Most Venerable Bhante Walpola Piyananda's 80th Birthday Celebrating - Collected Essays

Teaching. He is called by most historians an agnostic because he
criticized the Bible and the concept of God. He also gave credit to
Buddhism for its contribution to humanistic philosophy.
In 1880 Col. Henry Steel Olcott, co-founder of the Theosophical
Society with Madame H. P. Blavatsky, went to Sri Lanka and helped
revive Buddhism, which was then in a state of decline. They were
the first two Westerners to formally take the panca sila and publicly
declare themselves Buddhists.
Anagarika Dharmapala went to Chicago in 1883 to attend the
World Parliament of Religions. He was the first person to speak about
Theravada Buddhism in America. It is interesting to note that there
were five American Buddhists in the audience.
The Chinese came to America in the 19 th century to build the
railroads, and in the process, they founded their own Buddhist temples
all across the country.
The Japanese also came to America in the 19 th century, and
founded their Buddhist temples, mainly in Hawaii and California. The
Jodo Shinshu sect started the Institute of Buddhist Studies to train
Judo Shinshu priests in Berkeley, California during the 1970’s. In
1976 Ven. Madawala Seelawimala joined the teaching staff and taught
courses about the Theravada Buddhist tradition for the first time. Ven.
Seelawimala has a Theravada temple in Sacramento, California, and
helped establish one in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He helped organize
a Sri Lankan American temple in San Jose, California that was later
renamed Dhammapala Insitute by the members and Ven. Dr. Ellawala
Nandissara.
After the Korean War in the 1950’s, many Koreans immigrated
to America. The American involvement in the war allowed Christian
missionaries the opportunity to work aggressively to convert the
Buddhist population. Buddhist immigrants founded many temples
throughout the US and Canada.
The Vietnamese War brought immigrants to the US and
Canada from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They brought with them
their Buddhist religion establishing Buddhist temples in their many
communities.
Free-thinkers and scholars from the 1960’s like Father Thomas
Merton, Alan Watts, and Robert Thurman introduced various traditions
of Buddhism to the West.
Scientists such as Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Fritjof Capra,
J. Robert Oppenheimer and others have written about the convergence
of science and Buddhism.
William James, American psychologist, taught at Harvard and
wrote many books comparing Buddhism and psychology.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has contributed greatly to bringing
Buddhism into the forefront of Western consciousness. His charisma
captured the imagination of the Hollywood film industry, and many
celebrities embraced Buddhism and became his followers. Several
films, including “Seven Years in Tibet,” “Kundun,” “Siddhartha,” and
“The Little Buddha” brought Buddhism into public view.
Even though Herman Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha, isn’t the true
story of Buddha’s life, many Westerners were introduced to Buddhism
through its pages.
The last three decades have seen many Baby Boomers
discovering Buddhism for the first time. Authors such as Ram Dass,
Joseph Goldstein, Sylvia Boorstein, and others introduced Buddhist
principles and philosophy to this generation. Other scholars who wrote
about Buddhism in the West were Erich Fromm, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack
Kornfield, Dr. David Kalupahana (University of Hawaii), Dr. George
Bond (Northwestern University) and Dr. Lewis Lancaster (University
of California at Berkeley).
There are many Jewish people in America who have discovered
Buddhism, and are referred to as “Jew-Bud” or “Bud-Jews.” One
such American of Jewish descent is Theravada monk Ven. Bhikkhu
Bodhi. He was trained in Sri Lanka and has been instrumental in the
translation of great portions of the Pali Canon into present day English
thus making it accessible to the English-speaking population. He is an
imminent scholar to whom we are indebted for his great service to the
Buddha Sasana.
Today in most universities throughout North America there are
many courses of study that include Buddhist literature and art – both in
depth and in comparative curriculum contexts. The first professor of
Theravada Buddhism in America was Dr. Ananda Koomarassamy. He
taught Buddhism at Harvard University in the late 1930’s.
Dr. Walpola Rahula taught Buddhist Studies at Northwestern
University from 1964 to 1969, and then at UCLA as visiting lecturer.
He also taught at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. His book
“What the Buddha Taught,” is a very popular introduction to Buddhism
for Americans. This academic contact with Buddhism has enabled the
development of Buddhist scholars such as Dr. James W. Boyd, who
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