Buddhism in America: the primacy of meditative practice

Abstract

Through immigration and conversion, there has been a significant increase in the number of Buddhists in the United States over the past 50 years. Morreale (1998) found that more than 1,000 Buddhist meditation centers have been established in North America since 1985, and Wuthnow and Hackett (2003), in their research concerning the social integration of non-Western religions in the United States, noted the success of Buddhism in attracting American converts. Based on Putnam’s (2001) Social Capital Benchmark Survey, it would be estimated that the number of non-Asian Buddhists in America is approximately 1.5 million. However, given the reluctance of most Buddhists to proselytize (e.g. in seeking information on “becoming a Buddhist,” I was reminded by one monk that there was “nothing to become”), the actual number of native-born Americans who follow Buddhist principles in their daily lives is likely to be considerably higher than current estimates. In northern California alone, for instance, more than 250 Buddhist institutions have active programs of various sorts (Buddhist North American Directory 2004), and many of these establishments have very large followings (e.g. Spirit Rock 2004).

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