Annotated Bibliography

1.) Clarke, Richard. Buddhism Comes to America. The Living Dharma Center: Wisdom Films, 1990.

This Film discusses how in the 1960’s people were becoming more drawn to Eastern philosophy. Clarke presents the question, “Why has the West become interested in Zen” and as the movie goes on he explains that the eastern way offers answers to many of life’s hardest lessons. By showing its views, the practice of Zen and the Buddhist teaching, he claims that Buddhism gives people a way to understand and live happily in the universe. I found his discussion on American Buddhism to be the most helpful in my research. He explains that in America, our fast passed lives and materialistic nature only perpetuates our suffering. He makes it clear that these are all ways that we choose to occupy our time, but ways that don’t answer any real questions. He is very hopeful however, saying that Americans are always ready for a good challenge. Buddhism is very challenging as a practice and as a way of life, if Americans are willing to accept this challenge and recognize that we are no different then the rest of the world describes Clarke, then we have the opportunity to enter the global village and raise our consciousness as all humans in one universe.

2.) Layman, Emma M.. Buddhism In America. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1976.

Beginning with the Introduction, Layman states that wherever Buddhism is found, there is a “varied picture.” She goes on to explain, connecting directly with my research that modern Buddhism probably has “more denominations and sects that does Christianity” and each sect differing in practice in distinct ways or very minuscule ways. This was very helpful for me because my aim with this project is to explain that in America, as Buddhism becomes more prevalent, a new sect will arise that has molded to the culture that we live in. Later in her book she describes the history of Buddhism in America coming to the conclusion that although Buddhism was around since the late 1800’s, the biggest involvement came after World War II. I also found that her understanding of American from a Buddhist perspective was very helpful because she explains what it means to be an American and then what it means to be a Buddhist. She Say that America is “characterized by great diversity” and that there are many changes that are continuing to occur within American Buddhism as it tries to find a place in our society. She also gives an over view of each sect of Buddhism from the Purland sect to Tanta, to Nichren, and to Zen, which I found most important since so much of my discussion revolves around Zen Lunacy and the Beat Generation’s understanding of Zen Buddhism

3.) Prebish, Charles S. American Buddhism. Massachusetts: Duxbury Press, 1979.

  Prebrish also states that the decade after World War II is when Zen exploded. Then giving and overview of the different sects of Buddhism; Zen, Nichiren, Theravada, Tibetan, and Chinese, he aims to go into great detail about how these traditions of Buddhism has found there way in American society. I found his analysis of post war growth to be very important for my research because it clearly depict what conditions arose to spark Americans’ interest in Buddhism. He depicts, like Clarke that Buddhism aimed to find “reasonable answers” to life’s questions. I also found it very interesting that he believe that the sects of Buddhism that stress formal meditation are the ones most American’s are drawn. He uses quotes from other beatniks to describe how and why the beats found Zen. I found one quote in particular that states how and why the beats were able to find the practice of Zen. To paraphrase, it say that the beats rejected every idea of the American dream, they didn’t want or need the same material success that was being force upon them. In rejecting this way of life that so many Americans latched on to they formed and “antimyth;”
Following only the rules they gave themselves, in turn as they sought spirituality they found Zen. This idea of how the beats found Zen is extremely interesting and since this is when Zen exploded, Prebish claims that this is one of the greater transformations Buddhism has seen. As he goes on, He describes time period by time period Buddhism affect in America especially with relationship to Vietnam, the counter culture in America, the death of God, the Drug culture, and searching for lifestyles. The last thing that I found very important was how Prebish describes that there are only two Buddhism in American; one that exploded out of the counterculture, emphasizing a reaction against the man and the other, emphasizing gradual growth and practice. He describes that Buddhism can develop out of a “hip movement” and not have the lasting effects. This section was particularly good because, I am claiming that a new sect of Buddhism is forming in America, or in this case, a third type of Buddhism in America that is a meshing of both an ideal to live by and the fundamental practice of Buddhist teachings.

4.) Prebish, Charles S, and Martin Baumann. Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

This book gave a very broad view of Buddhism all over the west. It was hard to sift through the material and find what was really important to me, but I after reading for some time I found a section on “American Buddhism in the Making.” This was very helpful because the authors suggested that there is no doubt that an American dharma of its own will form, but that it will take a while for that to happen. I thought it was very interesting that they believe that this transformation is in the hands of Americans, however I was confused if they were making the claim that a whole entirely new dharma will form. And if that is the case I would not agree with the authors. The section on America was helpful but since the book covers many countries in the west, it did not goes as in depth as I would have like. Going through the other sections it became clear to me however that there is a very significant trend happening with Buddhism in the west and all over the transformation has similarities and differences. This was a helpful observation because it reiterates the fact that a new sect of Buddhism is forming.

5.) Ryomin, Akizuki. New Mahayana: Buddhism for a Post-Modern World. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1990.

This author describes Buddhism in the Post-Modern world as a medicine. He goes through the ideas and teachings in Buddhism and relates them to a way of cleansing yourself of the illness which is suffering. This source goes more into detail about how the teachings of Buddhism can apply to the present moment, it does not talk very much about the west or America, but in reading I found a connection between the way of life in American and the way of life for a Buddhist which are drastically different. One way Ryomin connects this with the west is when he discusses Christianity with Buddhism. I found this very interesting because as a Buddhist he remains very open about other religious practice and goes to far to say that the sometime the best Buddhist is a Christian. Although the book wasn’t that helpful, it gave me a perspective on the teaching from a eastern monk’s point of view and as a practicing western Buddhist I found truth in a lot of what he was saying about the practice of Buddhism.

6.) Seager, Richard H. Buddhism in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

This book was very helpful for many reasons. To begin, the author gave a background of the American setting and its relationship to Buddhism. This was helpful for me because I could see how Buddhism connects to the society that we live in, a society that is very different from Buddhist countries like Tibet. He talks briefly about the beat generation, and includes a discussion on Kerouac’s the Dharma Bums. He focuses primarily on Gary Snyder because he was the most informed about Buddhism during this time. He talks about the type of Buddhist the beats were as the tried to find a link between nirvana and the use of drugs. He discusses this time as the point in American Buddhism where teachers were having a hard time pulling together all the loose ends. What was more important than his analysis of the beats was his explanation of how the dhrama was received in America from Asia. He describe the spread of Buddhism and through it movement it transformed into new sects within each new community. This understanding was very important for me to grasp because it is even more evident for me that the American Dharma will mold to our society just as it did in the east.

7.) Buddha Dharma Education Association. 2008. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: www.buddhanet.net.

This site was very helpful because it allowed me to explore many areas of buddhism which refreshed my memory about many of the precepts of buddhism I had forgotten. This site is very well designed and there are many scholarly articles on the site that give more than just an overview of buddhism. This site is very dense and has a lot to it, any question about the fundamentals of buddhism can be answered on this site. The sections I found most interesting were the topic on change and attachment, which after doing this research helped me come up with other pages for my site.

8.) Harvey, Peter. An introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, history, and practices.Cambridge University Press. 1990.

This book has a very good introduction on the teaching of buddhism, the history, and various practices from different sects of buddhism. It was very informational and I was able to use this source to help me make the Foundations of Buddhism page better. What I found most helpful was the converstations on how we can end our suffering and make our lives better by focusing on our breathing.

9.) Robinson, Richard, William L. Johnson, and Thanissaro Bhikku. Buddhist Religions.California: Wadsworth Publishing. 2004.

Although I did not really use this book for my research there was won quote in particular that I though would contribute to my page on ending suffering. The quote depicts perfectly how our desires lead to attachment and how our attachments only lead to more and more suffering. I thought that it would be helpful to include this information about how we can end our suffering and this book helped me figure out the best to explain this to the audience that reads this page on Buddhism.

10.) Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal talks on Zen Medition and Practice. Boston: Shambhala Publications. 2007.

This book was orignially published in the 1960 after Suzuki Roshi has spent a lot of time teaching the Beatniks about Zen Buddhism. I found it helpful because within the context of time, it is evident that Suzuki was making his teaching more acceptable for the American way of life. He tried through this book to make buddhism accessible for any American who make come across it. What I found most important in my research was how the author tied the practice of zen with letting go of our attachments and accepting change. Very creatively writen and definietely succesful in reaching its audience, I see this book as a major contribution to how Buddhism is being shaped in America.