The conversion of South Africans to Buddhism

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of why South Africans have converted to Buddhism, how this conversion has come about and what the meaning of the conversion has been in their lives.

Chapter one is a literature review which revealed very little literature available on conversion to Buddhism and less on the conversion of South Africans to Buddhism.

L.R. Rambo's Theory of Conversion is used in this thesis to see if these conversions to Buddhism can be understood within this theory. In Chapter two Rambo's theory, which is a holistic model for conversion, is analyzed in detail. He proposes seven stages within his model: crisis, quest, encounter, interaction, commitment and consequences. Context is Rambo's first stage and in Chapter three the socio-historic and religious background of these converts is examined. In order to understand how and why these conversions have come about there needs to be an understanding of the background from which these converts come.

Taking Refuge (or the Gohonzon Ceremony) was used for the purpose of this thesis to be the turning point from non-Buddhist to Buddhists. In Chapter four the meaning and importance of Taking Refuge is discussed.

The empirical aspect of this thesis was to interview twenty South Africans who had converted to Buddhism. Chapter five is a detailed analysis of these interviews and Appendix two gives the questionnaire used.

The aim of this analysis was firstly, to investigate whether these conversions to Buddhism can be understood in the context of Rambo's theory, secondly, to see whether Taking Refuge is the correct choice of the turning point from non-Buddhist to Buddhist.

In the conclusion it was found that Rambo's theory did not fully account for the conversion of the interviewees to Buddhism, and that Taking Refuge was not necessarily a good focal point in the conversion process. In the light of this a Developmental theory of becoming a Buddhist was proposed which has the following steps: Context, exposure, interest invoked, practical application, commitment and consequences.

From the analysis of the people interviewed their conversion to Buddhism was a developmental process rather than a conversion as such. Hence their conversion fitted more closely with a Developmental theory than with Rambo's theory of conversion. This ties in with the discovery amongst the interviewees that none of them experienced one focal point at which they became Buddhist. For most of the interviewees becoming a Buddhist was a developmental process, with many of them having some sort of proto-Buddhist tendency within them before ever hearing about Buddhism.