[Buddha-l] Western Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Tuesday 13 November 2007 11:53, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> Another question: How many who identify themselves, in whole or in part, as
> Buddhists, have raised their children "Buddhist," and of those children,
> how many are enthusiastic practitioners of Buddhism today?

Interesting question. When my children were young, I took every precaution to 
conceal from them that I was a Buddhist. It's difficult for me to recall 
exactly why I thought that was a such good idea, but I think I thought of 
Buddhism as an oddball thing for a Western person to be associated with, and 
I wanted my kids to be weird in their own chosen way, not in a way chosen for 
them by their parents. 

My guess is that the attitude I just described was pretty common among 
Buddhists of my age (which keeps changing but is currently 62 and rising).

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico