[Buddha-l] Buddhist Charities (was Will new the pope verify Buddhist doctrine?)

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Fri, 2005-04-22 at 11:17 -0400, Peter D. Junger wrote:

> I think that it is hardly surprising that there are few if any 
> extensive charities established by Western Buddhist organizations, 
> if only because there are few well-off Western Buddhist organizations.

All of the Buddhist organizations I have been associated with have been
made up of individual members who were very much involved in various
social actions, political causes and charitable work. Most of them seem
to see such work as integral to their Buddhist practice, but few of them
go out and do this work in any way that makes it obvious that they are
Buddhist. At the level of the organization itself, most outfits I have
know do a lot of work at the neighborhood level but not much by way of
donating huge amounts of money. I guess if someone knew nothing about
Wetern Buddhist organizations, they might get the impression that
Western Buddhists don't do much but meditate and shave their heads, but
I think that would be a serious misperception.

> Buddhists who want to endow hospitals or professorships or soup-kitchens
> or give funds for tsunami relief are not likely to do so in the name of 
> Buddhism

Similarly, I have found that Buddhists who work to abolish the death
penalty, or to campaign for better health care, or to work towards
nuclear disarmament, or to bring down local global empires and overthrow
despotic right-wing governments rarely does these things in the name of
Buddhism. But they do these things all the same. Or so I have seen.
(And, uh, so have I sometimes done.)

> I doubt if there are any statistics on the relative wealth and the
> relative charitable donations of Buddhists.

I don't know of any, unless James Cole gathered such statistics. He did
some research at one point and discovered that Western Buddhists tend to
be highly educated professionals, not as a rule terribly affluent but
fairly comfortable, and significantly left of center. (Of course, to be
left of center in the USA all you have to do is believe there should be
a government-run postal service and that taxation is not theft.)


-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico