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How does what Buddhists might be taught about Buddhist beliefs, practices, and teachings relate to what Buddhists currently believe and practice, first here in the U.S. and then around the world? Indeed, it is these lay Buddhists (not Buddhist scholars) that mental health professionals are likely to encounter in their clinical practices.
Buddhism in the USA
In the last chapter, I indicated that Buddhism is often described as a non-theistic religion. Is this true for lay Buddhists in the U.S. and around the world? Let’s look at systematic surveys of representative, random samples of Buddhist laypersons. In one of the most reputable surveys of Buddhists in the U.S., no fewer than 75% said they believe in God or a universal spirit (Pew Research Centre, 2008). With regard to certainty in that belief, among Buddhists who said they believe in God, 39% said they were “absolutely certain” and 28% that they were “fairly certain.” Fewer than 1 in 5 (19%) indicated that they did not believe in God.
Other than that, however, there is not much research on the specific beliefs and practices of Buddhists in the U.S. (who make up only 0.7% of the population according to the Pew Research Centre, 2008). Nevertheless, there is some evidence in this regard that I will now review. One of the most extensive reports on Buddhists in the U.S. involved a convenience sample of 1,237 Buddhists (or persons sympathetic to Buddhism) who completed an online survey about their beliefs and practices (Wiist et al., 2010). Given the design of this study and the demographic profile of respondents, it is not clear whether participants were representative of all U.S. Buddhists. Investigators reported that 82% resided in the U.S., 52% lived in the Western US, 50% had graduate or professional degrees beyond completing college, and 90% were white. Thus, this was a highly educated white Caucasian sample that uses the Internet. Even so, however, the findings may provide a glimpse of the religious activities of American Buddhists.
Of those who participated, 72% identified themselves as Buddhist (with the remainder saying they believed in or practiced some aspects of Buddhism); 63% were converts to Buddhism; and 4% were ordained Buddhist monks or nuns. With regard to the branch to which they belonged, 65% practiced only one Buddhist tradition. Of those, 55% practiced Tibetan Buddhism and 22% practiced Zen, Ch’an or Seon Buddhism. More than half (51%) regularly attended meetings of a Buddhist sangha or a Buddhist meditation group; 97% practiced Buddhist meditation, and of those, 61% meditated one or more times per day. Most (81%) of those who meditated had received formal instruction from a monk or nun at a Buddhist temple.
In a subgroup of 886 participants who specifically identified themselves as Buddhists, 99% said they meditated (66% daily or more frequently), 83% chanted or repeated a mantra as part of Buddhist practice, 79% engaged in Buddhist prayer, 47% regularly attended Buddhist gatherings, 16% “very often” attended services at a Buddhist temple, 96% read and studied Buddhist scriptures (38% “very often”), 70% attended a formal retreat or stayed in a monastery, and 76% formally agreed to the “Three Refuges” in the presence of other Buddhists (Wiist et al, 2012). With regard to understanding the Eightfold Path, the following percentages indicated they understood the path and could easily apply it in their daily life or understood it well enough to teach it to others: 57% right understanding, 58% right thought, 63% right speech, 66% right action, 74% right livelihood, 60% right effort, 60% right mindfulness, and 53% right concentration (with the remainder indicating understanding, but had difficulty applying it in their daily lives). Thus, Buddhists in the United States appear to be quite religiously active (at least this largely white non-Asian highly educated group that responded to an Internet survey).
Buddhism outside the USA
What about East and Southeast Asia where most of the Buddhists in the world live today? Three large population based surveys of Buddhists in this region of the world have been completed, and the datasets are not downloadable for analysis (Tables 1-3) (Koenig, 2016, unpublished report). What do these random national samples of adult Buddhists say about their beliefs and practices?
Belief in God/Buddha. The International Social Survey Program (ISSP, 2008) examined the beliefs of 1,226 Buddhists living in 40 countries around the world, including Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea (primarily Buddhists from the Mahayana branch), comparing them to 45,438 non-Buddhists, and 12,557 persons with no religious affiliation (Table 1). A significant proportion of Buddhists (>80%) indicated that they at least sometimes believe in the existence of God or a higher power; only 18.6% said they did not believe in God or didn’t know. When asked the question in a different way, i.e., whether they believed in God now or in the past, 69.0% said that they believe in God now (more specifically, 52.1% said they believe in God now and in the past, whereas 16.9% said believe now but not in the past).
Table 1. Comparison of religious beliefs/practices between Buddhists, members of other religious groups, and the non-affiliated: International Social Survey Program 2008.
(Editor: Detailed contents of this table has been omitted. Please contact the Editor if you require the details.)
In a random national survey of 7,000 adults living in China (Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents) (SLSCR, 2007), detailed information about belief was recorded in this communist, largely non-religious country. The sample included 1,168 Buddhists, 246 non-Buddhists, and 5,482 persons with no religion (Table 2). Among this random sample of Buddhists in China, 9.2% say that religion is very important in their lives (vs. 25.1% for non-Buddhists affiliated with other religions, p<0.01). Over three-quarters (75.9%) say that they have religious beliefs (vs. 83.6% of non-Buddhists affiliated with other religious tradition, p<0.01). This self-reported finding is consistent with interviewers’ observations that only 8.1% of Buddhist households had a v “very religious” atmosphere (although this was not significantly different than non-Buddhist religious households at 14.2%). Only 17.9% of Buddhists said they believe God actually exists (7.9% believe in only one true God, 35.5% in many gods). Of those who believe in God or gods, 86.5% say that God/gods are concerned with the well-being of the world (62.6% in their own personal well-being) and 59.2% say that God/gods are involved in worldly affairs (49.0% in their own personal affairs).
Likewise, 68.3% of all Buddhists say the Buddha actually exists (question asked in the present). Furthermore, 21.1% of Buddhists say they worship the Buddha (of those, 24.5% do so regularly). When Buddhists who pray are asked to whom they pray to, 68.3% say they pray to Buddha. Admittedly, “worship” and “pray to” may mean different things in Eastern society than in the West, but are they really that different? Among factors that influenced the views of Buddhists who believe in the existence of God and Buddha, the primary influence was that of elders in their family (55.2% for belief in God and 59.1% for belief in the Buddha).
This third dataset that I examined was the World Values Survey (WVS, 2005-2006), which assessed sample of 60,579 adults from 60 countries (Table 3). The sample included 3,266 Buddhists. Of those, 1,480 were from Thailand where the majority of the population is from the Theravada branch, and 1,099 were taken from countries where Buddhists of the Mahayana branch predominate (including 71 from mainland China, 272 from Taiwan, and 160 from Hong Kong). Buddhists in the WVS were more likely than Chinese Buddhists in the SLSCR to say that religion is very important in their lives, although they were considerably less likely than non-Buddhist religions to claim this (38.0% vs. 58.0%, respectively, p<0.0001). Interestingly, Theravada Buddhists were more likely to report that religion is very important to their lives than Mahayana Buddhists by quite a margin (55.6% vs. 13.9%, p<0.0001). Interestingly, this contrasts with the proportion of Theravada Buddhists who view themselves as “religious persons” compared to Mahayana Buddhists (34.3% vs. 52.5%, p<0.0001), which is difficult to understand.
Only one question was inquired about belief in God. The question asked: “How important is God in your life? Please use this scale to indicate: 10 means “very important” and 1 means “not at all important.”” Among Buddhists overall, the average rating was 7.0, which while surprisingly high was not quite as high as the rating from members of non-Buddhist religion (8.5, p<0.0001).
Table 2. Comparison of religious beliefs/practices between Buddhists, members of other religious groups, and the non-affiliated: Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents 2007.
(Editor: Detailed contents of this table has been omitted. Please contact the Editor if you require the details.)
Interestingly, Theravada Buddhists were more likely to report that religion is very important to their lives than Mahayana Buddhists by quite a margin (55.6% vs. 13.9%, p<0.0001). Interestingly, this contrasts with the proportion of Theravada Buddhists who view themselves as “religious persons” compared to Mahayana Buddhists (34.3% vs. 52.5%, p<0.0001), which is difficult to understand. It would be interesting to know what “religious person” meant to those who answered these questions or how this was translated into the different languages. It would also be interesting to know how the different cultures use standards for answering such a question. Research has shown that people who are more qualified at a task rate themselves as less competent than those who are actually less qualified. Perhaps something similar is happening here, although this is pure speculation.
Only one question was inquired about the belief in God. The question asked: “How important is God in your life? Please use this scale to indicate: 10 means “very important” and 1 means “not at all important.”” Among Buddhists overall, the average rating was 7.0, which while surprisingly high was not quite as high as the rating from members of non-Buddhist religions (8.5, p<0.0001). Again, Theravada Buddhists scored higher than Mahayana Buddhists (8.0 vs. 5.9, p<0.0001); this is despite the claim by Buddhist scholars that Theravada Buddhism is less theistic than Mahayana Buddhism. In addition, Theravada Buddhists scored higher on all other measures of religious activity. With regard to Mahayana Buddhism, it is important for future research to survey Buddhists in countries or ethnic groups that are dominant Buddhist, such as Bhutan, Tibet (ethnic group), perhaps Mongolia, etc. In conclusion, the findings above support the claim that many Buddhists believe in and worship God, and that at least some Buddhists may view and treat Buddha as non-Buddhists view and treat God (if we assume that those who answered this survey understand the term “God” as westerners do).
Other Buddhist beliefs. The classical core teachings of Buddhism do not include belief in life after death, heaven or hell, the supernatural power of ancestors, demons or evil forces, god or heaven (or other gods and spirits), the soul, religious miracles, or a God that has concern over humans personally. Core Buddhist beliefs do include belief in karma, reincarnation, and Nirvana.
In the 2008 ISSP (Table 1), 60.8% of Buddhists said they believed in life after death, 54.9% in heaven, 52.0% in hell, 48.4% in religious miracles, 62.6% in the supernatural power of ancestors, and 47.1% said they believed that God is concerned over humans personally. Surprisingly, about the same percentages said they believed in reincarnation (61.3%) and Nirvana (59.7%); non-traditional and traditional Buddhist beliefs, then, appear nearly equally as common.
In the 2007 SLSCR (Table 2), a smaller percentage of Chinese Buddhists (who were generally less religious than Buddhists in other areas of the world) indicated they believed in the existence of an afterlife (23.7%), a soul (30.2%) heaven (17.5%), hell/underworld (23.1%), god of heaven (27.3%), other gods and spirits (21.6%), ghosts (20.4%), and evil forces/demons (7.1%). More common was belief in ancestral spirits (47.8%) and fate or fortune (50.7%). Among core Buddhist beliefs, belief in reincarnation was low (20.8%) as was belief that the soul is reincarnated after death (27.2%). More common was belief in karma (47.4%), especially karma in personal relationships (68.0%). Such beliefs were primarily influenced by family elders, by participants’ own reading, and by places of worship.
Buddhist practices. The 2008 ISSP reported that 7.9% of Buddhists attended religious services weekly or several times per week, significantly less frequent than for religiously affiliated non-Buddhists (26.0%, p<0.0001) (Table 1). Frequency of religious activities other than attending religious services was not significantly different between Buddhists and members of non-Buddhist religions (3.6% vs. 10.4% weekly or more than weekly), although frequency of visiting religious holy places other than the church/temple was somewhat more frequent in Buddhists than among non-Buddhists (62.6% vs. 57.5%, p<0.0001). Buddhists were also more likely to have a religious shrine, alter, or icon in their homes (64.0% vs. 53.8% of non-Buddhist religions, p<0.0001). Prayer was similar between Buddhists and non-Buddhists, at least among those who prayed at least once per day (24.6% vs. 29.5%).
Table 3. Comparison of religious beliefs/practices and demographics between Buddhists, members of non-Buddhist groups, and the non-affiliated: World Values Survey 2005-2006..
(Editor: Detailed contents of this table has been omitted. Please contact the Editor if you require the details.)
The 2007 SLSCR provides the most detailed information on Buddhist religious practices, although the data are limited to Buddhists in China (Table 2). Only 1.8% of Chinese Buddhists attended religious services at churches, Buddhist or Daoist temples in the past year, but 63.0% worshiped God/gods in conventional religious settings such as churches, Buddhist and/or Daoist temples during the past year (16.9% regularly). A few (4.8%) also worshiped God or gods/spirits at home during the past year. Most, however, venerated ancestral spirits at their graves during the past year (77.5%), which was also common among members of non-Buddhist religions (38.8%) and those with no religious affiliation (67.1%).
With regard to prayer, 11.0% of Chinese Buddhists prayed, worshipped, or burned incense at a Buddhist temple in the past year. Some also recited Buddhist prayers (5.9%) during the past year (and of those, 39.3% regularly). Buddhist meditation was uncommon, with only 2.7% (31 of 1,168 Buddhists) indicating that they engaged in this activity during the past year (of those, only 38.7% did so regularly, n=12). Likewise, only 1.8% (n=21) read Buddhist texts during the past year. Burning incense was a bit more common (9.5% in the past year), although being vegetarian for Buddhist reasons was not (0.9%). Interestingly, one of the most common practices among Chinese Buddhists was engaging in non-Buddhist activities (38.6%), especially venerating ancestors (including deceased family members) or praying/communicating with God or a certain supernatural power, asking for blessings and protection generally. Other Buddhist religious activities include wearing Buddhist objects in the past year (25.0%), hanging a statue of the Buddha in their car (0.9%), and practicing Qi Gong (2.4% ever, n=28, although less than half currently, n=13). Chinese Buddhists, though, tend to be less religious than Buddhists in other East Asian countries (possibly due to Communist rule during the latter half of the 20th century).
In the 2005-2006 WVS, 16.5% of Buddhists said they were active members of a religious organisation, especially those from the Theravada branch (Thailand) (19.0%) (Table 3). Even more said they attended religious services once per week or more (28.2%), again Theravada Buddhists in particular (41.6%). Over two-thirds (67.4%) said that they take moments for prayer or meditation (75.8% of Theravada Buddhists), in contrast to that in Chinese Buddhists, where only 2.7% meditated (although “taking moments for prayer or meditation” does not involve regular practice, and prayer was not distinguished from mediation in that question).
Conclusions
Thus, based on recent surveys of Buddhists from around the world beliefs and activities appear to have veered considerably from the core Buddhist teachings in original Buddhist texts. The Buddha did not emphasise belief in or worship of God, gods/spirits, ancestors, or himself, nor did he encourage believe in life after death, the soul, heaven, hell, demons/evil forces, religious miracles, or prayer to him or other gods, and yet that is what many Buddhists do today. Except in Thailand, where Theravada Buddhists predominate, Buddhists tend to be less religious than members of other religious faith in East Asia, especially in China (where nearly half of he world Buddhists currently reside). Furthermore, belief in reincarnation, Nirvana, and karma (which the Buddha did emphasise) is far from uniform among Buddhists today, especially those in China where only one in five believe in reincarnation (20.8%), less than half believe in karma (47.4%), and few read Buddhist religious texts (1.8%) or meditate (2.7%) (only 1.0% regularly). The beliefs and practices of Buddhists in many areas of the world today, then, are far different than did the original followers of the Buddha. Practices of Buddhists in the United States and other Western countries may also be quite different from Buddhists living in other areas of the world based on Internet surveys (Wiist et al 2010; 2012). Thus, mental health professionals should not assume that a Buddhist patient believes and practices in the same way that early Buddhists did.