Buddhism in the West

The Indo-Greek king Menander (155-130 BCE) is the first Western historical figure documented to have converted to Buddhism.

Occasional intersections between Western civilization and the Buddhist world have been occurring for thousands of years. Perhaps the most significant of these began in 334 BCE, early in the history of Buddhism, when the Macedonian king Alexander the Great conquered much of Central Asia. The Seleucids and the successive Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms established an important Hellenistic influence in the area, which interacted with Buddhism, as exemplified by the emergence of Greco-Buddhist art. The conversion to Buddhism of the Indo-Greek king Menander (155-130 BCE) is described in Indian sources (the Milinda Panha), and echoed in Western ones (Plutarch).

Buddhism and Classical Greece

Main article: Greco-Buddhism

Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Græco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Buddhism, and in particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it was adopted by Central and Northeastern Asia from the 1st century CE, ultimately spreading to China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia.

Buddhism and the Roman World

Main article: Buddhism and the Roman world

Several instances of interaction between Buddhism and the Roman world are documented by Classical and early Christian writers. Roman historical accounts describe an embassy sent by the "Indian king Pandion (Pandya?), also named Porus," to Caesar Augustus around 13 CE. The embassy was travelling with a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members was a sramana who burned himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith. The event made a sensation and was described by Nicolaus of Damascus, who met the embassy at Antioch, and related by Strabo (XV,1,73 ^[1]) and Dio Cassius (liv, 9). A tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time of Plutarch, which bore the mention:

"ΖΑΡΜΑΝΟΧΗΓΑΣ ΙΝΔΟΣ ΑΠΟ ΒΑΡΓΟΣΗΣ"

("The sramana master from Barygaza in India")

These accounts at least indicate that Indian religious men (Sramanas, to which the Buddhists belonged, as opposed to Hindu Brahmanas) were circulating in the Levant during the time of Jesus.

Buddhism and Western Intellectuals

In the latter half of the 19th century, Buddhism (along with many other of the world's religions and philosophies) came to the attention of Western intellectuals. These included the pessimistic German philosopher Schopenhauer, who encountered Buddhism, and Eastern thought in general, after having devised a philosophical system of considerable compatibility; and the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who translated a Buddhist sutra from French into English.

The German Friedrich Nietzsche delivered praise to Buddhism in his 1895 work "The Anti-Christ" (exceptional in the case of this iconoclastic philosopher), taking care to exclude it from his condemnation of Christianity. He stated that "Buddhism is a hundred times more realistic than Christianity" (Nietzsche 2003:141), because unlike the dogmatic desire for a pleasurable afterlife through the avoidance of earthly sin, the Buddha's aims of non-suffering through adjustment of self were attainable in life. Nietzsche's own beliefs and his rare sympathy toward the Buddhist outlook have sparked various comparisons between the two philosophies.[2] It should be noted, however, that Nietzsche's expressed opinion of Buddhism - while distinct from Christianity - was that it too was a nihilism (that is, a movement contrary to life, to the will-to-power); while he praised Buddhism for its positivistic teachings, he concomitantly criticized the idea of non-suffering and the end of desire, both in relation to and apart from Buddhism. As Nietzsche himself writes:

"In my condemnation of Christianity I surely hope I do no injustice to a related religion with an even larger number of believers: I allude to Buddhism. Both are to be reckoned among the nihilistic religions - they are both décadence religions - but they are separated from each other in a very remarkable way..." (The Antichrist, 20) [3]

"Buddhism is a religion for the closing, over-wearied stages of civilization." (The Antichrist, 22)[4]

Western spiritual seekers were attracted to what they saw as the exotic and mystical tone of the Asian traditions, and created esoteric societies such as the Theosophical Society of H.P. Blavatsky. The Buddhist Society, London was founded by Theosophist Christmas Humphreys in 1924. At first Western Buddhology was hampered by poor translations (often translations of translations), but soon Western scholars such as Max Müller began to learn Asian languages and translate Asian texts. During the 20th century the German writer Hermann Hesse showed great interest in Eastern religions, writing a book entitled Siddhartha. American beat generation poet Jack Kerouac became a well-known literary Buddhist, for his roman-a-clef The Dharma Bums and other works. The cultural re-evaluations of the hippie generation in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to a re-discovery of Buddhism, which seemed to promise a more methodical path to happiness than Christianity and a way out of the perceived spiritual bankruptcy of Western life.

Buddhists Arrive in the West

Further information: [[:Buddhism in the United States]]

A hallway in California's Hsi Lai Temple.

The first Buddhists to arrive in the United States were Chinese. Hired as cheap labor for the railroads and other expanding industries, they established temples in their settlements along the rail lines. Many of these 'seekers', traveling to Asia in pursuit of gurus and ancient wisdom, first encountered Buddhism in Nepal or northern India through contact with Tibetan monks who had fled the Chinese occupancy in 1959. By the 1970s, Tibetan lamas such as the Karmapa (Rangjung Rigpe Dorje), Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Geshe Wangyal, Geshe Lhundub Sopa, Dezhung Rinpoche, Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin, Tarthang Tulku, and Lama Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche had all established teaching centers in the West.

Certainly Tibetan Buddhism has seen dramatic growth in the West. Fuelled in part by the 'shangri-la' view of this country and due to the fact that Western media agencies are largely sympathetic with the 'Tibetan Cause'. All four of the main Tibetan Buddhist schools have had success. The Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school are well known and whenever he gives lectures in the West they are always very well attended. The Kagyu school are represented throughout Europe and the Americas. And both the Sakya and Nyingma schools are also very well known.

In addition to this a number of Americans who had served in the Korean or Vietnam Wars stayed out in Asia, seeking to understand both the horror they had witnessed and its context. A few of these were eventually ordained as monks in the Theravadan tradition, and upon returning home became influential meditation teachers establishing such centres as IMS (Insight Meditation Society) in America. Another contributing factor in the flowering of Buddhist thought in the West was the popularity of Zen amongst the counter-culture poets and activists of the 60's, due to the writings of Alan Watts, D.T. Suzuki and Philip Kapleau. Since that time Buddhism has become the fastest-growing religion in Australia and many other Western nations.

Historically, Buddhism has absorbed elements of the culture of the countries in which it is practiced. This can be seen in the artistic style of Buddha statues; a Chinese statue looks different to a Thai, which differs from a Sri Lankan, and similarly across most Asian countries. Different local customs are included also, and may influence the form of rituals and ceremonies.

The largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere is Nan Tien Ssu (translated as "Southern Paradise Temple"), situated at Wollongong. Australia. It is operated by the Fo Guang Shan Order, founded in Taiwan, and around 2003 the Grand Master, Venerable Hsing Yun, asked for that temple and Buddhist practice there to be operated by Australians within about thirty years. This examples one instance of Buddhism's absorbing regional influences.

Western Buddhism Today

Today, Buddhism is practiced in large numbers in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. For the most part, Western Buddhism is identical to Buddhism in East Asia, borrowing Asian practices such as the sangha and meditation (although most Asian Buddhist rituals are not borrowed). Usually, practitioners do not see any reason to create a distinction between the śīla or enlightenment they aim for and the goals of Asian Buddhists. Western Buddhism, however, also has its roots in the Western concepts of freethought and secular humanism.

There is a general distinction between Buddhism brought to the West by Asian immigrants, which may be Mahayana or a traditional East Asian mix, and Buddhism as practiced by converts, which is often Zen, Pure Land, Indian Vipassana or Tibetan Buddhism. Some Western Buddhists are actually non-denominational and accept teachings from a variety of different sects, which is far less frequent in Asia.

Perhaps the most widely visible Buddhist teacher is the much-travelled Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama. As the exiled political leader of Tibet, he is now a popular cause célèbre in the west. His early life was depicted in glowing terms in Hollywood films such as Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet. He has attracted celebrity religious followers such as Richard Gere and Adam Yauch.

The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) is a network of Buddhist centers focusing on traditional Tibetan Buddhism. Founded in 1975 by Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who began teaching Buddhism to Western students in Nepal, the FPMT. has grown to encompass more than 142 teaching centers in 32 countries.

A feature of Buddhism in the west today is the emergence of other groups which, even though they draw on traditional Buddhism, are in fact an attempt at creating a new style of Buddhist practice. Controversial lama Chögyam Trungpa, the founder of the Shambhala meditation movement, claimed in his teachings that his intention was to strip the ethnic baggage away from traditional methods of working with the mind and to deliver the essence of those teachings to his western students. Chögyam Trungpa also founded Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado in 1974. Another example of a school evolving new idioms for the transmission of the dharma is the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), founded by Sangharakshita in 1967.

Future Prospects

Some recent trends in Buddhism in the West suggest that it’s rapidly degenerating. One such trend is the commercialization of Buddhism, and another is the loss of some of its extraordinary intellectual and contemplative context. If these trends dominate, Buddhism runs the danger of losing its integrity in the West and being totally assimilated into an amorphous New Age culture, like water being absorbed into sand. [5]

On the other hand, some see an open-mindedness, sincerity, and a vigorous spirit of inquiry among many Buddhists in the East and West that inspire hope that this spiritual tradition is undergoing a vital renaissance. Perhaps its finest hour lies in the future. [6]

Which way Buddhism develops remains to be seen.

See also

• Buddhism in Australia
• Buddhism in Austria
• Buddhism in the Russian Federation
• Buddhism by country
• Buddhism

References

• Annet C. Rich (1914), Christ or Buddha?, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7661-9165-6
• Helen Tworkov, Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers, San Francisco: North Point Press, 1989
• Nietzsche, Friedrich. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ, Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN 0-14-044514-5
• "Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, Reviewed by David R. Loy" by David R. Loy, July 1998, retrieved August 9, 2006
• Rick Fields, How the Swans came to the Lake, about history of Buddhism in America.