Why Buddhism is not growing?

Why Buddhism is not growing?

The global Buddhist population in 2050 will be about the same size it was in 2010!

https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/rel … 2010-2050/

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How do you define “Buddhist”? There are many, many traditions, and many people who call themselves Buddhist who don’t go to religious centers, and many people who are influenced by Buddhist thinking in some part of their life. How would you measure how many Buddhists there are in a given area? How do we know their predictions are correct? And what would be the impact of a loss of (let’s say) one million Buddhists?

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If they are reading all the right wing comments on dhammawheel that is probably turning them away from Buddhism.

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Buddhism is based on free inquiry. Buddha was never feared his critics.

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I can’t find the reference now, but supposedly Gertrude Stein was complaining to Pablo Picasso one day that she wasn’t getting famous like him and Picasso replied, “It doesn’t matter. Whether only a few people like your work or if everyone likes your work, it’s only ever the same small handful of people who actually understand it.”

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Because everyone who practices become enlightened.

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I am very pleased with your optimism. So many Buddhist are at least Sotapanna and re-born as Deva?
:smiley:

What does that even mean? We should allow inquiry into nazism? Ummm no thanks.

Sorry. Perhaps I did not read that thread. So I am not sure what you are talking about.
Back to the topic.

You posted the thread. lol

Back to topic. :+1:

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Oh. Name the thread please.

Maybe we should be out knocking on doors! :laughing:

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Good idea.
Only (Jehovah’s Witnesses) generally do this.
Buddhist are in desperation, perhaps this could be the last resort.
Bhante @sujato what is your thought on this?

Nay, Mormons on mission do too. I’ve had a few young people far from home come have dinner with our family because they knocked our door.

I don’t think it’s necessary for Buddhists to proselytize. If we’re doing it right, it invites observation, then fascination, then imitation. The Dhamma invites others to “come and see.”

Some self-identifying Buddhists, seeing news like the OP article, feel threatened, feel sadness or fear. This is something to be observed as practice. Of course, the “Buddhists” counted by the article do not seem to be the same as “Buddhist Practitioners”; from

“The global Buddhist population is expected to be fairly stable because of low fertility rates and aging populations in countries such as China, Thailand and Japan.”

it sounds more like “Buddhists by Birth” and seems to leave out conversion.

While other religions are designed to win over others in a sort of Darwinist sense, Buddhism is designed for sustainability and harmony, graciously bowing out when conditions for its existence are no longer. It makes sense that the teachings of the Buddhas can survive only so long at a time in Samsara: Greed, Aversion, and Delusion are plentiful; if a religion can feed off even one of those it already has an upper hand. We must just practice as well as we can while the dhamma is still known, get out of here while the getting is good.

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Because of low birth rates, mostly.

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I assume in traditionally Buddhist countries children are raised Buddhist. But I think one reason Buddhism isn’t growing is that Western parents don’t or won’t raise their children as Buddhists even if they practice it themselves.

There could be a few reasons for this. One being they prefer their children make their own choices when they grow up. Another reason is that one of the parents practices another religion and insist the child be raised in that religion.

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He’s referring to comments made by a commentator on the poll to do with whether monks ought to engage with politics and what engagement with politics entails. I don’t think SarathW1 is necessarily responsible for whichever heterodox or orthodox teachers, such as those engaged in teacher-student relationships with a mentally ill white supremacists, that other posters post links to on SaranthW1’s DhammaWheel threads. Although I agree, it was curious to see. That would be more of a matter to bring up with DhammaWheel’s moderation, if we believed that any action would come on the matter, since no one on SuttaCentral is in a position to do anything about the matter and since it is also not SaranthW1’s responsibility to moderate his DhammaWheel theads. That job should be that forum’s moderators’ IMO.

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It seems to me birth rates are irrelevant.
Kamma.
Rebirth.
The 2nd Noble Truth.
These explain it, imo.

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I Didn’t say it was anyones fault. I simply opened up the link they posted and found the contents disturbing. I Know it’s a popular forum but I don’t participate in that forum. A Monk with Nazi sympathies is not something you see everyday.

Well, that man is profoundly mentally ill of his own admittance so I think it’s best if he and his niche community are ignored and not substantially engaged with. That’s just my opinion and my approach, though. I don’t see Buddhist Nazism catching on any time soon in a big way. Are you going to change his mind? No. Am I? No. The best we can do is hope that he is able to find some kind of calm in the Buddha’s teaching and that he does not hurt too many people with his absurd words.

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