The U.S. government estimates that the number of church buildings in the U.S. is about 330,000. Although census reports have determined that about forty percent of Americans are regular church-goers, studies conducted by religious organizations have indicated that the actual percentage is about seventeen and a half percent.
A couple I know once decided to start attending church because they wanted to meet people; they were bored with retirement. They chose a large church with about 3,000 members. They told me that the preacher spent thirty minutes screaming that god hates faggots. They wanted to walk out but stayed put until the service was over. They were happy to escape that place of hatred and were cured of their urge to go to church.
I suspect that most churches aren’t that bad. But this country needs zendos more than it needs churches.
Why is that so? Churches don’t teach people how to “put mindfulness in front of you.” Tranquil Wisdom meditation is not taught in churches. No koans are studied in churches. Some of them, like the homophobic church my friends visited, don’t even teach loving kindness. Let’s face it – Christian churches just don’t teach enough Buddhism!
So to change the culture from a so-called Christian culture (and it makes no sense for the news media to continually refer to the U.S. as a Christian nation when only seventeen per cent of its people are church goers) to a Buddhist culture, we need to build more zendos.
And we need to change the war culture of the U.S. to a Buddhist culture to put an end to the outrageous and unjustified invasion of practically the whole world by the U.S. military. Out of about 190 countries in the world, about 130 of them have U.S. military personnel deployed in them.
Every country should be free of foreign military. Every country should be free of all military institutions which are nothing but manifestations of ill will.
To start a zendo, we first have to start a Meetup.com group at a Starbucks, Panera Bread, or other gathering place that is not a full service restaurant. The group starts off as a discussion group but since meditation can’t be practiced in public places in this non-meditative country, eventually the group will have to meet outside the meetup place. A few core members of the group will need to keep the public group going even after a formal zendo has been found in order to keep the group growing.
My personal goal is to start two new meetup groups per year for the next five years. And I have to convince each of the new groups that they will do the same! Obviously, in five years those two groups would spawn four, eight, sixteen, and thirty two new groups in the Tampa Bay area. After that, it is unlikely that each group can form two new groups each year. The numbers become sixty four, one hundred twenty eight, two hundred fifty six, five hundred twelve and one thousand twenty four. A five year plan is about the best we can do.
I’m quite proud of the Tampa Bay area in this regard. As reported by the Tampa Bay Times last year:
“The 2010 U.S. Religion Census was recently released, and, it turns out, Tampa Bay is rather faithless.
Of the 51 metro areas of at least 1 million residents, Tampa Bay placed 50th in its percentage of worshipers. Only Portland, Ore., stands between us and eternal damnation.”
So I live in an area where starting zendos is not that difficult. We already have about thirty meditation groups.
I am wondering how many people who read this post would like to do the same, i.e., start a similar five year plan of zendo-opening. Just send a direct message on Twitter and let me know where you are and what your plans are. If this zendo-opening project gets off the ground, we will put all of the zendo-openers in touch with each other and we’ll monitor the growth of meetup groups and zendos for the next five years.
The Zen Practice Foundation will reimburse you for the first Meetup.com group you start. Just send us the link to the group and we will send you a check paying for the first six months.
So please re-tweet the tweet about this blog entry to your followers. Perhaps we can get this zendo project off the ground. Thanks!
