Buddhism in the United States
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 many national origins and ethnicities.[1][2] In 2012, U-T San Diego estimated U.S. practitioners at 1.2 million people, of whom 40% are living in Southern California.[3] In terms of percentage, Hawaii has the most Buddhists at 8% of the population, due to its large East Asian population.[4]
Statistics[edit]
U.S. states by Buddhist population[edit]
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]
Buddhism in American Overseas territories[edit]
The following is the percentage of Buddhists in the U.S. territories as of 2010:
Association of American Buddhists[edit]
The Association of American Buddhists was a group which promotes Buddhism through publications, ordination of monks, and classes.[80]
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.
Contemporary developments[edit]
Engaged Buddhism[edit]
Socially engaged Buddhism has developed in Buddhism in the West. While some critics 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.[100] Another engaged Buddhist group is the Zen Peacemaker Order, founded in 1996 by Bernie Glassman and Sandra Jishu Holmes.[101] 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.[102]
Demographics of Buddhism in the United States[edit]
Numbers of Buddhists[edit]
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 Dharma, but may refuse the label "Buddhist". In the 1990s, Robert A. F. Thurman estimated there were 5 to 6 million Buddhists in America.
In a 2007 Pew Research Center survey, at 0.7% Buddhism was the third largest religion in the US after Christianity (78.4%), no religion (10.3%) and Judaism (1.7%).[123] In 2012 on the occasion of a visit from the Dalai Lama, U-T San Diego said there are 1.2 million Buddhist practitioners in the U.S., and of them 40% live in Southern California.[124]
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 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), estimated this same figure at 0.5%. ARIS estimated that the number of adherents rose by 170% between 1990 and 2000, reaching 1.2 million followers in 2008.[125] According to William Wilson Quinn "by all indications that remarkable rate of growth continues unabated."[126] But according to Robert Thurman,
Buddhist education in the United States[edit]
Chögyam Trungpa founded Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, a four-year Buddhist college in the US (now Naropa University) in 1974.[144] Allen Ginsberg was an initial faculty member, christening the institute's poetry department the "Jack Kerouac School 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 high school in the United States, Developing Virtue Secondary School, was founded in 1981 by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association at their branch monastery in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, California. In 1997, the Purple Lotus Buddhist School offered elementary-level classes in Union City, California, affiliated with the True Buddha School; it added a middle school in 1999 and a high school in 2001.[145] Another Buddhist high school, Tinicum Art and Science now The Lotus School of Liberal Arts, which combines Zen practice and traditional liberal arts, opened in Ottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1998. It is associated informally with the World Shim Gum Do Association in Boston. The Pacific Buddhist Academy opened in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2003. It shares a campus with the Hongwanji Mission School, an elementary and middle school; both schools affiliated with the Honpa Hongwanji Jodo Shinshu mission.[146]
Juniper Foundation, founded in 2003, holds that Buddhist methods must become integrated into modern culture just as they were in other cultures.[147] Juniper Foundation calls its approach "Buddhist training for modern life"[148] and it emphasizes meditation, balancing emotions, cultivating compassion and developing insight as four building blocks of Buddhist training.[149]