New York Dharma Gate

In the bustling city of New York, I want to find a place to calm down.

This city is full of life, but also restless. The high-rise buildings in the steel jungle are endless, and people are rushing under the high-rise buildings. Young people chasing their dreams come and go, and the traffic is busy day and night. In the corners, mentally ill people, their bodies dried up by desire, have empty and turbid eyes.

New York is so rich. People of different languages ​​and beliefs pass by each other, meet each other unintentionally on the streets and in the parks, and the causes and conditions from all over the world gather together. Countless parallel worlds, intertwined in greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt, bloom like flowers and wither like flowers. The photos of the rally 50 years ago have turned yellow, but Washington Square 50 years later is still full of vitality.

Confucius said, "A gentleman is cautious when he is alone." Pascal said, "All human troubles come from the inability to sit alone in a room." I have always had the habit of meditating, but it is still difficult to calm down in the center of noise. Since I can't sit alone, I will go out and see what kind of path other people have found in this city made up of countless parallel worlds.

This thought opened the door to a new world. I began to search on the map, and many of the places that popped up had familiar names. It turned out that the people, stories, and ideas that I had read about were continuing, growing and changing around me. Various spiritual practices that originated from the East have taken root in the United States for nearly half a century and continue to spread vigorously.

After World War II, young Americans who were disappointed with the status quo began to look for possibilities beyond material pursuits. Many concepts of Zen Buddhism, after being westernized by Japanese scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, became popular among the "Beat Generation" and frequently appeared in works such as "Dharma Bums".

At the same time, American society discovered LSD and psychedelic mushrooms, and many people experienced direct religious experiences through them. People began to question political authority and the narratives shaped by power, and questioned the deeper reality, but did not know how to understand the mental state beyond the daily life.

On the other side of the world, in Asia, the Vietnam War broke out. The South Vietnamese government, supported by the United States, supported Catholicism and suppressed Buddhism. The highly respected Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh was forced to go into exile. So he settled in France, established the Plum Village Center, and popularized concepts such as "mindfulness" to the English-speaking world. His exile spread worldly Buddhism throughout the world and turned meditation into a skill that ordinary people could learn.

At this time, in northern China, the People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet. The Dalai Lama failed to cooperate with the Beijing government and went into exile in India. Following the Dalai Lama across the Himalayas, there were also many young living Buddhas who had completed traditional education and took the opportunity to enter British universities for further studies. The seeds of forced exodus were spread all over Europe and the United States, and blossomed everywhere.

The bloody situation of the Vietnam War was reported back to the United States. Those who were already skeptical of authority found it difficult to accept the atrocities of their own country. The counterculture movement and hallucinogens went hand in hand and swept across the country. Young people wandered to India in search of faith, and some encountered Tibetan Buddhism, while others encountered Hinduism.

After British colonization, Hinduism's various spiritual paths had begun to westernize and modernize, ready to accept these spiritual refugees. Young Americans found ways to continue their practice without drugs, and brought these seeds back to the United States, where they continued to grow and fission. Sanskrit mantras began to appear in pop music, and yoga gradually became a part of urban life.

These many schools all have a common root, all of which allow people to attain liberation by abiding in the Dharma, and all of which allow practitioners to gain direct religious experience. They have continued to branch and split over thousands of years, passing through South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, and in this age of atheism, they have converged on this small island of Manhattan. They have taken on various forms, such as temples, yoga studios, and cultural centers, and are located within walking distance of me, continuing to split and merge.

So I decided to start a global tour in New York to explore various Dharma doors.