Buddhism

Buddhism in America Interest in and practice of BUDDHISM in the Western Hemisphere. This entry concentrates on Buddhism in the United States. Buddhism was already in the United States in the 19th century (1800s). On the East Coast some educated Americans of European descent showed an interest in it. They included the "New England transcendentalists," a group of writers who gathered around Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) in the 1830s and 1840s. More serious were the interests of a Russian noblewoman, Helena P. Blavatsky (1831–91), and an American, Henry S. Olcott (1832–1907). In 1875 they founded the Theosophical Society in New York. Later they traveled to south Asia and took Buddhist vows. During the late 19th century Buddhism also appeared on the West Coast. There it was not associated with an intellectual elite. Rather, immigrants from east Asia who came to the West Coast and the island of Hawaii brought Buddhism with them. The Chinese fi rst came to California in the heady days of the Gold Rush (1848–49). Japanese began coming to the West Coast at the end of the 19th century. Among the Buddhist traditions that the Japanese brought was a school very popular in Japan: the True Pure Land school (see PURE LAND BUDDHISM). Its adherents rely solely upon the power of the Buddha AMIDA to be reborn in the Pure Land after death. True Pure Land Buddhists formed the Buddhist Church of America. It grew into a major institution. During the 1960s two other schools of Buddhism took root in American soil. NICHIREN Buddhism attracted many non-Asian adherents. It honors the Japanese "prophet" Nichiren (1222–82) as the BUDDHA for the present age and teaches its followers to chant a phrase known as the Daimoku: Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (Hail to the LOTUS SUTRA). In 1991 the community split. The branch known as Nichiren Shoshu preserves the tradition of Buddhist monks and maintains temples in Chicago, Hawaii, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The other group, known as Soka Gakkai, has no monks. Its members, led by lay leaders, gather at community centers spread widely across the United States. During the 1960s a different group of immigrants also brought Buddhism to the United States. In the previous decade, China had annexed Tibet and closed down its monasteries. Many monks fl ed into exile. Their leader, the DALAI LAMA, occasionally visited the United States. He became highly visible, especially after he won the Nobel Prize for peace in 1989. Among his better known followers was the movie actor, Richard Gere. Some Tibetan monks established monasteries and Buddhist schools in the United States. A good example is the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, founded by the Tibetan monk Chogyam Trungpa. The Tibetan monks saw the United States as an opportunity to teach the Buddhist DHARMA in a foreign land. Other Buddhist groups did, too. One of the most important of these was the school known as Zen (see ZEN BUDDHISM). It has attracted a large number of non-Asian followers in the United States. Indeed, it has broadly infl uenced American culture. American awareness of Zen dates from the World's Parliament of Religion held in Chicago in 1893. Among the religious fi gures who attended the parliament was a Japanese Zen master, Shaku Soen. Later, the books of a lay follower of Soen, D. T. Suzuki, helped popularize Zen in the United States and around the world. In the 1950s Zen attracted the attention of the Beat poets. By the 1970s Americans of non-Asian descent had been certifi ed as Zen masters. By the end of the century Zen MEDITATION centers were common in many parts of the United States. Zen has become a feature of the American consciousness. Good examples are Robert Pirsig's novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) and a World-Wide-Web site hosted by America Online in 1996 called "Zen and the Internet." Such titles show the extent to which Zen has fascinated Americans. These uses of the word "Zen," however, have little or nothing to do with the practice of Buddhism.