Buddhism in Australia

[sqbr]

I keep having ideas for posts, deciding to wait until I expand them a bit, then forgetting. So I'm going to try just saying whatever pops into my head when I'm inspired. So:

While googling for something totally unrelated I came across Teachings of Some Christian Churches Drive Some Converts to Buddhism, which says that Australia has the largest Buddhist population of any western nation (interesting) and implies that ALL Australian Buddhists are white ex-christians (um?). This didn't sound right to me, so I looked up Buddhism in Australia on wikipedia, and it implies that ALL Australian Buddhists are asian immigrants or their descendants.

I assume the reality is somewhere in between(*) (white ex-christian Buddhists do definitely exist :)), but further towards the latter. Because afaict anglo-australian attitudes to religion tend to be fairly average for a western country, certainly places like Sweden or France seem even less Christian than we are but haven't turned as much to Buddhism.

Anyway, I found it interesting for the assumptions it brings to light: Lots of Australians are Buddhist. Australians are by default white and from a Christian background. Therefore, all Australian Buddhists must be white ex-Christians!

Also, I just want to say that I think the little "contemplative" rabbit mood-icon, with it's teeny carrot thoughts, is adorable. It brings me joy every time I make a thinky post :)

(*)And includes Australians from mixed cultural backgrounds, converts from non-Christian religions etc.

Comments

[hl]

Just yesterday (that is, Sunday) I was thinking about Buddhism. My ex-Aunt (that is, the mother of my cousins) converted to Buddhism a while back (can't remember exactly how much time back--but it's conceivable that it has been twenty years or so ago). My cousin (her daughter) is staying at my house and she had to go to a nearby Buddhist temple to buy some stuff for her mother that she couldn't get where she lives (south of the country), so we went with her, taking advantage the day was very nice to walk out. I was thinking about cultural appropriation and Occidental Buddhism all the way there.

Uhm, nothing concrete to say, really, as I know too little of the subject to have any opinion on it all, except that (white) middle class converting to Buddhism appears to be not exactly uncommon here, either.

[sqbr]

Yes, I think Buddhism has a small but significant following in many traditionally Christian countries. *digs around Wikipedia* Apparently Argentina is 0.1% Buddhist versus our 2.1%.

[trouble]

Don's mother's new husband is very much into Buddhism-lite, as I call it, and is quite evangelical about it as well.

[sqbr]

I have trouble being objective about those sorts of Buddhists since my sister is one and can be really smug about it :)

[aquaeri]

I'm pretty sure the majority of active Australian Buddhists are of Asian background, based on who I see hanging around the local temples, and who was participating in the Buddhist open house/festival thing we went to a few years ago (at South Bank, so very much "middle of Brisbane" sort of stuff). On the other hand, I don't know who writes "Buddhist" on their census forms.

I consider myself a fringe/philosophical Buddhist, because it's the closest existing thing to what I want religiously/philosophically, particularly including its ability to adapt and change (which is why I'm not that reluctant to call myself a Buddhist.)

[sqbr]

I know two aussie Buddhists and they're both white (three counting you! :)), but I'm willing to acknowledge that's not a representative or statistically significant sample :D