Once we began placing this listing collectively it appeared prefer it was going to be nothing greater than a shallow, trivial — though maybe welcome — distraction from all of the information about disastrous wars and sordid political scandals, however as we dug deeper into the net we discovered that we felt at occasions impressed by studying in regards to the observe of well-known Buddhists, a few of whom have had their trials. We hope that you simply too can be impressed — and entertained — by Wildmind’s Prime Ten Record of Movie star Buddhists.
Our standards have been easy. To be a celeb Buddhist a nominee needed to be alive, a celeb, and — watch for it — a Buddhist (extra on that later). And our voting course of was simplicity itself; we counted the hits returned for an actual search on every identify on Google. Effectively, that’s not too unscientific.
However to offer ourselves some credit score for our laborious work and analysis talents, it’s not at all times that simple to work out if a celeb Buddhist is definitely a Buddhist. Plenty of web sites could say that Keanu or JLo are training Buddhists, however the reality is much more durable to pin down. We didn’t settle for {that a} celeb was a Buddhist until we may discover they’d stated so themselves. And we found that in actual fact some a lot lauded “celeb Buddhists” have explicitly stated that they don’t seem to be Buddhist practitioners (e.g. Uma Thurman: “When requested if I think about myself Buddhist, the reply is, Not likely,” and Keanu Reeves: “I’m not Buddhist.”)
Becoming a member of Keanu, Uma, and Jenny on the not-really-a-Buddhist listing have been martial arts actor Jackie Chan, and rocker/poet Patti Smith. And though they’re severe practitioners, not fairly making the highest ten due to lack of hits of Google have been avant-garde musician Laurie Anderson (1,110,000 hits), jazzman Wayne Shorter (1,100,000 hits), and REM frontman Michael Stipe (with a mere 813,000 hits). Guys, higher luck subsequent time.
Anyway, we all know you’re dying to know who’s in and who’s not, so with out additional ado let’s introduce the highest ten in reverse order.
10. Aung San Suu Kyi (1,170,000 hits)
With impeccably non-frivolous credentials we begin with nonviolent pro-democracy activist, chief of the Nationwide League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and famous prisoner of conscience, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Closely influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, Suu Kyi campaigned for the democratization of Burma, which was (and is) beneath a army dictatorship, and in 1989 she was positioned beneath home arrest. In 1991 Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceable and non-violent wrestle beneath a army dictatorship. She has been out and in of home arrest since then and has been sustained in her lengthy confinement, throughout which she was not allowed to fulfill her dying husband, by her vipassana meditation observe. Commenting on her lengthy isolation, she stated “Isolation isn’t troublesome for me. Possibly it’s due to my Buddhist upbringing.”
9. Steven Seagal (1,340,000 hits)
The Buddhist world was, to place it mildly, in a state of deep, deep bemusement when Hollywood star Steven Seagal introduced in 1997 that he had been acknowledged as a Tibetan incarnate lama, or tulku. “Wait,” we stated. “That Steven Segal? The action-movie hero who makes a speciality of toting highly effective weapons and blowing stuff up?” It appeared as weird as it could in the present day if the Pope have been to nominate Paris Hilton as a bishop, and many people checked the calendar to verify it wasn’t the primary of April. And but the opposite shoe failed, resoundingly, to drop. In reality His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, a revered Lama, certainly publicly confirmed that he had acknowledged Seagal’s tulku-hood.
It seems that Segal has an extended historical past of observe. Hemoved to Japan at age 17 to check martial arts, acupuncture, and Zen, and he spent 15 years there earlier than returning to the US. Whereas in Asia he had vital contact with Tibetan lamas escaping China, whose torture-induced traumas he handled with acupuncture. Seagal himself tends to be just a little coy about his observe: “I’ve been doing severe meditation in my very own pitiful method for in all probability twenty-seven years.”
8. Kate Bosworth (1,390,000 hits)
Finally we hit some actual frivolity, with the pleasant Ms. Bosworth of Blue Crush and Superman Returns fame. Or can we? Are we being harsh in considering Bosworth solely began training as a result of then-boyfriend, Orlando Bloom, was into Nichiren Buddhism? Maybe. And but we’re blissful to welcome Bosworth into the highest ten, although she and Orlando broke up (“He snores and is affordable”) and she or he could effectively have moved onto romantic and non secular pastures new.
Nonetheless, whereas it lasted Bosworth’s affair with the Buddhadharma actually appeared to imply one thing: “It’s only a actually unimaginable mind-set. It’s only a stunning place to try to be at. It’s principally about continuously rising and making your self a greater individual and specializing in what you need for your self and the world and actually placing it on the market. It’s superb.” To which we will solely say, “Superior!”
7. Richard Gere (1,560,000 hits)
For a lot of he’ll be the primary celeb Buddhist to spring to thoughts, however Fairly Girl and Chicago heart-throb Richard Gere isn’t even within the high 5 — and that’s regardless of a friendship with the Dalai Lama.
Gere is a passionate advocate for human rights in Tibet; he’s a co-founder of the Tibet Home, creator of The Gere Basis, and he’s Chairman of the Board of Administrators for the Worldwide Marketing campaign for Tibet. Due to his assist for the Tibetan trigger he’s banned from the Folks’s Republic of China — and he’s additionally banned as an Academy Award presenter due to utilizing the rostrum to denounce the Chinese language authorities. Richard, you’re at all times welcome right here.
Gere scores excessive marks for sincerity of observe, and meditates each day. “It helps me set my motivation for the day,” he says.
6. Herbie Hancock (1,590,000 hits)
Some of the revered contributors to fashionable jazz and former collaborator with Miles Davis, Hancock is a longstanding practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism, which has a heavy emphasis on chanting as a type of meditation. Hancock is a member of the Japanese Buddhist motion, Soka Gakkai Worldwide, which additionally counts Tina Turner and Wayne Shorter amongst its members.
Hancock turned a Buddhist after seeing the impact it had on the performing talents on bassist Buster Williams, and reckons that his personal observe has been integral to his inventive improvement: “Buddhism opened me as much as being out of my consolation zone — to exploring issues and being brave sufficient to strive new issues.”
5. Leonard Cohen (1,620,000 hits)
Doyen of despair, godfather of gloom, grasp of distress, Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s oeuvre could possibly be seen as an ongoing exploration of the Buddhist educating that life is inherently struggling. However there’s far more to Cohen’s observe than that.
Following an curiosity in Buddhism that began within the early 1970’s, Cohen was ordained in 1996 as a Zen monk on the Mount Baldy Zen Middle, on a mountain-top overlooking San Bernadino, California, and was given the Dharma identify, “Jikan.” As a result of his instructor doesn’t know a lot English Cohen is a bit obscure about what the identify means. Apparently it’s one thing to do with silence — “strange silence, regular silence” — one thing like that anyway.
Zen observe helped steer Cohen away from a long-term drug downside and, to his nice shock, helped dispel the gloom that had pervaded his life: “Whenever you cease serious about your self on a regular basis, a sure sense of repose overtakes you. It occurred to me by imperceptible levels and I may probably not consider it; I may probably not declare it for a while. I assumed there should be one thing incorrect.” Sure, being blissful will be so unsettling.
4. The Dalai Lama (1,640,000 hits)
Uniquely on our listing of Buddhist celebs, His Holiness is a Buddhist first and celeb second. He could not croon right into a mike or emote on a sound-set, however the Dalai Lama can definitely pack (and wow) an auditorium, and stars like Richard Gere and Keanu Reeves are wanting to share the stage with the supreme head of Tibetan Buddhism, chief of the Tibetan Authorities in Exile, and incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
And high marks for size of observe: His Holiness is at present in his 14th documented incarnation as a lama, simply beating our different celebs who’ve at finest just one lifetime of observe every — though admittedly in His Holiness’s sixth incarnation he refused to grow to be a monk and spent a lot of his time chasing the women (ah, these youthful indiscretions!). The Dalai Lama additionally will get high marks for modesty: His Holiness describes himself as being “a easy Buddhist monk.”
His Holiness says, “Lots of our issues stem from attitudes like placing ourselves first in any respect prices. I do know from my very own expertise that it’s potential to alter these attitudes and enhance the human thoughts.”
Effectively, we will solely say that we’re certain that in his subsequent lifetime His Holiness will at the least make the highest three.
3. Tina Turner (1,710,000 hits)
The “Queen of Rock and Roll” has an immediately recognizable voice, a profession courting again to 1960, unbelievable legs, and a severe Buddhist observe. As proven within the biopic What’s Love Bought to Do With It, it was Turner’s Buddhist observe that gave her the power to go away her abusive marriage to Ike Turner within the 70’s, which in flip made her an icon for abused girls all over the place. Turner is one other practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and famously chanted Nam Moho Rengye Kyo on Larry King Reside (see video, under).
Turner stated: “I needed to train myself as a result of I didn’t have the liberty to go to truly go to conferences or for individuals to return to me … and it modified my life.”
2. Orlando Bloom (3,710,000 hits)
The dashing star of The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean turned to Buddhist observe as a result of “The philosophies behind it are very present in the present day and are a method of discovering some kind of peace,” but in addition as a result of it helped preserve him from the self-destructive path he was at all times in peril of carving out for himself.
Bloom stresses that his Nichiren observe could be very sensible: “The philosophy that I’ve embraced isn’t about sitting beneath a tree and finding out my navel, it’s about finding out what’s going on in my each day life and utilizing that as gas to go and reside a much bigger life.”
We want Orlando effectively as he swashbuckles his solution to Full and Excellent Enlightenment.
1. Tiger Woods (5,850,000 hits)
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Sure, with shut to 6 million hits on Google he’s larger than Richard Gere, extra in style even than the Dalai Lama. Possibly even God. However then one prophet did foretell, “Tiger will do greater than every other man in historical past to alter the course of humanity … He’s the Chosen One.” (That was Earl, Tiger’s dad). And one other seer spake thus: “He can maintain everybody collectively. He’s the Common Little one.” (Sure, that was Koltida, his mother).
And in case you assume that quasi-religious adoration of Tiger is proscribed to his doting mother and father, right here’s Michael Jordan’s take: “I actually do consider he was put right here for a much bigger cause than simply to play golf. I don’t assume that he’s a god, however I do consider that he was despatched by one.”
Regardless of these accolades, we’re not completely certain whether or not to treat Tiger as a Buddhist. He’s stated, “I consider in Buddhism … not each side, however most of it. So I take bits and items,” which may make him seems like a dilettante, however then even the Dalai Lama has expressed related sentiments so we’re giving Tiger the good thing about the doubt.
Woods has additionally stated, “I don’t observe Buddhism on a day-to-day foundation, simply after I really feel prefer it.” So on the dangerous aspect he’s not a constant practitioner, whereas on the great aspect he does observe. Once more, that counts him in. That observe and background (mother Koltida is a Thai Buddhist) have helped Tiger grow to be the virtually inscrutably equanimous participant he’s grow to be: “Buddhism has been a significant function in my life. It has given me an internal peace and quietness that I feel I wouldn’t have achieved at such an early age.”
In 1996 Tiger and his father launched the Tiger Woods Basis, which via private enrichment packages, scholarships, direct grants, junior golf groups and the brand new Tiger Woods Studying Middle, helps thousands and thousands of youngsters attain their goals. Tiger takes his standing as a youth function mannequin critically: “I’m not making an attempt to evangelise to them that that is ‘a sport for you.’ I’m saying, ‘This is a chance so that you can develop as an individual.’ I feel that’s what actually issues.”
So there we’ve it. Tiger Woods — Guru of Golf, Zen grasp of the green, first prophet of placing, dare we are saying even “demigod of the inexperienced” — is the world’s most well-known celeb Buddhist. Extra energy to your placing, Tiger — and to your observe.