The Future of the Buddhadharma

“Whenever we are talking about the future of Buddhism, I think we need to talk about a few things. One—I’ve been trying to get the right word, and the best I can come up with is ‘hillbilly Buddhist.’ By this, I’m talking about people who don’t even know the Four Noble Truths, though they kind of know who is Buddha. They may not know where the Buddha came from, but they are by birth Buddhist, culturally Buddhist, born in a Buddhist place; they’re not intellectual. … We have been paying attention to academics, there’s a lot of activity on science and Buddhism, psychology and Buddhism, Buddhist institutes, Buddhist scholarships, but I think those hillbilly Buddhists are so important because where do you get cream if you don’t have milk? And they are the milk. …

Connected to hillbilly Buddhists, we need to be aware of geopolitics. … Of course, ours is not a political organization, of course not, but politics are part of our life. The water you drink, the food you eat, will always have some sort of political thing, it’s something that you cannot avoid. And geopolitics is very big, and it’s getting more astute, more pronounced, more sharp. And it’s just going to get—‘worse’ is maybe not the right word. It’s just going to be quicker and whatever. …

And religion plays an important role because, as I’ve been talking recently, identity crisis is on the rise and it’s just going to rise more and more. We now know why the ‘Heart Sutra’ is so important, because here, actually, Buddha is saying there is no identity—if only people can get that. Identity crisis is going to be really, really strong. And religion always fuels that identity crisis. Politicians will use it. Nations will use this. Yes, I rejoice that the United States government recognized Buddha Jayanti recently. I rejoice in this very much, but the intention of the United States government may not necessarily be propagating the buddhadharma. But that is fine. I think the stakeholders need to know that, and if we can reap profit and not become the tool of politics, I think we should. Whatever profit—geographical profit, space profit, money profit, influence profit—we should. …

And then also, when we talk about the future of Buddhism, I think demography and population demographics, this is all related. … Just the other day I was going to Bloomingdale’s. Right outside there were so many Sherpas, so many Nepali, like food delivery, whatever. I was thinking, ‘Wow!’ It can have a positive effect too. For instance, Buddhism in Australia, the first-ever influence of Buddhism was brought by Chinese. The Chinese people brought a Guanyin statue. That’s how the religion sort of ends up moving around. Not necessarily always just because a Rinpoche taught, or a Rinpoche set up a dharma center. These are important—these hillbilly Buddhists are so important.

But, for instance, as a Bhutanese, I’m thinking that a lot of Bhutanese have moved to Australia and Canada. We are talking about 100,000. And they are all educated Bhutanese. And they’re sort of hillbilly Buddhists. And they are going to have their children, and most of them may never go back to Bhutan. … And their children are going to be exposed to a different culture—different altogether—a different world. And they may not speak their language, they may not understand buddhadharma, and they may end up becoming Mormon, whatever, it doesn’t matter, this is what happens. …

And then connected to that, migration. So basically what I’m saying is, when we are talking about the future of Buddhism, I think we should also be aware of how people are migrating and to where. For instance, I’m going to New York in a few weeks, and there are a lot of Bhutanese there, … a lot of Himalayan people there. And they’re going to be migrated there, most likely. So, should we, Khyentse Foundation, have Sunday schools there for these people, who probably are there for economic reasons, not because of anything else? And when they go there I’m sure they also have this insecurity of losing their identity, and a big part of this identity is, for them, buddhadharma. But there is no facility, so should we step in? …

And again, very related, Taiwan. Until recently it was one of the strongest Buddhist-influenced places, but from what I hear, people going to the Buddhist temples, people becoming monks and nuns, the ratio is dwindling. And perhaps because the local Taiwanese Mahayana masters are not really knowing how to package it. So maybe this is where we, Khyentse Foundation—not like going in and saying, ‘We, Khyentse Foundation, associated with Tibetan Buddhism,’ not as Tibetan Buddhists but as Buddhists—maybe we can assist this. And so on and so forth.”

Image above: Burning candles and incense at a colorful Buddhist temple.