ASIAN RELIGIONS IN AMERICA A Documentary History Edited by THOMAS A. TWEED STEPHEN PROTHERO New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1999
CONTENTS Preface Xll GENERAL INTRODUCTION by Thomas A. Tweed 1 INTRODUCTION TO ASIAN RELIGIONS 13 PART I ORIENTATIONS, 1784 TO 1840 INTRODUCTION 25 1. VIEWS FROM ABROAD Amasa Delano, A Narrative of Voyages and Travels (1817) 29 Christian Disciple, An Account of the Sikhs in India (1814) 32 Robert Morrison's Letter from China (1809) 35 Adoniram and Ann Judson, A Mission in Burma (1832) 38 2. VIEWS FROM HOME Benjamin Franklin's Oriental Tale (1788) 43 Joseph Priestley, A Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with Those of the Hindoos and Other Ancient Nations (1799) 44 John Adams to Thomas Jefferson (1813-14) 48 William Bentley on Asian Trade in Salem (1794-1804) 51 Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions (1817) 54 Charles A. Goodrich, Religious Ceremonies and Customs (1836) 57 PART II ENCOUNTERS, 1840 TO 1924 INTRODUCTION 61 3. EAST TO AMERICA: IMMIGRANT LANDINGS Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (1869) 67 vn
Fung Chee Pang, The Confucian Sage and the Mongolian Bible (1876) 70 Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) 73 Frederick J. Masters, Pagan Temples in San Francisco (1892) 75 Shuye Sonoda, Buddhism in the Kingdom of Liberty (1899) 78 Saint Nihal Singh, The Picturesque Immigrant from India's Coral Strand (1909) 82 Swami Paramananda, Christ and Oriental Ideals (1923) 86 United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) 88 4. ROMANCING THE ORIENT: LITERARY ENCOUNTERS Ralph Waldo Emerson, Brahma and Plato (1857, 1850) 92 Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) 95 Bret Harte, The Heathen Chinee (1870) 98 Walt Whitman, Passage to India (1870) 100 T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922) 106 5. JOURNEYS IN THE STUDY Webster's Dictionary on Hinduism and Buddhism (1828, 1849, 1864) 110 Lydia Maria Francis Child, The Progress of Religious Ideas (1855) 111 James Freeman Clarke, Ten Great Religions (1871) 114 6. POSTCARDS FOR THE PEWS: MISSIONARIES AND THEIR CRITICS M. L. Gordon, An American Missionary in Japan (1892) 119 Mark Twain, The United States of Lyncherdom (1901) 121 Myra E. Withee, Is Buddhism to Blame? (1902) 123 7. THE WORLD'S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS John Henry Barrows, Words of Welcome (1893) 127 Swami Vivekananda, Hinduism (1893) 130 Anagarika Dharmapala, The World's Debt to Buddha (1893) 133 Soyen Shaku, Reply to a Christian Critic (1896) 137 8. TURNING EAST: SYMPATHIZERS AND CONVERTS Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves and The Buddhist Catechism (1900, 1881) 141 Sister Christine, Memories of Swami Vivekananda (1945) 145 Paul Cams, The Dharma (1898) 148 Marie de Souza Canavarro, Insight into the Far East (1925) 151 William Sturgis Bigelow to Kwanryo Naobayashi (1895) 154 via
PART III EXCLUSION, 1924 to 1965 INTRODUCTION 159 9. CLOSED PORTS AND OPEN CAMPS Asian Exclusion Act (1924) 163 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order 9066 (1942) 164 Nyogen Senzaki, Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy (1978) 166 Shigeo Kikuchi, Memoirs of a Buddhist Woman Missionary in Hawaii (1991) 169 Julius Goldwater, Wartime Buddhist Liturgy (1940s) 172 10. HINDU CROSSINGS: GURUS AND DISCIPLES Krishnalal Shridharani, My Brief Career as a Yogi (1941) 178 Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) 181 Krishnamurti, The Turning Point (1975) 185 John Yale, What Vedanta Means to Me (1960) 187 11. BUDDHIST CROSSINGS: MASTERS AND STUDENTS Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, What is Zen? (1959) 191 Dwight Goddard, Followers of Buddha: An American Brotherhood (1934) 193 Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums (1958) 196 Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen: A Method for Religious Awakening (1959) 200 Elson B. Snow, Entry into the Dharma Gate (1994) 203 12. ARTISTS, PREACHERS, AND MISSIONARIES E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road (1925) 209 Mersene Sloan, The Indian Menace (1929) 212 Howard and Sue Bailey Thurman Meet Mahatma Gandhi (1936) 215 John Cage, Lecture on Nothing (1949) 218 PART IV PASSAGES, 1965 TO THE PRESENT INTRODUCTION 223 13. COUNTERCULTURAL APPROPRIATIONS Alan Watts, Beginning a Counterculture (1972) 229 Timothy Leary, The Buddha as Drop-Out (1968) 232 Ram Dass, The Only Dance There Is (1974) 235 14. ASIAN INDIAN GURUS, CONVERTS, AND MOVEMENTS A TM Catechism (1975) 241 The Beatles and A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Search for Liberation (1981) 244 ix
Yogi Bhajan, Awakening the Mind to Prayer (1984) 248 Margaret Simpson, An Experience of Siddha Yoga Meditation (1991) 251 Swami Satchidananda, Integral Yoga (1996) 253 Elsie Cowan, Sai Baba and the Resurrection of Walter Cowan (1976) 257 15. BUDDHIST TEACHERS, CONVERTS, AND MOVEMENTS Shunryu Suzuki, Posture (1970) 261 Chogyam Trungpa, Meditation in Action (1969) 264 Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975) 268 An Interview with Roshi Jiyu Kennett (1986) 270 Women, Buddhism, and Vipassana Meditation (1991) 274 bell hooks, Waking Up to Racism (1994) 277 Jacci Thompson-Dodd, Soka Gakkai and the Power of Chanting (1996) 281 Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields, Recipes for Social Change (1996) 285 16. ASIAN INDIAN IMMIGRANTS: HINDU, JAIN, AND SIKH Anand Mohan, The Pilgrimage (1994) 289 Rituals at Sri Venkateswara Temple (1995) 294 Sri Ganesha Temple, Nashville, Recounting History and Nurturing Youth (1985-95) 299 Hinduism in the Public Realm: Hinduism Today on Christianity and Cloning (1996) 303 Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago, An Ancient Heritage and a Promising Future (1993) 309 Sikh Religious Society, Things That Make You Ask "Kion"? (1994) 312 17. BUDDHIST IMMIGRANTS The Buddha's Birthday in a Vietnamese-American Temple (1986) 315 The Dalai Lama Meets the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California (1989) 319 Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara's Tenth Anniversary (1990) 322 Later Generations of Japanese Americans on Jodo Shinshu (1990) 324 Thai Youth Club, DJ or Not We're Still Upset (1994) 328 Hsi Lai Temple, Buddhism Coming to the West (1997) 331 18. ASIAN RELIGIONS IN POPULAR AND ELITE CULTURE Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975) 335 Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh (1982) 339 Gary Snyder, Smokey the Bear Sutra (1969) 342 An Interview with Composer Philip Glass (1991) 345 The Beastie Boys, Bodhisattva Vow (1994) 349 Children Responding to Little Buddha (1994) 351
Phil Jackson, If You Meet the Buddha in the Lane, Feed Him the Ball (1995) 353 Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife (1991) 357 19. INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE Thomas Merton, Letter from Asia (1968) 362 Masao Abe and John Cobb, Buddhist-Christian Dialogue (1981) 365 Rodger Kamenetz, The Jew in the Lotus (1994) 369 The Parliament of the World's Religions Centennial (1993) 371 Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (1985) 376 20. MAPPING LEGAL BOUNDARIES: RELIGION AND STATE Justice William Douglas, Asian Religions According to the Supreme Court (1965) 378 U.S. Supreme Court, Even Buddhist Prisoners Have Rights (1972) 381 Chief Justice William Rehnquist, The Krishna Religion (1992) 383 Sikh Kirpans in Public Schools (1994) 385 A Vietnamese Home Temple Zoning Dispute (1996) 388 Chronology 392 Further Reading 402 Index 407 XI