Buddhism in the United States

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The term American Buddhism can be used to describe all Buddhist groups within the United States, including Asian-American Buddhists born into the faith, who comprise the largest percentage of Buddhists in the country.

American Buddhists come from a range of

Hawaii has the largest Buddhist population by percentage, amounting to 8% of the state's population. California follows Hawaii with 2%. Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming have a Buddhist population of 1%.^[5]

The Buddhist population rapidly increased in the 1960s with the change in Asian immigration law to the United States. By the 1980's, multiple Buddhist communities began to sprout throughout the country.^[6]

The following is the percentage of Buddhists in the U.S. territories as of 2010:

Territory	Percent
American Samoa	0.3%
Northern Mariana Islands	10.6%
Guam	1.1%
Puerto Rico	<1%
US Virgin Islands	unknown

Three broad types of American Buddhism are found in the United States:^[7]

1. The oldest and largest of these is "immigrant" or "ethnic Buddhism", those Buddhist traditions that came to America with immigrants who were already practitioners and that largely remained with those immigrants and their descendants.
2. The next oldest and arguably the most visible group Prebish refers to as "import Buddhists", because they came to America largely in response to interested American converts who sought them out, either by going abroad or by supporting foreign teachers; this is sometimes also called "elite Buddhism" because its practitioners, especially early ones, tended to come from social elites.
3. A trend in Buddhism is "export" or "evangelical Buddhist" groups based in another country who actively recruit members in the US from various backgrounds. Modern Buddhism is not just an American phenomenon.

This typology has been the subject of debate among scholars who have noted the problematic nature of equating "ethnic" Buddhists with Asian immigrants which elides the ethnicity or cultural specificity of white American Buddhists.^[8][9][10]

Buddhism was introduced into the US by Asian immigrants in the 19th century, when significant numbers of immigrants from

.

Immigrant Buddhist congregations in North America are as diverse as the different peoples of Asian Buddhist extraction who settled there. The US is home to

-practicing countries of Southeast Asia.

Chinese immigration

The first

.

The

to take up residence in the continental U.S. were Shuye Sonoda and Kakuryo Nishimjima, missionaries from Japan who arrived in 1899.

Contemporary Immigrant Buddhism

Japanese Buddhism

The

. However, since 1980, BCA membership declined. The 36 temples in the state of Hawaii of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission have a similar history.

While a majority of the Buddhist Churches of America's membership are ethnically Japanese, some members have non-Asian backgrounds. Thus, it has limited aspects of export Buddhism. As involvement by its ethnic community declined, internal discussions advocated attracting the broader public.

Taiwanese Buddhism

Another US Buddhist institution is Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California. Hsi Lai is the American headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, a modern Buddhist group in Taiwan. Hsi Lai was built in 1988 at a cost of $10 million and is often described as the largest Buddhist temple in the Western hemisphere. Although it caters primarily to Chinese Americans, it also has regular services and outreach programs in English.^{[citation needed]}

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While Asian immigrants were arriving, some American intellectuals examined Buddhism, based primarily on information from British colonies in India and East Asia.

In the last century, numbers of Asian Buddhist masters and teachers have immigrated to the U.S. in order to propagate their beliefs and practices. Most have belonged to three major Buddhist traditions or cultures: Zen, Tibetan, and Theravadan.

The Englishmen

Theosophical Society

An early American to publicly convert to Buddhism was

. Olcott authored a Buddhist Catechism, stating his view of the basic tenets of the religion.

Several publications increased knowledge of Buddhism in 19th-century America. In 1879,

, expounded with much wealth of local color and not a little felicity of versification. The book became immensely popular in the United States, going through eighty editions and selling more than 500,000 copies.

Early spread

In 1887, The Buddhist Ray appeared, a Santa Cruz, California-based magazine published and edited by Phillangi Dasa, born Herman Carl (or Carl Herman) Veetering (or Vettering), a recluse about whom little is known. The Ray's tone was "ironic, light, saucy, self-assured ... one-hundred-percent American Buddhist".^[24] It ceased publication in 1894.

In 1893, the Parliament of the World's Religions hosted a number of Buddhist delegates, including the Zen master Soyen Shaku and the Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala.^[25] Shaku contrasted the idea of karma as a principle of causality with the "Prime Mover" nature of the Christian God, while Dharmapala challenged the idea of Christianity as a "universal religion" by comparing it to the more ancient and "universal" teachings of the Buddha.^[26]

In 1900 six white San Franciscans, working with Japanese Jodo Shinshu missionaries, established the Dharma Sangha of Buddha and published a bimonthly magazine, The Light of Dharma. In Illinois, Paul Carus wrote more books about Buddhism and set portions of Buddhist scripture to Western classical music.

By 1970, most all sects of Asian Buddhism were present in America. Don Morreale's 1988 catalogue of Buddhist America: Centers, Retreats, Practices had 350 pages of listings.^[27]

One American who attempted to establish an American Buddhist movement was Dwight Goddard (1861–1939). Goddard was a Christian missionary to China when he first came in contact with Buddhism. In 1928, he spent a year living at a Zen monastery in Japan. In 1934, he founded "The Followers of Buddha, an American Brotherhood", with the goal of applying the traditional monastic structure of Buddhism more strictly than Senzaki and Sokei-an. The group was largely unsuccessful: no Americans were recruited to join as monks and attempts failed to attract a Chinese

Zen

Zen was introduced to the United States by Japanese priests who were sent to serve local immigrant groups. A small group also came to study the American culture and way of life.

In 1893,

Shaku was followed by Nyogen Senzaki, a young monk from Shaku's home temple in Japan. Senzaki briefly worked for the Russells and then as a hotel porter, manager and eventually, owner. In 1922 Senzaki rented a hall and gave an English talk on a paper by Shaku; his periodic talks at different locations became known as the "floating zendo". Senzaki established an itinerant sitting hall from San Francisco to Los Angeles in California, where he taught until his death in 1958.^[29]

Sokatsu Shaku, one of Shaku's senior students, arrived in late 1906, founding a Zen meditation center called

.

D.T. Suzuki

Main article:

D.T. Suzuki

D.T. Suzuki had a great literary impact. Through English language essays and books, such as Essays in Zen Buddhism (1927), he became a visible expositor of Zen Buddhism and its unofficial ambassador to Western readers. In 1951,

, where his open lectures attracted members of the literary, artistic, and cultural elite.

Beat Zen

In the mid-1950s, writers associated with the Beat Generation took a serious interest in Zen,^[30] including Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Kenneth Rexroth, which increased its visibility. Prior to that, Philip Whalen had interest as early as 1946, and D. T. Suzuki began lecturing on Buddhism at Columbia in 1950.^[31][32] By 1958, anticipating Kerouac's publication of The Dharma Bums by three months, Time magazine said, "Zen Buddhism is growing more chic by the minute."^[32][33]

Contemporary

.

In 1998 Sherry Chayat, born in Brooklyn, became the first American woman to receive transmission in the Rinzai school of Buddhism.^[34][35]

In the 1930s Soyu Matsuoka-roshi was sent to America by Sōtōshū, to establish the Sōtō Zen tradition in the United States. He established the Chicago Buddhist Temple in 1949. Matsuoka-roshi also served as superintendent and abbot of the Long Beach Zen Buddhist Temple and Zen Center. He relocated from Chicago to establish a temple at Long Beach in 1971 after leaving the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago to his dharma heir Kongo Richard Langlois, Roshi. He returned to Chicago in 1995, where he died in 1998.

Tozen Akiyama

Ordained in 1974 in Japan by Tosui Ohta, came to the United States in 1983, initially posted to Zenshuji in Los Angeles. In 1985 he became the abbot of Milwaukee Zen Center, which he led and developed until 2000. He has three dharma heirs:

Jisho Warner

in California, abiding teacher of Stone Creek Zen Center; Tonen Sara O'Connor in Wisconsin, former head priest of Milwaukee Zen Center; and Toshu Neatrour in Idaho.

White Plum Sangha

Main article:

White Plum Sangha

Sanbo Kyodan

.

Philip Kapleau

Sanbo Kyodan's first American member was Philip Kapleau, who first traveled to Japan in 1945 as a court reporter for the war crimes trials. In 1953, he returned to Japan, where he met with

, who left Rochester in 1981 to found a nonsectarian meditation center, not specifically Buddhist or Zen.

Robert Aitken

Robert Aitken was introduced to Zen as a prisoner in Japan during World War II. After returning to the United States, he studied with Nyogen Senzaki in

, Aitken's first Dharma successor, continues as an independent Zen line.

There are also Zen teachers of Chinese Chán, Korean Seon, and Vietnamese Thien.

In 1962, Hsuan Hua moved to San Francisco's Chinatown, where, in addition to Zen, he taught Chinese Pure Land, Tiantai, Vinaya, and Vajrayana Buddhism. Initially, his students were mostly westerners, but he eventually attracted a range of followers.

Sheng-yen first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the

Korean Seon

Seung Sahn

in 2002

. The Kwan Um School has more than 100 Zen centers on six continents.

Another Korean Zen teacher,

, along with a retreat center in Upstate New York.

Hye Am[42] (1884–1985) brought lineage Dharma to the United States. Hye Am's Dharma successor, Myo Vong^[43] founded the Western Son Academy (1976), and his Korean disciple, Pohwa Sunim, founded World Zen Fellowship (1994) which includes various Zen centers in the United States, such as the Potomac Zen Sangha, the Patriarchal Zen Society and the Baltimore Zen Center.^[44]

Recently, Korean Buddhist monks have come to the United States to spread the Dharma. They are establishing temples and zen (Korean, 'Seon') centers all around the United States. For example, Hyeonho established the Goryosah Temple in Los Angeles in 1979, and Muil Woohak founded the Budzen Center in New York.

Vietnamese Zen (

and taught traditional Thiền meditation.

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Tibetan Buddhism

Perhaps the most widely visible Buddhist leader in the world is

.

The Dalai Lama's family has strong ties to America. His brother

, where he later founded the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and Kumbum Chamtse Ling Temple. Since the death of the Takster Rinpoche it has served as a Kumbum of the West, with the current Arija Rinpochere serving as its leader.

Dilowa Gegen (Diluu Khudagt) was the first lama to immigrate to the United States in 1949 as a political refugee and joined Owen Lattimore's Mongolia Project. He was born in Tudevtei, Zavkhan, Mongolia and was one of the leading figures in declaration of independence of Mongolia. He was exiled from Mongolia, the reason remains unrevealed to this day. After arriving in the US, he joined Johns Hopkins University and founded a monastery in New Jersey.

The first Tibetan Buddhist lama to have American students was

, in 1969.

A well known Tibetan Buddhist lama to live in the United States was

There are four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism: the Gelug, the

In the 21st century, the

.

The

.

In January 2014, the Abbey, which then had seven bhikshunis and three novices, formally began its first winter

In 2006, Geshe Thupten Dorjee, educated at Drepung Loseling Monastery, and poet Sidney Burris founded the Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas, which began offering two weekly meditation courses and bringing monks and scholars to give lectures to the community at large.^[59] In 2008, the TEXT (Tibetans in Exile Today) Program at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville began an oral history project to help archive the stories of Tibetans currently living in exile in India.^[60] In June 2011, a month after the Dalai Lama visited, TCIA received a donation to build a retreat center and stupa near Crosses, Arkansas.^[61]

In 2010 the first Tibetan Buddhist

Theravada

Theravada is best known for

and Vipassana is rooted in the Theravada teachings, but its goal is to simplify ritual and other peripheral activities in order to make meditative practice more effective and available both to monks and to laypeople.

American Theravada Buddhists

In 1965, monks from

, the first Theravada monastic community in the United States. The Vihara was accessible to English-speakers with Vipassana meditation part of its activities. However, the direct influence of the Vipassana movement would not reach the U.S. until a group of Americans returned there in the early 1970s after studying with Vipassana masters in Asia.

as Abbot) and Jetavana Temple Forest Monastery.

Goldstein and Kornfield met in 1974 while teaching at the

.

In 1989, the Insight Meditation Center established the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies near the IMS headquarters, to promote scholarly investigation of Buddhism. Its first director was Mu Soeng, a former Korean Zen monk.^[69]

In the early 1990s,

In 1997 Dhamma Cetiya Vihara in Boston[72] was founded by Ven. Gotami of Thailand, then a 10 precept nun. Ven. Gotami received full ordination in 2000, at which time her dwelling became America's first Theravada Buddhist bhikkhuni vihara. "Vihara" translates as monastery or nunnery, and may be both dwelling and community center where one or more bhikkhus or bhikkhunis offer teachings on Buddhist scriptures, conduct traditional ceremonies, teach meditation, offer counseling and other community services, receive alms, and reside. More recently established Theravada bhikkhuni viharas include: Mahapajapati Monastery^[73] where several nuns (bhikkhunis and novices) live together in the desert of southern California near Joshua Tree, founded by Ven. Gunasari Bhikkhuni of Burma in 2008; Aranya Bodhi Hermitage^[74] founded by Ven. Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni in the forest near Jenner, CA, with Ven. Sobhana Bhikkhuni as Prioress, which opened officially in July 2010, where several bhikkhunis reside together along with trainees and lay supporters; and Sati Saraniya^[75] in Ontario, founded by Ven. Medhanandi in appx 2009, where two bhikkhunis reside. In 2009 Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery in the Sierra Foothills of California was created by Ayya Anandabodhi and Ayya Santacitta. (There are also quiet residences of individual bhikkhunis where they may receive visitors and give teachings, such as the residence of Ven. Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni^[76] in 2009–2010 in Colorado Springs; and the Los Angeles residence of Ven. Susila Bhikkhuni; and the residence of Ven. Wimala Bhikkhuni in the mid-west.)

In 2010, in Northern California, four novice nuns were given the full

Bhante Gunaratana is currently the abbot of the Bhavana Society, a

S. N. Goenka

S. N. Goenka was a Burmese-born meditation teacher of the Vipassana movement. His teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma, was a contemporary of Māhāsi Sayādaw's, and taught a style of Buddhism with similar emphasis on simplicity and accessibility to laypeople. Goenka established a method of instruction popular in Asia and throughout the world. In 1981, he established the Vipassana Research Institute in Igatpuri, India, and his students built several centers in North America.^[80]

The Association of American Buddhists was a group which promotes Buddhism through publications, ordination of monks, and classes.^[81]

Organized in 1960 by American practitioners of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism, it does not espouse any particular school or schools of Buddhism. It respects all Buddhist traditions as equal, and encourages unity of Buddhism in thought and practice. It states that a different, American, form of Buddhism is possible, and that the cultural forms attached to the older schools of Buddhism need not necessarily be followed by westerners.

Rita M. Gross, a feminist religious scholar, claims that multiple people converted to Buddhism in the 1960s and 1970s as an attempt to combat traditional American values. However, in their conversion, they have created a new form of Buddhism distinctly Western in thought and practice.^[82] Democratization and the rise of women in leadership positions have been among the most influential characteristics of American Buddhism. However, another one of these characteristics is rationalism, which has allowed Buddhists to come to terms with the scientific and technological advances of the 21st century. Engagement in social issues, such as global warming, domestic violence, poverty and discrimination, has also shaped Buddhism in America. Privatization of ritual practices into home life has embodied Buddhism in America. The idea of living in the "present life" rather than focusing on the future or the past is also another characteristic of American Buddhism.^[83]

American Buddhism was able to embed these new religious ideals into such a historically rich religious tradition and culture due to the high conversion rate in the late 20th century. Three important factors led to this conversion in America: the importance of religion, societal openness, and spirituality. American culture places a large emphasis on having a personal religious identity as a spiritual and ethical foundation. During the 1960s and onward, society also became more open to other religious practices outside of Protestantism, allowing more people to explore Buddhism. People also became more interested in spiritual and experiential religion rather than the traditional institutional religions of the time.^[83]

The mass conversion of the 60s and 70s was also occurring alongside the second-wave feminist movement. While some of the women who became Buddhists at this time were drawn to its "gender neutral" teachings, in reality Buddhism is a traditionally patriarchal religion.^[84] These two conflicting ideas caused "uneasiness" with American Buddhist women.^[84] This uneasiness was further justified after 1983, when some male Buddhist teachers were exposed as "sexual adventurers and abusers of power."^[85] This spurred action among women in the American Buddhist community. After much dialogue within the community, including a series of conferences entitled "The Feminine in Buddhism", Sandy Boucher, a feminist-Buddhist teacher, interviewed over one hundred Buddhist women.^[84] She determined from their experiences and her own that American Buddhism has "the possibility for the creation of a religion fully inclusive of women's realities, in which women hold both institutional and spiritual leadership."^[85]

In recent years, there is a strong presence of women in American Buddhism, and a number of women are even in leadership roles.^[86] This also may be due to the fact that American Buddhism tends to stress democratization over the traditional hierarchical structure of Buddhism in Asia.^[87] One study of Theravada Buddhist centers in the U.S., however, found that although men and women thought that Buddhist teachings were gender-blind, there were still distinct gender roles in the organization, including more male guest teachers and more women volunteering as cooks and cleaners.^[86]

In 1936, Sunya Gladys Pratt was ordained as a Buddhist minister in the Shin tradition in the Tacoma, Washington.^[88]

In 1976, Karuna Dharma became the first fully ordained female member of the Buddhist monastic community in the U.S.^[89]

In 1981, Ani

In 1988, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, an American woman formerly called Catharine Burroughs, became the first Western woman to be named a reincarnate lama.^[92]

In 1998, Sherry Chayat became the first American woman to receive transmission in the Rinzai school of Buddhism.^[93][34][35]

In 2002, Khenmo Drolma, an American woman, became the first bhikkhuni in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, traveling to Taiwan to be ordained.^[94] In 2004 she became the first westerner of either sex to be installed as an abbot in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, being installed as the abbot of the Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont (America's first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery) in 2004.^[95]

In 2003, Ayya Sudhamma Bhikkhuni became the first American-born woman to gain bhikkhuni ordination in the Theravada school in Sri Lanka.^[96][97][98]

In 2006, for the first time in American history, a Buddhist ordination was held where an American woman (Sister Khanti-Khema) took the

In 2010, the first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in America (Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont), offering novice ordination in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, was officially consecrated.[95]

In 2022, Terri Omori is appointed the first female president of the 12,000 member strong Buddhist Churches of America.^[100]

Socially engaged Buddhism has developed in Buddhism in the West. While some critics^[who?] assert the term is redundant, as it is mistaken to believe that Buddhism in the past has not affected and been affected by the surrounding society, others have suggested that Buddhism is sometimes seen as too passive toward public life. This is particularly true in the West, where almost all converts to Buddhism come to it outside of an existing family or community tradition. Engaged Buddhism is an attempt to apply Buddhist values to larger social problems, including war and environmental concerns. The term was coined by Thích Nhất Hạnh, during his years as a peace activist in Vietnam. The Buddhist Peace Fellowship was founded in 1978 by Robert Aitken, Anne Aitken, Nelson Foster, and others and received early assistance from Gary Snyder, Jack Kornfield, and Joanna Macy.^[101] Another engaged Buddhist group is the

In 2007, the American Buddhist scholar-monk, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, was invited to write an editorial essay for the Buddhist magazine Buddhadharma. In his essay, he called attention to the narrowly inward focus of American Buddhism, which has been pursued to the neglect of the active dimension of Buddhist compassion expressed through programs of social engagement. Several of Ven. Bodhi's students who read the essay felt a desire to follow up on his suggestions. After a few rounds of discussions, they resolved to form a Buddhist relief organization dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged in the developing world. At the initial meetings, seeking a point of focus, they decided to direct their relief efforts at the problem of global hunger, especially by supporting local efforts by those in developing countries to achieve self-sufficiency through improved food productivity. Contacts were made with leaders and members of other Buddhist communities in the greater New York area, and before long Buddhist Global Relief emerged as an inter-denominational organization comprising people of different Buddhist groups who share the vision of a Buddhism actively committed to the task of alleviating social and economic suffering.[103]

A number of groups and individuals have been implicated in scandals.^[104] Sandra Bell has analysed the scandals at Vajradhatu and the San Francisco Zen Center and concluded that these kinds of scandals are most likely to occur in organisations that are in transition between the pure forms of charismatic authority that brought them into being and more rational, corporate forms of organization". She also highlights the student-teacher dynamic and the significance of a spiritual leader in the West, where lay Buddhist are likely focused on practices such as meditation. This teacher must know the student to guide them through difficulties, and the student must be trusting and open with the teacher, this can be a powerful opportunity but also opens the door to potential issues.^[105]

Ford states that no one can express the "hurt and dismay" these events brought to each center, and that the centers have in a number of cases emerged stronger because they no longer depend on a "single charismatic leader".^[106]

Robert Sharf also mentions charisma from which institutional power is derived, and the need to balance charismatic authority with institutional authority.^[107] Elaborate analyses of these scandals are made by Stuart Lachs, who mentions the uncritical acceptance of religious narratives, such as lineages and dharma transmission, which aid in giving uncritical charismatic powers to teachers and leaders.^{[108][109][110][111][112]}

Following is a partial list from reliable sources, limited to the United States and by no means all-inclusive.

• In 1983, the
  Richard Baker.^[113]
• Taizan Maezumi slept with several of his students at the Zen Center of Los Angeles and he died of alcoholism.^[106][114]
• In 1988,
  Seung Sahn had sexual affairs with several of his students in the Kwan Um School of Zen.^[106]
• Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa openly had sexual relationships with numbers of female members of his sangha, and died of health complications from his quite public alcoholism.^[115]
• Trungpa's Dharma heir
  AIDS virus. Knowing himself to be infected, Tendzin had unprotected sex with at least two of his male students. One of them later died of AIDS.^[116]
• In 2010, Shasta Abbey abbot and successor to Houn Jiyu-Kennett Eko Little resigned and subsequently disrobed after admitting to forming a sexual relationship with one of the members of the lay congregation.^[117]
• In 2010, Eido Tai Shimano retired from the Zen Studies Society after admitting to sexual liaisons.^[115]
• In 2011 because of sexual misconduct, Dennis Merzel said he would disrobe as a Buddhist priest and resign as an elder of the White Plum Asanga.^[118]
• Several women have accused Joshu Sasaki of making sexual advances over the course of decades,^[119] and scandal struck the Cimarron Zen Center in Los Angeles.^[120][121]

This section needs expansion with: more schools of Buddhism. You can help by adding to it. (May 2012)

Definitions and policies may differ greatly between different schools or sects: for example, "many, perhaps most" Soto priests "see no distinction between ordination and Dharma transmission". Disagreement and misunderstanding exist on this point, among lay practitioners and Zen teachers alike.^[122]

James Ford writes,

[S]urprising numbers of people use the titles Zen teacher, master, roshi and sensei without any obvious connections to Zen [...] Often they obfuscate their Zen connections, raising the very real question whether they have any authentic relationship to the Zen world at all. In my studies I've run across literally dozens of such cases.^[123]

James Ford claims that about eighty percent of authentic teachers in the United States belong to the American Zen Teachers Association or the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and are listed on their websites. This can help a prospective student sort out who is a "normative stream" teacher from someone who is perhaps not, but of course twenty percent do not participate.^[123]

Accurate counts of Buddhists in the United States are difficult. Self-description has pitfalls. Because Buddhism is a cultural concept, individuals who self-describe as Buddhists may have little knowledge or commitment to Buddhism as a religion or practice; on the other hand, others may be deeply involved in meditation and committed to the

estimated there were 5 to 6 million Buddhists in America.

In a 2007

In 2008 the "Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Religious Landscape Survey" estimated American Buddhists at 0.7% of the American population. During the same year the

,

Scholars are unsure whether the reports are accurate, as Americans who might dabble in various forms of Buddhism may not identify themselves as Buddhist on a survey. That makes it difficult to quantify the number of Buddhists in the United States.[126]

Others argued, in 2012, that Buddhists made up 1 percent of the American population (about three million people).^[83] By the year 2050 Buddhism is projected to become the third largest major religious group in North America, after Christianity and Islam.^[128]

A sociological survey conducted in 1999 found that relative to the US population as a whole, Buddhist converts are proportionately more likely to be white, upper middle class, highly educated, and left-leaning in their political views. In terms of race, only 10% of survey respondents indicated they were a race other than white, a matter that has been cause of some concern among Buddhist leaders. Nearly a third of the respondents were college graduates, and more than half held advanced degrees. Politically, 60% identified themselves as

In 2015 a Pew Foundation survey found 67% of American Buddhists were raised in a religion other than Buddhism.[130] 61% said their spouse has a religion other than Buddhism.^[130] It also showed that one-third of Buddhists in America are of Asian descent, while the remaining three-fourths are converts to Buddhism.^[131] The survey was conducted only in English and Spanish, and may under-estimate Buddhist immigrants who speak Asian languages. A 2012 Pew study found Buddhism is practiced by 15% of surveyed Chinese Americans, 6% of Koreans, 25% of Japanese, 43% of Vietnamese and 1% of Filipinos.^[132]

Although the 2008 Pew Landscape Study suggested white Americans made up the majority of Buddhists in the United States,^[133] subsequent research has refuted this conclusion, first on the study's small data set, second on significant methodological errors, and third on subsequent research published by Pew in the 2012 survey of religious life of Asian Americans.^[134][135] Based on this latter study's data, Asian American Buddhists make up approximately 67–69% of all Buddhists in the United States.^{[136][137][138]}

Discussion about Buddhism in America has sometimes focused on the issue of the visible ethnic divide separating ethnic Buddhist congregations from import Buddhist groups.

almost all active Buddhist groups in America are either ethnic or import Buddhism based on the demographics of their membership. There is often limited contact between Buddhists of different ethnic groups.

However, the cultural divide should not necessarily be seen as pernicious. It is often argued that the differences between Buddhist groups arise benignly from the differing needs and interests of those involved. Convert Buddhists tend to be interested in meditation and philosophy, in some cases eschewing the trappings of religiosity altogether. On the other hand, for immigrants and their descendants, preserving tradition and maintaining a social framework assume a much greater relative importance, making their approach to religion naturally more conservative. Further, based on a survey of Asian-American Buddhists in San Francisco, "many Asian-American Buddhists view non-Asian Buddhism as still in a formative, experimental stage" and yet they believe that it "could eventually mature into a religious expression of exceptional quality".^[1]

Additional questions come from the demographics within import Buddhism. The majority of American converts practicing at Buddhist centers are white, often from Christian or Jewish backgrounds. Only Sōka Gakkai has attracted significant numbers of African-American or Latino members. A variety of ideas have been broached regarding the nature, causes, and significance of this racial uniformity. Journalist Clark Strand noted

…that it has tried to recruit [African-Americans] at all makes Sōka Gakkai International utterly unique in American Buddhism.^[141]

Strand, writing for Tricycle (an American Buddhist journal) in 2004, notes that SGI has specifically targeted African-Americans, Latinos and Asians, and other writers have noted that this approach has begun to spread, with Vipassana and Theravada retreats aimed at non-white practitioners led by a handful of specific teachers.^[142]

A question is the degree of importance ascribed to discrimination, which is suggested to be mostly unconscious, on the part of white converts toward potential minority converts.^[143] To some extent, the racial divide indicates a class divide, because convert Buddhists tend to be more educated.^[144] Among African American Buddhists who commented on the dynamics of the racial divide in convert Buddhism are Jan Willis and Charles R. Johnson.^[145]

A Pew study shows that Americans tend to be less biased towards Buddhists when compared to other religions, such as Christianity, to which 18% of people were biased, when only 14% were biased towards Buddhists. American Buddhists are often not raised as Buddhists, with 32% of American Buddhists being raised Protestant, and 22% being raised Catholic, which means that over half of the American Buddhists were converted at some point in time.^{[citation needed]} Also, Buddhism has had to adapt to America in order to garner more followers so that the concept would not seem so foreign, so they adopted "Catholic" words such as "worship" and "churches".^[146]

of Disembodied Poetics". Now Naropa University, the school offers accredited degrees in a number of subjects, many not directly related to Buddhism.

The University of the West is affiliated with Hsi Lai Temple and was previously Hsi Lai University. Soka University of America, in Aliso Viejo California, was founded by the Sōka Gakkai as a secular school committed to philosophic Buddhism. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is the site of Dharma Realm Buddhist University, a four-year college teaching courses primarily related to Buddhism but including some general-interest subjects. The Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California, in addition to offering a master's degree in Buddhist Studies acts as the ministerial training arm of the Buddhist Churches of America and is affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union. The school moved into the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley.

The first Buddhist

Juniper Foundation, founded in 2003, holds that Buddhist methods must become integrated into modern culture just as they were in other cultures.[150] Juniper Foundation calls its approach "Buddhist training for modern life"^[151] and it emphasizes meditation, balancing emotions, cultivating compassion and developing insight as four building blocks of Buddhist training.^[152]

• Buddhists in the United States military
• Bhikkhu Bodhi
• Pariyatti (bookstore), sole distributor of Buddhist Publication Society in North America
• Shambhala Publications
• Lion's Roar (magazine)
• Buddhism in the West
• Buddhism in Costa Rica
• Buddhism in Canada
• Index of Buddhism-related articles
• New religious movement
• Religion in the United States
• Secular Buddhism

Sources

• Ford, James Ishmael (2006). Zen Master Who?.
  ISBN 978-0-86171-509-1
  .
• King, Winston L. (1992), Theravada Meditation. The Buddhist Transformation of Yoga, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
• Koster, Frits (2009), Basisprincipes Vipassana-meditatie. Mindfulness als weg naar bevrijdend inzicht, Asoka
• Nyanaponika (1998), Het hart van boeddhistische meditatie (The heart of Buddhist Meditation), Asoka
• Prebish, Charles S. (1999). Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism and America. University of California Press.
  ISBN 978-0-520-21697-6
  .
• Seager, Richard Hughes (1999). Buddhism in America. Columbia University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-231-10868-3
  .

Further reading

• Lewis, James R. The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998.
  ISBN 1-57392-222-6
  .
• Prebish, Charles (2003). Buddhism – the American Experience. Journal of Buddhist Ethics Online Books, Inc.
  ISBN 0-9747055-0-0
  .
• Tweed, Thomas A. (2000). The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844–1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent. The University of North Carolina Press.
  ISBN 9780807849064
  .

External links

• "Surveying the Buddhist Landscape", article by Charles Prebish, from Lion's Roar
• "Global Buddhism: Developmental Periods, Regional Histories, and a New Analytical Perspective", article by Martin Baumann
• "Buddhism Comes to Main Street", article by Jan Nattier on UrbanDharma.org
• "Buddhist Studies and its Impact on Buddhism in Western Societies", article by Max Deeg
• "Shin Buddhism in the American Context", article by Dr. Alfred Bloom
• Chronology of the lives of important persons in the history of Zen in America, from Terebess Online