So, for the sake of this discussion, I'm going to define what is the difference and distinction between a Buddhist American and an American Buddhist. An American Buddhist is someone who was raised in a non-Buddhist household and found Buddhism later in their life. A Buddhist American is someone who was raised in a Buddhist household who happens to be living in America. I am a Buddhist American, and the experience of being a practicing Buddhist America is a sea of American Buddhists is incredibly strange and sometimes unnerving.
When you look for blogs and media on Buddhism, you will find more often than not the personal experiences of American Buddhists who pretty much all follow a similar path towards Buddhism. They usually come from a Christian household with parents of varying religiousness. They tend to become exposed to Buddhism while as a teen or young adult, some even while middle aged. They then develop a strong interest or fascination and then find ways to devote themselves to the practice.
There is nothing wrong with American Buddhists. But the writings and experiences were almost always centralized on either American Buddhists or foreign Buddhists. Never do you see the stories and experiences of Buddhist Americans who grew up in a household here in America, but also surrounded by the Buddhist teachings and lifestyle. Those experiences growing up are important and there are many observations of a Buddhist American that are left out of the main story.
First, there is the topic of devoutness. Devout Buddhist Americans are rare and far between. I grew up in a highly religious Buddhist family and they are incredibly religious themselves. Growing up, I knew many other Buddhists, but some couldn’t name key principles like the five precepts or the Eightfold Path or even the notion that Heaven and Nirvana aren’t the same things. They were usually Buddhist in name alone. If they considered themselves practicing, they only ever went to temple on the holidays a few months out of the year. In fact, most religious Buddhists I've met and had deep conversations with were typically American Buddhists.
The best possible explanation for this discrepancy is that fact that Buddhism is very ingrained in culture. It is a common conception that Buddhism is a reason-based, practical religion that everyone can get. That’s not necessarily untrue but it doesn’t show up in many practicing Buddhist Americans. Many do it out of tradition.
In the same way, Buddhism is practiced largely out of culture rather than a true inspiration from the teachings. Many Buddhists Americans never become pious because Buddhism is a custom to them, not a way of life. Many Buddhists Americans go to temple because that’s just what people of their ethnicity do, or because it’s a left over tradition from the ancestor’s home country. They don’t go to learn or to develop who they are, and they don’t practice in their daily life. It’s hard to identify as a Buddhist American when you can’t tell the difference between Buddhist lifestyle and an Asian heritage.
I grew up with my dad always teaching me about the way of a Buddhist. While it is still hard to separate my views as a Buddhist sometimes with my only cultural heritage as a Vietnamese American, I try my hardest to include both in my life. When it comes to going to temple, I make up for the fact that I can’t go, by meditating in my dorm to the best of my abilities. Sometimes, I have to put on music and use my meditation beads to really concentrate on blocking out the daily distractions of college life.
It's still incredibly hard at times when my religion, which is considered one of the biggest and oldest world religions in existence, categorizes me once again as an outsider, a minority. Even when I'm with people who are from the same background as me, most are Catholics or Christians or non-religious. In all my life, I've never met anyone who fit all the same "major" categories or labels as me. Even growing up in the Bay Area, home of the most amount of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. I've never known another Buddhist American. It's hard not having people who understand what it's like.
I take it in strides, and I like telling people about Buddhism when I can. And I mean real Buddhism and all of its principles, not just what the up and coming hipsters and hardcore activist vegans and teenage Instagram-obsessed girls say is Buddhism. But, rather, telling the story of Siddhartha Gautama, and his entire life's mission to understand suffering and how anyone can rise above momentary suffering. Nirvana is not feeling nothing, but feeling everything and understanding that nothing lasts, so we must savor and truly experience moments while they are happening.
