organised religious practise is in decline in advanced industrial societies joe...and young folk have no time...they are working very long hours.
..what ever happened to the shorter working week?. ..they are literary flogged ...the quest for the dollar and material goods have become the mantra of this age.. .no longer to search for higher wisdom etc...it's all about the here and now and survival. ..that's how i see it ..young people's energies are taken up (the ones that think and care)..protesting about corporate greed and the destruction of rainforests etc.. . no one has time to sit and "contemplate their navel"..when the world is falling apart..climate change etc merle..still wolfing on...howl Howdy, All, I don't know how many here sit regularly or occasionally with a Zen practice group -- a sangha -- and a teacher, but I have a general question which is a bit like a survey question for you, even if you don't sit with a group. In a group here in Tucson that is affiliated with the Diamond Sangha of Robert Aitken Roshi, late, of Hawai'i, the matter of "The greying of the sangha" came up. Mmost of the affiliated sanghas began to look at it, and to think about it. "The greying of the sangha" as perceived during that time was/is the advancing average age of sangha members. It seemed that younger people just were not joining and not practicing. The sanghas were looking more and more like groups of old people. Perhaps there was a "wave" of people in the 1960s and 1970s Stateside who were influenced to become interested in formal Zen practice, and the "greying" perceived of late is essentially the "Zen-baby-boom" of practitioners which is now naturally aging, moving through the sangha(s). Perhaps conditions are not as favorable now for young people entering practice. On the other hand, we all know that it takes a certain maturity to sit Zen, and to keep at it. But the perceived "greying" is the perception of a REAL phenomenon: the predominant hair color in the 20 or so affiliate sanghas has become grey or white. It was not so earlier! The age of the average sangha member is still steadily increasing. I'm not involved in the said sangha any longer, so I am not actively looking for ways to change the greying phenomenon. I wonder if this "greying" is noted in other sanghas, elsewhere. --Joe / Arizona
