ifeng.com (4) 佛教在美国 – 魏德东 Buddhism in America, comments by Wei Dedong

佛教在美国：说说中国佛教对美国的“渗透”2009年03月11日 10:15魏德东的新浪博客

Buddhism in America: to talk a little bit about Chinese Buddhism permeating into America, 11 Mar 09 – Wei Dedong’s Xinlang blog

很多人都担心外国宗教渗透中国。这也是事实，不过，中国宗教也在渗透外国。

Many are worried about foreign religion permeating China. This is true, but nevertheless, Chinese religion is also permeating foreign countries.

2008年放春假，休斯敦的朋友约我去看看那里的佛寺和道场。2天的时间，我们参访了德州佛教会的玉佛寺、台湾中台禅寺休斯敦道场、新加坡净宗学会休斯敦分会、华严莲社、居士组织菩提精舍、佛光山休斯敦分会以及真佛宗休斯敦道场。管中窥豹，所见所闻使我深深体会到汉传佛教在美国的发展，“随风潜入夜，润物细无声”，不知不觉之中，汉传佛教遍地开花，已经渗透到美国社会的各个角落。

During spring break of 2008, my Houston friends and I had agreed to go take a look at the local Buddhist temples and Dharma Centers. In two days, we visited the Texas Buddhist Association’s Jade Buddha Temple (玉佛寺), Taiwan Zhong Tai Shan’s Houston Dharma Center, Singapore’s Pure Land Study Group’s branch assembly, the Hua Yan Lotus Society, a lay organized Bodhi Study Center, Fo Guang Shan’s Houston branch, and the True Buddha Lineage Houston Study Center. What emerged in the midst of those affairs was that I realized very profoundly that Mahayana Buddhism in America has developed “stealthily entering the night on the wind, a soft creature without any sound,” and in our unconsciousness, Mahayana Buddhism had bloomed everywhere, and had already permeated every corner of America.

1978年，祖籍江苏仪征的净海法师来到休斯敦，次年创建德州佛教会，1980年建成佛光寺。佛光寺是一个很小的道场，但它是德克萨斯州以及周边诸州的第一个佛教道场，净海法师由此被誉为美南佛教第一人，开拓者。1990年，德州佛教会在唐人街上建成了美轮美奂的玉佛寺，享誉全美。2000年以后，他们又在郊区购买了500英亩土地，并修建了美国菩提中心，将于2009年4月开光，并以此纪念美南佛教30周年。玉佛寺的特点是平实、中庸、理性，不走极端。在佛教思想上，以现代中国的人间佛教思想为主调，同时较为侧重原始佛教的精神；在宗教活动上，重视讲经说法，同时禅修、念佛、放生、慈善，还有各种佛教学习班、理论研讨班以及英文佛学班、粤语佛学班等。玉佛寺非常重视文化传播，有藏书数万册的图书馆，有《佛光法苑》月刊，有网站，还有中文学校。佛教会目前有会员2000人左右，其中作为骨干的护法委员约300人。玉佛寺成为休斯敦地区民众接触佛教的首选道场。

In 1978, Dharma Master Jinghai whose ancestral registry was in Yi Zheng of Jiangsu Province came to to Houston, and in the following year established the Houston Buddhist Association. In 1980 he built Buddha’s LIght Temple. Buddha’s llight Temple was a very small Dharma Center, but it was the only Buddhist Study Center in Texas and its neighboring states, and because of this Dharma Master Jinghai was praised as the first person in southwest American Buddhism, the founder. In 1990, the Texas Buddhist Association built the beautiful Jade Buddha Temple in Chinatown, which was applauded throughout America. After 2000, they also bought 500 acres of land in the suburbs, and built the American Bodhi Center, which was officially opened in April 2009, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of southern American Buddhism. Jade Buddha Temple’s special points are to be simple and unadorned, ordinary, rational, and don’t go to extremes, and this is the central message of the current Chinese socially engaged Buddhism (人间佛教), and at the same time it is to lay comparatively great emphasis on the original spirit of Buddhism. In their religious activities, they pay great attention to lecturing on scripture and discussing Dharma, while also practicing meditation, Buddha Recitation, liberating the living, and philanthropy. They also have every kind of Buddhist practice group, a theoretical study and discussion group, and also an English-language Buddhist study group, a Cantonese-language study group, and so forth. Jade Buddha Temple is especially focused on the dissemination of culture, and they have a library which houses ten thousand volumes. They have the Buddha’s Light Dharma Garden 《佛光法苑》 monthly magazine, a web site, and a Chinese-language school. The Dharma Assembly at present has about 2000 members, and among those there is a core group of appointed Dharma Protectors numbering 300. Jade Buddha temple has become the foremost site in the Houston area where the masses can contact Buddhism. ((The underlying cultural presumptions of this riff are something that I find exceedingly interesting. Unlike Japanese Buddhism, which originally came to America for the purpose of keeping the Japanese race in America comparatively “pure,” — that purpose having nothing whatsoever at all to do with the teaching of the Buddha if you care to check it — here we have a much broader ilk of Buddhism, the first act of which, on arrival in America, is to attempt, rather successfully in fact, to spread itself around. God, I love this attitude! –xp))

然而，许多人在皈依之后，对玉佛寺的活动渐渐感到不满足，一些学有专攻的道场应运而生。中台禅寺在休斯敦建寺不过6年，其以禅修为核心，发展很快，特别在吸引美国人方面，最具影响力。目前它同时开办10个禅修班，吸引100多美国人参加，人数超过了华人。

Nevertheless many after taking Refuge gradually became disenchanted with the activities at Jade Buddha Temple, and so in response to this a number of study centers with specialized studies arose. Zhong Tai Meditation Temple was built in Houston no more than six years ago, its core teaching is meditation, and it has developed very fast, especially in the area of involving Americans, it has had the greatest power and influence. At present, it is simultaneously running 10 meditation groups, involving over 100 Americans, who outnumber the Chinese.

净宗学会道场的负责人是一位从没到过山东，但操着一口烟台话的长者。他们的活动以念佛为主，同时结缘经书和法器，目前骨干成员有80人左右，其中50多是越南人。越南移民多在70年代末来自南越，都是从死亡线上挣扎到美国，对佛教所说的“苦”有特别深刻的理解。他们有很深的佛教传统，也很喜欢念佛，很多人不懂中文，但依然坚持，现在大都可以用中文念佛，成为净宗学会的主力。实际上这里的越南佛寺也是很多的，我参访一家越南道场时，信众正在念“阿弥陀佛”。

The responsible person at the Pure Lineage Study Center is an elder who although he has never been to Shandong (Province), still manages a mouth full of “smoky platform talk” (烟台话) (a Shandong dialect). Their activities are based on Buddha Recitation together with the associated scriptures and dharma instruments, and at present they have about 80 people in their core group, and of those about 50 are Vietnamese. The Vietnamese immigrants came from Vietnam mostly at the end of the 1970’s, and all of them struggled desperately to come to America from a course leading to death and destruction, and they have an extraordinarily profound understanding of what Buddhism speaks of as “suffering.” They have a very deep Buddhist tradition, and they really like Buddha Recitation. Many of them do not understand Chinese, yet still persist, and now the majority of them can do Buddha Recitatioan in Chinese, and they have become the major component of the Pure lIneage Study Center. Actually, there are a lot of Vitenamese Buddhist temples around here, and when I visited a Vietnamese study center, they were just in the process of reciting “Amito Fo.” ((This reminds me of my own experience at Fo Guang Shan. There is at least one bona fide Buddhasangha on Oahu – that of Aitken Roshi – that has English for its language of instruction. So, looking from the outside, you could say, “Why do you torture yourself by going to this group that speaks a whole melange, only a minority of which ever boils down to Mandarin, which you only have as a second language in any case?” And I could say to you, “You know what? I’d rather be tortured by them than honored by anyone else.” Yeah, I may whine, because after all I’m a human being, but when push comes to shove, that’s how I feel. I will not waste my time running to Palolo Valley! When you practice long enough and hard enough, to the exclusion of all other projects, your Sangha WILL come looking for you, and they will find you, and what they look like and sound like when that happens is beside the point. You can feel their love. In this cycle of time, and particularly with respect to the transmission of the Buddhadharma to America, there is no Buddhist practice without love. None. -xp))

华严莲社以修华严宗为主。我参加的周日活动是诵读《华严经》第十九品，约有30人参加。这家道场占地4英亩，建筑庄严大气，令人震惊。

The Hua Yan Lotus Association is based on practicing in the Hua Yan lineage. What I took part in was the Sunday chanting of the 19th chapter of the Hua Yan Sutra, and there were about 30 participants. This Dharma Center sits on four acres, the construction is awesome and expansive, and it startles people.

菩提精舍是居士组织，由一位宾馆老板创办，道场就在宾馆内，同时开有素斋，使这家宾馆成为弘扬佛教的道场。其负责人王女士是台湾惟心法师的弟子，曾在法师身边修学8年，受到严格的佛教训练，举手投足，一言一行都颇具大家气派。更令人吃惊的是，她的女儿在市中心开办了一家诊所，也供有药师佛像等，并将佛教义理结合到行医看病之中，生意兴隆。这种将佛教与职业生活紧密联系的佛教活动，使我感受到美国人间佛教的精彩。

The Bodhi Pure Abode (菩提精舍) is a lay organization, and it was founded by an old guest house worker. The Dharma Center is right in the guest house, and at the same time she started serving vegetarian food, which has made this guest house a Dharma Center for propagating Buddhadharma. The proprietor Laywoman Wang is a disciple of Taiwan’s Dharma Master Weixin (惟心法师), and practiced at her Dharma Master’s side for eight years, recieving very strict Buddhist training. Serving hand and foot, each word and each action of hers brings out the imposing atmosphere of the group. What is even more surprizing is that her daughter has opened a practice venue in the middle of the dity, supplied with an image of Medicine Buddha and so forth, and furthermore has combined Buddhist principles and good sense into the practice of medicine, and business is flourishing. Buddhist activities which have such an intimate relationship between Buddhist teachings and professional life cause me to be impresssed with America’s socially engaged Buddhism. ((What I’ve translated as “socially engaged Buddhism” (人间佛教) is what Ven. Xing Yun of Fo Guang Shan has styled “Humanistic Buddhism” in an apparent attempt to copywrite the concept in the English literature. It should be understood from its pan-sectarian use here, and throughout the real-time Chinese Buddhist literature, for that matter, that this kind of Buddhism was absolutely not Ven. Xing Yun’s invention. It is the shared concept of modern-era Mahayana Buddhists in general, from all of East Asia, and this term was being used endemically throughout all those lineages before Ven. Xing Yun arrived on the scene. I object to “Humanistic Buddhism” because it raises the spectre of the Humanist Philosophy, which has been the bete noir of both the Catholic Church, since the middle ages, and the American political right, in recent decades, and which really has no connection of any kind with Mahayana Buddhism of any ilk. It was probably the use of this term that caused Ven. Xing Yun to be nailed on a technicality about a $50.00 contribution to the Al Gore presidential campaign, by those same religious and political rightists who are just made stupid by any mention of Humanism in any context. –xp))

((translation ongoing – xp, 13 Jun 09))

佛光山在休斯敦也10来年了，早已由租房变成道场，一座大殿，一座很大的地藏殿，供骨灰。现在大殿内有个小的展厅，展示观音造像。周末的下午，似乎很冷清，没太多人气，与传统印象中的佛光山大不同。虽然事前两次电话联系，却也无人愿予指点一二。我们在滴水坊喝了杯茶，作了布施之后，离去。

Fo Guang Shan has also been in Houston for 10 years, and from an early rented space turned into a Dharma Center, with a Great Hall, a very large Dicang Hall in which to offer burial remains. Now there is a small central room inside the Great Hall, displaying an image of Guan Yin. In the afternoon on weekends, it seems very desolate, with not too much human vitality, very unlike the traditional photos of Fo Guang Shan. Although I phoned several times in advance to liason, there still was no one there willing to point out a thing or two. We just drank a cup of tea in the Water-drop Priest’s Residence, and after giving a donation, left. ((It’s hard to even write in English the dreadful implications which every Chinese person who reads this will feel. Here is an outfit that perpetually spouts propaganda about “Humanistic Buddhism,” and when you go there, what do you actually find? No people! HUGE architecture, but nobody’s at home. It’s like a ghost town. The images that I’ve seen online of Hsi Lai Temple, Fo Guang Shan’s showcase center near LA in southern California, project exactly the same lonliness. And it’s SO unlike the tiny little Honolulu FGS Dharma Center that I know. But what I notice there as well is the same failure to come to earth. If I’m just passing through Chinatown, I will visit Kuan Yin Temple and not Fo Guang Shan, because KYT feels like an Asian temple that is open to everybody when it’s open. FGS does not feel that way at all. If you go there at the wrong time, you’re likely to run into a wall of attitude even if they’re open, simply because they’re doing something else, and they don’t trust you to be there if they can’t monitor you 100% of the time. I don’t think it’s just because I’m not Chinese. The place just defaults to a cold atmosphere, and I’m sure everyone feels it and stays away. — xp))

真佛宗的道场原为一教堂，面积很大。一位资深成员林先生和我们聊了很久，陪我去的一对夫妇本身也是会员。根据聊天，我粗浅知道，真佛宗师尊卢胜彦将道教、佛教禅宗、净土宗、人间佛教以及藏密、汉密等综合在一起，提供了进入佛教的新法门，重点似乎不在创新。他将密教的许多秘密传承的内容公开化，并看作是重要的贡献。有关佛寺建筑过程的奇迹很多，似乎也比较容易出现各类神通。佛寺的内外建筑都很类似玉佛寺，我提出这点后，他们都说，也许我们潜意识受了玉佛寺的影响。

The True Buddha Lineage(真佛宗)’s Dharma Center originally was a church, and it covers a large area. A very talented member, Mr Li, chatted with us for a long time, and the pair of ladies who sent me off were also committee members. ((Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um! – from the ice caves of Fo Guang Shan to some normal Chinese manners. Gosh, I’m glad we made it back to civilization without any more wierdness! No, it’s probably not raining yet. That sound you hear must be the sarcasm and innuendo dripping off of everything in the area. –xp)) According to the chat, what I understand coarsely and superficially is that the True Buddha Lineage’s venerated master Lu Shengzhan amalgamated Taoism, the Buddhist Chan Lineage, the Pure Land Lineage, Socially Engaged Buddhism, and also the Tibetan Secret School and Mahayana esotericism and so forth together as one, and brought forth a new Buddhist Dharma-gate, but the point is not that it is new. He has taken many of the contents of the secret transmissions and made them public, and that is seen as an important contributioin. There have been many miracles in the course of constructing associated Buddhist temples, and it also seems to be comparatively easy to manifest every kind of spiritual power. The Buddha temple’s external and internal constriuction is very similar to Jade Buddha Temple, and after I pointed this out, they also said that it was possible that they had unconsiously recieved Jade Buddha Temple’s influence. ((This kind of stuff might actually bear some fruit here and there, but from an orthodox Buddhist point of view, it is inferior to Fo Guang Shan, ice cave though it may be at times. Life is short, and it is futile to be side-tracked by the tiny little attainments of all of the esoteric schools without exception. To go on those paths is simply to sell your great and noble birth-right for some tiny little pieces of mind candy. Enlightenment itself is the only thing that survives the death of this meat-body, and what actually leads straight to Enlightenment is some REALLY boring stuff like Precepts, and dying with Amida’s name on your lips. -xp))

依据当代宗教理论，在宗教自由的前提下，一定会出现多元化的宗教团体，以满足信众的不同需求，而不同的团体之间，也必会形成一定的竞争关系，竞争之后的结果，将促成宗教整体的繁荣。休斯敦地区华人佛教团体的发展，再次印证了这一理论。每一个道场都有自己的特点，特点不明显的，就比较困难。玉佛寺的全面，中台的禅修，净宗的念佛，真佛宗的密，都使他们有相对较好的发展。佛光山的发展似乎没有想象的好，原来大厅里有个宏伟的建筑效果图，要建成整个美洲的核心道场，现在已经看不到了，现在的大殿，实际是规划中的餐厅。我个人的解释是，佛光山在休斯敦没有找到自己的特点。在走访中，也听到有人抱怨“就那么多信徒，节日的时候显得人不够用”，但实际上，休斯敦地区目前仅华人就有三十多万，整个人口五六百万，扩大中国佛教的影响，争取更多信徒才是应对之道。

According to current theory of religion, under the premises of religious freedom, religious groups of many basic permutations can certianly appear to fulfill the different needs and esires of the masses, and among the different groups, there will necessarily form definite competitive implications, and results from competition, to help bring about the overall flourishing of religion. The development of Chinese Buddhist organizations in the Houston area has once again verified this theory. Every Dharma Center has its distingushing characteristics, and if the distinguishing characteristics are not outstanding, it is comparatively difficult. Jade Buddha Temple’s comprehensiveness, Zhong Tai’s meditation practice, the Pure Lineage’s Buddha Recitation, and the True Buddha Lineage’s esotericism have all led to their relatively and comparatively good development. Fo Guang Shan’s development seems not to have been as good in Houston. Originally the Great Hall had a magnificent drawing of finished construction; they wanted to build a nuclear Dharma Center for the American continent, but now, it can no longer be seen. The present Great Hall, in reality, was what was planned as the dining room. My personal interpretation is that Fo Guang Shan in Houston has not found its distinguishing characteristic. In the midst of my travels, I also heard people holding a grudge about: “There are so many believing disciples, but on a festival day, those who appear are not sufficient to the purpose.” But in reality, in the Houston Area, there are only some 300,000 Chinese, out of a total population of 65 million. To contend for more disciples is just counter-productive. ((我很明显，佛光山之特点就是为他人服务。惨的是，佛光山的方丈尼们大班还没晓得，美国人所须要的究竟是什么样的服务。她们非常好打算的 『节日』对我们往往会当成一席忍不住的困难, 华侨包括在内。为什么呢？因为她们还猜不得美国人民主义的基本性，华侨包括在内。It’s obvious to me that the distingushing characteristic of Fo Guang Shan is serving others. What’s sad is that the Abbess’ of Fo Guang Shan mostly still have not woken up to what kind of service it is that Americans need. The “Festival Days” that they so like to plan often turn into a whole scene of intolerable misery for us, Chinese-Americans included. And why? Because they still can’t guess the fundamental nature of American democracy, Chinese-Americans included. -xp))

美国政府对移民宗教的发展乐观其成，大力支持。1990年6月2日玉佛寺落成典礼的时候，休斯敦市长助理宣布当天为“休斯敦玉佛寺日”，感谢玉佛寺提升了这一社区的品质，为华人移民提供了优美的精神生活的家园，为美国人了解东方宗教和文化打开了窗口，促进了休斯敦文化的多元。激动之下，德克萨斯州的州长代表也以同样的理由，宣布这一天为“德克萨斯州玉佛寺日”。当我看到数以百计的华人家庭以玉佛寺为核心，在满足宗教需求的同时，开开心心地说中国话，吃中国饭，交中国朋友，直至喜结良缘的时候，我体会到，美国之所以成为世界各民族的熔炉，要件之一就是世界各宗教的熔炉。此亦为大国之道，不可不察。

The American government is glad to see the development of immigrants’ religion, and has supported it very effectively. At the time of the formal ceremony at the completion of Jade Buddha Temple, Houston’s vice-mayor proclaimed that day “Houston Jade Buddha Temple Day,” and he thanked Jade Buddha Temple for promoting this community asset, in offering Chinese immigrants this exceedingly beautiful home for their spiritual life, and opening a window for Americans to understand eastern religion and culture, and promoting Houston’s cultural diversity. In all of the excitement, the Texas governor’s delegate also, for the same kinds of reasons, proclaimed this day to be “Texas Jade Buddha Temple Day.” Moreover, I have seen households numbered in the hundreds which have Jade Buddha Temple for their central focus, who at the same time as satisfying their search for religion, very joyously speak Chinese, eat Chinese food, meet Chinese friends, to the point that when happily creating good condtions, I realized that of what makes America the melting pot of all the world’s ethnicities, the most important point is that it is the melting pot of all the world’s religions. This is also the Path of a great nation, and one should not neglect it. ((This is the kind of thing that the leadership of Fo Guang Shan would desparately like to have said and written about their efforts, and it’s important to understand why they just haven’t merited that. Briefly, there is no Dharma Master Jinghai (净海法师) at Fo Guang Shan – no one who is willing to go to America for the purpose of transmitting the Buddhadharma to America. Hey, but didn’t Ven. Xing Yun do that too, when he established Xi Lai Temple in Southern California? He absolutely did not do that at all! His stated goal was to provide programs for immigrants from Taiwan. That is another intention completely, and it is an inferior intention. The Taiwanese don’t need the kind of help that the American mainstream does, and that’s why all these huge expensive piles of Fo Guang Shan architecture in America basically stand empty – they were designed to serve the Taiwanese, and the Taiwanese as a whole ethnic group don’t need this kind of service. This is exactly the same thing that is happening in the Japanese lineages on American soil, but in their case the malaise took up to seven generations to become terminal. I think we can expect to see this at Fo Guang Shan in my lifetime. Ethnic American Buddhists should simply buy all these dying Asian temples, and run them as part of the American religious mainstream. -xp))