Re: virus: Who evangelizes budhism?

KMO (kmo@c-realm.com)
Tue, 23 Feb 1999 10:40:12 -0800

Bryan Wheelock wrote:

> My question is how does Budhism spread?

Buddhists do evangelize. Our traditional image of Buddism is of the monastic traditions of Asia. These monastic communities frequently had strong and official ties to state power and so did not have to adopt many of the propagative strategies that religions employ in countries like the US where no single religious institution is endorsed by the government. For example, prior to World War II, all religious sects in Japan had to be approved by the government. After the war, when this restriction was eliminated, a great many "New Religions" proliferated there. They were, for the most part, new religious organizations, but, being forms of Buddhism, weren't all that "new" in terms of their doctrine.

In traditional Japanese society, Buddhism is a religion that is mainly concerned with the care of the dead. Very few Japanese give much of their attention to religious matters until they reach middle age and they have to start taking care of their dead relatives. One arranges for the funeral services, but then additional services and rites for the dead need to be performed from time to time for years after the funeral. Until they have to arrange for these services for a parent or other relative, most Japanese people devote very little of their attention to Buddhism. Since everyone dies, the traditional Buddhist institutions have plenty to do, and their place in society is secure, but they don't make much effort to direct the lives or thoughts of their "followers" in many other ways. They don't hold weekly services at which the bulk of the temple's lay member congragate to worship. The traditional institutions just don't do much in the way of providing a sense of community or soothing psychological irritation.

The new religions are new in that they cater to the psychological needs of their lay memebership in areas other than the death of a relative. They do have congragational services, prescribe codes of conduct, and evangelize in ways that would be very recognizable to most of us. They go door to door, prepare pamphlets and magazines aimed at conversion, and engineer social events and elaborite rituals with high public visibility. The more successful of these "new" religions recruit heavily from Japan's top universities. They have developed (or appropriated) some very effective lures for intellectuals, and I would guess that it is this kind of evangelizing that has lead to the success of religions like Sokka Gakkai and Rissho Kosei-kai in the US.

That's more than I planned to write. The main point I wanted to make is that the stereotypical image we have of Buddhism is that of a state-sanctioned and supported institution which does not need to make converts, but there are many Buddhist religions that opperate like religions here in the US, and these religions do need converts. Compared to evangelical Protestants, evangelical Buddhists may employ a rather soft approach, but the hard sell is a turn-off for many people, so this gentle evangelism is a viable approach.

-KMO