Buddhism is the THIRD largest religion in the world when we restored the 1 billion Buddhists in China the communist regime refuses to count since communism is officially atheist and insists party member comply.
Nearly all Chinese Buddhists follow three blended traditions (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism) and now have to mix those with a communist version of capitalism). The country's regime is trying to supplant religion with this new capitalist-friendly communism and a nanny state with mass surveillance, bringing the actual total number of Buddhists to more than 1.5 billion. That makes Buddhism the third largest missionary (universalist) "world religion."
Catholicism is the biggest religion in the world. Combining its total with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and many strange sects and post schismatic traditions, Christianity has the most nominal adherents.
Islam is said to be growing but is already the second biggest world religion, having gone from place to place by the sword, just as Christianity used to do with imperial crusades, ethnic cleansings, and forced conversions.
Buddhism is the original missionary tradition, but neither then nor now is it out to convert anybody away from their faith. Exposing them to the Teachings of the Awakened One capable of curing suffering and making people better at adhering to their beliefs and practices, it has been most welcome.
Why? Just as in the Buddha's time, the Buddha's Dharma ("Doctrine") is not actually a "religion." But the West treats all daily activities and beliefs as "religious" systems when, since the time Sumer, Greater Egypt, and the very advanced Indus Valley Civilization held sway, what we now call "religion" was just the collective daily habits and somewhat superstitious customs of whole societies that made little to no distinction between ordinary life and spirituality.
Buddhism in Celtic Britain and Ireland before Christianity?
Irish Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk Ven. Dhammaloka in 1902, age approximately 50
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The Irish Buddhist: Forgotten Monk
His name was Venerable (U) Dhammaloka (born Laurence Carroll in the 1850s) from Boostertown, Dublin County, Ireland.
He reportedly gave at least five names for himself, including Laurence O'Rourke and William Colvin [2]. On occasion he used the nom de plume "Captain Daylight."
It is accepted that he was Irish, almost certainly born in Dublin in the 1850s, and emigrated to the United States, possibly via Liverpool. More
Welcome to CelticBuddhism.org, a site of benefit and inspiration to those who enter and proceed on the path of Dharma.
The lineage of Celtic Buddhism was suggested in the 1970s during a conversation between the renowned [and abusive, scandal-ridden, Shambhala] Tibetan lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his student John Perks. The actual development is the result of the mixing of their minds.
What would an Irish Buddhist do?
The lineage was formally incorporated as a non-profit in 1989, when it took on official status. After meeting for years in rented rooms, Venerable Seonaidh Perks established the Anadaire Celtic Buddhist Center on 11 acres in Saxtons River, Vermont, where the sangha ("spiritual community") erected a stone circle that has aided in increasing and focusing energies for transformation.
Sangha members are encouraged to establish a daily meditation practice. Practices range from a host of traditional Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhist practices to the more contemporary practices of the Celtic Fire visualization and working with the mandala of the Celtic cross. We also encourage integrating everyday practices in art, music, healing through various modalities -- including animals, and in the world of business.
As a group, some members have gone on yearly retreats to Maine (USA) or to further connect with latent Celtic energies to Ireland and Scotland. One member has delved into thangka painting to explore the emerging Celtic Buddhist mandala.
In March 2010, we celebrated the ordination of Sister Griffin as abbess of Glen Ard Abbey, a newly formed Celtic Buddhist monastery. More: celticbuddhism.org
Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Samhain (SOW-in) or Sauin is a Gaelic festival in Ireland that falls on the Mexican Day of the Dead, Nov. 1st, marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year [1].
It is also the Irish and Scottish Gaelic name for November. Celebrations begin on Halloween, the evening of October 31st, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset [1].
This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasa.
Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Its Brittonic Celtic equivalent is Calan Gaeaf in Wales. More
The Citizens of Halloween: "This is Halloween" (from Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas")
(DisneyMusicVEVO) Oct. 14, 2021: Stream “Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” on Disney+, the only place to stream favorites from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and more [because there's absolutely nowhere else to stream. All hail the Disney Corporation!]
(BbaGumpSkrimp) The Making of The Nightmare Before Christmas
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
It was a time of innocent childishness and evil.
Remember waiting all October for Linus to see the Great Pumpkin? This Halloween classic wasn’t just wholesome—it changed American (and Canadian) TV forever. From hidden gags to production secrets and the real reason it almost got banned, here are 10 wild facts about It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! most people didn’t know. Relive the magic of a simpler time. More
In the United States, the term "Black Irish" was initially used in the 19th century to derogatorily describe Irish refugees of the Great Famine [1] [a manmade event the British wrought on their hated neighbors].
It later shifted into a term used to describe people of Irish descent who have black or dark-colored hair, pale skin, dark or light eyes, or any other dark feature or coloration. This meaning is not commonly used in Ireland [1], where "Black Irish" more refers to Irish people of actual African descent [4].
The most common use of the term "Black Irish" is tied to the myth that they were descended from Spanish sailors shipwrecked during the Spanish Armada of 1588 [5][6][7][8][9][10] that came to attack England. However, no anthropological, historical, or genetic research supports this story.
Some theorists assert that the term was adopted in some cases by Irish Americans who wanted to conceal interracial unions with African Americans, paralleling the phrase "Black Dutch" which was also used in the United States to hide racial identity. More
My scientific measurements show his skull is Blackoid regressive. Look at his forehead
(NYTN) March 7, 2025: Race is a social construct. Here's proof. Irish American history goes deeper than St Patrick's Day parades. The Irish weren’t always seen as "white," particularly not in England or America. In the 19th century, they were depicted as inferior and often compared to apes in racial hierarchies. This forgotten history later shaped their place in America — as social rejects. Here’s what really happened.
Sources: H. W. H. “The Races of Britain.” Science, vol. 7, no. 155, 1886, pp. 84–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1762109. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025. L.P. Curtis, Anglo-Saxons and Celts: A Study of Anti-Irish Prejudice in Victorian England (1968) Nancy Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science: Great Britain, 1800-1960 Coates, James, Ph.D., F.A.S, and Mcmanus-Young Collection. Phrenology Made Easy. New York: F.M. Lupton, 1894. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/93131464/.
SAINT PATRICK'S DHARMA: Welcome to Zen Buddhism Ireland (ZBI) with Myozan Kodo (妙山興道). Years ago, on March 17th, he delivered a little talk on Irish history concerning a possibly ahistorical figure named "St. Paddy" to mark St. Patrick's Day. Rev. Myozan Kodo lives his Zen Buddhist spiritual tradition on the Emerald Isle at zenbuddhism.ie, which is open to all.
The Irish are nothing if not amazing storytellers. Our own resident poet, Seven O'Dhr, frequently performs his epic "Finnegan's Awake" to stunned crowds who cannot comprehend how there can be so many rhyming syllables delivered in a Gaelic cadence in what is ostensibly an all-English poem. The piece is, of course, a tip o' the hat to James Joyce and his magnum opus Finnegans Wake, but both works are rooted in an old Dublin ditty everyone who's ever entered a pub has heard, "Finnegan's Wake." What now if the classic song were Buddhified? If the story of Saint Paddy can be, as certainly it was all dreamed up by the Church over the years to sanitize the genocide of the indigenous pagan "snakes" being chased off the snakeless island.
(Diane Jennings) Happy St. Patrick’s Day! If celebrating today, make sure you don’t accidentally offend an Irish person. From the ultimate crime of saying "St. Patty’s Day" (seriously, it's Paddy!) to disrespecting Guinness, tea, and our right to complain, here’s what not to do.
Ever wonder why we side-eye people who mispronounce Irish names like Caoimhe or Dún Laoghaire? Or why ordering a Guinness and drinking it immediately is a massive mistake? This is a survival guide to keeping Irish people on your good side. What’s the worst offense on this list? 🍻 Let me know in the comments! #irishvideo#irishpeople#irishgirl ▶ Patreon: dianejennings
The lad Tim Conway Jr. (KFI 640 AM) is friends with Keith of the Young Dubliners, an Irish band from Los Angeles. They both lived in the Valley back in the day, along with 40,000,000 other Irish diaspora members and their descendants in the United States.
There are only 7,000,000 (2023) in Ireland, if a census can be believed, and who knows if that counts occupied British "Northern Ireland," a Bantustan cut out [the way Palestine is sliced up by illegal occupiers and genocidal overlords Israel] by neighboring England and forced to be part of the United Kingdom, with the advocacy and acquisition of many Royalist Protestants.
Emigration (outgoing) from Ireland in the 19th century contributed to the populations of England, the United States, Canada, and Australia, in all of which a large Irish diaspora lives. As of 2006, 4.3 million Canadians, or 14% of the population, were of Irish descent [152], while around one-third of the Australian population had an element of Irish descent [153].
As of 2013, there were 40 million Irish-Americans [154] and 33 million Americans who claimed Irish ancestry [155], making a good argument for changing the name of the USA to New Ireland (rather than New England).
With growing prosperity since the last decade of the 20th century, Ireland became a destination for (incoming) immigrants. Since the European Union (EU) expanded to include Poland in 2004, Polish people have comprised the largest number of immigrants (over 150,000) [156] from Central Europe.
There has also been significant immigration from Lithuania, Czech Republic, and Latvia [157]. The Republic of Ireland in particular has seen large-scale immigration, with 420,000 foreign nationals as of 2006, about 10% of the population [158].
Nearly a quarter of births (24 percent) in 2009 were to mothers born outside of Ireland [159]. Up to 50,000 Eastern and Central European migrant workers left Ireland in response to the Irish financial crisis [160]. More
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