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why Buddhism?

The latest Australian census reveals that adherence to a religion has recently surged. The drift away from the main christian religions, that began in the 1960s, has been halted and now more and more Australians say they have a religion. Now, while the Anglican and Catholic churches have merely stopped losing members, the Pentecostals have grown, as have the various Islamic demoninations. But the biggest growth has been in the number of Buddhists in Australia. As has been similarly noted in recent US surveys, Buddhism is the fastest growing religion in the Western world.

Why?

One simple explanation, that applies to both Australia and the US, is migration. Both countries attract migrants from Asia who have a traditional belief system. Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Thais, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Lao, Sri Lankans, Nepalis and some Indians come from Buddhist backgrounds. And even though the Pentecostals attract many of their clientele from these migrant groups, the main body of these migrants help boost Buddhist numbers in Australia.

But does this really tell the story of the growth of Buddhism?

I do not think so. My theory is that Buddhism is the only rational religion. Actually, I think what I just said is an oxymoron because religion implies to me irrationality. All religions require a suspension of evidence at some point. All religions are based on faith. Some interpretations of Buddhism do also. Nut from my 30 years of studying Buddhism I have come to the conclusion that the teachings of Buddha are based on a a very simple principle: that we must never cease questioning and never accept anything on face value.

As such, Buddhism is not a religion but a mechanism to develop an understanding of the world around us. So is science. The basic principle of sciences is to develop a hypothesis for a phenomena, use experimentation to measure that phenomena then test the hypothesis. If the experimentation confirms the hypothesis it becomes a theory. But all scientific theory is always open to observation and experimentation.

And this is the reason I think Buddhism is attractive to ever-growing numbers of people. Despite the lipservice paid to religion by political leaders, a better educated community are rejecting the intolerance and limited horizons presented by various religions. Unfortunately, a "us v them" mentality seems to exist between science and religion and while most are persuaded by the rationality of science they are not entirely dissuaded from the emotionalism of faith-based ideas. Buddhism is a safe compromise: as a Buddhist you can retain a scepticism while clinging to some vestiges of irrationality.

Kensington, in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs

This is a description of my suburb: Kensington and a brief attempt to argue that geography determines culture (this is a major theme in my book, "From the Bodhi Tree").

My home is in Kensington, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. In order to gain a perspective of my suburb it is necessary to describe a little of the history, economy and geography of the district.

If you were to look at an aerial photo of Sydney you would note that the Eastern Suburbs are on a section of land that resembles an equilateral triangle: with the base facing due east to the Pacific Ocean and the slopes of the triangle facing Port Jackson roughly to the north and Botany Bay to the southwest. The apex of this metaphorical triangle has been sliced off and attached to the great mass of land that represents Sydney’s immense urban sprawl.

With further examination you would note that there is an inland ridge running parallel to the Pacific coastline beaches. At the southern end, this ridge is relatively flat and there are points where loose sand dunes are exposed. As you run your eye northward along the ridge it becomes more pronounced and pressed sandstone replaces sand. By the time your eye reaches the northeastern corner, the ridge has become substantial sandstone cliffs that form the Southern Head of Port Jackson.

The suburbs on the northern extension of this ridge have traditionally been Sydney’s, and indeed Australia’s, wealthiest. Vaucluse and Watson’s Bay, on top of South Head, have the most expensive real estate in Australia with mean average prices of houses above $3 million. The value of land gradually subsides southward along the ridge through Randwick to Maroubra Junction where mean average house prices are well below $1 million. The demography gradually changes along with the economy and geology and whereas Vaucluse has Sydney’s highest concentration of professional residents, Maroubra has one of Sydney’s highest concentration of tradespeople.

The land in the beachside suburbs, immediately to the east of the ridge, has been subdivided more vigourous and therefore there is a significantly greater population density, making the housing less attractive for young families and more attractive to people with disposal incomes. These tend to be young professionals or renters. The subculture of the beachside suburbs reflect this social mix and, as with the economy on the ridge, the northern most beachside suburb - Bondi - is the wealthiest, while the southernmost suburb - Malabar - is one of Sydney’s poorest and the location of Sydney’s major gaol and sewerage treatment plant. South of Malabar is La Perouse which deserves a separate description. However, it is important to note here that it has been the dumping ground of Sydney’s unwanted residents since European settlement, including lepers and Aborigines.

The land of the ridge was amongst the first cleared and settled after European settlement. Two suburbs in particular, Paddington and Randwick, were established for the wealthy citizens of the early English colony to escape the bustle of early Sydneytown. Both suburbs were modelled and named after English villages and retain vestiges of Georgian and early Victorian architecture.

The land to the west of the ridge was amongst the last cleared and only settled after immense political pressure exerted after the First World War. Prior to the war, the greater portion of Australians were employed in rural industries. After the war and the growth of urban-based industries, there developed an ever-increasing demand on governments to release urban land for housing. This same demand exists in Sydney to this day with 100,000 immigrants a year replacing displaced farm hands and returning soldiers as the source of pressure on governments. But unlike 1919, the government today has a policy of urban consolidation and encourages greater population density rather than land release.

Referring back to the aerial photo of the eastern suburbs there are obvious reasons for the late settlement of the land west of the eastern suburbs ridge. The dominant geographical feature is a series of lakes and waterways which indicate the area is flat, alluvial and unsuitable for housing. Indeed, before 1919 the entire area south of the city and west of Randwick to Botany Bay was swampland and in government literature it is still designated as the Botany Sands. Some idealists in the early 20^th century imaged that the Botany Sands could be transformed into an antipodean version of Venice. Instead, great chunks of the swampland were filled in and given to industry for manufacturing and storage.

The southernmost area of the Botany Sands is now dominated by two vast transport institutions, Kingsford-Smith Airport and the Port Botany Container terminal. Surrounding these areas to the north are the associated storage areas of Botany and Mascot and then, sandwiched between these industrial estates, the remaining lake systems - that are now contained within public parks and private golf courses - and the southern perimeters of the city, is Kensington Estate.

There are coppertone pictures of Kensington Estate taken in the early 1920s that show a vast flat scrubland, intersected by a series of small rivers flowing from north to south. The State government’s intention for the land was for it to be a garden suburb, hence the name Kensington after the area in London which contains that city’s major parks.

Randwick Council was given the responsibility for administering the land and it contained a local real estate agent named Les Hooker. Hooker bought up as much of the land as he could and then got the council to rezone it to allow for 600 square metre blocks. He subdivided the land he had bought, making him one of Sydney’s wealthiest citizens and helping to establish Randwick Council's reputation as historically one the more corrupt governments in Australia.

The consequence of Hooker’s actions were that instead of making Kensington an attractive garden suburb close to the city, it tended to attract migrant business families who needed easy access to their city restaurant and café businesses. In the 1920s and 30s these business families were predominately Greek. Recently the business families are predominately from China.

My own family came to the area as a consequence of another government land release project, this time after the Second World War. This time the Commonwealth Government released some of the land it had retained for miliary purposes for a university. The Commonwealth wanted to use the technology college that had been attached to the army as the basis of a university that specialised in engineering sciences. In 1953 it established the University of New South Wales in Kensington.

One of the facilities at this new university was a medical school and my father answered an advertisement in a New Zealand newspaper for a chair in pathology. Our whole family subsequently moved to Sydney and bought a house within walking distance of UNSW. I went to the local primary school where most of my classmates were of Greek background and whose families ran small businesses.

I also went to the local high school which, coincidentally, was Australia’s first public secondary school: Sydney Boys’ High. This school has always had a very high academic standard and attracts the sons of professionals from throughout the Eastern Suburbs. Most of my classmates there were from first generation European backgrounds.

Now, as I walk past both schools on my way to work, I see that most of the students at Kensington Public and Sydney Boys’ High are of Asian background. As when I was a child, the children at Kensington Primary are predominately from business families while the children at Sydney High are from professional families. The geography of an area continues to play a significant role in its demography.