thanks, John (Korean Buddhism and Althouse)

John McCrarey sends a link to an Ann Althouse post on Korean Buddhism. She muses on a trend toward snazzy "Buddhist merch" that seems to be an attempt to make Buddhism feel more modern and relevant to the younger generation, especially with Christianity having demographically leapfrogged Buddhism well over a decade ago.

Buddhism's struggle with relevance also reflects a deeper struggle between two religions with markedly different attitudes toward what Christians might call proselytization or missionizing (these are overlapping ideas, possibly synonyms, but not exactly the same thing). Christianity has spread across the globe in large part thanks to the biblical Great Commission found at the end of Matthew: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. By contrast, the Buddha's final words were reportedly, All conditioned things are impermanent; work out your salvation with diligence! In other words, work on yourself. 

But Mahayana Buddhism, evolving in a different direction from Hinayana/Theravada, began to put into practice the bodhisattva ideal of turning back from the threshold of salvation and bringing others onto the great (c)raft that would cross the river to the far shore of nirvana. This wasn't meant in quite the spirit of teaching and conversion/metanoia as can be found in Christianity; rather, it was meant in the spirit of service toward the other. Now, a Christian could legitimately argue back that Christ's gospel was also meant, in the gentle spirit of service, to be shared with others for its salvific power, but in practice, Christianity has been far, far more aggressive about spreading the gospel than Buddhism—Mahayana, Hinayana, Vajrayana, or whatever version—has been about spreading the dharma. And the result is what you see today in Korea: a shriveling Buddhism and an ascendant Christianity. Of course, these days in Korea, an increasing number of young people would consider themselves to be mugyo/무교/無敎, i.e., without a religious tradition. This could mean being atheistic, agnostic, unchurched, or just religionless/traditionless.

Buddhism is still with us in modern times, and some of its attempts to remain modern are admittedly downright corny. Some temples even have pianos to be used in a church-like manner during sutra chanting, and many popular temples have trinket shops in front in a crass attempt to make money. (To be fair, huge cathedrals like DC's Shrine of the Immaculate Conception also have trinket shops: institutional religion and big money, God and Mammon, have always proceeded hand in hand despite Jesus' warning against that.) So this latest "merch" trend is just part of a long-standing money-making scheme. Institutions, like biological organisms, do what they can to survive and, where possible, to reproduce. But Christianity's libido, fueled by what Karen Armstrong calls the "drama" of monotheism, far outshines the more tranquil eros/élan of Buddhism.

At the end of her piece, Althouse writes:

I think Americans associate Buddhism with modernity and rationality — but not because of expos and "merch"! To me, it seems modern and rational to retreat to a temple deep in the mountains. Maybe to young people the religion of one's own region will always seem "old-fashioned" and based in tradition. Just imagine people from elsewhere looking over and perhaps it will seem newly modern. Or what the hell, buy a "red heart-shaped magnet reading, 'Sentient beings I love you'" or "key chains of the Buddha in neon and with hearts for eyes, and streetwear-style T-shirts with slogans like 'Shut up and meditate.'" Maybe that will work.

A few American commenters pushed back, saying that Buddhism just reminded them of old hippies. I can see it both ways: Althouse is probably thinking of the stripped-down, philosophical Buddhism available through books, what has long been sneeringly called "nightstand Buddhism." The commenters who are pushing back are probably thinking of Kerouac and others of his era who "imported" Buddhism into the West, taking only what they wanted to see and leaving the rest behind. This hippie-ish Buddhism, too, is of a stripped-down variety. Buddhism, like any religion, is a liquid that takes the shape of its cultural container. Look at German Protestantism versus the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church. Just as theists constantly create God in their own image, so do cultures interpret and absorb religions through a cultural lens. Have Westerners "misappropriated" Buddhism, or have they merely given it a more Western tint? I'm a religious liberal,* but I may lean a little conservative in my own answer: Buddhism that's practiced in East and Southeast Asia has a more organic feel to it because it remembers that institutional Buddhism is fundamentally monastic in nature. It's a bit like how Catholics are constantly aware of the ecclesiastical nature of their religion: you can't think Catholicism without also thinking priests and nuns. Oh, and Catholics have their own monastic tradition as well. Buddhism in the West has some institutionalism about it thanks to Asian monks who've moved to the West, but overall, it has a more deracinated, individualistic feel—more distant and private in my opinion (Buddhist readers, feel free to refute me! tell me all about your large, warm, tight-knit communities!).

Buddhism in Korea has its folkloric, magico-religious side, full of prayers for kids to do well on tests, full of incense sticks and chanting, full of celestial divinities borrowed from other cultures, full of monks and nuns and business transactions. But Buddhism has its high-culture dimension as well: there's the art, the architecture, the sculpture, the ancient texts with their rarefied ideas, the terminologies, and the complex doctrines. I wouldn't call Korean Buddhism moribund. It's certainly on the wane, but it's deeply rooted in Korean culture, and it won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

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*Politically, I lean a lot more to the right than to the left.