[Buddha-l] U.S. Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 14:25 -0400, Curt Steinmetz wrote:

> 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.

Not only is this the most appealing approach, it is really the only one
that makes any sense at all. Of course, it makes the sort of thing Jack
was interested in knowing almost impossible to do, because quite a few
people are self-identified Buddhists without any particular affiliation
and without preference for any one style of Buddhism. The
"cafeteria-style" approach to religion in general that prevails in the
Americas (as it has almost always prevailed in sensible parts of the
world, such as Asia) also prevails within Buddhism. Few people that I
know would want to consider themselves Theravada or Zen to the exclusion
of other yanas or vadas or yadayadas.

An alternative methodology might be to define a Buddhist as anyone born
of a Jewish mother who eats brown rice and tofu and prays without
rocking back and forth.

> 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.

This is such a benighted and delusional notion that I strongly advise
that you seek another teacher immediately. Sounds as though you have
fallen into the grasp of the Antibuddha! A moment's reflection would
show that if your teacher is right, then there is not now and never
could be a Buddhist culture. Sariputta, Mogallana and Ananda could not
possible be Buddhists by that criterion, and if none of the first
generation were Buddhists, then none of their disciples could have grown
up in a Buddhist culture, and so on ad infinitum. Every age would be the
age of mappo. (But wait a minute. Every age IS the age of mappo,
n'est-ce pas?)

> 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%.

What do you mean by "we", white man?

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico