Why are there so few black/Afro-american Taoist or Buddhists?
I'm curious.
To my knowledge, I'm the only black to study these spiritual traditions and incorporate them into my own spiritual path.
Is it just my perception?
As an American I have been personal friends with Jews, Muslims, and Christians, but I have never, to my knowledge, even had an acquaintance who was Buddhist. So in part, I think they are just far less common. Also, they seem to be much less visible. They don't seem to have the public communal day-to-day or annual rituals/traditions that the others do.
I haven't seen any solid demographics, but estimates seem to put American Buddhists at a couple million. So Afro-american Buddhists would probably be in the hundreds of thousands (if that). That's a pretty small group. They are out there, though. The Sōka Gakkai movement has been particularly good at reaching out to minority groups. There are also some Buddhist studies taught at universities. That might be a good place to reach out to.
From where I'm sitting you're probably right about the statistics.
But I'm curious as to why this is.
My first wife was Buddhist and so were most of my friends at the time. I'm no expert but will say that Buddhism is a less overt philosophy/religion. No or very little evangelical efforts. Little in the way of religious oppression or war. They sit back, answer questions and let you come to them. Most of what I know about Buddhism is from watching the way Buddhists act and this is impressive.
I have thought this way too.
And as a friend pointed out to me today, it is not like they stand out with signs yelling their beliefs. But my gut says there is more to this....
Yes Eugene. Correct. Follow your own Tao. God speed!!
It is a sort of infinity that brings a person to be what they believe in. I do believe that you are one of them who is guided to the path in spiritual learning.
I am a believer of fate where our destiny can be changed if we choose to do so. I am also seeking the path of enlightenment in this life. I do know that once I am able to achieve it, I will no longer be in the cycle of rebirth.
Wise words. I wrote to you. Look for my mail in your spam. Just one thing, in Sri Chinmoy's philosophy, 'Let Thy Will be done' is the highest philosophy. There is no greater joy than returning after Enlightenment, to share with our brothers and siste
I know that I must follow my own path, and anything else would not be me but some other teaching not my own. I have to pursue my own Gnosis, my own Tao.
Well, in my Grenada where I gave talks on Yoga and the Spiritual Life, very few people came. Here in England, I have also been to the black community to give talks. Surprisingly, even there I get more whites than blacks turning up. Finally, I am a member of a spiritual organisation of about 9000. I was the only black person in my Centre for almost 29 years. Now there is one other black person. O.K., so I am really supporting your argument so far.
Why is it so? Well bro, the Supreme does things in His own way, and ultimately everything is based on the level of what in the East they call consciousness. We seem far superior when it comes to hospitality and good fun. Still, receptivity of spiritual light requires an inner vessel which is prepared. Many of us seem to be busy looking for an identity and so we say 'Jesus' was black or are happier talking about the black heroes of the past, and Africa. This is all good, but true spirituality draws us away from the mind and into the heart, rather like a child. In other words, we need to think less, and practice more.
As I indicated initially, it is God the Supreme who decides, it may be that we are affected by our karma - causes and effects - our our God's Hour has not yet struck. I admit I do not know. Just food for thought here.
Many Blacks are not drawn to Buddhism and Taoism because they are entrenched in the Christian methodology. The overwhelming majority of Blacks are staunchly religious Christians who believe that Christianity is the ONLY way!
Yes. That is an important piece in my rationale. Sorry I forgot to include same.
I thought about this too.
But when I think about the statistics, it doesn't add up. It seems to me to still be an anomaly.
Do not make it a problem, Eugene. My last paragragh of the previous answer still holds. It is ultimately God who decides these things.
@manatita44
Not making it a problem, but if it is God's doing, it makes my question even more curious. But then, I disagree that God's will would do such a thing, and it is not something I have faith in.
by RFox 14 years ago
1. Buddha is not God.2. Buddha never preached "the word of the God" and never considered himself a prophet. He said repeatedly to his students that he was merely a human being. 3. In teachings the Buddha specifically avoided all discussion of creationism or debates about the existence of...
by Maltese-er 14 years ago
I come from a catholic country and family, and have grown up with catholics thoughts and beliefs, however, the more I grew up, the less it appealed to me. I started reading about buddhism and from what I've gathered, which is not much really, it has to be the best one, because it helps so much with...
by Kitty Fields 8 years ago
Why is it that Christians believe that Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Native Americans, etc. are all wrong in their beliefs and that they'll all go somewhere horrible when they die? Why can't we just accept that other people have different lives and different experiences, and let them believe how they...
by Gina Welds 8 years ago
I believe Buddhism makes me a better Christian. Can one be Buddhist and Christian at same time?Recently I have been battling with the question, "Am I a Christian Buddhist or a Buddhist Christian," and is it even possible to be both? I do believe that there are principles about...
by mischeviousme 13 years ago
I am not saying this litterally, I just think that the ideas are very much the same. Buddha saved us from desire and Jesus saved us from our sins. The idea is that the early Hindu and Buddhist teaching, spread west and were adapted to fit the culture. In India and China, the Buddhas were...
by BobMonger 10 years ago
Can a person consider themselves to be both Christian and Buddhist without compromising themselves?In their purest form the teachings of both Buddha and Christ for virtuous living are identical. The great difference, as I see it, is Christ's teachings on the Kingdom of Heaven-a subject The Buddha...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |