In a nation where we barely make up five percent of the population, it’s easy for Asian Americans to be marginalized and also be expected to accept it. The history of violent oppression, humiliation and marginalization have deep roots in American culture. In the American Buddhist community, however, we constitute the outright majority. Still, America’s institutional racism is so strong that Asian Americans are marginalized in this very community we planted on American soil, in a community where white Buddhists comprise a largely neophytic minority cohort. Just take a look at the staff of America’s favorite Buddhist magazines—Shambhala Sun, Tricycle and Buddhadharma—and it’s not hard to see the irony that an Asian American’s got a better chance of getting a seat on the White House Cabinet.
American Buddhism
Asia v. America
This list was compiled for a group of Asian monastics to provide some understanding of the different ways people approach Buddhism from America and Asia. When just beginning to study Buddhism, the Dharma often seems contradictory. On one hand it emphasizes personal experience, while on the other hand there needs to be strong faith. What I found over the years is that although the approach to Buddhism in Asia & America are often different, they are at the same time very complimentary. Meditation & recitation go well together, analysis & faith balance each other out, and pragmatism & “miracles” play different roles in spiritual practice.
You can see the list here. I often go out of my way to emphasize that Buddhism in Asia is much more diverse than miracles, recitation and faith—but it’s all there too. We’re a big tent.
In Search of Lost Writing
I was notified of broken links in a previous post (Angry Asian Buddhist Reader), namely:
- On Race & Buddhism by Rev. Alan Senauke (posted on Dharma FolkMarch 11, 2009)
- Stories We Have Yet to Hear: The Path to Healing Racism in American Sanghas by Mushim Ikeda-Nash (posted on Angry Asian Buddhist July 6, 2009)
These links might have been broken during the revamp of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship website. (It looks pretty slick now.) If you happen to have access to full copies of these texts, please let me know!
What’s DRBY?
A couple of recent posts on Dharma Mirror explore what exactly this DRBYthing is.
Last night I sat in on Rev. Hung Sure’s talk at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery with the DRBY folk. It was a great talk about the Avatamsaka Sutra (archives here), but I was even more impressed by the American Buddhist folk music! Now for some breakfast with family, lunch with a friend, and a 6 hour drive back to LA.
Lama Choyin Rangdrol
I’ve mentioned writing by Lama Choyin Rangdrol a couple of times before (here and here). He has a number of blogs which I enjoy following primarily because they provide a much different perspective on Buddhism (and more) than you get in, say, TheBigThree.
- Asia and Us
- The Original Black Buddha
- Contemplations for Black Men
- Lama Rangdrol’s Letters to America
- Models of Buddhist Caring
- Liberating Black Anger
- The Simple Truth
- Psych Tech
Voices of African American Buddhists are still relatively muted in mainstream Buddhist publications—in my experience, certainly not representative of the great diversity in our community. I’m glad that Lama Rangdrol has been updating these blogs fairly regularly as of recent. Definitely a recommended addition to your blogfeeds.
American Buddhist Artists
Barry Briggs has been celebrating American Buddhist visual art on his blog this week, so I figured it would be fitting to celebrate this celebration in turn.
This week, Ox Herding will focus on American artists who are also Buddhist practitioners. This short survey makes no attempt to be exhaustive; rather, it’s quite personal. Either I have a direct connection with the artists or feel a strong affinity with their work.
He has so far introduced Jakusho Kwong Roshi, Anita Feng, Mayumi Odaand Brice Marden. The first three artists are also all Americans whose Buddhist practice plays a central role in their lives. Jakusho Kwong Roshi is the founder and abbot of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center. Anita Feng is a Golden Wind Zen Dharma Master and also a member of the Buddhist blogosphere. When not traveling to an art exhibition or speaking out to save the world, Mayumi Oda resides at Ginger Hill Farm and retreat center on the Big Island.
Just Another Monk’s Story
Bhante Yuttadhammo’s case is over. Charges dismissed. (Congrats!) He writes:
At this point, I have to express my appreciation for the people who have supported me over the past five, six months. There’ve been a lot of people upset or at least unsupportive of my choices in life, but in the end, when the chips are down, it’s amazing how people can just come together and pitch in to help a guy out of a jam… even a monk-guy. Thanks everybody, you know who you are.
You can read his entire account on his blog. If you want an American Buddhist story, then look no further!
Asian-Free Buddhism
Thanks to Barbara’s Buddhism Blog, I was pointed to a Beliefnet post by Jerry Kolber, where he explicitly argues for stripping Buddhism of its Asian features.
Image is everything, and unless we figure out a way to make the image of the Buddha hip and cool, we’d be better off figuring out some other way to present the techniques without the awesome smiling face of our Eastern inspiration.
Bless his non-soul for proposing a sincere and unequivocal argument for whitewashing Buddhism. He has no compunction whatsoever about smugly proclaiming that Buddhism in America is far better off if only we can ditch the Asian guy. And he is like a gift that keeps on giving, except that I really don’t care for this narishkeyt…
Buddhism in America is at the long end of the initial boom sparked in the 60’s among intellectuals and artists who craved that elite connection with the east.
With a single sentence, he dons the hat of a historical revisionist and wipes American Buddhist history clean of its Asian affliction. The author disregards the basic fact that Buddhism in America enjoys an unbroken history that stretches back over 100 years. For all those years, it is Asian Americans who have constituted the outright numerical majority of Buddhist Americans—even today, we are still the majority. Plain and simple, Buddhism in America wouldn’t be half of what it is without its Asian American members, and for Jerry Kolber to patently neglect our contributions with utter impunity smacks entirely of excessive hegemonic privilege.
Are Only Asians in the Pure Land?
So would a Jodo Shinshu sangha in a Japanese neighborhood alter their appearance or layout easily because a few White folk (or any person of color) don’t feel comfortable?
A general problem with rhetorical questions, such as the title of this post, is that in practice they are often more fatuous than illuminating. This homespun musing suffers from several questionable premises. For example, there is the tacit lumping of Japanese American cultural groups, regardless of the stark cultural differences, say, from issei all the way down through yonsei. This point is pertinent as the mores of yonsei+ are often characterized as more in tune with the average non-Japanese American. And exactly which hypothetical Japanese neighborhood are we talking about? Keep in mind I live in one of the most Japanese neighborhoods in North America, and there really aren’t that many Japanese here. As for what the Shin temples here would do—they have done what just about every Shin temple in America has done. They have brought up the issue of accepting more non-Japanese into their congregations and wrestled with what that entails. In fact, I’d love to know if there’s any American Shin temple that’s managed through the past ten years without confronting the issue of expanding membership diversity. I won’t deny that there are individuals who have resisted Shin Buddhism becoming less “Japanese”—but they still have taken on the issue of diversity, albeit reluctantly. And there aren’t just “a few” white folk involved or interested in Shin Buddhism. That’s a whole ’nother post. Underneath all my nitpicking with the terminological inexactitude, my real gripe is with an even more troubling premise: that the comparison between Asian and white American sanghas is even a fair one. I’m talking about white privilege. When we start making the claim that white sanghas and white Buddhist publications are no more segregated than Asian temples and Asian-language Buddhist newsletters, we are jumping straight into the camp of separate-but-equal. You might as well have your white Buddhist country club while you’re at it.
Practice Past Authenticity
Shortly after my husband and I moved into our house with its old garden, we invited the experts and academics over tell us what to do. Some would say that our backyard is Southern California’s oldest private Japanese garden, dating from 1916. Some would say that it isn’t; that by virtue of geography, topography, plant selection, and cultural anthropology, it can’t ever be Japanese. We were twisted into a fit by these and other debates about the right way to care for the place. Heaven forbid we make a fraudulent move when we were already paralyzed by ignorance from the get go!
She makes a worthy point that we shouldn’t let ourselves be paralyzed into inaction while we fret over the authenticity of our practice. It’s worth noting that this very same discussion occurs frequently in the Buddhist Asian American community, as I was regretfully honored to be reminded of the other weekend. As Miller writes: Practice is practice. Debates, however, are debates.