DIVISION
WITHIN
ality. For many non-Buddhists, it’s
stress-reduction. For Buddhists, it’s
on the path toward self-awakening.
“Outside of these people of color
sanghas, many of the Buddhists
who claim to meditate are not
Asian-Americans. And many EuroAmericans who are Buddhist would
place meditation very high on the
list. Most Asians would call it a
small practice,” says Sharon Suh,
a professor of specializes in Buddhism, race and Asian-American
spirituality at Seattle University.
“There is an assumption that the
Buddhism brought over by AsianAmericans is less authentic.”
With a few exceptions, the
two groups — mostly Asians and
whites — do not mix. One of the
main reasons is that while they
may share a common name for
their faith, their practices are often foreign to each other.
Buddhist leaders, long aware
of their growing differences, have
tried to unite themselves around
what they share in common. One
of the first efforts, a 1967 meeting of the World Buddhist Sangha
Council — an international group
with representatives from nearly
every nation where Buddhism had
blossomed — produced a statement of “basic unifying points.”
HUFFINGTON
03.17.13
“We consider that the purpose
of life is to develop compassion
for all living beings without discrimination and to work for their
good, happiness, and peace; and
to develop wisdom (prajñā) leading to the realization of Ultimate
Truth,” it said. “We admit that in
different countries there are differences regarding Buddhist beliefs and practices. These external
forms and expressions should not
be confused with the essential
teachings of the Buddha.”
It’s taken time, but such conversations have begun to trickle down
to on-the-ground action in places
such as Seattle, a city both known
for its liberal culture and its segregated populace. And though meditation-oriented Buddhists have yet
to successfully integrate with more
traditional Asian-American Buddhists from whom they adapted
their practice, the meditators have
recently tried to diversify among
themselves, as Sala puts it, “at
least make our practice less white,
more open and more diverse.”
Sala is a teacher at the Seattle
Insight Meditation Society, one of
the major and most well-known
meditation-based Buddhist organizations in the Seattle metropolitan area, which is home to an
estim