[Buddha-l] U.S. Buddhism

[Curt Steinmetz]

For me the most appealing methodological approach is the 
"phenomenological" one - which, if I understand correctly, is to count 
anyone who self-identifies as a Buddhist - as a Buddhist. I think that 
has the advantage of being very straightforward and objective (from the 
standpoint of whoever is doing the counting). Obviously all survey data 
is based on this methodology. But it presents a very sticky problem for 
me personally, since my teacher insists that he is not a Buddhist! He 
says that only someone born and raised in a Buddhist culture should be 
counted as a Buddhist. Ugh.

The Pew Foundation stats ("US Religious Landscape Survey") are 
interesting - according to them Buddhism, at 0.7%, is now the third 
largest religion in the US right after Christianity  and Judaism. We 
just narrowly beat out Islam, which came in at 0.6%.

Curt

Franz Metcalf wrote:
> Jack et al.,
>
> Thanks, Curt, for the data and links. The number of "Buddhists" in the  
> US (or anywhere, for that matter) is notoriously difficult to  
> calculate, since the standard of what defines a person as a Buddhist  
> is under debate. Thurman's 1990s estimate was almost certainly too  
> high at the time he gave it, but might be close now. As you can see  
> from Curt's post, others put the number at one half or even one  
> quarter of Thurman's estimate. In my latest conversation on this with  
> Charles Prebish--who's spent the better part of his scholarly career  
> in the study of American Buddhism--he told me six million Buddhists  
> was as good a guess as any.
>
> Let me add that Gary Gach raises good points, as well. There are  
> plenty of people applying Buddhist wisdom to their lives or practicing  
> Buddhist meditation techniques, whether they think of them that way or  
> not. Should these people be counted? Conversely, there are plenty of  
> people (Tom Tweed calls them "nightstand Buddhists") who do think of  
> themselves as Buddhist but who never join a sangha or do much if any  
> practice. Should they be counted? And, to be more strict, should  
> anyone be counted who's not taken the refuges? And really, the only  
> people in the original definition of the sangha were the noble ones,  
> the arhats. Makes me wonder if there are any Buddhists left at all.
>
> Franz
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