[Buddha-l] Western Buddhism

[curt]

Dan Lusthaus wrote:
> The question it is asking -- which I think is an extremely
> legitimate question, and one which I have raised for many years -- is the
> question of transmittability. Is the sort of "Western Buddhism" that has
> enjoyed some popularity in recent decades capable of any staying power, or
> will it disappear with the present, aging generation, that has been
> embracing -- the article claims -- not so much Buddhism per se, as that term
> applies historically to Budddhists of the last 2500 years, but to an
> experiment in the name of an imagined Buddhism ....

I think a longer historical view helps to put things into perspective. 
This has been going on for at least 200 years, as Westerners have 
"looked to the East" in order to fill the void in our souls.

I would suggest the following periodization for Western Buddhism:

Transcendentalist Buddhism     
1. no self identified western Buddhists
2. interest in buddhism among scholars and writers - usually "well 
heeled" (Thoreau a notable exception)
3. little if any differentiation between Hinduism and Buddhism
4. Buddhism is not especially associated with Occult ideas
5. Buddhism associated vaguely with "new" ideas in a positive way    
6. very little if any first hand knowledge of Asia or Asians among 
Westerners - and vice-versa
7. Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Emerson (1803-1882), Thoreau (1817-1862)

Esoteric/Orientalist Buddhism        
1. first self-identified western Buddhists
2. these are well educated and rich, mostly
3. beginning to differentiate Buddhism and Hinduism
4. Buddhism closely associated with Occult
5. Buddhism associated with "progressive", pacifist and even socialistic 
ideas
6. a few Western pioneers travels to Asia, and a few Asian pioneers 
travel to the West
7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Annie Besant (1847-1933), 
Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969), Alan Bennett (1872-1923), Hermann 
Hesse (1877-1962)

Countercultural Buddhism    
1. significant increase in numbers of self-identified Buddhists in the West
2. these are mostly young middle class kids ("beatniks" and then "hippies")
3. more differentiation between Buddhism and Hinduism
4. Buddhism beginning to be differentiated from Occult
5. Buddhism still associated with "liberal" or even "radical" ideas in a 
very general way by way of the counterculture, but there is also a split 
between a certain type of hippie who was very interested in political 
activism and "turned off" by religion (John Lennon) and other hippies 
who were interested in religion and "turned off" by politics (George 
Harrison)
6. Many Asian teachers come to the west and large numbers of Westerners 
travel to Asia
7. Ruth Fuller Sasaki (1892-1967), Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983), Alan 
Watts (1915-1973), Sangharakshita (1925 - ), Alan Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Middle-Class, Middle-Aged Buddhism        
1. increase in number of Buddhists levels off dramatically
2. Western Buddhist population aging - and becoming more clearly and 
self-consciously middle-class (they get jobs, get married, have kids, 
buy houses - stuff like that).
3. increasing differentiation among different types and schools of Buddhism
4. Buddhism becomes more clearly differentiated from the Occult - but 
simultaneously becomes increasingly conflated with new-age self-help blather
5. Western Buddhists become more conservative while simultaneously 
becoming more "politically correct": an age of "revelations", scandals, 
investigations and ethics committees
6. Westerners begin to become Buddhist teachers in their own right
7. Harrison Ford (65), Richard Gere (58), Uma Thurman's father (66), 
Stephen Batchelor (54), Jerry Brown (69), Phil Jackson (62)

Curt Steinmetz