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Western Buddhism primarily a middle class religion
Zenshin
VeteranEast Midlands UK Veteran
So I find myself looking at Buddhism in the UK and it seems to primarily prevalent in the middle classes. Most of the Buddhist groups I look at seem to be populated by middle class university educated people. I wonder if this is because the middle classes have the time and resources to go looking for something while the poor are to caught up in the struggle of living to wonder about lifes deeper questions? I find myself intimidated by this, but this probably due to my conditioning by the English class system where I have by the dint of selling my labour for most of the time in my working life been conditioned to feel uncomfortable in the presence of my "betters". As a former addict, ex-crook, homeless guy and psych patient I really wonder if I could relate to such people.
Back when Acid House was big and evryone one was loved up on E's and trips I knew working class kids who were interested in mysticism and new age stuff but most of those are now hard drug addicts. So western buddhists, any folks in your Sangha who are former drop outs or people struggling since the plant closed down.
Your advice, thoughts, comments and suggestions are as always welcome.
Back when Acid House was big and evryone one was loved up on E's and trips I knew working class kids who were interested in mysticism and new age stuff but most of those are now hard drug addicts. So western buddhists, any folks in your Sangha who are former drop outs or people struggling since the plant closed down.
Your advice, thoughts, comments and suggestions are as always welcome.
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I think you're mostly right. I basically never see Hispanic or Black Buddhists. Which those tend to be the ones that struggle the most financially where I am from. There are always exceptions to this, but for the most part black people in America tend to be Christian. Then Hispanics tend to be Catholic or spiritual/not really religious.
Hispanic/Latino males tend to be pretty tough people. They tend to like boxing, MMA, love eating their carne asada, for them even considering adapting a vegetarian lifestyle or backing down from a fight is very polar opposite. I am Latino, I come from L.A. I know the culture.
Then most black people I know they're very Christian, always talking about god in some way or another lol. It's just deep in their culture. Sometimes they break off from this, but it's rare.
The Buddhists I see in the states are mostly Asian and White people. But that doesn't mean that the poor people aren't spiritual. Because they're. I know a few minorities and even poor white people that are spiritual people rather than Buddhists. Like myself, I take a little bit of everything that helps.
I don't say I am "one thing". I take a little bit of everything and apply it, but discard what doesn't fit.
Personally, I have tried going to Sangha's before, but I end up holding my tongue even during the open discussions most of the time. Because the more I talk the more I end up disagreeing with a lot that is being said and possibly easily offending others just due to differences in culture. I come from a warrior culture, and I also was a cook/chef for a while. I'm a body builder, and I live to try and get more sex and money. So with those factors in mind, it makes it hard for me to agree with everything being said at a Buddhist sangha lol. I bet a lot of male Latino's from L.A. would identify with what I am saying.
So that might give you sort of a glance of the different cultures that don't always fit in with Buddhism completely. But the more people read, the more they educate themselves the more they start to see and understand different points of views. Even though I am Latino, I am well read, I do my research. So that is probably why I am familiar with many spiritual disciplines as well as Buddhism.
Thanks for the reply, I missed a little out when I said poorer peole aren't Spiritual I know plenty of Black Christians, and a lot of working class Pakistani Muslim guys when I lived in the north of england. I also know a lot of White working class Christians, I meant to add something about them being drawn more to their religious traditions.
@compasssionate_warrior thanks for the link, looks like an interesting group.
Maybe the high percent of Buddhists in a middle class UK culture has to do with conservative ubringing vs. open upbringing. Perhaps families in the middle class are more likely to be agnostic, or athiest... while poorer class families have stronger religious views? There might be a correlation there. Especially if young people from a middle class are given permission by their families to explore alternative religions.
with better approaches, it is easy to make Buddhism accesible to anyone.
perfect example...
" dogmatic student " ( my 9 year old son's choice of term for me to use instead of the description you used Chico ) I agree that is often why it can appear that spiritual quests are more the activity of the middle class ( in a socialist sense ) - and even in a country like Australia, this is still very relevant.
The way i see it, we're all addicted to our attachments, crookedly self-deluded, ultimately alone yet connected to everyone, and in some sense, out of our minds
It seems to me that people choose their spiritual endeavors according to their circumstances -- real, on-the-ground, in-your-face circumstances -- and then reform and revise their lives according to their determination. Whatever the choice, spiritual endeavor is not easy. If it were easy -- if it were nothing more than a comfort zone filled with various virtues -- how useful could it possibly be? Creating some one-size-fits-all spiritual endeavor strikes me as a pastime for hucksters and academics.
Even as I write these words, I cannot help but remember the most compelling Zen practice setting I ever visited. For me, it was powerful and clear and stood head and shoulders above the other well-appointed temples and centers I visited over the years. It was peopled by men with large biceps and tattoos. It was in a maximum-security prison in upstate New York. The bars on the small windows, the razor-wire surrounding the place, the fact that men with guns watched vigilantly over men who had no guns ... all of it provided a gritty and honest and profound atmosphere ... at least in my mind. This was spiritual endeavor ... a place where no sissies need apply.
I don't know how others feel, but I think that anyone who takes up a spiritual practice goes through a phase of imagining that they are in the presence of their "betters" -- people who hold the banner, show the way, are more accomplished and wise. For a while, all this is a good encouragement. It puts a fire under your ass. But with continued practice, I think there is a shift ... some realization that no matter how accomplished anyone else may be, still each of us only can work with what we've got ... two arms, two legs, emotions, intellect ... and most of all the determination to see things through. We may be grateful to the friends and enemies we encounter, but the fact is that our own courage and patience and doubt are our most reliable allies. As Gautama Buddha was reported to have said (more or less): "Better your own truth, however weak, than the truth of another, however noble."
Just some thoughts.
@Genkaku, thank you for the description of jail house Zen, very thought provoking.
Like I said above a lot of it comes out of my insecurity, the guy I met who was off to become a monk didn't judge me, he was doing some temporary work at a half way house for long term psych patients I was living in at the time, but I met him in a couple of other places and his reaction to me was the same in work or out, a warm friendly smile and an open heart.
@Dhamma Datu, thanks for the information on AJahn Brahm, he's a teacher I rather like.
http://angulimala.org.uk/
I think of the deliberate campaign here in the US to introduce the Black Muslim religion into the lower income black community as a more "natural" religion for what had become a Christian culture, and how it basically failed.
This doesn't go across the board, though, and if you're middle class yourself, it's very likely that you'll notice more middle class practitioners. I have been in poverty for my entire life and am slowly moving into the working middle class.
he was already a middle class teacher.
an uneducated person or a person too busy working
will have little opportunity to explore other religions.
Working class? Middle class? Go figure.....Precious human birth? Definately!
I had 2 jobs, and was bringing up 2 kids, and I was studying - when I discovered Buddhism.
So "busy working" is not applicable here....
I'm guessing that smart and philosophical types suffer more, thus will tend to be attracted to Buddhism.
Education and intellect correlates with class, but they are still separate qualities.
Thus, all else equal, a poor uneducated smart person would probably be more receptive to Buddhism than a dumb, unintellectual middle-class person with a college degree.
to teach. Why?
I havent been doing meditation classes that long and live in a sizable town so perhapes time shall tell but my experience so far has as previously said produced the expected turnout.
Id like to see some more people from a working labour class background because of any people I think they generally have a good idea of what real suffering can be like and I think Dharmic mind training would be a breath of fresh air for some communities across the uk.
Yeah, boozing is a big part of UK culture, you only have to look at where most of the action takes place in the two major soap operas - in the local pub. Curiously enough when I used drugs I didn't drink, I had the snobby attitude that alcohol wasn't "spiritual" in the way cannabis and ethnogens were. After incarceration on a psych ward for 10 weeks got me off my psychological dependence on drugs, I stayed clean for 3 months before switching to booze, heralding another long battle with a different addiction. I went to a meeting of a support group for psych patients who attend to a local FE college and wasn't drinking and my friends who are used to my 10 pints attitude went orange juice incredulously. One of them is a former teacher who suffers from depression, come 5 O'clock he downs a couple of bottles of wine. Seen the same attitude amongst executives and middle management types when I've worked doing maintenance in buildings owned by major British corporations.
I've finally begun to realise that its all just a different flavour of the stuff I'm trying to get away from.
The fact is that Gordon Brown was was the only Prime MInister in the last couple of hundred years that wasn't educated at Oxford or Cambridge, the present Prime Minister David Cameron is related to the Royal Family. Not many working class kids from inner city housing council housing estates go to Oxford or Cambridge, when I was growing up the only person I knew who went to one of the Oxbridge universities family worked for local landed aristocracy.