Responses (view all)

Vajracaksu — Tue, 10 Apr, 2018 - 07:00

Sadhu to all involved, may it benefit many. A 12% growth in 7 years in big. Do you know which faiths have grown even more than Buddhism in Ireland??

Kind wishes

Vajracaksu

Sadayasihi — Tue, 10 Apr, 2018 - 09:46

Hi Vajracaksu,

Interesting question! Looking at the information from the Central Statistics Office (which you can find here) there were two other religions which grew more than Buddhism in Ireland between 2011 and 2016: there was a 28.1% increase in the number of Muslims (up to 63,443 people) and a 34% increase in the number of Hindus (up to 14,332 people). Buddhism is the next largest non-Christian religion after that. The next census will be in 2021 so it will be interesting to see if the upwards growth of Buddhists in Ireland continues!

With Metta,

Sadayasihi

Vajracaksu — Wed, 11 Apr, 2018 - 10:03

Thank you Sadayasihi for taking the trouble to respond, I’ve taken a bit of a look at the link you sent. It seems to me that the wording of the original article was not accurate. The numbers of Buddhists are growing in Ireland but that Buddhism is one of the slowest or the slowest growing one:

Hindus 34%
Jewish 28.9%
Muslims 28.1%

Buddhist 12.1%

It is great that more people are interested in the Dharma of course but in this day and age I’m especially fond of ‘accuracy of narration.’

Thank you for the job you’re doing.

Kind wishes

Vajracaksu

Sadayasihi — Wed, 11 Apr, 2018 - 10:30

Thanks for pointing this out Vajracaksu. I take your point about accuracy of narrative. Just to say that I think Maitrikaya got that statistic from an article in the Irish Times, a national newspaper.

If you look at the list of religions (in the database list) there are 53 listed. Without going through all 53 (and deciphering which are Christian and non-Christian) and calculating the % growth or otherwise between 2011 and 2016 I can’t definitely dispute whether Buddhism should now go from being described as the fastest growing to the slowest growing religion or not.

However the fact remains that the numbers of Buddhists in Ireland according to the census indicate that it is the third largest grouping after Muslims and Hindus, which seems the most significant point, and why at this juncture an Irish Inter-Buddhist network would be warranted.

I hope things are going well in Istanbul.

With Metta,
Sadayasihi

maitrikaya — Fri, 27 Apr, 2018 - 13:09

Yes while apologising for not being more accurate with the stats I did take them from the newspaper acticle but it must be said they came from the IBU press release drawn up by a colleague which I took as accurate. Point taken Vajracaksu your work in Turkey inspires.

Vajracaksu — Sat, 28 Apr, 2018 - 17:31

Thank you Maitrikaya for your response & your kind words,

I hope you are vital & open,

Kind wishes

Vajracaksu

Vijaya1 — Fri, 13 Apr, 2018 - 08:27

Excellent. Very impressed by the RTE video -beautifully done. Your second and third links above are the same btw.

Tony25 — Sun, 15 Apr, 2018 - 13:42

Good representations from the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions though it’s a pity the Theravada reps couldn’t attend. It is also a pity not to see a representative from Mahayana Pure Land school. Pure Land is the largest and most popular sect in Asia.

maitrikaya — Tue, 1 May, 2018 - 05:59

While that might be the case in Asia Tony25 this is Ireland and as far as we are aware there are no representatives of that steam of Buddhism in Ireland.

Kaisan — Thu, 19 Apr, 2018 - 12:00

Well done everyone!

I sometimes wonder how the other Buddhist groups feel about the Centre being called ‘The Dublin Buddhist Centre’ I’d called it ‘The Dublin Meditation Centre out of respect for other local Buddhist Traditions. Perhaps ‘Dublin Triratna Centre’ might work better these days? That’s up to you guys, but it might be worth giving Sasanaratna’s latest article a look? Some of our ways of doing things are looking a bit dated, but I still like everything I hear from Dublin! You are doing really great!

With much warm Metta,

Sanghapala.