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Buddhism in America
Buddhism is one of the three world religions. The other two are Christianity and Islam. Among
the three, the Buddhism is the oldest, for it is 500 years older than Christianity and 1,100 years
older than Islam.
These three qualify as “world” religions because they are found in large areas of the world and
not limited to one country, one culture or in one corner of the world.
Many Americans still think of Buddhism only as an ancient religion of Asia. However, this
perception is changing. Professor Diana Eck, an expert on contemporary American religions at
Harvard University has declared, “Buddhism is now an American religion.”
Prof. Eck made that
statement because Buddhists have been in America since around 1850 and that there are many
more Buddhists than ever before.
Buddhists now make up about 1 percent of the entire American population, which means there
are a little over 3 million Buddhists. This makes Buddhists the third largest religious group in the
United States. Of course, the largest by far are the Christians who make up about 70 percent of the
population, followed far behind by Judaism with 2 percent who are Jewish. Slightly fewer than the
Buddhists are the Muslims, Hindus and Baha’is, whose numbers are each less than 1 percent of the
entire population.
Beyond the Buddhists, there are also those who don’t claim to “be Buddhists” but are keenly
interested in the teachings and even do the practices, especially meditation. These people are called
“sympathizers” or, sometimes, humorously referred to as “Nightstand Buddhists.” They are not
members of any Buddhist temples or centers but practice Buddhism in the privacy of their home by
meditating and reading Buddhist books. After reading they often place their books on the nightstand,
hence, the name. There is no reliable data on the number of these Nightstand Buddhists, but I
estimate their number to be about 2 million.
Yes, a survey revealed that 12 percent of the people replied that Buddhism has had an
important influence on their thinking about religion or spirituality. This amounts to about 25
million people.
So, if we add up all three groups, they amount to over 30 million people or one out of
Americans, whose lives have been deeply touched by Buddhism.
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