Internal Diversity in Buddhism: Comparing the Values of Buddhist Teens Raised by Heritage and Convert Parents

ABSTRACT

Self-assigned religious affiliation has been linked to different extents with other aspects of religiosity in Christians, but this correlation has not previously been studied for Buddhists. In this study, relevant attitudes were examined through focus groups conducted with 75 heritage- and convert-raised Buddhist teenagers at seven British locations. Issues investigated included identity, spirituality, congregational participation, hopes, worries, fears, parents, friends, substance use, and right and wrong. Similarities between the two groups did not particularly show Buddhist content. Contrasts included values concerning life after death, Buddhist identifiers, place of congregation, hopes, parental formality, spiritual teachers, femininity, meditation and the Sangha, alcohol and marijuana. The recommendations arising from this study are that social policy-makers working with religious identifiers would benefit from having awareness of the complex dynamic of religious styles in respect of Buddhism, shown in this research, and that future research on Buddhist identity and values should be clearly qualified by considerations of religious style.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Revd. Canon Prof. Leslie J. Francis (University of Warwick) and Dr. Mandy Robbins (Glyndŵr University) for their supervision of this research.

Notes

1. See Wakoh Shannon Hickey for a summary of researchers using alternative terms for ‘heritage’ and for comment on the relative political correctness of these terms.

2. Although the word ‘Dhamma’ can have many meanings, in this context it refers to ‘Buddhist teachings’.

3. ‘Sangha’ here refers to Buddhist monastic community members, but see page 322 of this article for other interpretations of this term.

4. The Nvivo programme allows comments on similar topics, which are scattered throughout a dialogue, to be tagged and drawn together for analysis.

5. Namely Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Indian, Bangladeshi, Malaysian, Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Bhutanese, and Laotian.

6. The Five Precepts are the most widely accepted baseline of Buddhist ethical conduct; they include restraint from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, telling lies, and consuming intoxicants.

7. When heritage Buddhists refer to the place of their congregation as a ‘temple’, it is not just a choice of words to describe what CRBs refer to as a ‘meditation centre’. Although shrine rooms and meditation activities may be found in both types of place, temples are home to a resident monastic community and may be registered as a ‘place of worship’, whereas meditation centres are places where a group meets and which are locked up when people go home.

8. Literally, not figuratively. See Phra Nicholas Thanissaro (“Heaven” 296) for clarification of what bowing to parents entails.

9. Sangha Day is an annual festival in the Buddhist calendar, which is meant to be a celebration of friendship and community. The term has been used as an English translation for `Magha Puja Day’ in the Thai Theravāda calendar, falling in February or March, but, ambiguously, members of the Triratna Buddhist Community celebrate it in November.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicholas Thanissaro

Phra Nicholas Thanissaro is a doctoral researcher at the University of Warwick’s Centre for Education Studies. He is funded (until 2015) by a University of Warwick Chancellor’s Scholarship to conduct research on Buddhist adolescent identity and religiosity in the UK. A Buddhist monk affiliated with the Dhammakāya Foundation, he holds a Master’s degree from the University of Warwick and a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from Manchester Metropolitan University. CORRESPONDENCE: Centre for Education Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.