Developments
in Australian Buddhism: Facets of the Diamond,
by Michelle Spuler. London: Routledge Curzon, 2003, 199 pages, ISBN:
0-7007-1582-7 (cloth), US $65.95.
Reviewed by
Rafael Shoji
Research Student at the University of Hannover (Germany)
rafaelshoji@t-online.de
In
the last years a variety of researchers, mainly from the disciplines
of religious studies and the social sciences, have attempted to
understand the growing effort to systematize the presence of Buddhism
in a Western context. This research area is being constructed through
the study of the diverse processes of adaptation to local contexts
due to internal factors of Buddhist communities. In this sense,
the work of Michelle Spuler is a significant contribution to the
academic research about the Diamond Sangha and Australian Buddhism.
In addition, Spuler's study aims to break the analytically constructed
barrier various theories have set up between the Buddhism practiced
by converts and by immigrants and their descendants.
This study in the
renowned "Curzon Critical Studies in Buddhism" series
is well arranged in four chapters, with the addition of tables,
appendices, an extensive bibliography and an index. The first chapter,
"Australian Buddhism in Context," starts with a portrait
of Japanese Zen Buddhism and the Zen Diamond Sangha as a part of
Buddhism in Australia and the West. This chapter offers quantitative
information and a short resume of the current situation of Buddhism
in the West, then a portrait of the history and contemporary situation
of the Diamond Sangha in Australia. This Zen order, the focus of
Spuler's study, was founded by the American Robert Aitken (1917-)
in 1959 and separated in 1983 from the parent Zen school of Sanbo
Kyodan, established in 1954.
Following the previous
contextual information, chapter two, "Australian Buddhism in
Transition," describes the results of the author's field study
of the Australian Diamond Sangha. In addition, secondary sources
are used to compare Spuler's findings and annotations with studies
carried out in other Western countries. Spuler divides her presentation
into three main themes: rituals, community and ideology. Regarding
ritual and religious practice, she observes not only the influence
of meditation techniques used in other Buddhist schools and New
Age spirituality, but also creative innovations through connections
with psychotherapy and mythology in a sesshin ("meditation
retreat") dedicated only to women, in the inclusion of feminine
values in chanting, and even in a "wilderness sesshin,"
consisting of hiking and camping in nature (p. 35-48). Due to the
different role of the Zen community in the West in comparison with
the Japanese environment, new rites of passage have developed. These
especially aim for a higher integration of group practices with
other aspects of members' lives, for example, a baby-naming ceremony.
In terms of the
community's composition, Diamond Sangha groups are constituted basically
of Anglo-Saxon, middle class professionals, many of them with university
training (p. 53) and with previous participation in other religious
groups (p. 50-51). In this context, although this aspect is not
emphasized by Spuler, it is interesting to observe that many groups
of converts in addition to the Diamond Sangha organize their community
into students, senior students, assistant teachers and teachers,
thereby valorizing the spiritual transmission of knowledge in the
form of something like a spiritual academy. This shows an intellectualized
ideal present among the Western members but widely ignored in Japan,
despite the use of words as "sensei" and "roshi"
(teacher, master).
Spuler informs us
that the communities of the Diamond Sangha are financially maintained
by donations and membership fees. According to her field work, the
institution is organized in the form of an elected board and a spiritual
leadership with spheres of action and decision that are often not
clearly distinguishable. In her description of ideological expressions,
one sees the strong influence of Western culture in the spheres
of democratization, lay practice, the validation of women and social
commitment within the communities. This is similar to other convert
Zen groups observed in the USA (p. 82-96).
Though chapter two
already takes initial steps, chapter three, "Models of Change,"
directly addresses the issue of religious change. As the main reasons
for change, Spuler identifies the need for indigenization and the
maintenance of tradition, important poles in the questions of how
to make necessary adaptations (p. 108-115). She develops her position
by aligning her argued reasons with the poles of necessary adaptation
and identity maintenance that occur in Buddhist groups similar to
the Diamond Sangha. Spuler thus contextualizes the Diamond Sangha's
adaptation process in Australia within a general perspective on
the influence of host cultures (p. 115-119).
Next, Spuler presents
academic perspectives on Buddhism in Western countries as different
theories of change. These perspectives have come from three academic
contexts: transplantation models, studies about new religious movements
(NRMs), and research on ethnic communities. Perhaps because the
main focus of Spuler's study is the adaptation of the Diamond Sangha
in Australia, she describes in detail transplantation models, mainly
the models developed by Michael Pye and Martin Baumann, leaving
five pages for the bibliography on new religious movements and religion
and migration theory (p. 128-132). In her conclusion to her last
chapter, "Breaking Down the Boundaries," Spuler aims to
break the supposed dichotomy between convert and ethnic Buddhism.
Spuler claims that the "process of adaptation in convert and
ethnic Buddhism is more similar than previously thought" (p.
134) because identity construction and change are important not
only to NRMs and ethnic communities, but also for convert groups
such as Diamond Sangha.
For a critical evaluation
of this book, centered in similarity rather than difference, it
is interesting to situate Spuler's efforts in the present state
of research on the establishment of Buddhism in Western countries.
At present, the reviewer observes at least three factors that make
it difficult to arrive at more definitive conclusions and generalization
here. First, there is the transitoriness of many Buddhist adaptations,
which seem more attempts than institutions. This is accompanied
by the fragility of many groups, which often leads to redefinitions
of their social roles. The innovative and ephemeral character of
these adaptations shows that it is necessary to await more stability
before we can really recognize the characteristics of Buddhism in
Western countries. As Spuler indicates, quoting American Buddhologist
Richard Seager, this factor must be considered as inherent in the
present phase of Buddhist adaptation (p. 97). Even the interesting
initial example presented in the book, where a sesshin exclusively
for women is combined with therapeutic work with myths, remains
only an activity performed in a particular year, something that
will not necessarily be repeated (p. 137).
The present state
of research leads to another difficulty this reviewer has with what
Spuler throughout the book refers to as "Western Buddhism."
So far as I observe the state of affairs, it is necessary to undertake
more systematic comparisons and geographical studies to convincingly
systematize a so-called "Western Buddhism." Is it one
or many "Western Buddhisms," monolithic or heterogeneous?
My reservation is based on the fact that the different histories
of immigration in different regions, coupled with local factors,
lead to different groups and different forms of Buddhism (for instance,
Latin American Buddhism). As crucial studies of these groups have
not been attempted or are still in process, any portrait of "Western
Buddhism" often is really just a sketch. The Australian multicultural
context may not imply a deep difference in comparison with the USA
and Canada (p. 115-119), partially because Protestantism is the
dominant religious tradition in these countries where research on
"Western Buddhism" is more advanced. Still, there are
various countries that do not share this environment. Even the label
"Australian Buddhism" which appears in the main title
of Spuler's book and throughout, appears to lack justification,
since the Buddhism resulting from Asian immigration to Australia
is practically ignored in this study.
My reservation about
such terms is more acute given the fact that the case study group,
i.e., the Diamond Sangha in Australia, is possibly too small a sample
to be representative of any so-called "Australian Buddhism"
as a whole. These critical observations are reinforced by the numerical
facts supplied by the book itself. As the 1996 census shows, more
than 70% of the around 200,000 Australian Buddhists were born outside
Asia, the majority in Vietnam. Only 19.7% of Australian Buddhists
were born in Australia, and even here a quarter belong to the second
generation of Asian immigrants (p. 16). Moreover, given the relative
small number of participants at the six centers of the Diamond Sangha
(approximately 230 practitioners according to Spuler, p. 19-22),
it is important to ask whether the Diamond Sangha could represent
the behavior of the Australian Buddhists or even converts in general,
since little regarding other groups is described. Despite this reservation,
Spuler's case study nevertheless provides interesting and fruitful
hints about the processes of change and adaptation in a new and
Western Buddhist organization, and surely reveals one more interesting
piece of the mosaic of the Buddhism in Western countries.
A third difficulty
with general assertions about Buddhism in Western countries is the
existence of several analytical perspectives used to study the phenomenon.
In this sense, Spuler's attempt to show the similarities between
these theories is a important step for a more general perspective
about religious change in the Buddhist communities. This view brings
the heuristic value of a more unified view of the Buddhist phenomenon
in West and could be even more developed through a phenomenological
approach. On the other hand, it is important to preserve the explanatory
value of the individual theories, because they suppose some differences
likely to be ignored by a more general approach. This is true not
only when viewing the differences between ethnic and convert Buddhism,
but also between a more intellectualized Buddhism (converts in the
Zen groups) and a Buddhism with more emphasis in worldly results
(as for example NRMs such as Soka Gakkai, Reiyukai or Agonshu).
In fact, there are resemblances between all Buddhist communities
in Western countries, but many of them are tautological in the sense
that every religious group that changes social contexts can have
adaptation phases and can be studied through theories of change.
With two poles of reference, a local context and a foreign context,
there always exist questions of identity also.
In sum, Spuler's
study shows in detail the establishment processes of the Diamond
Sangha in Australia, through a field research approach and the use
of diverse studies of similar groups in other countries. With regard
to theoretical studies about Buddhism in Western countries, I find
that her greatest contribution is her summary of proposed transplantation
theories and her convincing emphasis on change and identity. With
respect to her attempts at generalization about "Western Buddhism,"
as well as her attempt to break boundaries between different analytical
perspectives, it appears to me there is still more comparative and
theoretical work to be done, although this attempt already has some
heuristic value.