Word: buddhists
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...This daily morning meditation, hosted by the graduate student sector of the Harvard Buddhist Community (HBC) and regularly offered since the mid-1980s, is part of a growing interest in Buddhism on campus and nationally. According to data collected in the American Religious Identification Survey, a study run by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the percentage of Americans who identified themselves as Buddhist doubled from 1990 to 2001 (0.23 percent to 0.53 percent). While a portion of these numbers comes from the immigrant Asian population, “there has also been a turn toward...
...gift of calm nothingness should thus be available to people of all religious persuasions. In fact, the Tranquility Room itself was set up by a previous tutor who was Ba’hai, according to Radich, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Buddhist Studies. The room, the very name of which reflects its focus, exists not to spread certain religious or even philosophical beliefs, but to “provide a space for different ways people can step outside and look [at themselves,]” says Radich, “and meditation can do that regardless of whether...
Modern interest in the practice of Buddhism still incorporates that scientific mindset. Many Harvard students who practice Buddhist meditation reiterate their fondness for what they perceive as Buddhism’s compatibility with science. These student practitioners often bring up the Dalai Lama’s stance on Buddhism and science, that “if Buddhism and science don’t agree, we have to follow science.” This institutional willingness to be corrected is refreshing to many, including Myhrum, who spent the summer after her first year of college studying and meditating at a monastery...
Indeed, the central difference between Buddhism in America and in Asia is meditation. Though most Americans may perceive Buddhism as primarily practiced through meditation, that is certainly not the historical case. Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, says that traditionally, “meditation is usually done only by specialized people,” such as monks, nuns and yogis. These specialists typically spend much more time on meditation than most modern lay people. Myhrum recalls a funny conversation from her stay at a monastery in Taiwan, when a bemused nun asked...
...appeal of Buddhism, however, is not just about life-changing meditation practice. It’s also an increasingly popular field of academic study. The Buddhist studies program at Harvard is “expanding rapidly,” Visiting Professor of East Asian Studies and Religious Studies Robert M. Gimello says, pointing out that “there are more professors and graduate students studying Buddhism at Harvard than any other institution in the country.” This interest in studying Buddhism is not a 21st century development. In fact, it goes back to the late 19th century...