Lady Liberty's Search For Satori.
Since Buddhisms inception in America we the people have been searching for our own unique expression of Buddhist spirituality. Just like Chinese food, Buddhism has undergone some alterations, as we have wrestled with the process of separating essential Buddhist principles from the Asian culture that incubated this great spiritual discipline for thousands of years.
In the beginning this process relied heavily upon the torch bearers from Asia, like Chogyam Trungpa
and D.T. Suzuki
. Then along came people such as, Alan Watts
and Thomas Merton
who contributed a great deal to the bridge building between east and west. Finally, we saw a crop of American born Buddhist teachers like Pema Chodron
, Joseph Goldstein
, and Sharon Salzberg
.One of the American born teachers that I have a great deal of respect for is Reginald Ray
. He maintains the dignity of lineage, while seeking to express the living quality of that lineage in a western context. I have embedded an interview with Reginald Ray
conducted by the founder of Elephant Journal and "Mindful Media" pioneer Waylon Lewis. In the interview they discuss the concept of American Buddhism. The video is both entertaining and informative. It is light-hearted, but intelligent. Enjoy!
