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Essay Subject: Problems encountered with survival in U.S. culture for Vietnamese Buddhists.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Problems encountered with survival in U.S. culture for Vietnamese Buddhists. Buddhist spiritual and religious beliefs. The Four Noble Truths. Contrasts Buddhism in Vietnam and the U.S. Social services role of U.S. temples. Issues of economic challenges vs. religious values, acculturation, secular education, employment. Decentralization of religious traditions. Paper Introduction: When Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975, the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants to the US consisted mainly of the residue of South Vietnam's elite bureaucracy, chiefly political in their orientation. The second wave, coming 1979 and the early 1980s, comprised what were called boat people, refugees from the North Vietnamese communist crackdown against disloyal citizens and a war with the People's Republic of China, and settling in a variety of locales around the country. The second wave of Vietnamese immigrants proved to be more entrepreneurial in focus. Indeed, the determination of South Vietnamese immigrants and their families to find a way to make money in the US put them in sometimes dangerous competition with established American businesses; indeed, American hostility to Vietnamese shrimpers at the Texas Gulf sometimes spilled over into viole Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. An informalsocial network buffered this process for some Vietnamese refugees. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. Also, worshippers come together at such events asweddings or "the ceremony by which one takes vows to become a Buddhist, or'takes refuge,' as it is called" (McGraw C3). Works CitedAbe, Masao. . "Vietnamese Buddhism in the 199 s." Cross Currents (Spring-Summer 2 ): 232. Aside from VCP suppression, the big picture of Buddhism in Vietnam isits decentralization based on differences between Buddhists aiming forsocial justice and those who seek disconnection from vulgar-world craving.However, in the US, there appears to have been less friction per se than anadjustment of laity and clergy to the dynamics of Western social andeconomic culture and the particular needs of Vietnamese immigrants to copewith the culture into which they were transplanted. . "Buddhist Nuns Practice a Tenet Known As 'Loving Kindness.'" San Jose Mercury News 3 September 1993: c9.Ebaugh, Helen Rose, and Chalfetz, Janet Saltzman. Mahayana Buddhism, prevalent in northern and central Vietnam, ispolytheistic and emphasizes social justice and assisting others in reachingenlightenment. "Agents for Cultural Reproduction and Structural Change: The Ironic Role of Women in Immigrant Religious Institutions." Social Forces 78 (December 1999): 585- 96.Fox, Thomas C. Research has shown that even after the hurdles of acculturation,social life of Vietnamese is often organized around events held a temple.While devotional Buddhism has historically been individual rather thancongregational, the role of the sangha in the US has in significant partbeen to foster an active engagement in religious observance and socialinteraction in the Vietnamese community. Oneimmigrant memoirist cites the fact that the first day after arriving in SanDiego her father purchased a truck from "Uncle Twelve" and overnight becamea gardener (Thuy 17). One aspect of this is thatwomen, especially elderly women, who are most likely to prepare traditionalfoods for social gatherings, use such opportunities to relate informationand provide mutual support and a service network (Ebaugh and Chalfetz 595).Some nuns have established temples that they manage exclusively. There is no Vietnamese Buddhist monastery in the US and given theVCP's control of Vietnam no opportunity of monastic training in Vietnam.Thus Vietnamese aspirants to the clergy would be obliged either to enter amonastery of some other Buddhist nation's tradition (for example, Tibet,Sri Lanka, or China) or to receive instruction from a sangha master in aspecific community in the US. One feature of temple-sponsoredlanguage instruction that reflects demographic shifts is that, during the197 s and 198 s, the temple would be the site of ESL instruction. When she prays, shelights up the candles and incense. CD-ROM, 1999-2 .Dickey, Jim. But the very activityof organizing Vietnamese Buddhists fostered a certain congregationalism andinstitutionalism in the US. It has been noted that most Vietnameselay people adhere to Pure Land Buddhism, which holds that present-dayactions of merit may influence one's future fate tomorrow. The 6th Buddhist Conference for Western Monastics at Abhayagiri Monastery. For many Vietnamese Buddhists, embracing economic challenges meant inpart setting aside certain religious values. In other words, according toTheravada tradition, enlightenment is possible only for the religious andnot for the lay person ("Buddhism"). Indeed,the determination of South Vietnamese immigrants and their families to finda way to make money in the US put them in sometimes dangerous competitionwith established American businesses; indeed, American hostility toVietnamese shrimpers at the Texas Gulf sometimes spilled over intoviolence. "Buddhists in America Pursue Old Quest." Orange County Register 29 March 1995: C3.Pan, Philip P., and Ly, Phuong. The tradition of individual devotion in Buddhism suggests that no onein particular leads temple services in the manner of Christian ritualobservance. The difficulty can beappreciated given the Four Noble Truths that are common to all strands ofBuddhism: 1) Sorrow (suffering) is the basic fact of all life at all timesof life; 2) The cause of all suffering is craving, desire, or grasping; 3)Suffering can only be stopped if grasping and/or craving is stopped; 4) Thethird truth can be accomplished only by careful conduct, its code containedin the Eightfold Noble Path (Abe 75). In the US, the characteristics of a given temple appear to owesomething to the decentralized nature the Vietnamese Buddhism, but UBCinfluence, while by and large not identified by name, is consistent withthe emergence of a service orientation in US temples. . However, women's roles in US temples appear to bepivotal among both the clergy and the laity. Ebaugh and Chalfetzcite stories of home-based worship: A second-generation Vietnamese man'smother burns incense and prays before a home shrine every night, whileanother man's wife "prays every morning and night. . But elsewhere, monks may lead chants daily, often fordeceased relatives. As most first- and second-generation immigrants with roots inVietnamese Buddhism know, religious institutions, customs, and eventsfocused around a temple in Vietnam have historically been the province ofthe Buddhist clergy, with virtually no involvement of the Buddhist laity.The influx of Vietnamese into the US after 1975 was marked by the fact thatBuddhist temples by and large were organized around lay people who cametogether, in their numbers as a minority relative to the Americanmainstream, "to reproduce their cultural and religious heritage" (Ebaughand Chalfetz 599). Preoccupation with survival in the US may have distanced Vietnamesefrom the Four Noble Truths. Brochure announcement. Oneaspect of persistent devotional practice is that it is age-determined, withelder generations far more engaged than younger people. In Vietnam and throughout Asia, Buddhist temples havehistorically been the sites of religious observance. . The sangha in Vietnam, which would have beenstrictly monastic, was in the US slightly transformed. "Vietnam Now." Smithsonian 26 (January 1996): 32-43."From the Boats to the Suburbs: Indochinese-Americans." The Economist 4 April 1992: 28-29.Lin, Jennifer. "3 Roads From Vietnam: For Early, Later and Latest Immigrants, Defeat Brought Divergent Lives in U.S." The Washington Post 3 April 2 : A1.Pasanno, Ajahn. The temple thus becomes a venue atwhich extended families and social networks can gather (McGraw 3c). . Only later . . On the other hand, certain features of USculture had the effect of emphasizing the Buddhist identity of someVietnamese. has life meant rediscovering roots and national identity" (Fox 5). The reproduction was not exact, but this points up theimportance of the sangha as the focus of experience. Today inVietnam in addition to the UBC are Buddhists identified more sharply asChinese, Theravada, Khmer Theravada, Hinayana, Hoa Hao, and "non-UBCBuddhists." The last-named sect appears to be a VCP client/proxy, and thereis a view that its main purpose is to obliterate all Buddhism in Vietnam.UBC clergy who have spoken out against VCP policy have been imprisoned orotherwise intimidated (Karnow 38). Thiswas the case for Vietnamese whose roots were in Buddhist or French Catholicpractice, the two dominant religious traditions in modern Vietnam. everybody" (Ebaugh and Chalfetz 598). "Refugees from Vietnam Have Changed, and Been Changed By, Life in America." Philadelphia Inquirer 19 April 2 , K5.McGraw, Carol. She not only prays for herself, sheprays for . Oneexample is the Virtue Fulfilled Temple in San Jose, Calif., founded by agroup of Buddhist nuns in the mid-198 s who had been influenced in Vietnamby the monastic aspect of Mahayana Buddhism and who practiced an ethic ofwhat was called "loving kindness," expressed as neighborliness,hospitality, and service in the neighborhood where the temple was located(Dickey C9). The fourth truth implies the need toreject acquisitiveness implicit in scrambling for survival in a newculture. However, in some parts of the country, refugees wereunceremoniously dumped in a city "and left to sink or swim" (Lin K5). McGraw cites a temple thatoffers moral, cultural, and linguistic training for children. Varieties of Buddhist devotion have been reported in the US. .Thuy, Le Thi Diem. We have to study and get a goodjob. Thien (Zen)Buddhism, with its emphasis on meditation, is significantly present amongthe Buddhist clergy (Topmiller 232f). Monks and nuns may function as spiritual counselors, and they appearto oversee organized programs for young people. Atvarious social events, "communal consumption of traditional foods is mostimportant in congregations composed predominantly of immigrants from onenationality" (Ebauch and Chalfetz 592). And every night, Giau Nguyen and his teenageson sit before the altar--more exactly the computer next to the altar--surfing the Internet for Vietnamese sites. When Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975, the first wave ofVietnamese immigrants to the US consisted mainly of the residue of SouthVietnam's elite bureaucracy, chiefly political in their orientation. But as his teenage son Sang explains,his parents want him "to work harder. This point is forcefully made by a newspaper retrospective onimmigrant families in the Washington, DC, area. Buddhism remains a focus oflife for recent arrivals, as shown by the fact that in Giau Nguyen'sapartment there is a Buddhist altar. They aretaught by members of the Buddhist Youth Association, United States, anoffshoot of an organization founded in Vietnam in the 194 s, which "issimilar to Scouting. It remains to be seen whether resourcesavailable to aspiring Western monastics, such as conferences and outreachprograms that feature Vietnamese speakers, will be more sharply organizedaround monastic training in the Vietnamese tradition (Pasanno). No single doctrinal ritual can be identified. The practical effect of the demand to survive in a new and radicallydifferent culture was summed up by London's Economist in 1992 in terms ofVietnamese immigrants' priorities in the US: "find somewhere to live, tolearn English and to find a job, in that order" ("From" 28). The monastic-training prospects for ethnic Vietnamese Buddhists are inany case hampered by the fact that the main focus of acculturation forVietnamese immigrant children has been on secular education and/or careersuccess. At any rate, someBuddhist temples in the US became the locus of community service: apsychoemotional therapeutic platform enabling either formal or informalnetworks of information, interfamily support, new-culture education, thesharing and acknowledgment of family status, and help with problems inadjusting to the new culture (Ebaugh and Chalfetz 6 ff). . In the mid-196 s, as Topmiller explains, Buddhists engaged in opposingthe north-south war while also preserving religious options, organized theUnified Buddhist Church (UBC), "which combined elements of eleven differentsects and the Theravada and Mahayana streams of Buddhism" (232) and whichopenly opposes the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) in Vietnam. "Buddhism." Our Religions. they're going to feel like they've wasted allthose years" (Pan and Ly A1). 69-137."Buddhism." Britannica 2 1 Deluxe Edition. Theravada Buddhism, prevalent in the southern part ofVietnam, is more monastic in emphasis, i.e., focuses on enlightenmentsolely via the sangha, or religious community. "Ma and Ba." Harper's Magazine 292 (April 1996): 15-19.Topmiller, Robert. Redwood Valley, Calif., 2 ). Thesecond wave, coming 1979 and the early 198 s, comprised what were calledboat people, refugees from the North Vietnamese communist crackdown againstdisloyal citizens and a war with the People's Republic of China, andsettling in a variety of locales around the country. It has been noted that women's status at Vietnamese Buddhist templesin the US has traditionally been subservient to that of men and thatBuddhist women have traditionally served no formal leadership religiousroles. It is at this point that the multifaceted Vietnamese Buddhisttradition becomes relevant. Whereas in Vietnam the Buddhistclergy would tend to deal with observant adults, in the US the clergy inthe sangha context has assumed a greater role in counseling young peoplenot to stray from the Eightfold Path and get involved in such Americansocial problems as gangs and drugs (McGraw c3). If we fail them . Thus in theVirtue Fulfilled Temple in San Jose, visitors may light incense in thechapel, meditate, talk to the Buddha, or visit the albums of ancestorphotos (Dickey C9). For example,immigrants perceive one benefit of Buddhist observance in the US as opposedto Vietnam as the fact that there is no government suppression of devotion.But in the US, temple function is operationalized as "a vital social-services anchor for refugees overwhelmed by a new, confusing and oftenfrightening country" (McGraw C3). Uniform shirts are the color of incense smoke used inpurification ceremonies" (McGraw c3). In some communities, nuns are considered inferior to monks, forexample, and are more or less tokens of leadership despite women'svoluntary contribution to the nurturing of Buddhist congregations (Ebaughand Chalfetz 6 ). .. "A Refugee's Odyssey Leads to Theological Peaks." National Catholic Reporter 36 (11 February 2 ): 5.Karnow, Stanley. Today, itis just as likely to be offering instruction to American-born Vietnamese inthe Vietnamese language. The decentralizednature of Vietnam's religious traditions, as well as the self-sufficiencyit implies, appears to have fostered greater assimilation for Vietnamesethan for other refugee-immigrants from Southeast Asia, such as theCambodians, "who brought with them [from Asia] all the old social rigidity,suspicion and fear" ("From" 28). The second wave ofVietnamese immigrants proved to be more entrepreneurial in focus. One view of the Vietnamese determination to succeed in the US isthat the dislocation of war obliged them "to part somewhat from native waysand take on the languages and affectations of alien peoples. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.