ABSTRACT
Buddhism encompasses a large array of beliefs and practices, with a long history, and a geographical spread from Asia to Europe and North America. Buddhism is not an exclusive religion, and it has absorbed and adapted beliefs and practices from the traditions it has been in contact with. Buddhists have recognized and often still recognize native deities and customs— at the present day in North America, for example, individual Buddhist teachers have taken to social action on the model of certain Christian communities. Where Buddhism is “new,” as in Europe and North America, it is important to historicize Buddhist experience, reading, lineage, tradition, customs, and instruction. There is no universally regarded closed canon of scripture, as in the Bible or Koran. In North America, the training under teachers claiming a Buddhist tradition might be recognizably quite different, even if some core practices might seem the same. To label or study a contemporary Buddhist writer, then, requires one to be careful with terminology.
