The religious varieties of ethnic presence: a comparison between a Taiwanese immigrant Buddhist temple and an evangelical Christian church

Sociology of Religion, Summer, 2002 by Carolyn Chen

For those who do not see attaining nirvana in this life as a reality, the more immediate goal is to at least secure rebirth into a higher realm of being. By doing good, one cultivates merit and works towards the assurance of rebirth into a higher realm. By doing bad things in this life one will earn rebirth into a lower realm. One can also accumulate merit through participation in Buddhist rituals and practice. (20) Belonging to the Pure Land tradition of Buddhism, most devotees at Dharma Light aspire towards rebirth in Amitahba Buddha's Pure Land, a realm believed to be more conducive towards the attainment of enlightenment.

Given the nature of their salvation message, Buddhists have a very different orientation to the world than evangelical Christians. Buddhists regard the world and their present lives as a temporary realm where they work out their karmic debts and merits. Buddhists may be concerned about propagating the Dharma but they rarely consider it to be their primary mission in the world. Furthermore, because Buddhists believe that individuals have multiple lifetimes to reach enlightenment, there is less urgency to evangelize. Like Christian religious institutions, the temple exists primarily to serve its own community of devotees. As an institution of salvation it offers both the education and ritual services that connect the individual to that which is transcendent and facilitates the cultivation of merit. To the extent that a temple, or a church for that matter, focuses all of its energies on the maintenance of its own community, its engagement with those outside will be limited. But where a temple does extend itself beyond its own community, the world is a place where individuals can work out their own salvation through good thoughts and deeds. Through such acts of charity, Buddhists work for the "salvation" of themselves and others.

Dharma Light's particular practice of Involved Buddhism has challenged the temple's traditional institutional role of merely offering sacred ritual and ceremony, expanding its concerns beyond the temple walls to those of public service and charity. As an institution of salvation which sees its orientation as this life rather than the next, Dharma Light proclaims its public mission to "establish a Pure Land on earth" through the dual process of physically transforming the world through charity and promoting internal purification through Buddhist teachings. Where traditionally the Pure Land is considered a realm one enters after this life, Dharma Light insists that we can establish the Pure Land in the here and now. While giving visitors a tour of the temple, one of the monastics explained to visitors, "We don't just sit in the forest to meditate; to isolate ourselves for our own religious practice would be selfish. We want to be involved in society." Like Grace Taiwanese Church, Dharma Light is also concerned about propagating its own religious message. However, this is not the sole mission of the temple or its devotees. In Taiwan and around the world, the Dharma Light order has made every attempt to engage its temples in the local community through charity and public service. In its mission statement, one of Dharma Light's expressed objectives is "to benefit society through charitable programs." For example, Dharma Light has been involved in local prison outreach, gang intervention, and charitable fund drives with the larger American society. While it was rare for the evangelical pastors to voice concern for worldly affairs that did not affect the church community, it was not uncommon for monastics to pray for events remote from Southern California, such as the war in Kosovo or the shootings at Columbine High School. It even held a special service in October 1996 to honor the servicemen killed in a fire on the Navy carrier USS Oriskany.