MODERN BUDDHISM | Facts and Details

BUDDHISM TODAY

Perry Garfinkel wrote in National Geographic: “Around the globe today there is a new Buddhism. Its philosophies are being applied to mental and physical health therapies and to political and environmental reforms. Athletes use it to sharpen their game. It helps corporate executives handle stress better. Police arm themselves with it to defuse volatile situations. Chronic pain sufferers apply it as a coping salve. This contemporary relevance is triggering a renaissance of Buddhism — even in countries like India, where it had nearly vanished, and in China, where it has been suppressed. [Source: Perry Garfinkel, National Geographic, December 2005]

Buddhism is no longer just for monks or Westerners with disposable time and income to dabble in things Eastern. Christians and Jews practice it. African Americans meditate alongside Japanese Americans. In the U.S. alone, some experts estimate, there are roughly three million practicing Buddhists. And according to a 2004 study, more than 25 million Americans believe that Buddhist teachings have had an important influence on their spirituality.

Some like the complex rituals of Tibetan and Japanese Zen Buddhisms, others seem to prefer the simplicity of Southeast Asia's Theravada Buddhism. From that tradition, I practice vipassana, "insight" or "mindfulness" meditation. This has not brought me enlightenment — yet — but it has helped bring into sharper focus some of the questions I grapple with: Who am I? Why am I here? How can I achieve lasting happiness?

Websites and Resources on Buddhism: Buddha Net buddhanet.net/e-learning/basic-guide ; Internet Sacred Texts Archive sacred-texts.com/bud/index ; Introduction to Buddhism webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/buddhaintro ; Early Buddhist texts, translations, and parallels, SuttaCentral suttacentral.net ; East Asian Buddhist Studies: A Reference Guide, UCLA web.archive.org ; View on Buddhism viewonbuddhism.org ; Tricycle: The Buddhist Review tricycle.org ; BBC - Religion: Buddhism bbc.co.uk/religion

Buddhists in The West

Of the Buddhists that live outside of Asia about 4 million live in the U.S. And Canada, making up about one percent of the populations there, and around 2 million live in Europe,The number of American Buddhists more than doubled between 1990 and 2001 to 1.08 million according to the U.S. Census and the subscription of the American Buddhism magazine doubled between 1993 and 1996. Millions more have at least a casual interest in the religion.

Buddhists in the West today tend to be educated members of the middle to upper class. They generally have modernist views and see some aspects of traditional Asian Buddhism such as rites for the dead, veneration of relics and practices intended to create merit as "superstitious". In an adaption to these groups — as well as by many in Asia — more emphasis is placed on lay practice rather than monkdom, leading to the establishment of "meditation centers" rather than monasteries. [Source: A. S. Rosso,; Jones, C. B. New Catholic Encyclopedia,Encyclopedia.com]

Buddhism and the Modern World

The abbot at Shaolin temple in China, famous for its kung-fu monks, said commercialism doesn't necessarily clash with or contradict Buddhism. “What is a pagoda. It is like an ancient billboard," he told the Los Angeles Times. “Buddhist statues to are a form of advertising. If we don't advertise, nobody would know about us."

Dalai Lama told the Washington Post, ‘science and Buddhism are very similar because they are exploring the nature of reality, and both have the goal to lessen the suffering of mankind." Matthieu Ricardo, a French-born monk with a Ph.D. in molecular biology, told the New York Times, “Buddhism is, like science, based on experience and investigation, not on dogma...The Buddha always said that one should not accept his teachings simply out of respect for him, but rediscover their truth through our own experience." Some Buddhist however have little interest in investigating nature and science because they feel that these things were ultimately illusions.

In the 2000s, in the United States, Target sold Buddha fountains for $349 and Pier 1 Imports sold stone Buddhas for between $20 and $125. Some object to the use of Buddha heads as doorstops and bookends. Victoria's Secret stop selling Buddha print bathing suits after international protests. Some have argued that Buddha message about suffering is very relevant in the poor areas of the Third World.

In Thailand, Thailand have placed the entire 2,500-year-old, 16,000-page Tipitaka in the ancient Pali language on CD ROM. The project was completed by 600 monks in 12 years. Names, prayers and scriptures can be searched with a click of a mouse. Tibetan monks have placed important speeches of the Dalai Lama on the Internet. In Japan, Buddhist monks perform an ancient fire ceremony on the Internet. In South Korea, monks in have their own cable channel. In China, they pay tens of thousands of dollars for air time.

Spread of Buddhism in Modern Times

Jacob Kinnard wrote in the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices:Buddhists have never been particularly zealous in spreading their religion. Rather, Buddhist ideals have historically been imported and incorporated into indigenous practices, such as the integration of Buddhism with Taoism and Confucianism in China or the integration of Buddhism and the indigenous Bon tradition in Tibet. This has meant, in practice, that Buddhism has typically grown and spread through would-be converts coming to the religion rather than the religion actively seeking them out. [Source: Jacob Kinnard, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, 2018, A. S. Rosso,; Jones, C. B. New Catholic Encyclopedia,Encyclopedia.com]

Buddhism arrived in Europe and America in two different ways. First, there have been communities of immigrants into the United States, Australia, and the countries of Europe who have brought Buddhism with them and established communities aimed at their needs. Second, there have been westerners who have converted to Buddhism. The immigration of Asians to Europe and North America increased dramatically after World War II. These immigrants gradually set up temples in their adopted countries, and frequently curious non-Asians were drawn in. Furthermore, because temples were often begun by lay Buddhists, new and expanded roles for the laity emerged.

In Asia, also, many popular new movements have emerged during this same period. The lay movement Soka Gakkai International, which began in Japan but has spread throughout the world, adopts the teachings of the thirteenth-century Zen teacher Nichiren and focuses on a kind of practical self-transformation through chanting. In Sri Lanka the Sarvodaya movement has expanded Buddhist membership by focusing on practical, village-oriented development projects with a decidedly Buddhist orientation. In Thailand the Dhammakaya movement, founded by a laywoman, has become enormously popular. And in India there has been a resurgence of Buddhism among the untouchable population since the public conversion of the first president of India, A.K. Ambedkar, in 1956 (there are now some 6 million Ambedkar, or Dalit, Buddhists in India).

Buddhism Becomes Known in the West

It was not until the nineteenth century that Buddhism became well-known and understood in the West. Philosophers, such as the German Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), helped to bring the religion before the public. Schopenhauer's writings popularized the Buddhist idea of ending desire as a cure for emotional pain. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]

Buddhism took root in small communities in England and also spread to the United States, where the arrival of Chinese laborers helped to popularize the religion. American writers such as Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), and the New England transcendentalists, who believed in the unity of all nature, were also influenced by Buddhist principles.

Another milestone in popularizing Buddhism was the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Here speakers such as Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933), Soyen Shaku (1860-1919) and D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) helped introduce Theravada and Zen to the United States. Several of them remained in America after the close of the Parliament and continued missionary activities in many major cities. Dharmapala opened the American chapter of the Maha Bodhi Society in 1897.

Pure Land Buddhism, a form of Mahayana Buddhism, found a significant following in the United States. One of the most prominent subbranches of the Mahayana tradition, Pure Land Buddhism focuses on the figure of Amida Buddha, who was believed to have formed the “Pure Land” once he achieved buddhahood.. Scholars often point to the strong similarities between its teachings and aspects of Christianity.

Beat Zen and Engaged Buddhism

Following World War II, interest in Buddhism grew in the West. Zen Buddhism became particularly popular in the United States during the 1950s. As U.S. servicemen returned from war in Japan and in Korea, they sometimes brought with them an interest in Asian culture, including Zen. The writings of scholar D. T. Suzuki and the work of philosopher Alan Watts (1915–1973) on Zen Buddhism found an audience among people seeking answers to questions about life.[Source: Encyclopedia.com]

As interest in Zen increased in the United States, it was absorbed into popular culture. Though sometimes criticized for promoting a superficial form of Zen, figures such as Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), Gary Snyder (b. 1930), and Alan Watts developed what is commonly referred to as “Beat Zen.” Focusing on Rinzai Zen, which stresses sudden enlightenment, this form of Buddhism gained a following in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States with its ideals of liberation and freedom and implicit excoriation of materialism and consumerism of American society.

Tibetan Buddhism has become another very popular form of Buddhism in the United States. The Tibetan Book of the Dead was read in the 1960s and 70s and the Dalai Lama later became a celebrity, filling stadiums during his speaking tours. Engaged Buddhism (sometimes referred to as Socially Engaged Buddhism) became big in the 1990s and 2000s. It was popularized to a large degree by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022). This movement was in part a reaction to a perceived passivity of Buddhism and attempting to harness it to tackle various social and ecological ills.

Shaolin Temple and Its Commericialization

Shaolin Temple lies in a valley just over the Song Mountains. Peter Gwin wrote in National Geographic, “Shaolin Temple has helped foster an undeniable kung fu renaissance, which has coincided with China's own resurgence as an international power... Tour buses disgorge their daily load of visitors at the Shaolin Temple. They come from all over the People's Republic---uniformed soldiers on leave, businessmen on junkets, retirees on package holidays, young couples leading wide-eyed children kicking and chopping the air with exuberant expectation. [Source: Peter Gwin, National Geographic March 2011]

“Here, the popular myth holds, is where a fifth-century Indian mystic taught a series of exercises, or forms, that mimicked animal movements to the monks at the newly established Shaolin Temple. The monks adapted the forms for self-defense and later modified them for warfare. Their descendants honed these "martial arts" and over the next 14 centuries used them in countless battles---opposing despots, putting down rebellions, and fending off invaders. Many of these feats are noted on stone tablets in the temple and embellished in novels dating back to the Ming dynasty.

These days “temple officials seem more interested in building the Shaolin brand than in restoring its soul. Over the past decade Shi Yongxin, the 45-year-old abbot, has built an international business empire---including touring kung fu troupes, film and TV projects, an online store selling Shaolin-brand tea and soap---and franchised Shaolin temples abroad, including one planned in Australia that will be attached to a golf resort. Furthermore, many of the men manning the temple's numerous cash registers---men with shaved heads and wearing monks' robes---admit they're not monks but employees paid to look the part. [Source: Peter Gwin, National Geographic March 2011]

Buddha Boy in Nepal

Reporting from Bara, Nepal, Raekha Prasad wrote in the Times of London: ‘some closed their eyes and clasped their hands in prayer, others knelt and touched their foreheads to the cool earth beneath a canopy of trees deep in the forest of southern Nepal. By early morning hundreds of people had already reached this hidden spot at the end of a mist-shrouded mud track. All had come to see the teenage boy they believe to be a reincarnation of Buddha, sitting silently beneath a peepul tree. [Source: Raekha Prasad, The Times, December 5, 2005]

‘since word spread that Ram Bahadur Bamjan, the 16-year-old son of a maize farmer in a nearby village, has not eaten or drunk in the six months that he has been meditating in the lotus position, tens of thousands of devotees from across Nepal and India have flocked to Char Koshe jungle to worship him. The teenager sat in an alcove of exposed peepul roots. His closed eyes were framed by a messy mop of hair, and a brown robe draped over one shoulder exposed his right arm and hand. [Ibid]

“Having heard that early morning was the time to witness light emanating from the boy’s brow and hand, the pilgrims had set off before dawn to walk miles over a rocky path before removing their shoes and shuffling in a snaking crowd to a fence strewn with marigolds, candles and burning incense. Around the enclosure, local people touted picture postcards, booklets and CDs telling the story of the boy’s life. Makeshift food and tea stalls run by villagers had sprung up. Allowed no closer to Ram Bamjan than 50 metres after concerns that the huge crowds were disturbing his concentration, the devotees stood on tip-toe, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the distant figure. “I saw a reddish-yellow light on his forehead. A few minutes later I saw it on his hand. It’s real. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dhanbaha Durgurung, 60, a retired Gurkha in the British Army, said. He had made the ten-hour journey from his home in Pokhara, in central Nepal, after hearing a BBC radio report about the boy. “I had to see it for myself,” he said. “I believe he’s the reincarnation of Buddha. I’m going to come back in a week and bring my whole family.” The spectacle resembles an episode in the life of Buddha, who found enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago after 49 days under a peepul tree. He was born only 257km (160 miles) from Bara in 540BC.

In the nearby village of Ratanpur, Maya Devi, 50, the mother of Ram Bamjan, said that her son had changed after spending almost two years in Buddhist monasteries in India, including Bodh Gaya, the spot in the state of Bihar where Buddha gained enlightenment. “He had always been a loner, but when he returned from India he just stayed at home and would chant and study Buddhist scripts,” she said, opening a cupboard in her son’s sparse bedroom that was filled with his red, satin-bound religious books.

Maya Devi was sad to see the sixth of her nine children go. He did not tell his family that he planned to live in the forest and crept out during the night to avoid being followed. She said: “I didn’t want him to stay away from home at night in the jungle. It’s a dangerous place. If he had not been called there by God, he would not have survived for so long.” Villagers say that last month Ram shook off the effects of a poisonous snake bite. He apparently told an older brother that he did not want to be followed into the forest and that he was not a Buddha. He said: “I’ve got my education directly from God, but what I’ve learnt I’m not revealing now. I need six years of meditation.”

Local officials have asked scientific and religious bodies in Nepal to investigate whether the claims about the boy are true. In particular they want to know what happens when a curtain screens the boy from observers at night. There have been suggestions that the boy is part of a plot by left-wing guerrillas to collect money from gullible villagers, but officials are hampered by a group of minders who refuse to allow anyone to disturb him. Santa Raj Subedi, the chief government official in Bara, said: “The strength of religious belief means our hands are tied. We can’t just march in and interfere. Besides, being able to meditate is a human right. We can’t stop anyone doing it.” Maya Devi is undecided about whether her son is the reincarnation of Buddha. “He’s certainly extraordinary,” she said. “But I’ll wait until after his six years of meditation to decide whether he’s a god.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: East Asia History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu , “Topics in Japanese Cultural History” by Gregory Smits, Penn State University figal-sensei.org, Asia for Educators, Columbia University; Asia Society Museum “The Essence of Buddhism” Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius, 1922, Project Gutenberg, Virtual Library Sri Lanka; “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World's Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); “Encyclopedia of the World Cultures: Volume 5 East and Southeast Asia” edited by Paul Hockings (G.K. Hall & Company, New York, 1993); BBC, Wikipedia, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024