The prevalent image of Buddhists as passive, nonviolent people is very largely true. However, there are a few vivid counterexamples. Burma (Myanmar) is at least 90 percent Buddhist, and yet it has had a very long, bloody past of conflict with its neighbors as well as internally. Warfare and internal strife have characterized Burmese history since around A.D. 1300. That’s over 700 years! Since 1962, when a military junta seized power, Burma has been ruled by one of the most oppressive, violent governments in the world.[1]  Under its present government, it was ranked as the fourteenth worst country[2] in terms of human rights violations.[3]

When a majority of people in a country share a common belief, followers of contrasting minority religions may be treated poorly or harshly. Antagonisms can escalate into mob violence. Such is the case in Burma.

Reuters recently reported that following a dispute between a Buddhist woman selling gasoline and a Muslim man, the man poured it over her and set her on fire. The police detained the man, and a Buddhist mob demanded that he be handed over to them. When the police refused, two days of widespread violence broke out resulting in a mosque, a school, and Muslim homes and shops being torched. Groups of young men and boys roamed through the city on motorcycles singing nationalist songs. One person was killed and four were injured in the mob violence, and the Muslim populace has vacated the area. “In other regions, such as Rakhine State where hundreds were killed last year, and in the central city of Meikhtila where at least 44 people died in March, there have been signs of ethnic cleansing, and of impunity for those inciting it.”[4]

When a Christian pastor or leader becomes embroiled in a scandal, their hypocrisy is often highlighted by anti-Christian media.[5]  When a Buddhist fails to live righteously, however, it usually takes place with little notice and little or no media coverage. When Buddhist scandals are exposed, it is assumed that the individual is at fault, and not that Buddhism is somehow inadequate. One exception to this is Patrick French, author of Tibet, Tibet, who summarized his disillusionment with Buddhism this way:

As I studied Buddhism more closely, some of the failings began to show, and I noticed the schisms, bigots, frauds, hypocrites and predators that you will find in any ecclesiastical system. I was put off too by the tone of many of the foreign converts, who thought they could strip the tradition of its tough ethical underpinnings. They were implausible, with their showy accoutrements of conversion, their beads and bracelets, their devotion to instant spiritual empowerment, their reliance on airport-hopping teachers who were not always taken seriously by Tibetans. Then there were the prominent blunders: the teacher and promoter Sogyal Rinpoche, served with a lawsuit for seducing a student; and the Nyingmapa monk Penor Rinpocke who, in the most dubious circumstances, identified the high-kicking Hollywood action hero Steven Seagal (Marked for Death, Hard to Kill) as a reincarnation of the seventeenth-century master Chungdrag Dorje. [6]

Perhaps out of sympathy for oppressed Tibet, or out of distaste for Christianity and a desire to promote alternatives to it, or all of the above, with few exceptions the media have only projected attractive images of Buddhists. However, a February 2011 article in the Los Angeles Times noted that:

Tibetan Buddhism’s image of placid chanting and sublime meditation belies a more edgy history, analysts say, replete with religious figures attacking each other and alliances between monasteries and brutal warlords. . . .

 “We in the West tend to project all our fantasies about mystical spiritualism onto Tibetan Buddhism,” said Erik Curren, author of “Buddha’s Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today.” It’s really like a civil war. There’s lots of acrimony.” . . .

Some analysts said some Westerners have a rosy-eyed view of Tibetan Buddhism, perhaps a reflection of their disillusionment with Western religions. . . .

“Inter-sect conflicts involving physical violence is nothing new,” Curren said. “It’s just like any religion. It has its share of bad apples, but that doesn’t spoil the whole barrel. The sooner Westerners realize that, the better.”[7]

In spite of the widespread Buddhist emphasis on tolerance of those with other beliefs, there are a number of countries with a Buddhist majority where Christians claim they are being actively and harshly persecuted by Buddhists.[8]  Among them are Burma,[9] Tibet,[10] Bhutan,[11] Sri Lanka,[12] and Vietnam[13].

In Burma, religious unrest and ethnic hatred are not new, and Buddhists are not immune to committing acts of retaliation or mob violence.

[1] “History of Burma,” Wikipedia, retrieved November 4, 2010.

[2] “The Observer Human Rights Index,” Guardian.co.uk, retrieved November 4, 2010.

[3] “Myanmar (Burma) Human Rights,” Amnesty International, retrieved November 4, 2010.

[4] “Buddhist mobs attack Muslim homes in Myanmar, One Dead,” Reuters, retrieved May 30, 2013.

[5] “Christian Evangelist Scandals,” Wikipedia, retrieved February 14, 2011.

[6] Patrick French, Tibet, Tibet (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), 26–27.

[7] Mark Magnier, “A Tempest in Tibetan Temples,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2011, retrieved February 9, 2011.

[8] See clickable map at “Restricted Nations,” Voice of the Martyrs, retrieved July 28, 2010.

[9] Burma is 83 percent Buddhist and 9 percent Christian. According to Voice of the Martyrs (VOM),

The government of Burma continues to discourage, harass and use other, more severe, forms of persecution on any group it considers harmful to the state. Christianity is high on the list, even though the government claims freedom of religion in Burma. A secret memo titled “Program to destroy the Christian religion in Burma,” details instructions on how to drive out Christians. It calls for anyone caught evangelizing to be imprisoned. VOM has received widespread reports of churches being burned, forcible conversion of Christians to Buddhism and Christian children being barred from schools. Ethnic Christians, in particular, are singled out for repression because of the government’s goal to create a uniform society of one language, one ethnicity and one religion.

Source: “Restricted Nations,” Voice of the Martyrs, (emphasis added).

[10] Tibet is 80 percent Buddhist and 0.2 percent Christian. Voice of the Martyrs reported that

Most of the persecution against Christians comes from militant Tibetan Buddhists. There may be about 1,000 evangelical and 2,000 Catholic Christians among the five million Tibetans in the world, and there are at least two groups of secret believers in Tibet. . . . Pastor Zhang Zhongxin was given two years of re-education through labor in 2008 for his crimes, one of which was preaching the gospel in Tibet.”

Source: “Restricted Nations,” Voice of the Martyrs, (emphasis added).

[11] Bhutan is 72 percent Buddhist, 23 percent Hindu, and 0.5 percent Christian. According to Voice of the Martyrs:

Bhutan is one of the most restricted nations in the world for Christians. All public worship and evangelism by non-Buddhists is illegal. Churches are never permitted to evangelize. Christian family members can meet together, but they cannot meet with other Christian families. Importing printed religious material is banned, and only Buddhist religious texts are allowed in the country. Bhutanese Christians face subtle forms of discrimination from their families as well as pressure to reconvert to Buddhism.

Source: “Restricted Nations,” Voice of the Martyrs, (emphasis added).

[12] Sri Lanka is 72 percent Buddhist, 12 percent Hindu, 8 percent Muslim, and 8 percent Christian.  Voice of the Martyrs reports:

Although the constitution guarantees religious freedom, minority Protestant religions have experienced violent persecution as well as discrimination in employment and education. . . . Much of the persecution comes from local Buddhist groups. . . . Threats to close down churches have prevented some church members from meeting for worship.

Source: “Restricted Nations,” Voice of the Martyrs, (emphasis added).

[13] Vietnam is 54 percent Buddhist and 8 percent Christian. Voice of the Martyrs says:

Persecution of Christians is harsh, particularly for unregistered and ethnic minority churches. Many churches have chosen to remain unregistered because of the unreasonable restrictions the government imposes on registered churches and believers. Arbitrary arrests, harassment and fines are common. Many Christians are in prison. Only a few have been released, and many have been forced to renounce their faith. Several ethnic Christians reportedly died after being released from prison or while in police custody because of injuries caused by torture.

Source: “Restricted Nations,” Voice of the Martyrs, (emphasis added).

I have often heard it said that Buddhism is not a religion. That it is more of a philosophy or a spiritual method of practice.

Merriam-Webster defines “religion” as: 

• “the service and worship of God or the supernatural;
• commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance;
• a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices”

Buddhism is very diverse, so the answer to this may differ between the various branches of Buddhism. In this article, we will look at Tibetan (Vajrayana) as one major branch and examine the question of whether it is a religion. For example, an Western ethnic lay practitioner would perform some or all of the following daily practices:

• You rise early, between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m., to begin your day with meditation.
• You walk around (circumambulate) your house, which holds a sacred shrine containing statues, scrolls, and other ritual objects.
• As you walk, you finger your mala (Buddhist rosary) while chanting a sacred mantra such as Om mani padme hum (the famous mantra of Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of compassion) or the longer mantra of Vajrasattva, the bodhisattva of clarity and purification.
• After cleaning your shrine, you offer 108 prostrations . . . as an expression of your devotion to and refuge in the Three Jewels (Buddha, dharma, and sangha). [Start on your hands and knees, then lie completely flat on your stomach, while lying flat raise your hands upwards as if praying, then push up from the ground and repeat.]
• You engage in a particular practice your teacher has given you, often a visualization of a particular deity accompanied by chanting, prayer, and prostrations.
• As you go about your day, you constantly chant Om mani padme hum, either aloud or silently to yourself, while cultivating the qualities of compassion and loving-kindness for all beings.
• You spend an hour or two in the evening studying certain special teachings recommended by your teacher.
• Before you go to sleep, you make offerings of incense and candles at your altar, meditate, do additional prostrations, and recite long-life prayers for your teacher and for His Holiness the Dalai Lama.[1]

Some elements of Buddhism do not fulfill the strict definition of religion as “the service and worship of God or the supernatural.” However, if you examine Tibetan Buddhism, it has a personal and institutionalized system of beliefs and practices involving deities. In particular, the rituals listed above of meditation, circumambulation, chanting, prostrations, prayer, study, and offerings bear out the definition of religion.

Empowerment

The gateway to the Vajrayana is what is know as “empowerment.” As empowerment is generally a very elaborate ceremony wherein a highly respected lama will confer the blessings of a particular Buddhist deity, such as, for example, Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion. During an empowerment ceremony, the lama plants a “seed” in the student’s mind that will eventually ripen in the student, through practice and devotion, manifesting the enlightened qualities of that deity. An empowerment marks a student’s formal entrance into the tantric path.[2] 

Examining some elements of the Tibetan empowerment ceremonies, also called initiations, we find that these initiations involve deities or yidam, of which there are thousands, each with their own empowerment ceremony. The ceremony is conducted by a lama, who bestows the empowerment.[3]

An Empowerment is an authorization to do the various stages of meditation associated with a particular deity. . . .[4]

Unless you first obtain the ripening empowerments, you are not authorized to hear even a single verse of the tantras, statements and instructions. Unauthorized people who engage in expounding on and listening to the tantras will not only fail to receive blessings; they will create immense demerit from divulging the secrecy of these teachings.[5]

The empowerment ceremony is considered the way to directly transmit the truth of Buddhism from the lama to the lay practitioner.[6] Before the ceremony, the lay person prepares by washing and putting on clean clothes.[7] He or she needs to be prepared the prostrate themselves before the lama.[8] Saffron water or liquor is given to seal the commitments made.

The samaya vows . . . are given with some saffron water or alcoholic liquor to seal the commitments, along with a stern warning about what may happen to those who break these commitments. At this point, we have reached the point of no return and have committed ourselves to being tantric practitioners.[9]

Three main elements of the empowerments involve purifying the body, speech and mind, however, during purifying the body, the lay person is authorized to visualize themselves as a deity.

If there are three main empowerments, the first is the body empowerment. This purifies the defilements of body, such as illness, and authorizes the disciple to visualize herself a deity. The speech empowerment purifies defilements of speech and breath and allows the student to recite the deity’s mantra. The empowerment of mind purifies the mind and permits the students to dissolve the visualization and rest their minds in buddha-nature.[10]

During the ceremony, vows are made, however, the sheer number of vows can make them impossible to keep.

There are . . . other Smaya vows that are implicit in the empowerment even though they will probably not be mentioned during the ceremony. Nonetheless, it is your responsibility to find out what they are and to try to keep them as well as you can. There are thousands and thousands of these vows, some clearly more important than others and many nearly impossible to keep. . . . Find out which ones he [the lama] feels are the crucial ones, how to keep them, and what to do if they are broken.[11]

In view of the practices borne out in the empowerment ceremony, the Tibetan (Vajrayana) form of Buddhism fulfills the definition of a religion.

[1] Jonathan Landaw and Stephan Bodian, Buddhism for Dummies, (Hoboken: Wiley Publishing, 2003), 172.

[2] Bruce Newman, A Beginner’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhism: notes from a practitioner’s journey, (Boulder: Snow Lion Publications, 2004), 29.

[3] Ibid., 30.

[4] Ibid, 31.

[5] Ibid., 31. Quoted from Tsele Rinpoche, Empowerment, (Kathmandu: Rangjung Yeshue Publications, 1994), 15.

[6] Bruce Newman, A Beginner’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhism: notes from a practitioner’s journey, (Boulder: Snow Lion Publications, 2004), 31.

[7] Ibid., 32.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid., 34.

[10] Ibid., 35.

[11] Ibid., 37.

Steve Jobs is known around the world as the visionary co-founder of Apple, Inc. He was instrumental in the remarkable success of Apple and its products including the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad, as well as making his mark in the film industry as the CEO and majority stockholder of Pixar, the highly successful animated film company known for the Toy Story movies, A Bug’s Life, Monster’s, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up. Pixar was later purchased by The Walt Disney Company, where Jobs served on the Board of Directors.[1] The subject of numerous books, documentaries, films and even a play, he will also be the subject of an independent film jOBS starring Ashton Kutcher.[2] The film premiered at the Sundance Festival on January 25, 2013 and will open in theaters on April 19, 2013.[3]

During his early career he traveled to India and spent seven months there. After returning to the U.S., he experimented with LSD and became a practitioner of Zen Buddhism.[4] But, as blogger Steve Silberman asks, “What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really?”[5] In discussing the book Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography, Silberman notes,

Isaacson does a fine job of showing how Jobs’ engagement with Buddhism was more than just a lotus-scented footnote to a brilliant Silicon Valley career. As a young seeker in the ’70s, Jobs didn’t just dabble in Zen, appropriating its elliptical aesthetic as a kind of exotic cologne. He turns out to have been a serious, diligent practitioner who undertook lengthy meditation retreats at Tassajara — the first Zen monastery in America, located at the end of a twisting dirt road in the mountains above Carmel — spending weeks on end “facing the wall,” as Zen students say, to observe the activity of his own mind.

Silberman also discusses books that influenced Jobs, such as Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungap Rinpoche, a Tibetan Lama, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, which was compiled from lectures by Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, and the influence that his teacher Kobun Chino Otogawa had in his life. Silberman believes that Job’s gutsy showmanship may have been inspired by stories about legendary Zen masters.  

I suspect that Jobs’ chutzpah as the Valley’s most dramatic and effective showman was inspired, at least in part, by the mythical Zen rogues who drank sake, caroused with whores, shunned temples, mocked hollow rituals, sat zazen in caves, and turn out to be the only ones worthy of inheriting the old master’s robe and bowl by the end of the story. Zen flourishes in irreverence, subversion, inscrutability, and self-mockery — all words that describe Jobs’ style but the last.[6]

While many of Job’s attributes as an inventor and entrepreneur may have by influenced by his Buddhist beliefs, he lacked the basic tenet of treating others with respect and lovingkindness.

Isaacson is admirably frank about the core tenet of Buddhism that Jobs seems to have bypassed: the importance of treating everyone around you, even perceived enemies, with basic respect and lovingkindness. It’s tempting now to cast Jobs’ tantrums, casual brutality, and constant berating of “sh–heads” [my edit] as the brave refusal to compromise his ideal of perfection — even as a kind of tough love that inspired his employees to transcend their own limitations. But a more skillful practitioner would have tried to find ways to bring out the genius in his employees without humiliating them — and certainly would have found ways of manufacturing products that didn’t cause so much suffering for impoverished workers in other countries.[7] The moment in Isaacson’s book when Jobs tells the Mobile Me team after the project’s disastrous début, “You should hate each other for having let each other down,” shows that even near the end of his life, Jobs had more to learn from his teachers.

NBCNews reports that ten employees of Foxconn, a Taipei-based manufacturer for Apple, Hewlett Packard and Dell, have committed suicide. It is believed to be due to working conditions: no conversation on the production line permitted, only ten-minute bathroom breaks every two hours permitted, and that workers are being yelled at.[8]

So what type of Buddhist was Steve Jobs? It would be safe to say he was at least in some important ways a hypocrite. While he seemed to embrace Buddhist ideas that fostered his creativity and success, he side-stepped a very basic tenet of Buddhism, respect and kindness toward all. We see that some Buddhists are hypocrites, just as are some Christians. Actually, if we are honest about it, human nature is such that we may all be hypocrites, especially if we include the wayward nature of our thoughts and feelings. Both Buddhism and Christianity clearly teach that what we think and feel are virtually as important as our outward actions. So, even if our outward behavior is above reproach, the occasionally serious, wayward content of our minds and hearts could cause us to fall short.

[1] “Steve Jobs,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs, retrieved February 25, 2013.

[2] “Steve Jobs: Portrayals and coverage in books, film, and theater,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Portrayals_and_coverage_in_books.2C_film.2C_and_theater, retrieved February 25, 2013.

[3] “Jobs (film),” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_(film), retrieved February 25, 2013.

[4] “Steve Jobs: Early Career,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Early_career, retrieved February 25, 2013.

[5] Steve Silberman, “What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really?” http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/2011/10/28/what-kind-of-buddhist-was-steve-jobs-really/, retrieved February 25, 2013.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Stephanie Wong, John Liu and Time Culpan, “Why Apple is Nervous About Foxconn,” NBCNews.com, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/37510167/ns/business-us_business/t/why-apple-nervous-about-foxconn/, retrieved February 25, 2013.

[8] Ibid.