Abstract

In this research we try to discover the insight of “Buddhist people and Buddhism” in a holistic perspective. The key heart of the study is on “Buddhism” and its relation with “America”. The research also examines various characteristics of “Buddhism” and tries to measure its effect. Lastly the research illustrates a variety of factors which are responsible for “Buddhism in America” and tries to describe the overall effect of it.

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion and Analysis1

First Arrivals2

The Early Convert Experience2

Meeting of the Religious Minds3

Developments in the Ethnic Communities4

Postwar Growth among Converts5

Changes in the Mahayana Ethnic Community6

Tibetan Buddhism Comes to America8

Another Late Arrival8

Conclusion9

American Buddhist

Introduction

The two cultural strains of American Buddhism—ethnic and convert—began to develop in the United States at about the same time. In 1849, the first Chinese immigrants reached California looking for work and wealth during the Gold Rush. By then, several native-born American writers and thinkers were exploring Asian religious teachings, including Buddhism. These writers did not actually convert to Buddhism, but they made the first attempts to reflect Buddhist ideas in American intellectual life, and they influenced future generations of writers.

For both convert and ethnic Buddhists, the turn of the 19th century saw a growing Buddhist presence in the United States—but one still beyond the recognition of most Americans. Asian Buddhist communities were centered in certain neighborhoods in large cities—"Chinatowns" or "Japan towns" that were not the tourist attractions they often are today. There, the immigrants and their descendants set up the first Buddhist temples. Outside of these communities, Buddhism was largely known only to scholars and the handful of American religious seekers who embraced the dharma (Jones, Mircea and Charles, Pp 8374).



Discussion and Analysis

The list of American Buddhists who have self-consciously adapted their tradition to American soil is much longer. One leading advocate for "Americanizing" Buddhism is Philip Kapleau. Drawn to Zen by a D. T. Suzuki lecture in 1951, Kapleau moved to Japan in 1953 to study Zen. He returned to the United States in 1966 and established in Rochester, New York, the Zen Meditation Center. Noting that Zen was "Japanized" when it moved from China to Japan, Kapleau has worked eagerly and self-consciously to "Americanize" Zen by urging his students, for example, to chant Buddhist sutras in English and to wear comfortable Western clothes during sitting meditation (American Buddhism's Racial Divide, N.A).

First Arrivals

The first Asian Buddhists in the United States were Chinese immigrants. Just five years after the first Chinese reached California, the state had more than 13,000 Chinese residents, and by 1870 the total number in the United States, mostly in the West, was more than 66,000. (Many of these later immigrants came to build railroads (Storhoff and Bridge, 76).

The first Buddhist temples appeared in San Francisco in the early 1850s, built by Chinese merchant organizations formed to address the social and economic needs of their community. The Buddhism practiced in these temples often combined elements of other Chinese religions. Practitioners also freely mixed different strains of Mahayana teaching. As Chinese Buddhists spread throughout the West, ...