[Buddha-l] MARYSVILLE: American Buddhism facinggenerationalshift

[Katherine Masis]

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/generational-108402-shift-american.html
 
Getting back to the actual article tied to the link, I have some doubts about the viability of "contemplative Buddhism" versus "ethnic Buddhism" in the West in the younger generations.  I can vouch for Ryo Imamura's obseration that western converts to Buddhism join Dharma centers as individual seekers of a spiritual practice.  Asian Buddhists, on the other hand, are part of family- and community-oriented temples.  When I was part of a zen center with about 200 members (including its affiliate sites), I was struck by the fact that there were only three married couples and only two sets of siblings who were practicing members.  Spouses, children and sometimes siblings and parents of practicing members were invited (I would say "dragged") to put in cameo appearances at the zen center's ceremonies a couple of times a year, but that was it.  To my knowledge, most of the baby-boomer western Buddhist teachers' children--now grown--do not belong to
 any Buddhist center as regular practicing members.  Perhaps they lack the fervor of their parents' conversion.  Since I haven't been hanging out at Dharma centers too much for the last 10 years or so, maybe things have changed, but the last time I went to an event down here in Costa Rica (about 2 or 3 years ago), most of us attendees were in our fifty-somethings and older.  It's the mappo.
 
Katherine Masis
San Jose, Costa Rica