The spirituality of Buddhist teens: religious/spiritual experiences and their associated triggers, attributes and attitudes

Abstract

In the quantitative analysis of a survey of 417 13- to 20-year-old Buddhists, the 48% who had undergone a religious or spiritual experience (RSE) were significantly more likely to self-identify as a spiritual person. Buddhists who had undergone RSEs were also more positive about spiritual teachers, a monastic vocation, attitude to Buddhism, supernatural phenomena and mystical orientation. In the qualitative part of the analysis, descriptions of RSEs volunteered by 107 of these teens were compared with non-Buddhist categories for triggers and attributes. For Buddhist teens, triggers seemed to include a higher percentage of positive states of mind, especially those cultivated in meditation. Buddhist RSEs seemed to represent a subset of possible RSE categories previously described suggesting that Buddhist RSEs come from a spiritual root shared with ‘mystics’ of other religions. The article argues that the role of RSEs in Buddhist nurture would seem to concern development of worldview rather than ideology or collectivism.

Keywords:

• spirituality
• Buddhism
• teenagers
• spiritual experience
• religious experience
• mysticism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Revd. Canon Prof. Leslie J. Francis (University of Warwick) and Dr. Mandy Robbins (Glyndŵr University) for supervision of this research. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at St Marys RE Centre Annual Symposium, Penmaenmawr, Wales between 22-24 October 2013.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Office of National Statistics, ‘2011 Census: Key Statistics for England and Wales, March 2011’ http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_290685.pdf and ‘Religion (detailed) by sex by age – England and Wales’ http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/census-data/2011-census-ad-hoc-tables/ct0116---religion--detailed--by-sex-by-age---england-and-wales.xls, accessed 17 September 2015.

2. Personal audience (lit. a ‘viewing’) with a guru in the Hindu tradition.

3. Having adjusted for the likely proportion misunderstanding the question as detailed in the procedure section.

4. Some other authors refer to similar patterns as value differences or value-domain differences (Francis and Penny 2013).

5. RSE+ Buddhists were also less dependent on the Internet, TV, heightened sensitivity to violence and discrimination, less establishment values concerning school and work.

6. Vegetarianism is an aspect of Buddhist practice for some forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism; being vegetarian would be considered a form of religious piety.

7. Given that Rankin has used other synonyms for her category names – for example, Rankin’s silence during a retreat might be compared to temporary renunciation of busy life, as Buddhists would see it.