Growing Up Buddhist in America: A Study

Differences in geography can have a profound effect on the way world religions are both practiced and treated by people who are not believers of that religion, and nowhere is this more apparent than having to grow up as a Buddhist in America. Growing up as a Buddhist in America is difficult for anyone simply by virtue of the sheer lack of Buddhists in America. In fact, it is estimated that only about 0.7% of Americans are Buddhist; although this number tends to vary between surveys, it is usually never more than about 6 million total Americans (Hadley 2). This is compared to the approximately 70% who equate themselves with some form of Christianity (Hadley 3). It is easy to see from these statistics why Buddhists are oftentimes alienated within the country, not because of some sort of predetermined hatred for Buddhists, but simply because of numbers, or lack thereof. This does not mean that those who wish to practice Chinese Buddhism will have an extremely difficult time finding people to relate to. Recent surveys have shown that about 12% of Americans report that Buddhism has some sort of spiritual impact on their daily lives (Hadley 3). Another upside is that between 1990 and 2001, Buddhism grew by 170% (Hadley 13). This means that, while growing up as a Buddhist can be challenging, these challenges are not entirely insurmountable, thanks to the efforts of like-minded Americans.

Buddhism is probably relatively rare in America because it requires more commitment than many other religions. Since Buddhism is a religion about banishing negative feelings like ignorance and unhappiness from the body, it has many rituals that must be undertaken to achieve this end. For example, five precepts that act as training rules to help Buddhists live a better life include refraining from violence against other life forms, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and even drugs and alcohol (Seager 12-14). While many practicing Buddhists do not abide by all of these rules, they do help to serve as a general guideline for the lifestyle that Buddhists must take. It is a very strict religion, and one that is commonly misrepresented merely as a sort of passive way of life. Although it is certainly that too, many people fail to understand just how much work and dedication it takes to practice Buddhism, and, for this reason, it is not a popular religion in America.

There are a number of challenges for those who choose to practice Buddhism in America, especially those who immigrated from other countries. The main problem for them is that there are certain American forms of Buddhism that are not often seen in most of the rest of the world. In fact, Pure Land Buddhism, whose central belief is that there is a heavenly environment where one can be reborn and achieve enlightenment, is rarely practiced in America at all (Hadley 11). This makes even finding Buddhists of the same exact belief as another a challenging affair. Another challenge, quite simply, is that America is not a Buddhist nation. It was founded by Christians on Christian values, and these values largely remain today, even as Christianity appears to be waning in the United States. This means that Buddhism is simply not as accepted as it would be in other, more Buddhist nations like Vietnam. These differences in religion can have an effect on cultural behavior as well. For example, most Buddhists believe in a cycle of rebirth, each as a different life form, in order to balance out acts done in the previous life, until total balance is reached. Thus, many Buddhists will be doing generally kind things in support of this goal. In contrast, Christians believe in an afterlife if they follow the teachings of God. While this does not mean Christians will not do good or kind things, these things are generally limited to what their God would want them to do, and thus, there are oftentimes differences in Buddhist and Christian systems of ethics, which, of course, is problematic when trying to grow up as a Buddhist in America. Finally, there is the problem of a lack of places to worship as a Buddhist. Obviously there are many churches in America, and many towns and cities consist largely of Christians, but there are very few, if any, Buddhist cities in America. This is both a blessing and a curse, as it means fewer places to worship and practice one's religion, but it is a blessing in that it brings many Buddhists together from a general area and allows for a much wider scope of Buddhists than there would be ordinarily, which helps to forge social bonds with fellow Buddhists.

The key to successfully practicing Buddhism in America is to find common ground with both other Americans and other practicing Buddhists. While it should be easy to find common ground with fellow Buddhists, doing so with Americans might be tricky. However, there are a few Buddhists concepts that are practiced unconsciously by many Americans. For example, karma is a Buddhist concept, although it is commonly misused by non-Buddhists as a sort of "divine justice" for others, it is more internal than that. It basically mandates that all beings are in a continual cycle of good deeds, "kusala," and bad deeds "akusala" (Seager 16). While frequently misinterpreted, the concept of karma is common among Americans, and is a useful tool for getting them to understand Buddhism better, as it gives them something they can relate to. Another example of this is yoga. This is another Buddhist concept that has been Americanized. While often a method of exercise within America, yoga, in Buddhism, is a time of meditation and absorption of one's environment and thoughts. Through yoga, Buddhists will frequently have visions, awakenings, or spiritual awareness that only develops through yoga. These are rare, and are difficult to achieve through normal means. This does give Buddhists another way to adapt their religion to non-Buddhists. That is, it gives Buddhists some common ground on which Americans can relate to them, and makes the experience of growing up as a Buddhist in America much easier. There is one way that Buddhists can relate with one another and make growing up as a Buddhist much easier. This involves finding Buddhists who are not necessarily the same exact type of Buddhist, but who came into the religion the same way. To this end, there are Cradle Buddhists, who are born into the religion, Convert Buddhists, who have converted to Buddhism from another religion, Night Stand Buddhists, who prefer to practice Buddhists by reading how-to books about mediation before they sleep, and then, when they awake, practice what they learned the night before (Hadley 12). There are two, less intense types of Buddhist, who might be easier to relate to for those who are new to the religion. These are Sympathizers, who show some interest in Buddhism, but are not full-blown Buddhists yet (Hadley 12). For instance, they may practice some Buddhist rituals, such as sitting practice, or read Buddhist books, or simply attend lectures concerning Buddhism at their local University (Hadley 12). Lastly, there are Lukewarm Buddhists, who simply practice more at one time than another (Hadley 12). One easy way to assimilate oneself with these last two groups is to blend in with their schedules. For example, for Lukewarm Buddhists, practicing at the same time as they, so that one may be able to learn at the same pace as another. For Sympathizers, it would be easy to simply read the same passages as another Sympathizer, and then discuss the passage the next day. This helps to ease one into the religion and form bonds of camaraderie with fellow soft-core Buddhists.

One demographic has helped to make growing up as a Buddhist easier for all Buddhists, and that demographic is Americans who go to heavily Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka and China and return with that religion and integrate it into America (Cadge 10). This not only helps to bring more Buddhism into America, but also creates a sort of bridge between Americans, especially Christians, who might be intimidated by native Buddhists, and native Buddhists, who might originally have trouble fitting in and relating with normal, Christian Americans. This concept is known as "social remittance," and oftentimes comes as a result of someone finding that they are missing something in their life, and set out on a journey of self-discovery to find it (Cadge 10). Once they do, they bring these positive experiences back into America. In addition, Cadge writes that religions in America are becoming increasingly influenced by ideas and these social remittances that move across national borders (Cadge 10). The example he lists is Buddhists texts that are now being sold widely in America, prompting a greater amount of education about Buddhism, and an overall greater feeling of acceptance. The goal here is not total saturation of America with Buddhism, but to integrate the ideas of Buddhism into the minds of Americans so that they are more tolerant of Buddhists. This is not the fault of non-Buddhists, nor the Buddhists themselves. It is simply a complex religion that focuses largely on the self and achieving inner harmony, which is a difficult concept to explain on a religious scale.

Growing up as a Buddhist in America remains a difficult proposition, but, thankfully, there are cultural and religious changes underway in America that make the acceptance of other religions, especially Buddhism, much easier for most people. The growth of education about Buddhism, especially through the relatively recent medium of the internet, only helps this cause further. While there are still many challenges for those who are currently growing up as a Buddhist, such as a lack of places of worship, and a general lack of understanding of the religion, being able to find common ground between Buddhist and non-Buddhist (such as via yoga, the concept of karma, etc.) make understanding one another much easier. The goal here is acceptance, and education and understanding are the surest methods to achieve that goal.

Works Cited

Cadge, Wendy. Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America. University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Hadley, Barbara. "The Growth of Buddhism in America." Unity Institute, 2011,http://av.unityonline.org/institute/2011Lyceum/Hadley.pdf.

Seager, Richard H. Buddhism in America. Columbia University Press, 1999