The question of Buddhist ministry has been on my mind almost constantly since attending a friend’s ordination to the Unitarian-Universalist ministry earlier this month. Traditional Buddhist societies had monastics and teachers—with the exception of Japan and Tibet, which also had non-celibate ordination lineages. Now four schools in the United States are offering graduate-level programs for people interested in professional Buddhist ministry: Naropa Univeristy, the Institute of Buddhist Studies, University of the West, and Harvard Divinity School.

Something like the Master of Divinity (MDiv) program at Harvard—of which I am a graduate—obviously isn’t training students to be roshis, lamas, or any other sort of teacher in a Buddhist lineage. Neither is it giving them a traditional monastic education. While several Buddhist monastics and teachers have gone through Harvard’s MDiv program and probably found it quite helpful, such a program couldn’t have qualified them for these roles on its own. So, what roles are these Buddhist ministry programs training people for?

There seems to be an increasing need in American society for a third category of Buddhist religious professional—not a monastic or a teacher, but a minister or chaplain. Unlike both monastics and teachers, whose primary role is to preserve and transmit the dharma, such ministers would primarily officiate ceremonies such as weddings and funerals, provide pastoral care, and give basic religious instruction.

This represents a shift away from convert Buddhism’s almost exclusive focus on individual meditation practice. It doesn’t seek to do away with meditation practice, of course, but rather to incorporate it alongside communal life: ceremonies to mark various life-passages, programs for families and children, visits to the sick and infirm, service to those in need, and comfort in times of crises. It does not abandon the ideal of liberation from suffering, but incorporates it alongside the very real needs and concerns of worldly life.

For me, this rubber meets the road when I think about getting married someday, or consider what would happen if I died suddenly. It would be impossible for my primary lamas to fly all over the country—indeed, all over the world—every time one of their students gets married or winds up in the hospital. Still, I would want something to mark these passages with my friends and family, and I would want something specifically Buddhist. If I ever had children, I also would want them to have some sort of basic moral and religious education that met them on their level. To my mind, it is these sorts of questions—among others—to which Buddhist ministers are the answer.

There are several settings where I imagine Buddhist ministers will be located. Indeed, there are already highly-qualified Buddhist ministers working in each of them, many of whom are graduates of one of the four programs that I mention above:

• Dharma centers and temples. Buddhist ministers might work in dharma centers, temples, or other Buddhist organizations, where they would provide basic instruction and organization in between visits by teachers or monastics. They would be less a resident teacher than a senior student who helps to run the center and lead group practices, along with both providing pastoral care to and officiating ceremonies for their congregants.
• Interfaith chaplaincy. Buddhist ministers might work as interfaith chaplains in hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, prisons, private colleges and universities, private secondary schools, airports, corporations, etc. They would obviously be available for people in these organizations who identify as Buddhist, but their primary purpose would be to serve anyone who comes to them, regardless of their religion or lack thereof. In this sense, they would be like any other interfaith chaplain, though they could serve a dual role as both an interfaith and a Buddhist chaplain.
• Buddhist chaplaincy. Buddhist ministers might also work as specifically Buddhist chaplains, especially in healthcare and education settings where there is a significant Buddhist or Buddhism-sympathetic population. Of course, these chaplains would have to be willing and able to serve a diverse range of Buddhists from various traditions and ethnic backgrounds. The downside here is funding. While the army pays its Buddhist chaplain, most colleges and universities have a core staff of one or two payed, full-time interfaith chaplains supported by ministers from specific religious traditions who are payed by either their local congregations or some national body like their denominations. Many hospitals are going in that direction, as well.
• Community ministry. Buddhist ministers might also work at large, serving both local Buddhist communities and the local community in general. They might do everything from performing an interfaith or gay wedding in an area where few other ministers are willing to do so, to visiting a sick Buddhist who doesn’t have a local teacher or temple, to helping organize a gathering of local Buddhist groups on a major Buddhist holiday. The people whom they serve need not be Buddhist, either; I was recently asked to officiating the wedding of two friends who are atheist and Christian, respectively, because a Buddhist minister seemed, no doubt, like a nice compromise. (The Christian side of the family got someone called reverend wearing minister’s robes and the atheist side didn’t have to worry about being prayed at or witnessed to.) Again, the problem here is funding; most community ministers either make their living doing weddings and funerals or have an outside job.These thoughts are more scattered and disorganized than I would like, but I hope that putting them into writing and sharing them with others will both clarify my own thinking and open up some fruitful dialog about the future and direction of Buddhism in the United States, and especially about the future of Buddhist ministry. I am especially concerned for those like myself who have trained or are training as Buddhist ministers and find themselves anxious for some sense of direction, purpose, and even basic livelihood. It is my hope that these scattered thoughts will spark conversations and innovations that can perhaps lead to less scattered lives for aspiring Buddhist ministers.