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Where Do We Go from Here? New Generations of Buddhists

SUMI LOUNDON KIM      ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER

ROD MEADE SPERRY      IRIS BRILLIANT

 

The Buddhists in North America referred to as “convert Buddhists”—those who did not inherit it as a part of their ethnic background—are largely baby boomers. Are enough younger people coming up through the ranks to sustain healthy Buddhist communities?

SUMI LOUNDON KIM: The next generations of Buddhists make up a very small proportion of the current self-named Buddhists. I’d estimate that less than a fifth of all convert Buddhists are under forty.

I don’t think that’s going to grow too significantly over the coming decades, so the Buddhist community is going to shrink considerably. But it’s still going to be large enough to sustain well-established groups long into the future. Communities will also be very well-funded, because the baby boom Buddhists are going to generously donate their life savings to their favorite Dharma center. The traditions that have taken root in America will not die with the baby boomers.

ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER: If you’re talking about people who take vows and who are loyal members of sanghas, in that case, what Sumi said applies. But if you change the framework and count all the young people who’ve been influenced by Buddhism; been to Buddhist centers and meditated; who are in dialogue with their friends about Buddhist ideas, concepts, and values; who are hooked into websites that are at the nexus of popular culture and Buddhism, you may end up with a very different picture.

Younger Buddhists aren’t necessarily following the model of their parents’ generation by becoming a Zen priest or a committed Vajrayāna practitioner or what have you. Instead, they’re attending retreats, going to Dharma centers, even establishing eclectic meditation groups on their own. They’re putting together a unique package for their lives. If you look at it that way, you see a very large flowering of Buddhism in the culture of the next generations.

At the San Francisco Zen Center, there are young people who spend significant time there before they move on. They may not be counted in the Buddhist community per se, because they’re not formally affiliated with any center, but the practice has had a tremendous influence on their lives. As they get older and settle down, they will naturally join groups, which at this point are too expensive for them and filled with older people.

ROD MEADE SPERRY: It may be healthy for Buddhism to evolve haphazardly into new shapes that probably won’t look like exactly like the shapes we have now. Everything that ever happens in the Dharma is an innovation at first—each new sect is an innovation. To some it may be heresy, but for others it’s what works for them in their time and place.

What we’re going to see is new forms of Buddhism that are viable and work for whoever comes next. As the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I’ve also found that when the student is ready, the Sangha appears. People end up finding their own sangha or create their own sangha. They see a need that isn’t being served and say, “You know what? I’ll start a sitting group.” In the future we’ll have the old established communities, but we will have a lot of others too, started by people who are innovating based on their own inspiration.

IRIS BRILLIANT: I think socially engaged Buddhism is a strong driving force for younger people. Many people my age are very political, and many of them are taking an interest in Buddhism or going on retreats. As a result, Buddhism is being integrated into movements such as the environmental, antiracist, and LGBTQ movements. People are using practice in a way that is deeply intertwined with social justice. Practice is used not only as a way to become more centered but as a tool to become a more grounded activist.

SUMI LOUNDON KIM: I’m not sure we can characterize the next generation of Buddhist or Buddhist-influenced people based on one model alone. It appears to me that there will probably be a split of populations. There will be young people who take a fairly traditional approach to Buddhism, because they’re looking for a religion and everything that comes with that. On the other side, you’ll have the Buddhist-influenced or meditation-influenced people who may not self-identify as Buddhists or be part of what we would generally call Buddhist communities.

Is it fair to say that those who came to Buddhism in the sixties and seventies were trying to leave their culture and create another one, and that the new generations of practitioners have a different relationship to culture?

ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER: My generation felt the Vietnam War demonstrated the corruption of our whole society and way of life. We thought Asian society was much better, so we thought let’s be Buddhist, let’s be Tibetan, let’s be Thai, let’s be Japanese.

The new generation doesn’t seem to hold that concept. It’s pretty obvious now that everybody is screwed up, East and West. The younger people I meet are aware of that, and also aware that values come from their own heart. It’s not a matter of Asia or the West. They’re looking for whatever will help cultivate the good intention in their heart. As hard as the sixties people tried their best to be Japanese or Tibetan, it obviously didn’t really happen.

IRIS BRILLIANT: In the youth retreats I went on at Spirit Rock, the teachers tried to make Buddhism accessible to everyone. They made the practice seem culturally neutral and emphasized the universal nature of the human experience. Most of the anecdotes in Dharma talks were about the teacher’s personal life. The focus was definitely on the Dharma itself, but it was relateable to a broader framework of life in today’s world. For example, they suggested we text message each other every time we sit, as a way of encouraging each other.

ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER: That’s great!

IRIS BRILLIANT: So instead of shying away from technology and taking an extremist route, they emphasized that we should try to function within mainstream culture, embrace technology, and try to integrate it into our practice, which is definitely a new, and very American, thing.

SUMI LOUNDON KIM: Buddhism was, for Norman’s and my parents’ generation, very much counterculture. Now Buddhism is more what we’d call “alternative,” in the sense of being outside the mainstream but acceptable. It’s clear that there is still a need for young people to step outside mainstream American culture. Perhaps they already feel like they’re outside of the mainstream and they’re looking for something that feels like home, or perhaps they’re just looking for some perspective.

In either case, there is a turning away of some kind. Often kids have grown up in very comfortable situations, and they begin to feel turned off by materialism, and Buddhism has something to say about that. They are willing to step into Buddhism as another point of view to critique mainstream America. To that extent, Buddhism is not fully integrating into the mainstream yet.

ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER: The Dharma is always going to manifest in many different ways. It needs conservatives, innovators, and dabblers. That’s the fabric of the Dharma. Even in “deeply Buddhist” cultures, there are people who aren’t practitioners who do something to uphold the monastics or take part in something cultural that makes them feel connected to the Buddhist culture.

ROD MEADE SPERRY: I see lots of interesting contemporary manifestations of Dharma reflected in contributors to my website. Their expression of Dharma is a healthy mix of reverent and irreverent. It could be street art influenced by the Dharma, Dharma tattoos, a death-metal band making music inspired by the Dharma. They’re finding their own modes of expression, but they are not knocking down the old guard, either; they’re adding to it, assimilating it into the way they live. Instead of thangkas, they have thangka tattoos.

We’re not people who relate to images of tranquility. We never had it. It’s not the society we grew up in. Tranquility may be something we’re going for, but that’s not what’s going to connect with us. We see the New Age as just marketing. That’s why we go for the oldest, most classic expressions of the Dharma, and add a new spin on them.

The web is a wonderful model for how the Dharma is evolving. It’s an incredible gift of skillful means. It allows people to contribute in the way that they can contribute. We see so many new blogs and websites that are not run by teachers. Practitioners run them; young people who want to talk about Dharma, to be part of it, run them.

IRIS BRILLIANT: Young people are coming to Buddhism for a myriad of reasons. There’s no single reason, but their reasons tend to be profound and important. Yet they are very interested in retaining their individuality rather than just becoming a certain Buddhist identity. That’s one of the more interesting phenomena occurring right now.

ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER: When the Dharma is allowed to flower and express itself in so many different ways, it becomes something more people realize they can enter into. It’s not just for holy people. It’s for regular people like me, or irregular people like me.

It seems that many young people today are less interested in particular traditions. Will the future take the shape of a kind of pan-Buddhism or will people gravitate to specific traditions eventually?

ROD MEADE SPERRY: The teachers who interest me are those who find a confluence of their primary practice with something else. There can be modes of teaching that include various traditions without watering the traditions down. As time goes on, you’ll see more of that.

SUMI LOUNDON KIM: I agree that there are going to be syncretists, who will bring together elements from within the overall tradition, like Zen and Vipassanā, or bring something from outside, like punk, into Zen. There will also be people who settle into one path, once they do a bit of searching. There is something appealing about the integrity of a tradition that has liturgy, cosmology, ethics, and practices that have been developed over the centuries so that they work together to transform a person. In the wake of globalization and the dissolution of tradition, there will be people who will seek the roots that come with a tradition.

IRIS BRILLIANT: Most of the people I know who are interested in Buddhism are open to all of the traditions and are eager to learn about them. But it seems a lot of people put together their own hodgepodge of ideas and facets, which allows them to have something they make their own. Many people are only interested in sitting a little bit every day, learning a bit about the Dharma, maybe going on retreat. They’re usually willing to go on any style of retreat.

I’m really interested in learning more about the Dharma itself, its history and its teachings. But I’m also excited when any group of young people wants to get together and learn just about the techniques of meditation. It’s great to know that people are taking the initiative to become more clearheaded, even if they’re doing it in a secular and detached way. That’s immensely beneficial for them and those around them.

Will the tension between the popular, simpler forms and the traditional forms continue into the next generations?

ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER: It’s complex, and it will change over time. People at the so-called popular end of the spectrum—secular meditators, people with Buddhist tattoos, people who are merely turned on by something they heard on Oprah—in my experience actually have respect for the tradition and an appreciation for the need for deeply committed practitioners.

In addition, as you get older, your views generally change and you become more conservative. Many people who have nipped at the edges of the Buddhadharma will see the need for a more coherent community and more committed practice. It may turn out that the Buddhist movement is something very broad, lively, and multifarious, but that as people who participate in the movement get older—into their fifties and sixties—they may find themselves having a more narrow focus and more conservative practice regimen, if they can find good teachers who will validate and understand the experience they’ve had over their lifetime.

What do the Buddhists of today need to do to ensure that the Buddhism of tomorrow is more diverse, and therefore continues to grow, in spite of the eclipsing of the baby boom?

IRIS BRILLIANT: I agree with Sumi that the focus on retreats is a little too heavy, so it would be good if it were easier for people to start their own sitting groups, maybe inviting one teacher to support them and give Dharma talks. The Internet is another wonderful resource for people to connect with practice, including having more talks available for download. Young adult retreats are another great way of getting more young people involved. The people on my young adult retreat became very close-knit and have stayed in touch afterward. And I can’t say it enough: it’s critical that the Dharma become more affordable.

SUMI LOUNDON KIM: Affordability is a key issue. A lot of the young people tell me they started on a Goenka retreat. Why? Because it was free. I have to say, though, that this complaint bothers me a little, because a lot of Dharma centers do offer scholarships. Having worked on the administrative side of a Dharma center, I know that the retreat fees barely cover expenses. On the other side, there can be an expectation in the younger generation that they’ll be supported. There’s not as much nitty-gritty, I-will-do-what-it-takes-to-do-this-retreat attitude that I saw in my parents’ generation, most of whom had nothing either. Maybe my generation and the one after it don’t want to work as hard to get into a retreat.

ROD MEADE SPERRY: I’ve been the beneficiary of sanghas that have gone out of their way to offer scholarships. It’s important to let people know that if they want to put something in the dana box after sitting, that’s good, and if not, that’s OK too. It’s also important to let people know that a retreat has a suggested charge, but if you can’t afford it, you are still welcome. I know that creates difficulties, but it’s a real gesture toward inclusion.

IRIS BRILLIANT: I’d also add that if you’re talking about being more inclusive of young people, it’s important to be unafraid to discuss issues that young people tend to face, such as sexuality and sexual orientation.

Obviously, it can be tricky. How do you talk to minors about sex on a Buddhist teen retreat without getting in trouble with their parents? But there are ways to talk about sex, drugs, stress in school, and the pressure to succeed. These issues can often be lost when young people are just part of the crowd of adults. If there were places for open discussion about what they are going through, that would draw more young people into the practice. They’d see it as relevant to their lives.

SUMI LOUNDON KIM: I agree. It seems like the examples in talks of challenges people face, as well as the casual discussions at centers, have to do with things like menopause, caring for elderly parents, or what to do with your investments. Dharma talks and articles and postings that address young people’s issues would make the teachings stick with them.

How could centers approach these issues in a way that would be useful?

IRIS BRILLIANT: Having more younger teachers, people in their twenties and thirties, would help. I had one assistant teacher at Spirit Rock who was considerably younger than the other teachers, and just knowing that she had started to practice at my age, and wasn’t that much older than me, made me feel so much more comfortable.

In general, teachers could try to push themselves a bit beyond their comfort zone. I don’t think every teacher should be forced to talk about issues specifically related to young people, but it’s important for teachers to know what the issues are and do their best to address them in an appropriate way.

The older generation of teachers often simply proclaims the Dharma, with less of the dialogue that Norman was talking about earlier.

ZOKETSU NORMAN FISCHER: We learned that style from Asian teachers, or Western teachers who were very close to Asian teachers. It’s a style that came from an authoritarian, feudalistic culture, and it worked well in that culture. Now the generations are shifting, and it’s obvious that’s not workable. This presents a challenge, because the Dharma is not make-it-up-as-you-go-along. There’s something that must be learned, and there is tradition, but that tradition has to be delivered clearly in dialogue. If you’re a young person going to a retreat and people are talking about aging and menopause, that’s not skillful teaching. When there are young people in the room, we older teachers are going to have to listen and be challenged and changed.

IRIS BRILLIANT: In addition to trying to lessen the heavy authority role that seems to come with a lot of teachers, one of the things that makes people want to come back, especially on teen retreats, is when they make close bonds with their peers, and then stay in touch and check in with one another.

Trying to foster areas in which young people can meet other young people who are as dedicated as they are and are willing to support one another would help a lot. It helps to find young leaders who are willing to rally people together. Having a great teacher isn’t quite enough. You really need people your age.

If you have more workshops directly focused on how the Dharma can help you do more effective social action, which will draw a younger and more diverse crowd and help to demonstrate a broader focus.

SUMI LOUNDON KIM: This broader focus includes redefining the very idea of a Dharma teacher. There are a lot of young people thinking about roles not just as Dharma teachers in the traditional way, but as chaplains in hospices and hospitals, even in the military. Dharma practice may be married with quite a range of professions, roles, and causes. We’re in a pioneering phase. It’s a little daunting, but we are stumbling toward a path.