Buddhism in America / [print]
Richard Hughes Seager.
- New York : Columbia University Press, (c)1999.
- xviii, 314 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Columbia contemporary American religion series .
- Columbia contemporary American religion series. .
Includes bibliographies and index.
The American Buddhist landscape -- Very basic Buddhism -- Three vehicles -- The American setting -- Jodo Shinshu : America's old-line Buddhists -- Soka Gakkai and its Nichiren humanism -- Zen and its flagship institutions -- The Tibetan milieu -- The Theravada spectrum -- Other Pacific Rim migrations -- Gender equity -- Socially engaged Buddhism -- Intra-Buddhist and interreligious dialogue -- Making some sense of Americanization.
With a history stretching back to ancient India, Buddhism has influenced American culture since the American Transcendentalist movement in the 1830s and '40s. Only in the past few decades, however, has this transplanted philosophy begun to blossom into a full-fledged American religion, made up of three broad groups: a burgeoning Asian immigrant population, numerous native-born converts, and old-line Asian American Buddhists. In Buddhism in America, religious historian Richard Seager offers a perceptive and engaging portrait of the communities, institutions, practices, and individuals that are integral to the contemporary Buddhist landscape. The book begins with a brief survey of Buddhist beliefs ;