“Vietnamese immigrants in California have hired a white American man to teach Buddhism to their kids because they think they will relate to the teacher and to his English. Lisa Napoli reports from Long Beach.”
Audio with transcript: http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/09/buddhist-teacher-for-vietnamese-immigrants/
Wow, interesting !
I wonder if the kids will learn of a Buddhism that is totally foreign to their parents == stripped of superstitions.
@Sabio Lentz: Your narrow-minded comment is deplorable, baselessly assuming as it does that these children’s parents practice a superstitious Buddhism. From what I listened to and read, there is nothing in this broadcast upon which you can base such prejudice.
Do Vietnamese Buddhists pray for health and well-being and success from Bodhisattvas and/or Buddhas?
@Sabio Lantz: Do white people promulgate racist stereotypes against Asians?
@ Sabio Lantz: I think it’s natural that there will be differences in the Buddhism the kids learn in America, regardless of its source, considering that the kids are growing up in a different time and environment from their parents. But there will probably be similarities too.
I think the differences probably also end up being much more complicated than just a matter of superstition. Just the fact that the kids are learning Buddhism (and everything else in their lives) in English puts what they are learning in a different context than learning it in another language.
@ Kudos
I am sure you are right.
BTW, the implied racism toward me by the honorable Arunlikhati is unfounded but I guess understandable.
My observation was purely sociological. Buddhism by westerners in this country tends to have much less prayer, petitions, adoration, and much more than present in Asia (I lived there for 12 years: Pakistan, India, China, Taiwan and Japan). So I am really curious from an anthropological perspective what that interaction will be like.
I was going to stop visiting this site after Arunlikhati’s reflexive attack but I will keep watching for a while after your moderate one.