead so many Americans to a religion ancient before the advent of Christ.

Personal Impact

In order to gain a more exact appreciation of Buddhism’s personal impact on a person, I visited a Buddhist shrine, at ————–, on ————. After observing rituals of the worship and a number of the people attending, I presented myself to one and asked permission to inquire about her faith.

The individual I selected was a young woman, in her early twenties, and this was deliberate; I felt that a younger Buddhist would be less likely to refer to accepted doctrine, and more prone to honest reflection on how this spirituality merged with her life. Moreover, I chose a  non-Asian. As with the age factor, I felt that Buddhism as the more likely choice it would be in this instance would provide a greater objectivity, if not level of interest, from this person.

We spoke for approximately ten minutes, during which time I believe I received sincere and thoughtful responses to my inquiries. What follows are the key elements in our discourse.

To begin, I asked the young woman if she was born into Buddhism or if she had adopted it as a life choice. The latter was the case, as I had suspected. I asked her what her previous religious experience had been, and she replied that there had been virtually none. That is to say, her family had long been of the Protestant faith but had not been religiously active. They did not attend services, and religious holidays were celebrated as they often are in America; that is, with no real connection to the underlying faith, and more as a traditional event.

I then inquired as to what prompted this turning to Buddhism, and she was vocal and candid in her answer. She confessed to having had no actual knowledge of Buddhism prior to first visiting a shrine. Her only exposure to it had been through the limited and usually inaccurate presentations in media. Yet this was sufficient, she asserted, to encourage her to explore it. She then read online literature and ordered several books on Buddhism, and she found that the spiritual essence of the faith coincided with what she perceived her own needs to be.

When I asked if she would be more specific, the young woman volunteered that she had long been contemplating a vegetarian lifestyle, as the slaughter of animals was repugnant to her. She felt that Buddhist principles regarding all life as sacred reinforced this as a desirable way of living. So much was this issue a deciding factor with her, in fact, that she had examined Christian precepts for comparison purposes and came away unhappy with – as she expressed it – the Christian precept that man has the authority to rule over all other life forms. There was an arrogance in what she took from Christian doctrine that appalled her, and she devoutly wanted to enter into a faith with a more expansive conception of life as a whole.

I then asked her if there had been any resistance in her life from family or friends, and she replied that there was a good deal of skepticism, but no real objection. Buddhism, as she phrased it, was too well-known to be regarded as some sort of dangerous cult. Moreover, her family believed it was merely a ‘phase’, something she would grow out of, and friends were largely uninterested. In what I felt to be a remarkable show of insight, she attributed this to the low-key quality of a Buddhist existence. It does not broadcast itself, nor does it seek to proselytize. This element was also keenly attractive to her.

Did she believe that Buddhism provided her with missing answers? Again, the young woman was both thoughtful and honest. She was by no means sure, she said, nor was she willing to claim that Buddhism would be her faith in years to come. She felt that it was revealing options to her, and not answers. She felt empowered by the openness of the philosophies, whereas traditional Christian ethics were to her closed pathways. This, she stressed, was its greatest appeal for her, the sense that her choices and her destiny were in her own hands, and that there was no subjugation she could fall under without her own consent. This included following along in popular modes of living wherein animals are needlessly consumed, and she mentioned again how Buddhism had fully enabled her to embrace vegetarianism.

Lastly, I asked the young lady if she believed in the story of Siddhartha and the origins of Buddhism as accepted throughout the world. At this, she was uncertain, but her over-all feeling was this it was of no great importance. She pointed to the apocryphal and often conflicting reports of the life of Jesus Christ. Did any of that matter, she asked, if the teachings are good?

I came away from this interview with a pleasing example of how an ancient and, in this case, foreign belief system could have a simple and wholesome effect on a young person’s outlook. The young woman was clearly intelligent and not easily swayed by trend thinking. Moreover, while her actual knowledge of the complex history and doctrinal precepts of Buddhism was clearly elementary, this did not seem detrimental in any way. Religion must fundamentally assist each person in finding a means to be ‘good’; that is, a non-harmful element of society, one that benefits from and wishes to share in well-being. By that criterion, Buddhism was serving its purpose quite well in the young lady’s life.

The Temple

Both during and prior to my speaking with the young woman, I took in the aesthetic attributes of the temple itself. As with a Roman Catholic church or any other house of worship, the space must reflect in tangible form the ideologies and keystones of the faith.

To Western eyes the interior of a Buddhist temple is an unusual sight. While Western houses of worship are typically marked by a sparseness of décor, it is the Roman Catholic church we associate with grandeur on a physical scale. Traditionally, and based upon the wealth of the area, Catholic churches are often supremely ornate and built on a scale to convey divine mystery and majesty.

The Buddhist temple, however, while grandiose, is very different. The interior is heavily gilded and ornate, but not in a Western manner. That is to say, there is a decidedly Byzantine luxuriance in the decorations, with highly complex patterns wrought in mosaics and altar embellishments. Even the colors appear to be different; Catholic churches rely heavily on deep hues of red and blue, while the temple makes a uniformly golden/orange impression.

Moreover, it felt to me that there was an intent in the Buddhist design aesthetic. Serenity is the object, despite the intricate artisan work. Everything appears to be there to induce a reflective state of inner calm, while I feel that the typical Catholic church pursues more an impressive effect. It encourages prayer but the spaces do not fail to remind the adherent that he is in a sense below the divinity he worships. The temple draws in the Buddhist, to me, while the church serves to impress and inspire awed respect.

Two ‘Giants’

To do justice through comparison, Buddhism should be set aside a faith of equal stature, in regard to numbers of adherents and historical import. To that end, Roman Catholicism is virtually ideal. Both antithetical to Buddhism and akin in many basic precepts, it is the other ‘giant’, the Western monarch of ancient faith.

As with Buddhism itself, the sheer scope of Roman Catholic influence and history is such that only the most cursory view can be made here. Although younger than Buddhism by hundreds of thousands of years, it is nonetheless the bedrock of Western spirituality and the source, often unwillingly so, of myriad faiths born from opposition to it.

If any single thing characterizes how Roman Catholicism has influenced the world, it is power. Vast numbers of Catholics are in fact unaware of this historically potent link, despite scholarly and popular evidence of the extraordinary machinations within, and practiced by, the faith. No matter the original seeds of Catholicism and their humble ideologies, economics and politics were the ruling forces within the church for many centuries and are still, it is widely believed, in full effect today. Popes went to war, and were forced into hiding. Papal elections were notoriously rigged and schisms existed wherein at one time three popes claimed sole authority. “We have seen that the pope in the course of time became…a secular prince, and that he claimed supremacy over kings and emperors” (Colby, 1899, p.283).

This temporal wielding of power cannot be overstated, as it unalterably and drastically changed the face of the Roman Catholic church over time. It was in essence a reverse pattern to Buddhist doctrines and practices; the latter disdained involvement in non-spiritual matters, seeing them as wholly unimportant to the issues with which men should concern themselves. The Catholic church, however, saw the acquisition of power and authority as pivotal to its primary business of salvation in the name of Christ. Common men and women, it was determined, could not properly seek God on their own, and only through maintained and temporally applied mandates would they follow the right path.

Both monolithic faiths espouse denial of self and the attendance upon the needs of others as their core creeds. Roman Catholicism went about it, however, in a ruthlessly mercenary  fashion, establishing a hierarchy that could not be breached, while Buddhism sought to divest itself of any structural impediments. The great rise of Protestantism in the 16^th century was a final and vehement ‘protest’ against the church, and against a spiritual leadership that actually condemned the lay person’s reading of the Bible.

It is difficult for the modern Catholic, particularly in the face of church scandal so publicized in recent years, to realize how closed and implacably powerful the church was. Inextricably interwoven with the great dynasties of Europe and for literally thousands of years, no political agenda of any consequence occurred without either its sanction or overt participation.  As regards the impact of Rome in history, there is little need to go further than the legendary and world-shaking dispute between Henry VIII of England and Pope Clement VII. Henry’s simple desire for an annulment from his wife led to England’s break with Rome and a massive, if unintended, rise in Lutheranism and Protestantism in England and on the continent. This is well known, but lesser realized is that the chief considerations, certainly from the papacy’s point of view, were financial. In losing England, Clement lost an enormous source of funds for the Church of Rome.

When we review the history of Buddhism, we see no such global power upheavals. Buddhism’s impact on the political life of Asia has been far more of an ideological one. This has of course led to war and massive confrontation over the centuries; ambitious political figures of non-Buddhist leanings were not eager to welcome so powerful a cultural influence they could not control, and Buddhist leaders have on many occasions gone to war, to spread the faith. In this, Buddhism is linked to the Roman Catholic crusades of the 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th centuries. In both instances, in both Buddhist and Catholic ideologies, it was considered appropriate to engage in violence for the greater good of promoting the faith.

Ultimately, however, any real comparison of the two faiths reveals a great disparity in both practice and insemination. As the Roman church treasured and fiercely protected its written teachings, Buddhism repudiated all writing and favored a solely oral means of instruction, a doctrine most devoutly held by the Tibetan sects today. In this we see an apparent disinterest in ‘possession’ in Buddhism, as opposed to the well-documented relationship between ownership and ecclesiastical authority of the Roman Catholic church.

Conclusion

When observing the life of Buddhism from its origins on, one particular element stands out, or rather two: resilience and mobility. Strong enough as a faith to be amended to suit the aims of a certain nation or ethnicity, the core of Buddhism remains intact. Moreover, it has accomplished something Christian faiths have striven for, for many years: an implanting of itself in foreign shores.

In today’s world, wherein religion of any kind is in serious disfavor, Buddhism steadily holds its ground and gains new adherents. It may have been inevitable, in fact, that Western societies, so inundated with consumerist opportunities, would reach a satiation point and seek a more elemental mode of belief. With increased possession comes increased worry, and the Buddhist doctrines of self-abnegation and genuine exploration into the individual sole and purpose of the life being lived, become extraordinarily attractive.

Buddhism must thrive, ultimately, because of what it is not.  As a faith utterly unconcerned with acquisition and granting it no status of any kind, it is accessible to everyone. As a reminder of the time-honored knowledge that self-interest does not lead to happiness, it expresses a truth which lies within any seeker of faith. Buddhism provides the quintessential religious answer, in that it asserts that the answers are only within the seeker of them.

References

Colby, F. M.  Outlines of General History (1899). New York, NY: American Book Company.

Kyonkai, B. D.  The Teachings of Buddha  (2004). New Delhi, India: Sterling Publishers.

Seager, R.H.  Buddhism in America (1999). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.