Buddhism in Costa Rica

[Ensapa]

Here's a report on the growth of Buddhism in costa rica. It is really nice to know that Buddhism has taken root there -- may Dorje Shugden one day take root in various countries as well! This shows that Buddhism is spreading faster than ever and it is after all, most applicable at this time and age, where it compliments science instead of challenging it.

Buddhism in Costa Rica
by Terrence Johnson, The Costa Rican News, August 5, 2012
Costa Rica -- Over the past few decades Catholic Churches in Central America has seen an exodus of their congregants leaving to explore and join other Christian denominations and other religions. Experts point to growing competition from other denominations, primarily evangelical Christianity and a general dissatisfaction with the Catholic churches intolerance and rigid stance. There is an emerging segment of the population in Central America that is converting to religions such as Islam and Buddhism.

José Espinoza and his wife Katrina is one couple that converted to Buddhism 3 years ago, and say they have never been happier.

When asked why they converted from Catholic religion to Buddhism, José explained, “My wife and I have different reasons, but for me, I had approached the Father of the Catholic church we had been attending, to ask some questions on some marital issues my wife and I were experiencing, and the Fathers’ advise was to quote a few lines from the Bible and say a prayer. That was when I thought ‘how can this person give family or marital advice when he never has had a wife or children of his own’. That was the first time I think that I started to question my religion and began to look at other religions”


 Continuing José explained why they ultimately chose Buddhism. “We looked at other Christian religions and we also looked at Islam and finally Buddhism. For us Buddhism touched something very deep in both of us. The non-judgmental, accepting attitudes of the members of the organization were very appealing to us. And I think the practice of meditation has added so much to our lives.”
When asked about the types of meditation practices José continued, “They taught us very simple methods like counting your breathing, to help keep the mind focused on the here and now, and later there are different ways to breath, Buddhist breathing, Taoist breathing methods, but essentially these different methods help you calm what they call ‘monkey mind’, which is when your mind or thoughts jump around from thought to thought… with a little practice the mind calms and you enter a kind of ‘now’ state. When you practice meditation, you just feel good, calm centered, and not just when you are meditating, but with practice you attain what the Japanese Buddhist call zan-shin, which translates to residual mind, or that which carries over into the rest of your day or life, so you find you are better able to cope with the stresses of life, work, and family from a much calmer and center perspective.”

With approximately 100,000 practitioners, Costa Rica has more Buddhists than any other country in Central America. Buddhism was brought to Costa Rica by Chinese immigrants during the earlier part of the 19th century. Today are several recognized and establish groups in San Jose Costa Rica.

[buddhalovely]

Costa Rica has more Buddhists than the other countries in Central America with almost 100,000 (2.34% of total population), followed closely by Panama, with almost 70,000 (2.1% of total population). Buddhism was primarily driven by the presence of Chinese immigrants during the earlier part of the 19th century.[citation needed] Nowadays, it is also driven by the very minor presence of Buddhist missionary groups, such as Soka Gakkai International.[citation needed], which has establish a community center at San Jose. It is now also driven by the influence of the Japanese culture, especially manga and anime which sometimes have Buddhist-related stories.[citation needed]
But mostly, in recent years there has been a tendency for growing dissatisfaction with Catholicism, the dominant religion. Some convert to other branches of Christianity, most notably Protestantism (with a growing number of Protestant centers throughout Costa Rica). But others stay as agnostics, atheists or "free thinkers". It is these latter groups, especially if already interested or practicing some form of meditation, that can become influenced or inspired by "exotic religions" (in Costa Rica) such as Buddhism and therefore convert to it, or adopt it as a philosophy.

[bambi]

How wonderful! Buddhism is growing bigger in countries out of Asia!

Even places like Africa, Buddhism is accepted and growing.

Apart from various Buddhist groups brought to the Cape Colony from Southeast Asia during the 1680s, and the many indentured labourers brought to Natal from India during the latter part of the 19th century (some of whom were Buddhist, and some of whom were Hindu who later converted to Buddhism once in South Africa), most Buddhists in South Africa are converts, and not Asian. Various Buddhist groups grew up in the major cities from the 1970s, and there has been a proliferation of distinct Buddhist traditions since the mid-1980s. These include Theravada, Zen, Nichiren and Tibetan schools. The Fo Guang Shan Buddhist order has erected Nan Hua Temple, the largest Buddhist temple and monastery in Africa, in the town of Bronkhorstspruit near Pretoria. Another notable Buddhist centre in the country is the Buddhist Retreat Centre in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal. The Nichiren Buddhist lay group Soka Gakkai International has a community centre in Parkwood, Johannesburg. Derivatives of Korean Zen have been established in the Western Cape. The Vipassana Association of South Africa founded by S.N. Goenka has been holding meditation retreats in the Western Cape. More recent additions to the collection of schools include Shambala originally conceived by Chögyam Trungpa, Diamond Way Buddhism, a multicultural Lay Buddhist tradition under the guidance of H.H. 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje and the New Kadampa tradition founded by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

A 2003 study estimated that in the late 1990s there were a total of 6,000 Buddhists in South Africa (3,000 of whom had Asian ancestry) out of a total population of 42 million (or 0.01% of the total population).

[RedLantern]

In Costa Rica there are three types of Buddhism,each one is provided with his own centers and communities
properly definite.There are four Tibetan Buddhism centers in Costa Rica.
Buddhism is primarily driven by the presence of missionary groups such as Soka Gakkai.With 100,000 Buddhist in Costa Rica is followed by Panama 70,000 Buddhist.
The latter group of atheist or "free thinkers" if already interested or practicing some form of meditation,that can become influence or inspired "exotic" religion such as Buddhism and therefore convert to it,or adopt it as
philosophy.There are a few centers of Tibetan Buddhism,the best  known is the AssOciscion Cultural Tibetano-
Costarricense.which was established in 1989C.E. AFTER THE FIRST VISIT OF X1V,Dalai Lama.Tenzin Gyatso in latin America.

[Klein]

Buddhism in Costa Rica
by Terrence Johnson, The Costa Rican News, August 5, 2012
Costa Rica --

Continuing José explained why they ultimately chose Buddhism. “We looked at other Christian religions and we also looked at Islam and finally Buddhism. For us Buddhism touched something very deep in both of us. The non-judgmental, accepting attitudes of the members of the organization were very appealing to us. And I think the practice of meditation has added so much to our lives.”

When asked about the types of meditation practices José continued, “They taught us very simple methods like counting your breathing, to help keep the mind focused on the here and now, and later there are different ways to breath, Buddhist breathing, Taoist breathing methods, but essentially these different methods help you calm what they call ‘monkey mind’, which is when your mind or thoughts jump around from thought to thought… with a little practice the mind calms and you enter a kind of ‘now’ state. When you practice meditation, you just feel good, calm centered, and not just when you are meditating, but with practice you attain what the Japanese Buddhist call zan-shin, which translates to residual mind, or that which carries over into the rest of your day or life, so you find you are better able to cope with the stresses of life, work, and family from a much calmer and center perspective.”

I highlighted the above excerpts from the article because they wrote about how practical Buddhism is. It's so practical that you can apply it to your daily lives and see results almost immediately. One aspect of Buddhist practice is meditation. If one aspect of Buddhism is already so beneficial, can you imagine what the other aspects can do for us?

Meditation is an exercise that we do with our mind that transcends all religious belief. Because the benefits are so great, millions of people around the world are learning how to meditate. According to project-meditation .org, they stated:


"Many doctors have studied the statistics on people who meditate and now prescribe meditation for their patients. These patients have reported more energy, higher productivity and more patience. Business owners have reported that among employees, who meditate, absenteeism is lower, production is higher, and the quality of their work is better thus proving the statistics on people who meditate are right.

A Detroit based chemical plant posted the following results three years after implementing meditation:

Absenteeism fell by 85%
Productivity rose 120%
Injuries dropped 70%
Profits increased 520%

According to reports, there have been over 1500 separate studies since 1930. All were related to meditation and its effects on the practitioners. Some statistics on people who meditate include results like:

1.  Heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and oxygen consumption are all decreased.

2.  Meditators are less anxious and nervous.

3.  Meditators were more independent and self-confident

4.  People who deliberated daily were less fearful of death.

5.  75% of insomniacs who started a daily meditation program were able to fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed.

6.  Production of the stress hormone Cortisol is greatly decreased, thus making it possible for those people to deal with stress better when it occurs.

7.  Women with PMS showed symptom improvements after 5 months of steady daily rumination and reflection.

8.  Thickness of the artery walls decreased which effectively lowers the risk of heart attack or stroke by 8% to 15%.
   
9.  Relaxation therapy was helpful in chronic pain patients.
   
10. 60% of anxiety prone people showed marked improvements in anxiety levels after 6-9 months."


Oprah Winfrey spoke about meditation a few times in her show. She recently did a show on her cable TV program, OWN, about Transcendental Meditation and how it has helped millions of people around the world including famous American celebrities. Please click her for the video

http://www.tm.org/blog/meditation/after-oprah/

[Jessie Fong]

Dear All


There is a same thread started by Namdrol