Buddhism 4 Happiness [Americanayana Buddhism]

Welcome to Buddhism 4 Happiness. Americanayana is the Buddhism that Americans are developing at this time, and it is the future of Buddhism.  Americanayana Buddhism is the Mahayana-Hinayana-Vajrayana American Buddhism that started with the soil tilled by the American Transcendentalists such as Thoreau and Emerson, and others, with the seeds  planted by ethnic people immigrating to America, the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhists who welcomed us in as long as we sincerely wanted to practice. Our American veterans who were stationed in far eastern countries brought back their desire to learn Buddhism. Honorable mention are the "hippies" from the sixties who ventured to India and Tibet in search of wisdom and the sciences of enlightenment. The hippies were inspired in the fifties by Jack Kerouac and his Dharma Bums and a book of his on the life of the Buddha. Still farther back we were inspired by the work of Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, even though it wasn't exactly about the Siddhartha Gotama Shakyamuni Buddha, but the Buddha did show up in that novel. The Tibetan Buddhists further planted seeds through teachers such as such as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama, being that the Tibetans had to escape from their land of snow. Recent Hollywood movies have helped bring back meditation and other practices and ways of thinking through some thought provoking movies such as "What the Bleep Do We Know" and "The Secret", but even way back in the 70s there was the odd TV show "Kung Fu" with Buddhist Shaolin Priests and special profound moments with the student-master relationship of Kwai Chang Caine (or Grasshopper) and his teachers, and with that we got an introduction to Chinese philosophies and practices such as the Tao, Confuciusianism, Buddhism, mental and physical discipline and training, and sitting meditation. I personally became attracted to Tibetan Buddhism by way of the fantastic works of Lobsang Rampa, such as the Third Eye and the Hermit.

This meetup had several other names before I attempted to name it with the coined term Americanayana, it was formerly known as 'Buddhism in Central Florida' and before that it went by the name 'The Orlando Buddhism Meetup Group: "American Beat" ' for some four years, and before that simply The Orlando Buddhism Meetup Group, probably since it started back in 2002, and it had an address of Buddhism-85.   Previous great organizers and funders of this meetup have included Marc IronBuddha, Scott, Ani Chime, and way back in history, Ricc Bishop who started this meetup back in 2002 and handed it down to a lady who handed down to IronBuddha, who handed it down to me, then I dropped it and it was saved by Scott, but then he handed it to Ani Chime, who after a great run had to move away, so she handed it back to me. I have barely been able to come up with funds to keep it alive, and I occasionally publish some interesting meetups. So if you browse the photos and pages and discussions you will see that we have made some history for Buddha Dharma in Central Florida. May there have been some long lasting virtuous impressions made on the minds of our folks in the area. The meetups that have been announced here have benefited many in Central Florida. At least a few of us here met some great teachers such as Venerable Ani Konchok Chime (aka Angela Harkavy), Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche, and others. Recently we had several meetups or gatherings not as a result of this meetup but due to the organizational efforts of Diane Carty Bevis who helped to form a sangha and center of Tibetan Buddhism called Losel Rime Ling of Orlando with website at http://www.loselrimeling.org/ with a mission to "open a gateway to the Dharma (Buddhist teachings). By cultivating wisdom and compassion, we not only benefit ourselves and each other, but our community and the world at large. Inner transformation is the path to peace.It is our hope to connect like minded people who are interested in Buddhism, by sharing our knowledge and by hosting qualified teachers to the Central Florida area." Events organized through Losel Rime Ling were and are being promoted here.

Welcome new and old friends. This meetup has a long history with amazing organizers and interesting events and meditation practices. This meetup was originally called Orlando Buddhism Meetup Group eons ago, well it feels like it but it was only back in 2002. But more recently it had an odd name of Americanayana, pronounced "Americana yana" to dare suggest there could arise a distinct lineage Buddhism tailored and made by and for Americans. But now let's go back to basics and call it Buddhism4Happiness, and encourage folks to develop a disciplined practice of meditation. So let's come together to meditate, chant, discuss, study wisdom literature from masters, and live joyfully.  For now I don't have much of a plan, but I hope to schedule and introduce some on going classes including some guided Buddhist meditation in various centers and reserved public rooms around town, in places  I have frequented. I welcome suggestions and seek assistant organizers to help make folks in this area be aware of where to get together to practice being aware. May this meetup benefit the community and the world and, of course, all sentient beings.

Assuming there is such a thing as American Buddhism, I am going to write enough to make folks believe it may exist, or that it could exist if we believe hard enough. Forgive me as I dare label such a branch of Buddhism as "Americanayana" Buddhism. If I write about it enough, this term I coined, "Americanayana," may eventually get added to a reputable and scholarly dictionary of Buddhist terms, some day, and then I'd be famous just for coming up with the name. Not likely, as there's all kinds of problems with that name. Take a look at it. Break it down. Americanayana, made up of American and yana.  I was unfortunately suggesting America is synonymous with the United States of America, or the US  only, excluding South Americans, Central Americans, Canadians, and Caribean people. But to be politically correct and more inclusive we could include all the Americas, North and South America and everything in between. However, being that this meetup serves Orlando Florida, at best Central Florida, and that I don't know much about what is going on in South American with the scattered pockets of Buddhists that have sprung up there, then I may be forgiven for suggesting that for now we are going to focus only on the US. Another problem with the name, is that if we are going to focus only the Buddhists that surround me in Florida and the rest of the US, then  why not call it US Buddhism, or USayana Buddhism? Why did I go with American and Americana-yana, instead of USA-yana or something like that?  Well, it might not sound so romantic, nor easy to say out loud, to call this new branch of Buddhism, "US Buddhism," and there's the chance that it may be pronounced just as written, making it sound somewhat narcissistic kind of Buddhism, as if we were calling it a Buddhism all about us and not them. I suppose periods would help, as in U.S. Buddhism, then people would read out United States Buddhism.  But still American Buddhism and Americanayana sounds better, I thought. 

The idea for the name Americanayana came from two thoughts. Bob Dylan and his band had been touring with the title of "Americanarama" and when there is a vehicle and a form of Buddhism, it is considered a vehicle towards enlightenment, and the title given ends with "ayana" so I replaced the "rama" with "yana", or, in other words, combined "Americana" with "ayana" to get the word "Americanayana" to suggest American Buddhism distinct from the other better known expressions such as "Vajrayana", "Mahayana", and "Hinayana". Well, actually "Maha" means "greater" or "larger", and "Hina" means "lesser" or "smaller", and so we may start off with "Hinayana" because we seek personal benefits right away from Buddhism. But when we do Buddhism for the benefit of others then we are doing "Mahayana" Buddhism. And I would say that Vajrayana is like an "esoteric" form of Mahayana Buddhism. Actually, Vajrayana means the Diamond Way or Vehicle, where the diamond refers to the indestructible nature of the mind [of enlightenment], or our true nature.