Week 3: Mahayana in the US: Asian-American Buddhism and Zen

Mahayana is the "northern" route in the evolution of Buddhism which develops first in China, then from there, about 500 years later, into Korea and finally Japan. Fifteen or so centuries later, Buddhism arrives in the US in the middle of the 19th century through Chinese and Japanese immigrant communities primarily in Hawai'i (an independent country "annexed" by the US in 1898) and California (annexed in 1848...see a pattern here?) where Chinese labor was used extensively in the construction of railroads, and Japanese later immigrating to develop Californian agriculture. While this immigration was severely restricted by later laws (1882, 1917) the existing communities were able, against formidable odds such as Japanese-American internment during WWII, to establish a robust system of Buddhist institutions, largely in the Mahayana tradition, and specifically Chinese and Japanese "Pure Land" approaches.

Mostly though not completely ignoring these communities, starting in the 1950s Japanese Zen gained an substantial White following, notably (or "notoriously", depending on your perspective) through the "Beat Zen" of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and others. This view of Zen has persisted in US popular culture—one can order "Zenburgers", and no, they aren't vegetarian— while at the same time more orthodox Zen approaches have proliferated and established long-standing institutions, including some of the best-known U.S. Buddhist efforts in social work. In practice, the "Beat Zen" approach is gradually being replaced by various orthodox lineages, as well as interest in Zen's Chinese predecessor, Chan.

Suggested reading:

Link to vocabulary, quotes and a couple web sites from talk (pdf file)

Link to rough outline for the talk (pdf file)

Other resources

Lion's Roar and Tricycle are both belatedly catching up to the fact that elite White convert sanghas have ignored the Asian-American experience,

  • so at least at the moment (Jan-2023) this link https://www.lionsroar.com/tag/explore-buddhism/ has ample material on Chan, Pure Land, Asian-American Buddhism more generally, and so forth, so just explore there.
  • One Mess Within Oneness: The Shin Buddhist Path as a Religion of Awakening" By Rev. Dr. Kenneth Tanaka (Tricycle, Spring 2023) https://tricycle.org/magazine/shin-buddhism-misconception/ Former president of the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies addressing some of the core misconceptions about Jodo Shinshu
  • "Knowing Nichiren." Tricycle interview with Jacqueline Stone by Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins (Spring 2023) https://tricycle.org/magazine/nichiren-buddhism-history/
  • Barbara O'Brien. A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World (highly recommend this as an antidote to equating Zen with 1950's Beat Zen; also good for the various philosophical debates within Mahayana over the past 2000 or so years)

Podcasts