INTRODUCTION: PRE-1965 BUDDHIST HISTORY IN AMERICA

Although it is rather common to refer to Oriental influences in the writings of such prominent American literary figures as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman, the more specifically Buddhist beginnings in America can be traced to the Chinese immigrants who began to appear on the West Coast in the 1840s. Prior to the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, the number of Chinese immigrants was small, but with the news of the golden wealth in the land, the figure increased exponentially. Rick Fields has suggested that by 1852, twenty thousand Chinese were present in California, and within a decade nearly one-tenth of the California population was Chinese. In the Chinese temples that dotted that California coastline, the religious practice was an eclectic blend of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, and although there were a number of Buddhist priests in residence, a distinctly Chinese Buddhism on the North American continent did not develop until much later.

The Japanese presence in America developed more slowly than the Chinese but had much greater impact. By 1890, the Japanese population was barely two thousand. The World’s Parliament of Religion, however, held in conjunction with the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, radically changed the entire landscape for Japanese Buddhism in America. Among the participants at the parliament was Shaku Sōen. Sōen returned to America in 1905, lecturing in several cities and establishing a basic ground for the entry of Zen.