Forms of Buddhism in Different Countries

Buddhism takes on a slightly different form in the different countries of the world where it is practiced, combining its religious culture with the social culture of each country. Buddhism is a major religious force in the countries of Southeast Asia, and it is defined in these regions first by the particular tenets of the religion which separate it from other religions and second by the manner in which it is integrated into the different societies of Southeast Asia. Buddhism has similarly been adapted to the U.S. experience, and there are particular difficulties involved in being a Buddhist in America. Buddhism continues to develop everywhere, and in the United States it has become a particularly important religion even if minor in terms of the number of adherents. Buddhist practice in America, however, at least for a portion of the American Buddhist population, differs markedly from prevailing Buddhist practice elsewhere.

Buddhism wears many different faces in the world today because the religion has been so adaptable to different contexts. This has created some problem with the image of Buddhism:

One reason why the modern world's image of Buddhism is so muddled is that there are so many different schools of Buddhist thought and practice. Since Buddhism emphasizes the individual, as a religion it tends not to be centralized. And since the Buddha left so many sutras, or teachingsas many as 84,000, all of them originally transmitted orallythe question of translation

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Category: Philosophy - F