Sidewalk Salvation
In the City of Angels, there’s a god on every corner.
stories by Laura Hauther, Brian Mazo, and Staff
photo essay by meagan yellott
The Gospel is in the gutter. It pours out of padlocked gates and gaping doorways, sandwiched between liquor stores and arcades. It is sung from folding chairs and milk-crate stages. And somewhere between the bank, the ‘Bean’ and the bakery, any one of us could wander into a lilting chorus, a foreign prayer or a fiery sermon. In the urban hoods of Los Angeles, a Sunday morning stroll can reveal God in mysterious ways-especially to those of us who are buying milk instead of kneeling.
Storefront churches are an urban phenomenon, but perhaps no city has as vibrant a culture of these curbside congregations as L.A. From living room temples to Pentecostal warehouses to old movie theaters turned Evangelical pulpits, there’s a God on every corner in L.A. And as they pop up where other businesses have failed-often in the grittiest corners-they buck the trend of the mega-churches that prosper so well behind decorative suburban gates.
These makeshift pews creak from the weight of the poor, the urban, and the immigrant Angelenos who come for more than prayer. They come to sustain a community, search out social services, to learn English, or to simply have a walking-distance talk with God. Here, L.A. Alternative strives to capture the juxtaposed beauty of urban spirituality with a photographic exploration of L.A.’s storefront churches.
But the prayers paving our labyrinth are varied, and as such we look at several diverse signs of the city’s spirituality. Drive with us down Sunset Boulevard as East Hollywood’s strip-mall Thai temples become lavish West Hollywood spiritual centers of Eastern philosophy for the white, wealthy and wandering. We’ll pass the Vegas-style Scientology Center and its offer to relieve-or at least test-your stress level. And as we ponder the meaning of “Dianetics,” we drive right past the young Mormon boy from a far-off land, earnestly pedaling from door to door, on a mission to save the millions of souls in this, our star-studded city of sin, angels, and everything in between.
Zen and the Art of Text Messaging
Buddhism is in the throes of a “modern” transformation.
by Laura Hauther
Buddhist ideas have been widely popularized in America. Of course, this leads some to call themselves ‘Buddhist’ because they’ve sat through all The Matrix movies and can spout a shallow version of the ancient philosophy liake so much spiritual bling. Estimates range from one to four million Buddhists in the United States-a number that’s largely the result of the ebb and flow of fad-following adherents around a core of immigrant Buddhists and true devotees.
Within that tidal shift Los Angeles is the most complex Buddhist city in the world, according to Dr. Diana Eck, a Harvard Professor of Comparative Religion. As it spread throughout the Asian world, Buddhism diverged into different sects and denominations; L.A. has the second largest Asian population of any American city, and as a result contains the world’s largest number of Buddhist sects in one city. There are an estimated 70,000 Buddhists in Los Angeles and over 145 Buddhist centers, all planted in a host culture generally unfamiliar with many of the basic tenets of the religion.
And what does the host culture think of Buddhism? Hollywood has been very influential, pumping out heaps of entertaining media that can introduce and popularize an idea through the power of celebrity. Star Wars introduced the idea of the wise guru in the form of pointy-eared, syntax-sifting Yoda constantly admonishing his disciple to go within and feel the Force. The recent the Matrix series was a popular “Buddhist lite” exploration of the unreality of reality. Buddhist actor Keanu Reeves plays the ultimate transcendent superhero, defeating the enemies of enlightenment with his uncanny ability to see clearly through ever-shifting illusion. And then there are the smattering of films with overtly Buddhist themes-Kundun, Seven Years in Tibet, Little Buddha and The Razor’s Edge.
Actors have done their part as well. Richard Gere’s work with the Dalai Lama has made him a high-profile Buddhist. He’s used his fame to bring attention to Tibet’s oppression by the Chinese, even starting a foundation devoted to the cause. Beastie Boy Adam Yauch organized Tibetan Freedom Concerts for six years, bringing together performers like Chuck D, Radiohead, Taj Mahal and Alanis Morissette.
But does entertainment and activism translate into young Buddhists converts?
Movies and concerts may move people to give money to a good cause, but not many filmgoers or concert attendees will be inspired to become serious practicing Buddhists, according to Johanna Demetrakas, one of the founders of the Shambhala Meditation Center in Eagle Rock. She doesn’t believe people are motivated to follow a particular spiritual path by movies or celebrity adherents. “Being a Buddhist calls for commitment and discipline,” said Demetrakas. “It’s not as easy as just going to the gym-and going to the gym isn’t easy.” Since she began practicing in 1971 she has witnessed a slow, steady increase in membership, but no post-concert crowds of rap-loving teenagers or Matrix fanboys. “I’ve never encountered anybody with a shallow practice within my sangha [community],” says local librarian and practicing Buddhist Laura Smart. “If anything, they all seem to be quite devoted to their practice… I have noticed that there are not many young people (under 40) at ZCLA [Zen Center L.A.]. I suspect it’s because younger adults have so many household responsibilities that they can’t devote as much time to sitting meditation.”
There’s some tension between adherents of traditional Buddhist forms and what some call “Western” Buddhists. There has to be some flexibility in any transplanted belief system-like Christianity absorbing Yule logs and “Christmas” trees from pagan celebrations-in order to connect with the host culture. But if the basic principles and practices are changed or ignored, the system itself is in danger.
In an essay entitled “Boomer Buddhism,” Boston University professor Stephen Prothero complains that most American-born Buddhists get their spirituality from books. Prothero says that, thanks to a burgeoning market in spiritual books, boomers can choose from “the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh…the Coke and Pepsi of this Buddhist generation,…(or) homegrown brands such as Jack Kornfield and Lama Surya Das.” He decries the move toward a secularized Buddhism stripped of its religious trappings and ceremony, not to mention many of its basic practices. Robert Thurman, a Buddhist Studies professor at Columbia University (and, yes, Uma’s Dad) argues “new Buddhism” or “Western Buddhism” is nothing more than humanism marketed as religion. Author Stephen Batchelor dubs this “Buddhism without beliefs”.
At its worst, this trend strips Buddhism of its spirituality so it can be marketed as a “lifestyle.” Maybe you can’t buy peace of mind, but you can look the part in ZoZa, a Zen-inspired clothing line. Banana Republic and Republic of Tea founders Patricia and Mel Zieglar created the ZoZa line for the Buddhist on the go, creating multi-tasking clothes designed to be stuffed into a bag or glove-compartment so you can go from mountain bike to boardroom without missing a beat (or taking a shower). ZoZa clothes come packaged with a snippet of Zen philosophy called “Zen Mindcrackers,” and the company’s masthead includes a Zen spiritual advisor.
This kind of trendy interest ultimately has little impact on the practice of Buddhism in America, according to Jan Nattier, a professor of Buddhist Studies at Indiana University. She divides the American Buddhists into three main groups-the Imports, the Exports and Ethnic Buddhists. The Imports are usually well-to-do, white Americans with the money and leisure time to take extended trips to the East to study with a Buddhist master. When they return to the United States, they often teach students from their same demographic. Nattier calls these the “Elite Buddhists”-pretty much the same group as the Boomer Buddhists. She asserts that although this group is the most visible, their numbers are dwindling as baby boomers get older and fewer young people join.
Santa Monica-based Soka Gakkai International exemplifies ‘export’ or ‘evangelical’ Buddhism. Originally part of a Japanese “Nichiren” Buddhist tradition, SGI claims 300,000 converts possibly because of its emphasis on material as well as spiritual growth. It’s also one of the most diverse branches of the Eastern religion in America-55 percent are of non-European descent and many come from working class backgrounds. This tradition teaches chanting and, like many American-influenced Buddhist groups, emphasizes activism.
Ethnic Buddhists are the largest, yet least visible Buddhist group in America-1.4 million Asians live in Los Angeles County. Around 80 percent of American Buddhists are Asians born into Buddhist families. Los Angeles hosts the largest Taiwanese Buddhist temple and complex in the Western Hemisphere, the largest Buddhist monastery in the U.S., and the oldest and largest Vietnamese Buddhist temple in the U.S. For newly arrived immigrants in L.A., life can be complicated and difficult, and these Buddhist centers are both places to worship and a refuge for networking and socializing.
The population of the various Buddhist groups change as second generation, American-born Asians or people of mixed backgrounds re-examine their religion. According to Nattier, large numbers of Asians become Christians or agnostic as they assimilate, causing what many consider a crisis in the Buddhist community. Even the oldest Buddhist temple in Los Angeles, the 100-year-old Shin Buddhist Higashi Honganji Temple in Little Tokyo, has had to change to survive. The Shin-affiliated Buddhist Churches of America has lost membership over the years as new generations become assimilated-causing a drop in membership from 50,000 families in 1960 to only 17,000 today. Little Tokyo’s Higashi Honganji temple served over 450 families at its peak in the ’60s; by 2004, only 100 families were regularly attending services.
The temple faces the dilemma of how to adjust to the current cultural reality without diluting the religion’s essential message. Head minister Rev. Noriaki Ito has decided to loosen the organization’s ties to Japan, and under his direction the temple began offering Buddhist-themed classes and meditation services-even though meditation is not part of the Shin tradition. The West Covina branch started a web site (livingdharma.org) featuring FAQ’s about their Buddhist tradition, along with celebrity interviews and articles on Buddhism in pop culture. Rev. Briones, a Hispanic Shin Reverend, started an outreach program for black and Latino kids in neighboring East L.A. Changes and adjustments are inevitable for any transplanted tradition, and the plight of the Higashi Honganji temple is shared by many Buddhists sects: how to keep and grow a congregation in a new culture without selling out the beliefs and practices central to that faith.
Buddhist (or near Buddhist) Angelenos are left with an increasingly expansive spectrum of options. “How to find an intentional community?” says Smart. “The typical ways, I think. Search the Internet, the Yellow Pages, etc. and visit sanghas that interest you. Even within a given flavor (say, Zen), you can find minor vibe differences at different places. I sometimes go to Kanzeonji Non-Sectarian Buddhist Temple and Yoga Ashram in Mt. Washington. They’re very unstructured. Just sitting and yoga classes. No instruction, no one-on-one interviews with the priest. Compare that with ZCLA, which has a larger, more formal bunch of people doing full services with chants to the hungry ghosts…and which has individual teacher interviews for all, and several priests living on the campus premises. In the end, you have to go sit at a few different places to get the one that feels right to you.”
Los Angeles, with its large number of Buddhists of every description, will no doubt play an important role in the future transformation of the Buddhist faith. Maybe the world’s “most complex Buddhist city” is the natural place for a truly American form of Buddhism to grow. LAA
Stressed?
Our intrepid reporter braves Hollywood Blvd.’s Scientology sales reps.
by Rob B. Dulhar [*Names have been changed to protect the universe.]
I’ve been known to roll the odd, invisible hand grenade through the open doors of the Scientology Personality Testing Center. You’ve seen them out there on Hollywood Boulevard., those front-line pawns of the Scientology machine, and if you’re anything like me, you usually just keep right on walking. They inquire if you want a “free stress test” and you mumble, “no thanks,” avoiding eye contact.
But, as a service to you, dear L.A. Alternative readers, the paper sent me out on a bright, crisp Saturday afternoon to subject myself to the stress test. Could I be convinced to join the flock? What exactly did this “test” involve?
I had to pass by the card tables set up on the south side of the Boulevard twice before a heavy-set girl in a folding chair inquired if I wanted a “free stress test.” She may have actually been speaking to the man walking behind me, but I don’t think he spoke any English. I leapt into the chair in front of the pimply-faced, 20-something Lindsay* and introduced myself.
The girl immediately hands me two short, coppery cylinders (one of them was labeled “Chris”-I guess she was borrowing someone else’s E-Meter). The metal tubes are attached to a small box with a needle, a few knobs and-the only element that seemed to be connected to “reality”-a digital clock. It almost has the correct time.
Lindsay tells me that this low-tech looking doohickey will register how much stress I am currently feeling (it’s really just a biofeedback machine-it measures the conductivity of your skin, which can sometimes be affected by your emotional state if you’re the perspiring type). I’m told that she’s going to ask me a few questions as I grip the handles and that I “can answer them in my head.” When I ask if I can answer them aloud, she says in my head will be fine.
Lindsay says the needle will move to the right indicating how much stress I am exhibiting in regards to the subjects she is going to bring up. She starts to ask me a series of rather open-ended questions about my romantic relationships, my family and my pet. I answer them aloud and she doesn’t stop me.
Now, I am sort of expecting Lindsay to be a bit devious, to trick me into believing that I’m stressed over something that Scientology could help me with. She asks me what is currently causing me stress; I mention something about my sex life and my financial situation. She doesn’t touch the latter and whispers with embarrassment in regards to the former.
By now, she has me talking about my job and my older brother in Brooklyn and my cat, and all the while I’m keeping my eye on the monitor-the needle is not even wiggling. Check me out! Stress-free!
When she starts asking me about children, I inform Lindsay that I don’t have any and that I don’t really want any. She asks if that’s all right with my family and I tell her, with 100 percent honesty, that my mother has dreams of me furnishing her with two grandchildren. Now, at this point I had taken my eyes off the needles; I was rather obviously checking out the gorgeous young woman dressed in a skimpy Tinkerbelle costume who was walking right toward me.
That might have factored into the needle finally leaping a bit.
Lindsay proudly informs me that I am stressed over this situation with my mother. I respond that maybe my Mom is stressed-but I am not. I tell her that if I should happen to call my Jewish mother back East and inform her that I just became a Scientologist in order to deal with the stress she was allegedly causing me with her desire for me to be fruitful and multiply, I would win the Jew-guilt stand-off hands down.
Lindsay then grabs a slip of paper and handwrites for me the “eight dynamics.” She has trouble differentiating between the “Individual” and “You.” I feel a moment of pity, and don’t press the issue further.
She asks me what I know about Scientology at this point. I reply that I’ve heard that they bought Hollywood from Space Aliens for about 24 bucks. Lindsay appears to ignore this.
She then grabs a paperback edition of L. Ron Hubbard’s most famous sci-fi tome and asks me if I’ve read it. I tell Lindsay that “I’ve never read Diuretics.” (Thank you, Alex Cox.) She does not correct me, but only flips it open to the first page and hands it to me. She instructs me to read a quote from noted big-headed thespian and famed Scientologist, Vinny Barbarino.
And now, for the low, low price of only eight dollars I can own my own copy. I understand why she didn’t wish to discuss my financial woes earlier. And then it hits me-this whole thing is probably just a protracted sales pitch for this book. No wonder it’s sold tens of millions of copies. They’ve got these poor kids out on the streets all over town, in a strange sort of grass roots promotion. (Hmm… I’m looking to publish a book this year. Maybe I’ll take a page out of Dianetics-I think it’s page 143-to promote myself.)
Sales pitch effectively rejected, I ask Lindsay how long she’s been doing this. She tells me with great pride that she’s been in the LRH fold since January 28. I can envision the date circled on her “cute kittens” calendar with pink magic marker. She had taken the same free stress test in her hometown of “beautiful, downtown Burbank” and tells me that “the rest is history.”
But she really can’t tell me why I should read and/or buy this book. Even the Christians will give you their Bible for free. If Lindsay is any indicator of who is on the front lines of selling this religion to the masses, I just don’t know what to think of this organization. The Taliban do a better job of selling the tenets of Islam than this girl does for Scientology.
I decide to let Lindsay off the hook, thank her, shake her hand and walk off down Hollywood Boulevard. feeling remarkably stress free-except maybe for the sex bit. LAA
Stranger in a Strange Land
A conversation with an Argentine Mormon missionary, trying to spread the Word in L.A.
by Lesley Bargar
The common conception of a Mormon missionary [aka Elder] is a young, neck-tied, blue-eyed chap with locks of blonde hair squished under a bicycle helmet, and a handlebar basket piled high with the Gospel. In reality, a growing number of Mormon missionaries, especially in large urban environments like Los Angeles, are coming from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. What must that be like, we wondered, to not only try to convert a city full of jaded, substance-abusing, spiritless, media hungry Angelenos, but to do so as a foreigner with a heck of a language barrier? To answer that question, we turned to Carlos Reales, a 20-year-old missionary from Argentina who has spent the last year pounding the pavement of L.A., trying to guide our multi-cultured metropolis toward what he and millions of other Mormons worldwide see as the path to salvation.
L.A. Alternative: What is your name, how old are you, and where are you from?
My name is Carlos Emanuel Reales, but while I’m here on my mission I am called Elder Reales. I am from Argentina, from Salta, in the northwest of the country. I am 20. I arrived here in L.A. on May 18th, 2005. I’ll be here for 22 months.
How did you end up doing your mission in L.A.?
I was ‘called’ to serve a mission by God, by inspiration through our Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. We are sent where we are most needed. We don’t get to choose where we will be sent to serve.
What is the purpose of your mission here?
My purpose as a missionary is to invite the people I meet here in L.A. to come to Christ, through baptism, and also to help them understand the purpose of this life, like ways to strengthen their families and be together forever.
What has been your biggest challenge so far?
The greatest challenge I’ve had is to learn English. It is very, very hard for me.
Did you speak English before you came?
No. I didn’t. I got sent for three months to the Language Training Center, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where I studied English. Then I came here.
What was your conception of the city before coming here?
It was good! I’d been told it was the City of the 21st Century! And I knew there would be many Latinos who live here, and that this is a very big city.
How has it changed?
It hasn’t changed much at all. Only, now I know that driving here is a little crazy!
Have you felt welcome here?
Yes, I’ve really felt welcome here. There have been so many people, from all different countries, who have welcomed me into their homes in a very friendly way.
Where are you staying here, and with whom?
I’m currently staying in Torrance, sharing an apartment and expenses with another of the Elders [missionaries] that I work with every day.
Do you expect that your faith will be tested in any way being in a large U.S. city like Los Angeles?
Not really, I don’t know how-I don’t know if my faith will ever be tested, but I do know it was one of my dreams always to serve a mission in a big city like Los Angeles, and to be able to visit here, in the United States. So, in that way I am living one of my dreams and it’s just really exciting to be here.
How is the Mormon religion practiced differently here?
The Church and the faith are the same all over the world, really. Only here, in the U.S., there are many more members, and they are blessed with being near the L.A. Temple. Temples are the most sacred buildings we have in the Church. There are thousands of chapels where we go to Sunday School with our families on Sundays. But temples are only for the most sacred of ordinances, like marriage for time and all eternity. In Argentina we have dozens and dozens of chapels, but we have only one temple in the whole country, But, the gospel and the Church is the same here as it is in our chapels in Africa, Russia, Paris, or in Argentina.
How were you exposed to the religion in your home country?
I was born into a family that was already a member of the Church. Since childhood I have attended Church and Sunday School where I learned about the teachings and life of Jesus.
How open have people been to your ideas?
I can tell that some people are open to hearing new ideas about religion. I find that especially so of the Latino people I’ve met.
What part of being here are you most excited about?
I’m most excited about the chance I get to tell people about the Church, share my personal testimony with people that I don’t know, and to tell them that this is the best country on Earth! This country has everything you need to have the opportunities of a good life.
Have you participated in any new recreational activities here in the city?
No, never. We do get to go out and do service projects in the community, and get a lot of exercise doing that! Things like cleaning up schoolyards, or parks. But our recreational activities are very limited. On our one personal day a week, we may get to play a pick-up game of basketball with other missionaries, but that’s about it. Our time is mostly devoted to meeting with people to teach them about our faith, about the Church and the gospel.
What do you think is the most bizarre aspect of L.A., or the most different from Argentina?
The different cultures. There are American people, Latinos, Koreans, Chinese, and so on. That’s not true in my country.
Do you think Los Angeles is a religious city?
I really don’t think so, but there are a lot of really good people who are religious. LAA
