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Introduction by Diana Winston
In 1990, attending my first three-month meditation retreat, I
had the dubious distinction of being one of three people—in a room
of one hundred—under the age of thirty-five. I felt isolated,
wondering why there were no others in my age range, but also a
little bit proud and “special.” I bemoaned missing the seventies,
when all the teachers and practitioners were my age—just starting
out in their twenties and thirties. (I also whined about missing
the interesting gurus and teachers who had died long before I ever
started practicing.)
In an earlier era, it was part of the zeitgeist to go off to
Asia to find oneself. But my generation (X), growing up in the
Reagan years, was not encouraged to deviate from money-making
careers. Spiritual searching seemed so, well, seventies.
The generation of young people after me seemed to pick up steam
in the dharma halls, but never quite took to it in the
all-embracing way you see in the sheer numbers of baby-boomers.
Over the years, the dharma has become grayer, seeming more relevant
to older generations, and often intently focused on those heavenly
messengers (old age, sickness, and death), most of which seem a
little distant from teenagers and twenty-somethings. As centers
age, young people often do not see their experience reflected back
to them. And affordability (discussed significantly in the panel)
has become more of an issue for young people as well, as dharma has
become more expensive along with everything else, with prices that
are more appropriate to well-established older people.
Nevertheless, there has been a small but important demographic
shift. There are more young people at dharma centers than in the
late eighties and nineties. Teen and young people retreats have
contributed to broadening the dharma, as have a series of books,
websites, and communities targeting young people. There is now a
teacher-training program at Spirit Rock where many of the trainees
are under forty. Young people are practicing, undeniably, but as
Sumi Loundon Kim points out in the panel, they still account for a
small percentage of the total population of practitioners.
So, here we are. Forty or fifty years after the big influx of
dharma to the West, we have a small but active and growing
population of young practitioners. But what of the future, when the
baby boomers are gone? What will become of the dharma with a
relatively small number of young people waiting in the wings? To
increase the numbers of young students, does the dharma need to
become more relevant to younger people? If so, what will that look
like?
This forum offers a dynamic and lively exploration of these
questions by a panel that encompasses a wide age range and a
diverse set of experiences. It’s clear from what the panelists have
to say that the dharma is not dying, but it is morphing.
The panel explores new forms that dharma is taking within younger
circles, forms that may deviate from the style of practice in their
parents’ generation, including more social and environmental
engagement. The panel looks at questions of innovation versus
tradition. Will technology draw youth in or alienate them from the
dharma, and how can its power be harnessed? The panelists offer
perspectives on dharma’s integration into the American culture and
what will speak loudest and most significantly to youth. They
question identity—are Buddhists Buddhist? And they look carefully
at issues of inclusivity and affordability, offering some
thoughtful suggestions on how to bring more youthful energy into
dharma practice and centers. Finally, community features big in
this panel, as it is here that young people are finding the most
relevant applications to their lives.
Twenty years after my first retreat, I can say that the dharma
is absolutely relevant to young people, as this panel shows us. And
the inclusion of youth in the future of the dharma will only create
a vital, exciting new form of Buddhism(s). The dharma is far from
dying out, but its future expressions may take us by surprise. I
can’t wait to see what it looks like!
DIANA WINSTON is a member of the Spirit Rock
Teachers Council and the author of Wide Awake: A Buddhist Guide
for Teens. She is also the director of education of UCLA’s
Mindful Awareness Research Center.
Excerpted from the Winter 2008 issue of Buddhadharma: The
Practitioner's Quarterly, available on newsstands
now.