Buddhism is Australia's fastest growing religion
By Walter Jayawardhana, Lankaweb, June 22,
2007
Australia is having per capita buddhists than
any other western nation and it is the fastest growing religion in the country
Sydney, Australia -- The Dalai lama’s recently concluded visit to
Australia that also included a meeting with Australian Prime minister John
Howard has once again drawn the attention not only to the fact that Buddhism is
the fastest growing religion in Australia but also that there are more
Buddhists in the continent per capita than anywhere else in the Western world.
A Voice of America report
said since 1996 the number of Buddhists in the country have gone up almost 80
percent and now there are about 350000 followers of the religions first brought
to the country by Asian immigrants not only during recent times but also in the
not so recent past like 100 years ago.
The Voice of America report
said Buddhism was now moving beyond the Asian immigrant communities and
spreading as a mainstream religion. The report said, “Experts who study
religious trends in Australia say many converts to Buddhism found the teachings
of some Christian churches too rigid and intolerant of questions about the
faith.
Converts say Buddhism gives
them freedoms they have never had before. Renate Ogilvie is a German-born
teacher at a Buddhist institute here in Sydney.Quoting him the report said,
"In Buddhism you are allowed to ask questions and actually you're actively
encouraged to doubt and to discuss and so on," Ogilvie said. "The
Buddha said don't just believe because I'm very famous, don't just believe
because many people believe what I teach. Be like the goldsmith, you know,
apply the acid to the gold to test it and the acid being your mind, your
intelligence. So in that sense it's a manifesto of intellectual freedom which
is very, very appealing."
The Diamond Way retreat
facility in Sydney is typical of many small Buddhist centers around the country
and it has 140 members and like many other groups here it follows the Vajrayana
tradition from Tibet, seen as the third main branch of Buddhism alongside the
Theravada and Mahayana, the report said.
The following is the rest of
the report Phil Mercer broadcast for the Voice of America:-
Phil Carlisle is the host of the Diamond Way gatherings.
"I think that Buddhism
really suits people who have independent thinking and are maybe discouraged or
had enough of religions where they're told what to believe rather than being
given an opportunity to see how something fits for them. Aussies are
notoriously averse to authority figures," Carlisle said.
Anthony Hickson is a recent convert. He was brought up in a strict Catholic
family.
The 27-year-old video editor has been attending meetings at the Diamond Way
center since the start of the year and believes Buddhism is showing him a new
way to live.
"I guess from coming
here I don't think there's one truth" Hickson said. "I think there's
[are] many truths. My brother's pretty active in the Catholic Church and that
works really well for him and I've seen him grow and change a lot. So I think
for me it was just a different path and a lot of the teachings made sense to me
before I'd come here and coming here it was just being around people. There's a
good energy, there's a good vibe. Things make sense."
The nuns offer a prayer
asking for long life for the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner lives in India as the head of the community of
Tibetans who have fled Chinese rule of their homeland.
His visit to Australia over
the past several days created much excitement among Buddhists and non-Buddhists.
Large crowds greeted him everywhere he went. Even Prime Minister John Howard
met with one of the world's most recognizable religious figures.
For Buddhist nun Robina Caulton, the enthusiasm surrounding the Dalai Lama's
visit shows how her faith has developed in Australia.
"The Dalai Lama has an
enormous kind of following here. I mean I've observed that traveling around the
world - now based in the States, right," Caulton said. "Australia's
half the population of California and there're probably more Tibetan Buddhist
centers and more flourishing ones than even actually in, say, the United
States. … When he's in the States people in one other state wouldn't even know
he's there but whenever he's in Australia the whole country knows so it's kind
of interesting."
Despite such enthusiasm,
Australia remains a very Christian country - with more than 75 percent of the
population of 20 million belonging to a Christian church. Some Anglican leaders
have said Buddhism has little community spirit but relies heavily on individual
happiness. Buddhists disagree. Many Buddhist communities have charitable
operations, and they say that a community's happiness depends on the lasting
happiness of ndividuals.
Why is Buddhism the fastest growing religion in
Australia?
Darren Nelson
The answer to this inquiry is
multi-layered and complex. It is a tantalising issue because it highlights the
changing spiritual landscape of Australia and provides an insight into just how
multicultural we have really become.
Cultures that were foreign to
Anglo-European Australians are now being adopted by some of them - though not
without some dissenting resistance. This level of resistance in Australian
society can be seen as a litmus test, used to measure future political and
religious tolerance in this country.
The story concerning the rise
of Buddhism in Australia is a compelling tale of a resilient religion that has
survived despite the odds. How is it possible for a 2,500-year-old philosophy,
which began five hundred years before Christianity and one thousand years
before the Muslim faith, to be relevant to modern life in Australia?
Considering all the other ancient religions that have faded from contemporary
practice, such as the sun worshippers of Ancient Egypt, the human sacrifices of
the South American Mayans and the Druids from the Dark Ages of England,
Buddhism has outlasted them all.
It does not preach the dogma
of a strange cult, nor seek converts with evangelistic fervour. Those
Australians who actively convert to Buddhism do so voluntarily, and are usually
well-educated middle-aged professionals who are attracted to a sense of inner
peace. This documentary therefore, seeks to immerse itself in the substance of
this seemingly magnetic Buddhist approach. Perhaps it will be like seeing
Australia for the first time, through ancient eyes.
It is interesting to note
that in spite of the recent increase in Buddhist numbers across Australia,
Buddhism has actually played a part in Australian history for some time. It did
not just suddenly arrive in a recent wave of migrants. Some anthropologists, in
fact, have suggested that Buddhism was possibly the earliest non-indigenous
religion to reach Australia before white settlement.
Between 1405 and 1433 the
Chinese Ming emperor, Cheng-Ho, sent sixty-two large ships to explore southern
Asia. Although there is evidence that several ships from that armada landed on
the Aru Islands to the north of Arnhem Land, it is not known whether they
reached the mainland.
One unproved hypothesis of
Professor A.P. Elkin is that the belief of some Northern Territory Koorie
tribes in reincarnation, psychic phenomena and mental cultivation is evidence
of early contact with Buddhists. Despite certain rock paintings that possibly
depict Chinese junks weighing anchor or images of the Buddha, actual material
evidence remains to be seen.
The first documented arrival
of Buddhists in Australia was in 1848 during the gold rushes, when Chinese
coolie labourers were brought into the country to work on the Victorian gold
fields. These workers represented a transient population that usually returned
home within five years. It was not until 1876 that the first permanent Buddhist
community was established by Sinhalese migrants on Thursday Island. There the
ethnic Sri Lankans built the first temple in Australia, while they were
employed on the sugar cane plantations of Queensland.
From the late 1870’s onwards
many Japanese Shinto Buddhists also arrived and were active in the pearling
industry across northern Australia, establishing other Buddhist enclaves in
Darwin and Broome. Buddhist cemeteries were kept and festivals celebrated.
Official government statistics compiled as part of a national census in 1891
indicate that, at the time, there were slightly more Buddhists in Australia (at
1.2%), than there are today (at 1.1%).
Buddhist numbers would have
continued to increase if the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 had not
been introduced to combat the ‘yellow peril’. Alfred Deakin, who was destined
to be Prime Minister three times, drafted the legislation to pacify a somewhat
xenophobic Caucasian electorate. This bill later grew to represent the more
broadly implemented White Australia Policy.
For the next fifty years the
benefits of mind training and meditation, as taught by Buddhism, would be
disregarded as some sort of obscure ‘eastern mysticism’. Except for some remote
surviving pockets of Buddhists (such as Broome and Thursday Island), the
religion became virtually extinct in Australia.
A small group of committed
western Buddhists formed the earliest known Buddhist organisation in Australia,
The Little Circle of the Dharma, in Melbourne in 1925. Progress was slow
though, until after World War II when local enthusiasm for the White Australia
Policy began to decline. In 1951 the first Buddhist nun visited Australia.
Sister Dhammadinna, born in the USA, ordained and with thirty years experience
in Sri Lanka, came to propagate the Theravadin School of Buddhist teaching. She
received nation-wide media coverage.
Inspired by this visit, the
next year the Buddhist Society of New South Wales was formed under the
presidency of Leo Berkley, a Dutch-born Sydney businessman. This organisation
is today the oldest Buddhist group in Australia. Its membership was, and still
is, compromised mainly of people from Anglo-European backgrounds.
In 1958 the Buddhist
Federation of Australia was formed in order to co-ordinate the growing Buddhist
groups that had sprung up around the country in Western Australia, South
Australia, Queensland and Victoria.
The Buddhist presence in
Australia had depended for the first hundred years on lay people with only the
occasional visits by ordained members of the Sangha (the Buddhist clergy). But
in the 1970’s the growing number of Buddhists created a need for resident
monks, and a new phase in Australian Buddhism began.
In 1971 the Buddhist Society
of New South Wales established the Sri Lankan monk, Somaloka, in residence at a
retreat centre in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. This became the first
monastery in Australia. A succession of monasteries representing different
aspects of Buddhism slowly became established around Australia; in 1975 at
Stanmore in Sydney, in 1978 at Wisemans Ferry in country NSW and in 1984 at
Serpentine in Western Australia.
The charismatic face of
Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, (who was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1989 and
describes himself as ‘a simple monk’), has travelled the world constantly
giving lectures and answering questions in 20,000 seat pop concert halls. John
Cleese speaks out for him in London, Henri Cartier-Bresson records his
teachings around France and Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys pop group has
even interviewed him in Rome for Rolling Stone magazine.
In the past few years he has
opened eleven Offices of Tibet, everywhere from Canberra to Moscow and last
year alone provided prefaces and forewords for roughly thirty books. The 14th
Dalai Lama, who holds the titles of Ocean of Wisdom, Holder Of The White
Lotus and Protector Of The Land Of Snows, has even served as the guest editor
of French Vogue magazine.
The three visits of the Dalai
Lama to Australia in 1982, 1992 and 1996 were joyful occasions for Buddhists of
all traditions, and huge crowds of Buddhists and the general public gathered to
hear him speak. On the third visit, and despite virulent Chinese protests, the
Dalai Lama met with and was photographed with the Prime Minister of Australia,
John Howard. It was now clearly evident at this stage, that Buddhism had become
a significant minority religion in Australia.
During this visit local
celebrities contributed generously to fundraising activities. For example, Kate
Ceberano, Rachel Berger and Frente were just some of the ‘star-studded
cast’ to perform at the Dalai Lama Lounge Room. They helped to raise $14,000
over three nights. Mushroom Records released a benefit album called The
Mantra Mix CD, featuring Jenny Morris, Jimmy Barnes and Johnny Diesel. One
local advertising agency, providing their services for nothing, came up with
the slogan "You missed Jesus. You missed the Buddha. Do not miss the Dalai
Lama". When was the last time such hype accompanied the visit of a religious
leader?
But Australians are not alone
in their sympathy towards his cause. The issue of Tibetan oppression has come
to the attention of Hollywood and with two new films about his life in the
cinematic pipeline, the Dalai Lamas’ profile has not only moved into the
mainstream, but has (much to the horror of the Chinese Government) gone global.
The first to be released, Seven
Years In Tibet, tells the story of Heinrich Harrer, a mountain climber and
Nazi party member who encounters his own sense of enlightenment after becoming
the tutor to the young Dalai Lama in Tibet in the 1940’s. The film has
attracted healthy attention because it stars Brad Pitt.
The other film is Kundun,
directed by Martin Scorcese. This epic tells the remarkable tale of the Dalai
Lama from his point of view, from his recognition as the reincarnated Buddha of
compassion at age two until his escape to India at twenty-four. Recently
released here in Australia, it was reviewed by Channel Nines’ Sunday
program on June 14th and described as ‘the most beautiful and
important film released this year’.
Hollywood’s fascination for
Buddhism extends beyond these two screenplays, with many stars expressing
interest in the religion itself. In February 1997, the karate-kicking action
star Steven Seagall was recognised by the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism
as the reincarnation of a 15th century lama. Adam Yauch of the Beastie
Boys pop group has organised two huge benefit concerts to publicise the
plight of Tibet.
Actor Richard Gere, together
with Uma Thurmans father, Richard Thurman, has opened Tibet House in New York,
published books on the subject, and meditates daily. Other practitioners that
have come to attention include Tina Turner, Harrison Ford (whose wife Melissa
Mathison wrote Kunduns script), Oliver Stone, Herbie Hancock, Courtney
Love, composer Philip Glass (who also worked on Kundun) and REM’s lead
singer Michael Stipe.
The momentum of Buddhism’s’
profile is driven by other, more subtle reminders as well. A new make up is
being advertised as Zen Blush, a new sitcom is called Dharma and Greg,
a designer fruit juice container has on its’ label "Please recycle this
bottle. It deserves to be reincarnated too", and monks star in television
commercials and news items.
Such recent exposure does not
take away the fact that Australians have been quietly turning to Buddhism for
some time. The statistics compiled in the 1986, 1991 and 1996 Commonwealth
Government Census support the view that Buddhist numbers have been steadily
increasing. Between 1986 and 1991 the numbers of practitioners rose from 80,387
to 139,847, a growth of 74%. Due largely to the decrease in immigration numbers
in recent years the percentage growth for Buddhists slowed between 1991 and
1996 to 43%, from 139,847 to 199,812. This rate of increase is still higher
than that of any other religion.
The three census surveys also
indicate that of the eight Christian denominations listed in the analysis for
New South Wales only three show an increase (Baptist, Catholic and Orthodox),
while five (Anglican, Church Of Christ, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Uniting
Church) have decreased in numbers.
Does the fluctuating
demographic between Buddhism and Christianity point towards dissatisfaction
with traditional Australian religious beliefs? Is Buddhism more competitive
than Christianity or is one spiritual experience simply more meaningful than
the other?
Of the 199,812 Buddhists
across Australia today, approximately thirty thousand are Anglo-European’s who
have ‘crossed over’, by choice, to this alternative philosophy. They have
turned from ‘Christian sinner’ to ‘Eastern Mystic’. The slump in immigration
figures from Buddhist countries is apparently not enough to stall the continued
growth in Australian Buddhism, especially now that local support has been
established. Back in 1938 a Japanese Shinto monk, noting that it took China
three centuries to adopt Buddhism from India, said introducing it in the West
would be like holding a lotus to a rock and waiting for it to take root.
When the Age of Aquarius spread
across the world in the form of the 60’s alternative hippie counter-culture,
there appeared to be no shortage of poets, artists, actors, writers and
musicians interested in a voyage of inner peace through Buddhist philosophy and
meditative practices. John Lennon used Buddhist mantras’ in the lyrics of his
music such as Across the Universe. Allen Ginsberg used a mantra
(Buddhist blessing) to bless the ground at Woodstock before the first fans
arrived. Zen meditation too, first embraced by the Beat poets in the 1950’s
flourished across first world nations as a healthy alternative to LSD-induced
enlightenment.
More importantly the
drug-fuelled 1960’s, when the Vietnam War was at its height, feminist
protestors burnt their bras and man landed on the moon, saw a relaxation of
traditional middle class values that allowed a greater versatility in public
consciousness. During this time, people had greater access and freedom to
experiment with new schools of thought (feminism, civil rights, the peace
movement, alternative lifestyles etc) without suffering as many social
ramifications as in the past.
According to the Reverend
Phillip Hughes, a Melbourne-based religious researcher, "many people
thought in the 1960’s that science itself was not sufficient to really explain
existence, but then they were not keen to go back to the Judeo-Christian
tradition with its holy books, miracles and so forth. Also the need for a sense
of peace has become more apparent".
Potential Buddhists are
attracted to the Dharma (Buddhist teachings) not only to take refuge from a
world of chaos and confusion, but also to re-invent their own personal sense of
a meaningful spirituality in a society of high-tech consumerism, commercialism,
violence and apathy. Compared to the Christian beliefs many Anglo-European
Australians grew up with, Buddhism does not require its adherents to remain
faithful to a specific dogma.
It is not a faith. It is not
technically a religion either, though when discussing systems of worship it is
easier to work with that label. It is more a psychology and a philosophy
wrapped around a moral code of mind training.
The founder of Buddhism,
Siddhartha Gautama (born in 563 B.C.), turned his back on the royal family he
had been born into, to live life as a simple ascetic monk. At the age of
thirty-five he became enlightened and ‘saw things as they really are’, having
achieved a mental state of absolute egolessness, where he no longer felt any
sense of narcissism or craving.
He became the first Buddha
and was quick to teach his disciples that he was not a god, should not be
revered and no rituals should be developed around his teachings. Heaven and
hell, he taught, are not external places that we travel to after we die; they
do not in fact exist. Rather, both places dwell only in the hearts of people.
People are either good or bad, pious or evil. Paradise exists within our
spirit, it is here and now, and not some destination in the after-life.
Meditation, he believed, is
the process required for all adherents to achieve Buddhahood. This is one of
the main differences between Buddhism and other religions. Practitioners are
offered an ultimate goal, enlightenment itself, which is equivalent to the
level attained by the Buddha himself. He taught that everyone is capable of
achieving this, providing equality to all his followers.
This is a radical departure
for born-Christians to realise when they first start studying the principles of
Buddhism. The best a faithful Christian could hope to achieve with his devotion
was entry to heaven as an angel where he is still subject to the will of a
greater being who could smite him anytime at will. The Buddha teaches his
disciples too become the same as he, which is why he is not a god. In Buddhism
there is no pecking order in the after life, because that would require the
presence of an ego, which is the Buddhists life work to gradually eliminate.
Buddhism dispenses with the
notion of a Supreme Being, as does science, and explains the origins and
workings of the universe in terms of natural law. All of this certainly
exhibits a scientific spirit. The Buddha advised that we should not blindly
believe him but rather question, examine, inquire and rely on our own
experience. This scientific approach of cause and effect was not overlooked by
Albert Einstein in the 1930’s:
"The religion of the
future will be a cosmic religion", he said, "it should transcend a
personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both natural and
spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience
of all things, natural and spiritual, and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers
this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern
scientific needs it would be Buddhism".
While the antipodean
blossoming of Buddhism seems to have gone from strength to strength since the
1980’s, this has not always been the case. It is in the Buddhist principle of
godlessness that the journalist can find opposing and dissenting voices to the
Buddhist cause. This theological bone of contention is the main source of
friction with other religions.
On Wednesday, the 18th
of January 1995, Pope John Paul II arrived in Sydney and attended an Interfaith
Gathering in the Sydney Domain. Representatives from major religions, including
Protestant, Orthodox and Coptic Christians, Jewish and Muslim were invited to
share the platform with him. Notable by its absence was Australia’s’ third
largest religion, Buddhism.
The organisers told SBS Radio
that they were unaware that Buddhism was Australia’s’ third largest religion
and besides that there was no national leader of Buddhism, so who were they to
invite? The Sydney Morning Herald reported that "somebody in the State
Government had forgotten to invite the Buddhists". This is unlikely, as
the New South Wales Government is very aware of the presence of Buddhists in
this state and often invites Buddhist representatives to State functions. A
more likely explanation is that the Vicar of Rome holds Buddhism in very low
esteem as is evident from the following extract from his book, Crossing The
Threshold Of Hope:
"Buddhism is in large
measure an ‘atheistic’ system. We do not free ourselves from evil through the
good which comes from God; we liberate ourselves only through detachment from
the world, which is bad. The fullness of such a detachment is not union with
God, but what is called nirvana, a state of perfect indifference with
regard to the world. To save oneself means, above all, to free oneself from
evil by becoming indifferent to the world, which is the source of evil. This is
the culmination of the spiritual process. Christian mysticism is born of the
Revelation of the living God. This God opens Himself to union with man,
arousing in him the capacity to be united with Him, especially by means of the
theological virtues - faith, hope and above all, love".
Graeme Lyall, Chairman of the
Buddhist Council of New South Wales, strongly refutes the Catholic position.
"The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘atheism’ as ‘disbelief in the existence of
God’ ", he said, "the Buddha is described as the teacher of ‘gods and
men’, so how can Buddhism be an atheistic system? Religious arguments often
come down to the use of religious language. We must ascertain to what we are
referring to when we use the term ‘God’.
What is a ‘living God’?
Anything that is living is subject to death and decay, so why should we place
ourselves in the hands of something, which, like ourselves, is impermanent? If
he is referring to the old man with a white beard who sits in the sky taking
notes in his little black book ready for the day of judgement, then he is out
of step with modern theological thinking and most other theologians.
Modern theologians, such as
Paul Tillich, suggest that the term ‘God’ refers to the ‘ground of being’ - the
very fact of existence. No Buddhist would argue with this, but they may be
reluctant to use the term ‘God’ to describe it".
Lay’s implication that the
Pope is out of touch appears to be more than just a knee-jerk defence, when you
consider that the ranks of Catholics themselves are split on the issue.
Irish-born Father William Johnston, a Jesuit priest, spoke of his sympathy to
Buddhism when he visited Sydney in early January 1997. Here to attend the
Religion, Literature and Arts Conference at the Australian Catholic University,
Father Johnston spoke of the Christian churches need to introduce aspects of
Eastern Mysticism - such as meditation, yoga and Zen - if they want to increase
numbers attending weekly services.
"Some Catholics are very
nervous about meditation but there is a lot to learn from it and yoga and
Zen", he said. "The Catholic Church has always kept meditation very
strongly in its religious orders; our problem is that we didn’t teach it to the
laity, who are now looking for it".
Father Johnston, director of
the Institute of Oriental Religions at Tokyos’ Sophia University, has lived in
Japan since 1951 and believes Christianity has become ‘too legalistic’, with
‘too many do’s and don’ts and not enough vision and enlightenment’.
Besides the Catholic
Churches’ potentially bilateral reaction to Buddhism, local opposition to the
arrival of Eastern Mysticism has also occurred in the steel manufacturing town
of Wollongong, an hours drive south of Sydney. There the Anglican Bishop of
Wollongong, the Reverend Reg Piper has weighed into the debate expressing his
annoyance not only at the presence of Buddhism, but the presence of a
philosophy he sees as evil.
The contest began when a
Taiwan-based Buddhist sect, Fokuangshan, opened a huge fifty million-dollar
temple just south of the steel city in Berkley. The monks there planned to
promote their style of ‘humanistic’ Buddhism, which emphasises the ‘oneness and
co-existence of the global village’.
The Fokuangshan sect was
founded in the mid-1960’s and has more than one hundred branches world-wide
(including Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth) with 1.5 million members and its own
university, several schools, an organ donor bank, a retirement home, even a
cemetery. This growth is due to its’ charismatic founding father, the Venerable
Hsing Yun. The size of the Wollongong temple, called Nan Tien, is second only
to their headquarters in Taipei.
Bishop Piper’s concerns are
not shared by other Christian churches such as the local Uniting Church, which
has adopted a user-friendly approach to the temple. On Tuesday, the 18th
of June 1996, Bishop Piper appeared on the ABCs’ 7.30 Report to voice
his opposition.
Bishop Piper: See when you have the bible view of humankind,
generally, if it is outside the framework of the truth - the bible terms it as
evil.
Reporter: Is it a deception?.
Bishop Piper: In that respect, yes. While ever it is not based
in the truth of Christ, it would be a deception. Because Buddhism is basically
an atheistic religion. There is no god.
Reporter: Why is that a problem?.
Bishop Piper: Because God has revealed himself through Christ.
Christ has been raised from the dead. He said he is God. There is no other way
to the truth and no other way to really live except through Christ.
The growing curiosity about
Buddhism has so worried Bishop Piper that he has made a video called In
Search Of Paradise - A Biblical Response To Buddhism. It is to warn all
Christians of the evil deception of Buddhism, that has arrived to convert them.
Reverend Shin of the Nan Tien
temple remains perplexed with Bishop Pipers attitude. "We don’t convert
people to Buddhism or change their religion", he said. " As long as
they feel comfortable with any of the practices or any of the beliefs and it is
good for the society, good for them and good for the family, that is the most
important thing. Whether they decide to become Buddhists or not - that is not
our concern".
Local opposition to Buddhism
also extends beyond the Christian clergy. A survey by the Federal Office Of
Multicultural Affairs, conducted in 1988, found that 41% of the general
population did not wish to have a Buddhist as a workmate. Only Muslims fared
worse.
Despite this, on Sunday 8th
February this year Australian Buddhists were delighted to learn they had a
friend in a high place when the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, expressed
his support at the opening of the Rahula Community Lodge in Canberra.
"A report from the
Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research a couple of years
ago, showed that over the ten years to 1991 Buddhism was by far the largest
growing religion in our country: an increase in the order of some 300%" he
said. "To a significant extent, of course, the figures reflect the
substantial increase in migration from south-east Asia over that period.
But the second largest
national group were Australian-born Buddhists - many from non-Asian cultures
attracted by both the philosophy and the practice of Buddhism, with its
emphasis upon the search for inner peace and understanding. I offer my very
best wishes for the success of all that you hope to achieve in the years ahead
as future stages of the centre are completed. May all your endeavours prosper
and bring joy to those whom they are intended to help".
Buddhism continues to
maintain a steady trickle of recruitment at the grass roots level. According to
the Venerable Pannyavaro, a monk based in Surry Hills in Sydney, young people
are still attracted to Buddhism because they are looking for an alternative to
established Christian churches and they can explore Buddhism without feeling
obliged to join.
"A lot of young people
in the twenty to mid-thirty age group are coming because they don’t feel
imposed upon", he said, " and there are deeper meditative techniques
they can draw upon". The Buddhist website he operates (http://www.buddhanet.net)
gets an average 9,000 ‘hits’ a day. Venerable Pannyavaro offers cyber-nirvana
at this site in the form of online meditation sessions where people can log on,
meditate and contemplate the infinite.
There are now more than
ninety Buddhist temples and organisations in New South Wales, sixty-five of
them in Sydney. The bulk of the two hundred people who each week visit the
Buddhist Library, Meditation and Information Centre in Camperdown in Sydney are
in the thirty to fifty age group. About eighty-percent are from a non-Asian
background.
Much to the horror of the
Christian clergy (if they ever find out), Buddhism is even being taught in one
New South Wales primary school during religious scripture classes. In early
1995 at Blackheath Primary School a group of parents approached the principal,
Kate Allan, asking the school to provide Buddhist instruction as well as the
traditional Catholic and Protestant options. Now, forty-five of the schools
three hundred and fifty students attend classes in Buddhism.
"The move came from the
community", Allan says. "In the mountains we have quite a diverse
community and it was the choice of the parents to have these classes - it was
not something imposed on the whole school".
Answering the question of
Buddhism's growing popularity in is clearly going to be a rich and involved
conclusion. This religion seems to have, at first glance, a vigorous influence
on the world stage. Just when you think you have examined the issues
thoroughly, you suddenly discover that you are still only looking at the tip of
the iceberg.
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http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=49,4360,0,0,1,0