BUDDHISM COMES WEST 309what needs to be retained. Even the doctrine of rebirth, which is one of the
few common denominators among the various Asian traditions, is controver-
sial in Western Buddhist circles. Commentators writing on the Western Bud-
dhist movement as a whole, when trying to define its unifYing thread, are
often reduced to such statements as "the essence of Buddhism is an inexpress-
ible living force" or "the Zen that tries to define itself isn't true Zen." As long
as there continues to be this inability to define or agree on what in the tradi-
tion is distinctively and essentially Buddhist, any attempted reforms will
probably further fragment Western Buddhism rather than provide it with a
distinctive, unified form.
12.3 The Two Sides of North American Buddhism
We have so far touched on one side of the Buddhist tradition in the West,
what might be called Euro-Buddhism in that it has been shaped by European
and Euro-American cultural norms. In North America at present, this side of
the tradition includes transmissions from all the major divisions ofBuddhism
existing in the world today: Rinzai, Soto, Jodo-shu, Jodo-shin-shu, Nichiren,
and Shingon from Japan; Ch'an and Ching-t'u (Pure Land) from China; Son
from Korea; Thi~n from Vietnam; all four major lineages from Tibet; and a
variety of meditational schools from the Theravadin countries, including the
Mahasi Sayadaw and U Ba Khin methods from Burma, and the forest tradi-
tions from Thailand. Although Rinzai Zen had a virtual monopoly on Euro-
Buddhism in North America prior to the 1960s, Tibetan forms have since
become predominant through the missionary work fueled by the Tibetan di-
aspora. For all the differences among these various groups, however, they share
a common universe of discourse that rarely includes the other side of North
American Buddhism: Asian-American Buddhism, or that practiced by Asian
immigrants and their descendants.
The largest and most organized of the various Asian-American groups are
the Buddhist Churches of America, which follow the Jodo-shin-shu tradition
and draw their membership largely from the Japanese-American community.
Founded prior to World War I, their umbrella organization links sixty inde-
pendent churches and sponsors educational programs and publications. As
their designation churches suggests, these groups have adopted a Protestant
American style of Sunday-morning worship. Other Asian-American Buddhist
groups include large Chinese Buddhist organizations on the West Coast, and
more than 150 loosely organized Theravadin temples serving Southeast Asian
refugees and immigrants scattered throughout the United States and Canada.
Few of these groups are engaged in outreach work to the larger American
community, and few have any interest in Euro-Buddhism of any variety.
The reasons for the lack of interest are many, but they center around
the feeling that Euro-Buddhists have little respect for or understanding of the
Buddhist tradition. The Western tendency, born of cultural relativism, to