An American Buddhist Tradition

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
User avatar
Goofaholix
Posts: 4015
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:49 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Goofaholix »

It's already been tried with the FWBO, and I find the results pretty uninspiring (Though it's not specifically American but then why would you want to limit it one country anyway).

In the West I think we have the freedom to look at the tradition objectively and seperate cultural baggage from the essential living tradition, then centres have the option of keeping or ditching some or all of the cultural baggage as they please. It's already happening and it's already working I think.

Wheras establishing an official tradition would be all about confortmity and institutionlisation and adding new cultural baggage, where did that ever enhance a religion.

So are we wanting to add American cultural baggage in it's place? No thank you, I don't want fries with that and you can't tell me to have a nice day as I'll have whatever kind of day I please.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
User avatar
Khalil Bodhi
Posts: 2250
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 6:32 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

:goodpost: ...but do you seriously want us to believe you don't want to have a nice day? :tongue:
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
My Practice Blog:
http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com
User avatar
Goofaholix
Posts: 4015
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:49 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Goofaholix »

Khalil Bodhi wrote::goodpost: ...but do you seriously want us to believe you don't want to have a nice day? :tongue:
Yes, better to suffer and learn from it than to blindly follow fast food philosophy.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
User avatar
Kim OHara
Posts: 5584
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:47 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Kim OHara »

Goofaholix wrote: Wheras establishing an official tradition would be all about confortmity and institutionlisation ...
One of the nice organisational, structural, aspects of Buddhism (IMO) is precisely that it is not centralised the way (e.g.) Catholicism is. We manage very well, thanks very much, without too many rules and regulations and authoritarian hierarchies. Admittedly, there is a downside: individual groups going off and doing their own thing can sometimes get things seriously wrong. But there is enough guidance from tradition to keep most groups pretty well on track, so it's a small price to pay.
:namaste:
Kim
Jack
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:54 pm

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Jack »

I am not clear about those who want to adhere to a certain eastern Buddhist tradition and denigrate Western Buddhism. Didn't each of those eastern Buddhist traditions develop their own traditions, new cultural trappings, different ceremonies? Buddhism of Tibet, China, Sri Lanka and so on, all are different on the surface. Is Western Buddhism the only one that has to adopt from another culture?
User avatar
Goofaholix
Posts: 4015
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:49 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Goofaholix »

Jack wrote:I am not clear about those who want to adhere to a certain eastern Buddhist tradition and denigrate Western Buddhism. Didn't each of those eastern Buddhist traditions develop their own traditions, new cultural trappings, different ceremonies? Buddhism of Tibet, China, Sri Lanka and so on, all are different on the surface. Is Western Buddhism the only one that has to adopt from another culture?
The eastern traditions developed hundreds or thousands of years ago, it was a different world then and I think most people at the time would have had little or no knowledge about cultures outside of their borders, Buddhism would have had to adapt to their limited view of the world to gain acceptance.

Nowadays people have much more knowledge about different cultures, and of science, so we don't have to be just locked into our own culture. Buddhism doesn't have to adapt so much to a new culture to gain acceptance, people can distinguish between Buddhism and the cultural trappings that surround it. I think now we have the opportunity for a more culture neutral Buddhism.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
User avatar
DNS
Site Admin
Posts: 17169
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:15 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, Estados Unidos de América
Contact:

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by DNS »

Goofaholix wrote:
I think now we have the opportunity for a more culture neutral Buddhism.
Yes, I think so and hope so. We don't need cultural trappings from East or West, just the Dhamma.

The third hindrance is 'Attachment to rites, rituals, and ceremonies' and all culture is steeped in rites, rituals, and ceremonies, so perhaps the less culture infused with the Dhamma, the more closer the practice is to the Buddha-Dhamma.
User avatar
Hanzze
Posts: 1906
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:47 pm
Location: Cambodia

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Hanzze »

_/\_
Last edited by Hanzze on Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
User avatar
tiltbillings
Posts: 23046
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by tiltbillings »

Hanzze wrote:Dear friends,

do you really think that to mark ones Nation in "Buddhism" is a good step according to the Buddha Dhamma and its motivation? Didn't the west had conquered enough with its ignorance and believe to understand?
If so, it would do good to call it USA tradition. But well one should look into the future.

Ayu vanno sokha balam

_/\_
You are really missing the point here.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
User avatar
Viscid
Posts: 931
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:55 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Viscid »

Is it even possible to create a tradition that is free from the culture in which it is established?

Would denying any influence of culture create an institution that is alien to those that express that culture?

Buddhism has survived by adapting itself from culture to culture, offering itself in varieties which the people in its proximity demand. Given time, I believe Western Buddhism will adapt, survive and evolve in such a way to represent the Dhamma while incorporating the beliefs and attitudes of the West.
"What holds attention determines action." - William James
User avatar
Hanzze
Posts: 1906
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:47 pm
Location: Cambodia

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Hanzze »

_/\_
Last edited by Hanzze on Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
User avatar
theravada_guy
Posts: 208
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:06 am

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by theravada_guy »

In America, we have Theravada, Vajrayana and all the other Mahayana traditions represented pretty well, as far as I'm aware. My two cents is to leave it at that. Personally, I like how there's a choice here. If you want Theravada, it's here. You don't have to go to Sri Lanka or Thailand anymore. If you want Mahayana, you don't have to go to those countries. It's all here. Maybe that IS the American Buddhism - having a choice of which tradition the individual wants to follow.
With mettā,

TG
User avatar
Kim OHara
Posts: 5584
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:47 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Kim OHara »

Viscid wrote:Is it even possible to create a tradition that is free from the culture in which it is established?
No.
If it doesn't have - at least - some points of contact with the culture, it can't possibly be said to be established in the culture.
Those - minimal - points of contact are firstly translations of the key concepts into local terms. (And please don't ask why people 'can't use Pali': Pali (or any other foreign/old language) without translation at some point might as well be Martian.)
As we know, Buddhist concepts were translated into Chinese via the nearest equivalent terms in contemporary Chinese thought. We are not any different. (See also the Buddhism/Romanticism thread: Germany around 1900 was no different either.)

:namaste:
Kim
Paññāsikhara
Posts: 980
Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:27 am
Contact:

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Paññāsikhara »

David N. Snyder wrote:
Goofaholix wrote:
I think now we have the opportunity for a more culture neutral Buddhism.
Yes, I think so and hope so. We don't need cultural trappings from East or West, just the Dhamma.

The third hindrance is 'Attachment to rites, rituals, and ceremonies' and all culture is steeped in rites, rituals, and ceremonies, so perhaps the less culture infused with the Dhamma, the more closer the practice is to the Buddha-Dhamma.
Where there are human beings, there is culture.
My recently moved Blog, containing some of my writings on the Buddha Dhamma, as well as a number of translations from classical Buddhist texts and modern authors, liturgy, etc.: Huifeng's Prajnacara Blog.
User avatar
Goofaholix
Posts: 4015
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:49 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: An American Buddhist Tradition

Post by Goofaholix »

Paññāsikhara wrote: Where there are human beings, there is culture.
Yoghurt philosophy.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
Post Reply