Buddhism in Mexico (Budismo)

Wisdom Quarterly and Budismo.com

America is not synonymous with the United States, although we use it that way. America is a continent with northern, central, and southern sections. The economic dominance of one part of the north has led to US hegemony (social influence) and military control and distorted the world's view of Americans. Mexico is just to the south of the US because the US stole many parts of Mexico including world-famous California. Just as Buddhism intrigues US citizens, citizens of Mexico and the rest of the Americas are embracing the Dharma. Of course, Buddhism in ancient Mexico and Mesoamerica goes much further back than it does in the US. Particularly striking is the Eagle-men versus Snake-men warring, popular in both Aztec and Buddhist mythology and central to the founding of Mexico and its flag. And there is also the adoration of GuanYin/Guadalupe. Budismo en espanol is no longer limited to Spain.

Budismo General

Más de la mitad de la población mundial vive en países que han recibido una gran influencia de las ideas y prácticas budistas. Sin embargo, desde los tiempos de Buda -- quinientos años antes de la aparición del cristianismo -- hasta mitad del siglo XX en Occidente no se sabía casi nada acerca del Budismo.

El Budismo se extiende a occidente
No obstante, a mediados del siglo XX esta situación empezó a cambiar, y se dice que hoy en día el budismo es una de las religiones que con más rapidez se extiende en Occidente.

El Budismo
¿Qué es el Budismo? Normalmente consideramos que la religión es creer en Dios, o mejor dicho, en creer en cualquiera de sus manifestaciones divinas; sin embargo, en el Budismo no se habla de Dios alguno. Mas



VALLE DE BRAVO, Mexico - In December 2010, a longtime dream of H.E. Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche was realized with the internal consecration of the Great Stupa for World Peace at the Chamma Ling retreat center, Mexico.

This huge, sacred structure represents all paths to enlightenment. It is hoped that its presence will help remove obstacles and discord and bring peace and happiness to Mexico and the world.

Among the hundreds of participants at the consecration were Yongdzin Rinpoche, the most senior teacher of the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet.

Also in attendance were Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche, abbot of Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal; Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, spiritual director of Ligmincha Institute; Bon Buddhist masters; representatives of other Buddhist traditions; as well as local native shamans. Video edited by Enrique Garcia.

• garudamexico.org
• ligmincha.org
• Titans (Asuras) of Mexico
  

Spanish Buddhism

• Budismo.org.mx - Dia de Meditacion por la Paz
  
• Buddha Channel (multilingual)
  
• Mujeres Budistas sin Vueltas (blog)
  
• Mindfulness el la Vida Contidiana (Jon Kabat Zinn)
• Budismo sin Creencias (Stephen Batchelor)
• Sabidura Emocional (Paul Ekman)
• Nechung, El Oraculo del Dalai Lama (Thubten Ngodup)
• Non-English translations of Buddhist Selections
• Buddhist Publication Society (Spanish titles)
• C.O.A. Tataguato (blog)
• Blog de Aguiladorada
• Amegumo.com

Buddhism in Mexico before Christianity

Xochitl, Wells, MacPherson (Wisdom Quarterly, Cinco de Mayo edition)

Xochimilco Mexico City Slideshow: TravelPod Attractions’s trip to Mexico City, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Mexico. More

Nowhere in America is the 5th of May more popular than Los Angeles -- gateway to Tijuana, Baja, Cancun, and the pyramidal wonders of [pre-drug war] Mexico.

Every Mariachi band is booked months in advance, in spite of the fact that no right minded Chicano (Mexican-American) would ever listen to such a cacophony at any other time of the year. Restaurants make matador's killing in selling liberation and independence to Caucasians egging on their Hispanic friend's bad habit of drinking Dos Equis ("XX") corporate brew and such strange and wonderful cuisine:

• nachos (a corn chip dish with microwaved cheese-like substance)
  
• tacos (anything wrapped in a corn shell or tortilla, roughly a "sandwich")
  
• burritos (anything wrapped in a wheat flour shell, roughly a compact mess)
• salsa (anything tangy, spicy, and minced)
  
• and, of course, chimichangas (deep fried and unhealthy)
  

The fact is most Americanized "Mexican" food, while recognizable to Mexicans, is about as authentic as Americanized "Chinese" food, which is original enough to be sold in Asia as American-Chinese food with even Chinese and Koreans scratching their heads. We're a land of innovation, after all. I mean, we invented pizza here. That was never found in Italy before someone in New York concocted it. But food brings us together.


The Buddha in Mexico in the shape of our headless Zen figurine, but in the "Buddha Bar"

My big Mexican family is not Buddhist but nominally Catholic. (It's the duty of every Mexican mother to be as Catholic as every Irish mother, as guilt-inspiring as every Jewish mother, and as warmhearted as every Midwestern farmer). It's the culture. Here's a hug!

Growing up I always admired the headless Zen Buddha and Japanese Virgin Mary figurines my mom had in the living room. We'd glue the head back on, but it would always comes off again. When I was old enough to realize it was "the Buddha" and Gwan Yin, I was overjoyed that my mom was so liberal. She inadvertently introduced me to Buddhism!

She swore blind that that might well be the Buddha (who could tell without a head?) but there's no way that wasn't the Virgen de Guadalupe. When I explained Kwan Yin and the worldwide manifestation of the divine feminine and Mother Goddesses, she was satisfied that that was close enough. That's what happens when you shop in nearby China Town and buy things that look familiar.

Well she was positively stunned when I showed her evidence that Buddhism preceded the arrival of Catholicism to Mexico and Mesoamerica by centuries. NO WAY, she insisted. "Everybody" knows the Mexicans were all born Catholic.

Tibetan wanderers, who might have first crossed the Bering Straits land bridge 30,000+ years ago to establish the Eskimo and North American native "Indian" populations, now go as missionaries to Mexico.

Of course, the truth of the matter is that we were once proud Native Americans, caretakers of the Earth, and astro-theological admirers of feathered dragons from space (nagas and devas, apparently) -- just like East Indians, Khmer Cambodians (whose great jungle empire built the civilization anchored in the enormous metropolis of Angkor and Angkor Wat), early Europeans, and the amazing Dogon Africans.

But more amazing is the history of Buddhism in America Rick Fields uncovered in his tremendously influential, but largely unacknowledged (because it's unacceptable and turns everything we think upside down) book:

(Shambhala, Boston/London, 1992)

How the Swans Came to the Lake:
A Narrative History of Buddhism in America

But generally few care what American historians say. Moreover, no one wants to know how clean, civilized, and cultured the indigenous peoples were when colonists from Norway (Vikings), France, Spain, Portugal, and johnny-come-lately England arrived in the future United States to label them "savages," "heathens," and kill them to save them with the hypocritical Word of the Lord God, smallpox, private property, free trade, and so on. (Reading Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, and other obscure uncoverers of the unpopular truth might teach one this much).

Mexico was established where the garudas symbolically slayed the nagas, Eagle beings versus Serpent beings leading to the symbolism of the Mexican flag.

But the pre-Mexican cultures that culminated in Mexico (Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs...) have seen their memory largely wiped out or sanitized by Christian conquistadores (genocidal "conquerers").

Mexico was once an unexplained marvel with pyramids and connection to the "gods" (devas arriving from space and imparting advanced knowledge).

Now it's a good place to import and export drugs, undermined by our CIA, its leaders deposed and friendly politicians installed and manipulated. Sadly, it's no longer safe to travel to as a haven of college drinking and debauchery streaming in from Texas and [upper] California. California was Mexico until the 1850s.



But what does historian Rick Fields add to the strange and wonderful history of the Americas pre-Spanish Catholic conquest? The nub of the story is that Asian Buddhist monks set out on a boat and were blown far, far off course, eventually landing on the other side of the Pacific rim, on the coast of this continent. They shared the advanced technological knowledge they had with the native peoples and revolutionized ceramics, language, art, culture, and philosophy.

Many place names are echoes of the religion they brought with them: Gautama (the Buddha's surname) and mala (necklace) combined to form the name Guatemala. Maya (the Buddha's mother's name, as well as a popular Eastern Philosophical term for "illusion" or "beauty") may have formed the basis of the Mayan culture.

There are, of course, Tibetan Buddhist (Vajrayana) centers in Mexico. Mahayana missionaries have also gone in, either because Gwan Yin is so recognizable to "Virg Yin" (Mother Mary) lovers or because the missionary zeal of Christianity is rooted in the missionary manner of spreading the Buddha established. Theravada, the oldest extant form of Buddhism, is being spread in Mexico as well.

One of the few African American Theravada Buddhist monks in the world is from Los Angeles. He now divides his time between Sri Lankan and Vietnamese traditions. But he is living and spreading the Buddha-Dharma in the most dangerous city in the world, Ciudad Juarez near El Paso at the Texan-Mexican-American border. He is a great friend of Wisdom Quarterly and will be interviewed when he next returns to Los Angeles.

The more things change, the more they stay the same: So happy Cinco de Mayo from the again increasingly Buddhist and Mexican City of Angels!

Cinco de Mayo more popular in US than MX

Luis Perez (St. Petersburg Times via Seattle Times edited for Wisdom Quarterly)
It's Cinco de Mayo today, Thursday, May 5. Perhaps you're heading to a local stand to munch on veggie tacos and throw back salt-rimmed virgin margaritas with lots of fresh lime.

But does anyone know the history behind the multicultural party?

Cinco de Mayo ("5th of May") commemorates the day in 1862 when the Mexican army fought back and defeated the French army in a David-and-Goliath-like battle.

That year, Napoleon III invaded Mexico ostensibly to collect money "owed" colonial master France. Historians say Napoleon really wanted to take over his enemy, the United States. Pres. Lincoln was busy with the Civil War and did not get involved in the ensuing fight near Mexico City.

The Battle of Puebla lasted two hours. The Mexican army, led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza, was 4,000 strong. The troops wielded machetes and ingenuity to defeat Napoleon's better-equipped force of 8,000 soldiers, or so the glorified war story goes.

For Mexican-Americans, who make up more than 10 percent of the nation's population [a number that is growing due to blending so that nearly everyone has a spouse, relative, or significant other who is at least part Hispanic, as suggested by the 2010 US Census], Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that stokes national pride. [And it shares in small part the Francophobia we as American inherited from our English cultural forbears].

But many Americans mistakenly believe the holiday is Mexico's Independence Day. That actually falls in September. Full story