Buddhist Meditation Reaches International Clients In Its Homeland

Buddhist Meditation Reaches International Clients In Its Homeland

Author:  Witcoin Miner

Keywords: #strategy, #meditation, #international, #tourist, #traveler, #western

Length: 952 words     

Date: 15th June 2020

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          Buddhists in Thailand have recently introduced new strategies, through metaphors of ‘spreading out’ and ‘sharing to’, hoping to make Buddhist meditation present in the world without having to leave the country to set up branch temples or Buddhist centers aboard, instead creating opportunities for foreign travelers coming to this country to participate in a meditation course or a retreat.  In this way, Buddhism interacts on the international stage in its homeland through international tourists engaging with Buddhist tradition while traveling to Asia.

          The popular appeal of meditation and Buddhist’s perceived message of peace lead many international travelers to explore opportunities to practice Buddhist meditation in Asian Buddhist countries.  Tourism industry brings in foreign travelers of different kinds ranging from those who mix meditation with a beach vacation to serious practitioners with hopes of becoming ordained, from accidental religious tourists to people who set out to change their lives.  It is likely that Buddhist meditation continues to be a dynamic force shaping modern Thai Buddhism.

          By taking advantage of digitalization and religious tourism, Thai Buddhist temples that seek to spread the Buddha’s teachings have established a new context for teaching the know-how of meditation practice to curious international tourists by bringing tourists into the temple.  By this way, local Buddhist monks can be Dhamma ambassadors in their home soil, meaning they do not have to travel anywhere.  This individual efforts of local Buddhist monks are not only creating opportunities for non-Buddhist travelers to Thailand to experience a meditation course but also universalizing ideal about the possibility of enlightenment for anyone, Buddhist or not.  Through this strategy, both monks and Thai national tourist authority took advantage of both promoting the country and Buddhist practice.

          Thai monk teachers see their role as meditation teachers as part of their duty to meet the needs of those who are interested in learning Buddhist practice.  They choose to share meditation practice with their international tourist students most because it is something their students can take back with them and continue.

          Most of experienced meditator monks are knowledgeable about what attracts foreign non-Buddhist practitioners and will be familiar with.  They know generally international meditators focus exclusively on their individual meditation practice.

          One significant element of meditation course for international tourists is it overtly values experimentation over conversion.  The meditation teaching monks let their guest students know that they are not trying to make anyone Buddhists; they are not interested in conversion.  The focus on experimentation serves to create an environment that is suitable for non-Buddhists who are often curious about meditation, but also suspicious of overt acts of religion.  This strategy of Buddhist propagation has proven effective especially now with trends in modern religion.

          This also reveals that international practitioners do not need to take on the full Buddhist worldview but that sampling the meditation practice is enough to qualify for the teaching monks as spreading the Buddha’s teachings.  Meditation teaching monks trust that their international students will come to understand Buddhist teachings through direct experience of meditative insight no matter what their background are.  In this way, meditation practice takes on the most importance, as intellectual understanding is believed to come later.  It also reveals that Buddhism is molded to fit into modern sensibilities of international practitioners as well as an openness to individual preference and personal choice in order to appeal to this new target demographic group of people.

          The discussion in term of meditative result experienced by international meditators, they are varied, ranging from being cathartic, relaxing, merely a secular practice for therapeutic purposes or an interesting Asian cultural engagement, a religious experience, including a once in a lifetime opportunity.

          For some international meditators, even just a one-time participation in a meditation course makes a lasting impression; consequently, they help to create new transnational Thai Buddhist meditation networks, allowing meditation methods and lineages to spread outside of the country.  These networks not only highlight the decreased significance of geographical national borders, but also show how new religious practices and communities form.

          These foreign meditation networks bring the Buddhist principles through meditation practice into their local full public view; it does not just only help promoting the future Buddhism aboard, especially in the West, but also helps presenting Western society Buddhist meditation and Buddhist teachings, the kind of new guideline and direction which present Westerners desperately needs.

          Until now, Buddhist practice has in fact been something of a marginalized subculture, but it needs not continue to stay that way.  The growing acceptance of the value of pluralism, the ever-increasing number of Western Buddhists, and Buddhism’s status as one of the world’s largest and most ancient religious traditions are all helping to raise Buddhism’s profile in those countries.  This means that Buddhist must think seriously about what they have to offer to the people of those more advanced digital countries, let them know what Buddhists stand for.  Most importantly, Buddhists have to do their best to live up to the ideals they proclaim.

           Of course, many will challenge their assertions and paint a picture of what for them is a new and alien religious phenomenon.  But if Buddhists can respond to their critics with the openness and understanding their ideals proclaimed, the facts will speak for themselves.  And if they are indeed successful in shaping the emerging face of Western Buddhism, its future will be assured for generations to come.

          From a Theravada Buddhist perspective, to help protecting and spreading the teachings and practices of Buddhism will cause the religion to not decline, but instead thrive through the new practitioners and students.

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