The American Encounter with Buddhism

Before reading “The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent” by Thomas A. Tweed I had no experience with Buddhism except for what I have seen in the movies and in the media. Seeing Buddhism through these different sources, it does not portray an accurate illustration of what the religion is truly regarding. Having little to no knowledge about the background of the religion makes reading this book both interesting and a little difficult to read at the same time. In Buddhism, two groupings define the religion. The first group is known as “The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism,” the categories underneath are life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable, and lastly, the path to the cessation of suffering. The second group is “The Eightfold Path,” which consists of, the right view, the right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and lastly, the right concentration. Once read and understood the different points, it made this literature easier to comprehend and made for smoother reading.

Thomas Tweed brings up some interesting points when it has to do with Buddhism. He brings up how the spread of Buddhism was a difficult road to go down. It had made tribulations to go through before actually being accepting in society. There are a couple major reasons why Buddhism had a rough history. One reason is that it was an Asian influenced religion. At this time in America people of Asian origin were not allowed to come to America, so when Buddhism was introduced to Americans it was not popular with the majority of the citizens. Another was the classification of Buddhism as a religion. Buddhism had this conflict of categorization of whether it was a philosophy or an actual religion. Many believed Buddhism was a philosophy because Buddhism is more of a way of life that a religion. However, for the believers and followers of Buddhism it was much more than just a philosophy it was their faith. The reason it was grouped in with the rest of the different philosophy’s and not a religion because Buddhism was not similar to other religions. There is no “One Being” that is prayed to like Christianity or Protestant. Buddhism does not consist of praying but meditating and self-discipline. Therefore, when Buddhism was introduced to Americans this idea of not praying to a God and not having to go to Church on Sundays was intimidating to the religious community in America.

One contributing factor to the struggle of Buddhism was how far off the “norm” Buddhism is compared to the other major religions. In Tweeds book he states that in order for a religion to be successful and spread its influence it cannot be too similar in its ways compared to the bigger religions because the population will not be influenced enough to change beliefs because between the two religions they would be to similar. In addition, on the other side a new religion cannot be on the opposite of the spectrum compared to other religions because no one would want to convert because of the drastic change in belief and ways of life. This conflict has not only caused problems for just Buddhism but also other struggling religions trying to accomplish the same objectives.

To make an effort to help Buddhism come along and get passed the struggle Paul Carus desired “to see an American artist create a visual image of the Buddha to express and supplement that verbal picture which was being sketched in books, articles, and lectures.” This was an idea to promote and could possibly contribute to the spread of Buddhism and having a painter make it a “hit if they succeeded in giving a fixed type to the conception of Buddha, not according to Japanese and Chinese style, but according to more modern American notion.” This was almost a desperate attempt just to make Buddhism acceptable in the American society, “for a tangible representation of an American Buddha…with some fundamental features of the leading religions and dominant culture.” However, even with a physical American interpretation of Buddha this struggling religion was far of being in the clear of all its conflicts.

My reaction to reading this book actually had an influential impact on how I view different religions and have a better understanding of how certain religions have to struggle just to be accepted in society. As far as my religious views and beliefs are I was very closed minded to other religions, just because I was brought up as Christian and I did not have any other influence of other religions in my life. When this book was assigned to me to read I was actually excited because I never read a book or never experienced a religion like