Abstract
This article is written with a purpose to initiate a public discussion of Buddhist-based universities in the united states of America. These universities provide education in liberal arts and professional fields, while employing the time-tested methods of traditional Buddhist pedagogy. Because these universities are generally unknown to the public, I have provided information about their history, academic programs, and the educational success created on their campuses. These universities, in my view, serve as a model of higher education which is successful on many different levels and produces satisfactory results for both those who provide and those who receive the higher education. Buddhist Dharma has spread in the United States of America in many different ways. One important way in which it has successfully permeated the consciousness of the broader public is through educational institutions. This is consistent with the nature of Buddhism itself. In each country to which it historically spread, it created schools, universities, and various centers for learning, meditation, and moral practicea. In the USA, a great variety of Buddhistbased institutions of learning were created during the last half of the 20th century. These include, but are not limited to kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, institutes for vocational training, and universities granting professional degrees. In this article, we will investigate one particular type of Buddhist educational institution, which we refer to as a “Buddhist University.”
Highlights
Hsuan Hua, unlike the founder of Naropa University, sought to establish a form of Buddhist education in which monastics and lay followers participated on equal grounds, and this approach is still fully present in the Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) educational programs
This article is written with a purpose to initiate a public discussion of Buddhist-based universities in the united states of America
Other religions that are well-known and practiced here, such as Native Shamanism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Bahaism, Confucianism, and Daoism, have not created comparable institutions for higher learning, they have established other types of institutions where these religions are studied. To further this notion of the uniqueness of the American Buddhist University, we must be reminded that the USA has only two Jewish universities and only one Islamic university that are typologically similar to the Buddhist University in that they, too, offer degrees in professional fields and liberal arts while building the entire educational experience on the moral laws and practices of these respective religionsf
Summary
Hsuan Hua, unlike the founder of Naropa University, sought to establish a form of Buddhist education in which monastics and lay followers participated on equal grounds, and this approach is still fully present in the DRBU educational programs. Students at Buddhist Universities do not measure their success in terms of the “money power” and status they will acquire after graduation; rather, they see their years in college as the beginning of a lifelong process of self-improvement and mastering those virtues and skills with which they will be able to help the planet and all living beings.
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