Reshaping of Buddhism in the United States

Part II, Brian Bauerle takes questions from the audience

From a talk at the 2000 Visakha Festival sponsored by the Buddhist Council of the Midwest

Audience Comment: I think it emphasizes the values of American society. Values of love, service, compassion are fusing together. There is a new bread of Buddhists that are becoming aware that there has to be a social engagement in order to bring change and justice.

Brian: We saw the Buddhist monks at the forefront of the anti-war movement. There is an activist sense about it. The press has been very good to Buddhism in America. I don't think the press has been as good for a religion such as Islam. That is a religion that creates a fear in the minds of the general public that doesn't know. For Buddhism, the press has been quite good-there isn't animosity but instead curiosity. That is going to be very healthy for the way that Buddhism moves into America.

Audience Comment: I've been practicing for over 30 years but have struggled with the question where is it going to go. I've been saying to myself it has got to happen. There is a genuine important message and I don't understand why it didn't get going faster. But, societies are slow to change.

Brian: I think we will get the behaviors changed before people will accept the label. Some of the work I do is to work with executives. They are becoming Buddhists-acting like Buddhists. They are more compassionate, more caring. They are applying the dharma and nowhere is it called "Buddhism". They will be practicing for a number of years before they are ready to look at that as a label. It seems to take time because you are overcoming a culture bias that people have a tendency to not want to change religions.

Audience comment: Aligned with this is something about American world view. In our census under religion you can only answer one thing. I think there are many people who would call themselves Buddhist/Christians or Jewish/Buddhists. Buddhism is more spread out through the culture than our official tallies would show. How many people are there that are like Phil Jackson and call themselves a Buddhist-Christian? Buddhism has helped me make peace with my Christian tradition. I am both.

Brian: The question is do we encourage that kind of Buddhist-Christian coming together and morphing into something else. As we go through a period of rejecting religion it is then very hard to embrace it fully and we consider ourselves "free thinkers" but we practice like a Buddhist. One of the things we have to do as people who identify themselves with Buddhism is decide do we encourage that or do we say no it is important to identify yourself in Buddhism with a particular lineage. I don't know what the answer is. There is a heritage that comes from all of the different traditions that is so rich and meaningful in my life that I want to do everything I can to keep those traditions pure. But, I also think if we are going to impact a great number of people in America it is going to be done in a way that isn't going to force them to give up their mother religion.

Many people come to our center for meditation but would never call themselves Buddhists because that would be too much for them. Yet, they are regular practitioners of meditation and Buddhist rituals. They are experiencing without identifying with it. It is very important for us to be open to that. What matters is living and being Buddhist, not how we identify our-selves, but rather how we behave in our relationships with each other.

Audience comment: I think with Buddhism coming to the West in its current numbers is acceptable. If it came in on a broader stage I don't think it would enjoy the growing popularity that it has. It is acting as a door opener to people's minds as it embraces all beings.

Brian: And, in that inclusiveness, it creates a greater sangha. One of the things I find is that since I don't have a Buddhist sangha I have to grab whoever is around and make them my sangha. That is the inclusive process. Let's get together and do our own rituals and do whatever it is that calls forth the spirit.

In my town the only kind of people that drop by are the Mormons. When they come by we will have long talks about spirituality and how we manifest the spirit. Often, we will go down into the meditation room and they will do their rituals and I will do my rituals and we will actually share on that basis. I am now on the itinerary for all the new kids that are coming out to middle America to do their one year pilgrimage. It has been a really good spiritual connection that I have made in the hinterland.

There doesn't seem to be that kind of acceptance in some of the other Christian churches. "It's alright for you to be there, but we don't want to go there and we don't want to know anything about it", seems to be the feeling I pick up.

How does it feel to be living in a predominantly Christian society? How does that feel to you and how do people react to you when you tell them that you are Buddhist?

Audience comment: My whole family is Catholic and there were a lot of remarks I didn't like. But now they have come around. Although, as you say, they are not here visiting the temple but at least it is okay for me to be here now. I think all we can do is be who we are and hope it will make a point. I do consider myself Buddhist-Christian. I can't deny 40 years of Christianity. Jesus did walk the earth. To deny that is not true either. If we followed Jesus' teachings it would be a wonderful world too.

From what I get out of Buddhism, there is still only one truth, whatever you call it. As Buddhists I think we address that. In Christianity I can commit a sin and be forgiven because Jesus died on the cross. In Buddhism we don't have that same out. We are responsible.

Brian: What it does is that we have to take on a special responsibility if we are going to openly live our lives as a Bud-dhist. It is going to be looked at and seen. Because we aren't based on a belief system but instead have a system of practice, we have a responsibility to be "that kind" of person. That is going to do more in terms of spreading the word of Buddhism than anything else.

I liked your comment about the family reaction ...over time it becomes comfortable, and then it is curious. Then you can get to the place where you can be a teaching for your family without the defensiveness coming in and not allow-ing them to hear.

Audience comment: I learned to be a better Buddhist because of it. At first I was very defensive.

Brian: Yes. How many of us know egotistical Buddhists? Or Buddhists that get the message and then become evangelical and act "We are right and you are wrong"? We know that is not being a good Buddhist. There is sense of superiority that can come in unless we are very vigilant and very mindful that "Hey, it is all illusion".

One of my teachers, Ajhan Buddhadhasa, spoke about the mutual understanding of religions. When I was a monk at Wat Swon Mok there were always Trapist monks, and Benedictines, and sisters. In fact, Father Bruno was sent there by the Vatican to learn the teachings of Buddhadhasa to see if they could be translated into something that was usable by the Catholic church. I used to articulate Buddhadhasa's teachings and he would tell me whether it was heresy or not and we would change the words until we got the teaching out so it wasn't heresy within the context of the Roman Catholic church.

Buddhadhassa encouraged me to do that. He said it is very important that we understand all religions well enough so that we can support people in the practice of their religion. That is the responsibility of us as Buddhists. We have to understand our own religion enough so we can live that example and be inspirational by example. That is the way we create a mutual understanding of how each of us reaches that spiritual space within ourselves. It is our responsibility, as Buddhists, to speak that whatever language it is that the other person will hear to help to get them in that place in their heart.

To me, I thought that was one of the very profound teachings. It helped me to understand how do you move back and be someone that has a spirituality that is quite different than the people that are around you. Can we have the sense of "can I know Christianity well enough so I can encourage the Christians that I meet in the practice of their religion?" Do you know Islam well enough to do that? Do you know Judaism well enough to be able to help people connect with the spirit within the capacity and the form that they have chosen in their lives? That really is being someone that is promoting the spirit.

It happens, for me, that the teachings of the Buddha are the ones that are easiest for me to be able to adapt in my life. But, if I can reword those same teachings so they become Christian teachings, or Islamic teachings or whatever teachings, then, I am begin-ning to move to another level of spirit.

You just change terminology. It is just as simple as changing the words. Christ talked about the joy of suffering. Well we are right onto the first noble truth. Yeah, there is suffering but there is a way out of it. As Buddhists we have to be flexible and fluid in terms of our terminology.

Audience comment: God is nature. I think many Christians would agree.

Brian: I think many Christians would agree with that. Understand that part of what is left for me in the Christian tradition is that I still have a concept of God. It is just like the "big" God which includes everything. So, the chair can be god, the ceiling can be god. There still is a sense in my mind where prayer will come in. There is a need for the personalization of something, even though I know that god is the law of nature. Still at times when I am lonely there is great comfort in being able to talk to God. The personaliza-tion can be important for some people's spiritual practice.

I think Buddhism has a god. It is the law of nature. In the book of John it says: "First there was the word and the word was with God and the word was God." Well, "word" in Hebrew is the same as "law" so it fits directly. It is just a concept of God that is much bigger.

We don't have to have that kind of argument about God. We are absolutely accepting of that in our terminology if we are open and not defending some standard that we have placed.

Buddhism is the philosophy of acceptance. It is tolerance. It is ease. Are we working towards that and are we doing that?

Wat Swan Mok has about 130 Westerners that come to do Vipassana meditation retreat every month. It has been interesting to see change in people who go there over the years. It started out as adventurers and back-packers. Now they are much older, better educated and many come specifically for the ten-day retreats. They are coming to Thailand specifically to do the retreats. That is a huge difference that happened over the last ten years.

There is room for more of those kinds of retreats in the United States, if they can get the time for them. The most signifi-cant barrier I see to spiritual development in the United States is that people do not have the time.

Audience comment: They don't perceive the time We all have 24 hours a day. If you want to give the time to spiritual practice you have to grab it.

Brian: I agree with you. It is there if people are willing to say this is my priority and want to do this and make sacrifices in other places in their life. But, most people are caught up in their own busyness. It is not a choice that is consciously made. I found for me, to create friendships and relationships that are based on a spiritual connection it is very difficult for people to find time. When they do it there is a positive reinforcement, but when they get back into their worlds the busyness takes over again and it is a long time before they are able to come back to it.

Brian:What do you think is going to happen to the traditions over the next ten years? Do you see them surviving?

Audience comment: In this culture things get popularized and secularized and there is a lot of lip service. The real work is pretty serious stuff.

Brian: Maybe the traditions remain intact for very serious seekers, but there becomes a lighter form of Buddhism that is influenced by contemporary culture.

Audience comment: Buddhism light?
Maybe the surface people and celebrities condone that. That is what this country is about-something you can sell.

Brian: I remember a book in the sixties called The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment.

Audience comment: I've been looking into the history of the World Parliament of Religions and it is fascinating. One of the Buddhists from Japan was here in Chicago in 1893 and continued to come back here and train people. His great despair was "will Americans ever have the discipline to learn Buddhism." I think it is still a question. I was shocked to hear it articulated more than a hundred years ago

Audience comment: I look back 30 years ago when we came to this country and we were very lonely. There were no Thai temples.

Brian: I feel so honored to be so welcomed into the Buddhist tradition as a non-Thai. I think the openness of Buddhism is one of the things that is most startling. Having lived in Asia for 30 years I felt that again and again in every Buddhist community that I was in.

I have enjoyed living in Buddhist countries so much more than I enjoyed living in non-Buddhist countries. It had to do with the interactions with people. I found myself, again and again, going back to Buddhist countries because that is where I felt comfortable.

I feel very comfortable to come here today because it is Buddhist. There is something about the quality of the people and the practice that they do and the vibration that creates. It fills me with great joy.

Audience comment: We are living in a highly consumer society. Buddhism is the philosophy of no greed, no lust. But here if you follow that you can not survive. You have to compete to be the best. It is a struggle. Then we come to this.

Brian: It is like a recharge. It is like a breath of fresh air. Then I go back to Iowa and my family is the only Buddhist family there. You do your own struggle to keep your own sense of balance and awareness and mindful-ness in the onslaught of materialism and crazy striving that is America.

That is one of the things I think about how Buddhism will grow in America. As we strengthen the communities that we are in, we need that sense of sangha that is supportive of the kinds of values that we are trying to live. I believe, for me, it is more difficult in isolation than when you are surrounded by people who will challenge you. People that will say "do you really need that new car?"

Audience comment: I have great respect and admiration for the Thai monks. They came here and didn't know the language and culture. Their presence is what is propagating Buddhism. They are willing to give their lives to come into this culture and struggle for several years before they learn our language. So we owe them much.

Brian: For me just coming to Chicago and being able to spend the night at the Buddhadharma center and be around monks is like a breath of fresh air. The kind of commitment they have to mindful practice is the vibration that sustains us. I am very grateful for that. I think that the monastic tradition will always be an essential ingredient of Buddhism.

Audience comment: I like to take many instructions from the Buddha himself to listen to people and see how they thought. We can put it in ways that they thought so you can change a little bit and grow. If we can do more of that, we can help more people.

Brian: I think those are beautiful words to end with. Thank you very much, and thank all of you for allowing me to share this kind of energy with you.