Monk Reflects on a Growing Faith

January 10, 2007

Author: Waveney Ann Moore

Source: St. Petersburg Times

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/10/Neighborhoodtimes/Monk_reflects_on_a_gr.shtml

The Buddhist monk sat lotus-style before a small group of rapt devotees in a nondescript Pinellas Park home. He taught about "loving friendliness" to all beings, about truth and about peace.

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, who was visiting from a monastery he founded in West Virginia, appeared much younger than his 79 years. Originally from Sri Lanka, he is considered a pioneer of Buddhism in the United States. He said when he arrived in America in the 1960s, there were few books about the faith, and only scholars seemed interested in Buddhism.

Now the religion is growing rapidly in America and elsewhere, said Gunaratana, who warned those gathered that they must learn the correct interpretations of Buddha's teachings. "The truth does not change," said the man who has been a monk since he was 12.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey, done by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, there were at least 1,082,000 adult Buddhists in the United States in 2001. Gunaratana and others believe there are many more now.

The religion is growing in the United States because of immigration and non-Asian converts, but it is probably growing fastest in Australia, the monk said.

Jim Cameron, an ordained Buddhist minister who runs the Bodhi Tree Meditation Center in Largo, which Gunaratana helped found in 1987, thinks the Tampa Bay area reflects the growth in Buddhism that can be seen nationwide.