[Buddha-l] Question for academic teachers of Buddhism

[Jackhat1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/25/2008 11:49:28 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
rhayes at unm.edu writes:

Not  being an anthropologist, I am not in a position to comment much on
Asian  Buddhists in general. My own observations have been of people who
are quite  committed to a full Buddhist practice, with a big emphasis on
service (what  Hindus call karma yoga), social and political involvement
and personal  meditation. But that's the sort of person I tend to seek
out and find. They  may be no more representative of Asian Buddhist
culture as a whole than a  Quaker is of Western Christian culture as a
whole.
===
It has been my experience that in any large US city most ethnic Buddhists  
and western born Buddhists do not practice the same or together. The dividing  
line seems to be whether they meditate or not. For instance, here in the 
Chicago  area, Thich Nhat Hanh has a large following of ethnic Buddhists who meet  
regularly, follow the practice they grew up with and do not meditate.  There is 
also a large local western born contingent of Thich Nhat Hanh  Buddhists that 
meet regularly and meditation is an essential part of their  practice. The 
Thai, Korean Zen and Japanese Zen Buddhist communities  are also split along the 
same lines. While there are exceptions, I believe  this is the same across 
the country.
 
A Buddhist monk once told me that only 10% of Buddhist monks meditate. I  
don't know where he got this information or whether it is true. However, among  
the small sample of monks I have met, less than 50% of them meditate.
 
Jack



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