Fri, 27 Aug 2010
American Buddhism
There's been some buzz on the Internet lately about how Tibetan Buddhism is unsuitable for Americans because it comes from a backwards and feudal society. What I think has happened is that Buddhism is getting more mature in this country. People think they know what it's all about and are becoming more vocal about saying so. Is this assessment accurate? Hard to say, I'm not in a position yo judge what Americans need. But as a corrective, let me quote Edward Conze from the introduction to his translation of the 8,000 Verse Perfection of Wisdom.
Asked what Buddhists should do to become more acceptable to Westerners, I used to enumerate with a smile a few concessions one might make repsectively to the feminist, democratic, hedonistic, primitivistic, and anti-intellectual tendencies of American society. Though in the end I invariably recovered my nerve and reminded my listeners that it is mot so much a matter of the Dharma adjusting itself to become adoptable to Americans, but of Americans changing and transforming themselves to become acceptable to the Lord Buddha.
