The Contributions Of Asian Buddhists And The Popularity Of Zen
Article by Arjanyai
Among Asian Buddhists, Ceylonese monks such as the Venerable Narada Mahathera, the Venerable Walpola Rahula and the Venerable Piyadassi Thera have been well known for their devoted effort to disseminate the original basic doctrine of the Buddha in international public and academic circles through both literary and missionary activities. Dr. G.P. Malalasekera, K.N. Jayatilleke, Dr. Jayasuriya and some other leading lay Buddhists of Sri Lanka have contributed greatly to international Buddhist scholarship, the availability of firsthand knowledge of Buddhism to Western readers and the lively interpretation of the Buddha-Dhamma intelligible and meaningful to modern mind. A number of devoted Ceylonese Buddhists join as honorary workers in conducting the Buddhist Publication Society3 at Kandy. It is said that during the last twelve years this non-profit organization has printed over a million booklets on all aspects of the Buddha's teachings and distributed large numbers of them to addresses in seventy-one countries. Burmese Buddhism has been attracting Western people for a long time through its specialization in Abhidhamma studies and meditation. Burmese contributors in this field can be represented by the Mahathera Ledi Sayadaw, whose numerous writings show a deep penetration of the respective subjects derived from his meditative experience. The Burmese tradition of Abhidhamma studies is still continued and made accessible to the West by outstanding Burmese scholars, such as Mahasi Sayadaw, U Titthila and U Narada. In Thailand, the Bhikkhu Buddhadasa has been stimulating a growing interest in Buddhism among modern intellectuals and college students, and becoming more and more an interesting and attractive figure to the West through his original interpretation of the Buddha-Dharma. His oral teaching has been published under voluminous titles and an increasing number of these titles are being translated into English. One volume,1 "Toward the Truth," published in the United States, was translated by an A! merican scholar as an attempt to contribute to an understanding of contemporary Theravada Buddhism. THE POPULARITY OF ZEN So far, however, the most famous of all contemporary Asian Buddhists who are well known in the West has probably been Dr. D.T. Suzuki, Zen's chief exponent in English. It is mainly through his writings that Zen has gained a newborn popularity in the West. This is a rapidly growing popularity which has been clearly described in these sentences: "Rarely in modern times has an alien way of life attracted a foreign people as suddenly and as strongly as Zen has attracted Westerners in the past few years. Scarcely a decade ago the word was all but unknown. Today, the word, though certainly not its meaning, is common knowledge."2 "Any psychologist, even twenty years ago, would have been greatly surprised - or shocked- to find his colleagues interested in a mystical religious system such as Zen Buddhism.........The reason for this change lies in factors........... to be found in the development of psychoanalytic theory, in the changes that have occurred in the intellectual and spiritual climate of the Western world, and in the work of Dr. Suzuki, who, by his books, his lectures, and his personality, has made the Western world acquainted with Zen Buddhism."1 The popularity of Zen naturally adds to the growing public interest in Buddhism and Buddhist studies in general. In fact, even among scholars, Buddhism has, since the beginning of the present century, attracted the attention not only of philologists, Indologists and Orientalists but also of learned men of modern sciences. Some of the leading philosophers, scientists, historians, psychologists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts of modern age such as H.G. Wells, Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell, C.G. Jung and Erich Fromm made appreciative references to Buddhism in their writings and speeches or even accepted the superiority of Buddhism over modern science in their field of specialization.2
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AVALOKITESHVARA ❤☀ BUDDHA OF COMPASSION
A Buddhist Bible
Dwight Goddard's collection of translations of a cross-section of Buddhist traditions was a fundamental part of the importation of Buddhism into the USA and then, through the work of the Beat Poets that the book influenced, throughout the West as a whole.Goddard had originally been an engineer but after his wife's death, when he was twenty-nine years old, he entered the Hartford Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1894 and was sent to China as a Congregational missionary. He was interested in non-Christian religions and as a result of this curiosity began to study various denominations of Buddhism.
In 1928, at the age of sixty-seven, Goddard encountered Japanese Zen Buddhism for the first time while in New York City. He was so impressed with it that he moved to Japan where he met D. T. Suzuki and studied for eight months with him at the Yamazaki Taiko Roshi of Shokoku Monastery in Kyoto.
His time spent in China and Japan made him feel that lay religious practice was not enough and would lead to worldly distractions and he decided to establish a male-only monastic movement named, 'the Followers of Buddha'.
It was situated on forty acres in southern California adjacent to the Santa Barbara National Forest and also on rural land in Thetford, Vermont. The religious 'followers' who participated in the fellowship commuted between the centers in a van, spending winters in California and summers in Vermont. The venture was short lived and closed due to lack of followers.
His book, A Buddhist Bible, was published in 1932. Translated from writings Goddard found of worth in the traditions of Theravada, Mahayana, Zen, Tibetan and other Buddhists schools of thought, the book soon became popular and it contributed to the spread of Buddhism in the USA in the 1930's and 1940's.
But it was in the 1950's that A Buddhist Bible was to make its most lasting impact.
By the end of 1953 the famous writer Jack Kerouac had been living with fellow 'Bea! t Poets' Neal and Carolyn Cassady in a menage a trois situation and the relationship had become untenable for all of those concerned. It had become obvious that it was time for Jack to move on and Neal recommended that Jack read A Buddhist Bible as a way of finding some much-needed spiritual inspiration. Legend has it that Kerouac headed down to the San Jose library and stole a copy before heading back 'out on the road'!
It was natural that Kerouac, who had always battled with his Catholic ideologies and his lifestyle of heavy drinking and womanizing, would find some peace through the principles of Buddhism and this came out in his seminal The Dharma Bums which detailed Kerouac and fellow Beat Gary Snyder's differing takes on the Buddhist way of life.
Although at first dismissive of his fellow Beats new found outlook, Allen Ginsberg soon followed suit and A Buddhist Bible, together with the collective writings of the Beat Generation on Buddhism, had a big influence on the American generations that followed.
Dwight Goddard was unaware of his new-found fame as he died on his seventy-eighth birthday in 1939.
Dwight Goddard's collection of translations of a cross-section of Buddhist traditions was a fundamental part of the importation of Buddhism into the USA and then, through the work of the Beat Poets that the book influenced, throughout the West as a whole.
Goddard had originally been an engineer but after his wife's death, when he was twenty-nine years old, he entered the Hartford Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1894 and was sent to China as a Congregational missionary. He was interested in non-Christian religions and as a result of this curiosity began to study various denominations of Buddhism.
In 1928, at the age of sixty-seven, Goddard encountered Japanese Zen Buddhism for the first time while in New York City. He was so impressed with it that he moved to Japan where he met D. T. Suzuki and studied for eight months with him at the Yamazaki Taiko Ros! hi of Sh okoku Monastery in Kyoto.
His time spent in China and Japan made him feel that lay religious practice was not enough and would lead to worldly distractions and he decided to establish a male-only monastic movement named, 'the Followers of Buddha'.
It was situated on forty acres in southern California adjacent to the Santa Barbara National Forest and also on rural land in Thetford, Vermont. The religious 'followers' who participated in the fellowship commuted between the centers in a van, spending winters in California and summers in Vermont. The venture was short lived and closed due to lack of followers.
His book, A Buddhist Bible, was published in 1932. Translated from writings Goddard found of worth in the traditions of Theravada, Mahayana, Zen, Tibetan and other Buddhists schools of thought, the book soon became popular and it contributed to the spread of Buddhism in the USA in the 1930's and 1940's.
But it was in the 1950's that A Buddhist Bible was to make its most lasting impact.
By the end of 1953 the famous writer Jack Kerouac had been living with fellow 'Beat Poets' Neal and Carolyn Cassady in a menage a trois situation and the relationship had become untenable for all of those concerned. It had become obvious that it was time for Jack to move on and Neal recommended that Jack read A Buddhist Bible as a way of finding some much-needed spiritual inspiration. Legend has it that Kerouac headed down to the San Jose library and stole a copy before heading back 'out on the road'!
It was natural that Kerouac, who had always battled with his Catholic ideologies and his lifestyle of heavy drinking and womanizing, would find some peace through the principles of Buddhism and this came out in his seminal The Dharma Bums which detailed Kerouac and fellow Beat Gary Snyder's differing takes on the Buddhist way of life.
Although at first dismissive of his fellow Beats new found outlook, Allen Ginsberg soon followed suit and A Buddhist Bible, together with t! he colle ctive writings of the Beat Generation on Buddhism, had a big influence on the American generations that followed.
Dwight Goddard was unaware of his new-found fame as he died on his seventy-eighth birthday in 1939.
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