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Spain is a country with very few Buddhists, because it is a country with a traditional Catholic majority. For more than 500 years, since before the unification of Spain in 1492, Catholicism has played a role in shaping the Spanish national identity. Today, even when the information revolution has exploded and the world has become a globalized village, Buddhists in Spain are still a very small minority.

Colonial armies and missionaries from Spain have spread Catholicism far and wide around the world. Even Catholicism's cousins - Judaism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Islam - are said to make up less than 5% of the population. Therefore, Buddhism entered Spain very late and very slowly. One reason Buddhism entered Spain so slowly was because of the slow process of translating the Pali Canon into Spanish.

Although the statistics are not consistent, they still give us an overall picture. In 2018, official statistics from the Spanish Center for Sociological Research recorded that the total population of Spain was 46,659,302 people, of which 68.5% of the population identified themselves as Catholic, 26.4% identified themselves as atheists or agnostics, and 2.6% identified themselves as following other religions. However, science is changing the thinking of people, mainly young people. Among the faithful, 59% said they almost never attend any religious services, while 16.3% only attended one or more religious services per week.

The January 27, 2018 issue of Buddhistdoor Global magazine, with the article “Growing Pains, Budding Flowers: The Hispanic Association of Buddhism” by reporter Raymond Lam, shed some light on this Buddhist community. Here are the highlights of this article.

Reporter Raymond Lam met Ricardo Guerrero in July 2017, at a conference between Buddhists and Carmelites (Catholics) in the city of Avila, Spain. It was an unusual conference: few Buddhists had much knowledge of the Carmelite order of Saint Teresa, and Spain had little access to Buddhism. The conference participants had no intention of proselytizing, only a desire for genuine interreligious dialogue, following the call of Pope Francis.

Ricardo was born in 1964 and raised in a Catholic environment. Like many young people in Spain, he found answers to his questions about religion in his homeland. “Many Spaniards see Catholicism as very close to power,” Ricardo says. “The Spanish Catholic Church was complicit with the Fascist regime until 1979 and collapsed after Franco’s death. For us, the Church has traditionally been about compromise.”

Statistics seem to agree with Ricardo’s assessment: in Spain, less than 50% of the population identifies as Catholic, while 18% consider themselves practicing Catholics. That’s a huge drop, considering that just a few centuries ago, the country spread Catholicism around the world through colonialism, and helped to cast its entire image on Latin America.

For Ricardo, he left Catholicism at 18. And in 2000, he went to Sri Lanka, where he met a monk who would become his teacher – Venerable Nandisena, an Argentine-born monk who ordained in 1991 at Taungpulu Kaba Aye Monastery, in Boulder Creek, California, studying under Venerable Silananda.

It was also Ricardo’s first time in a predominantly Buddhist society, and he found the atmosphere of Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka) more joyful and friendly than that of Madrid (the capital of Spain). In particular, he remembers the many smiles from strangers on the streets of Colombo. After reading about Buddhism and becoming a practitioner, he became more confident that this was the right path for him.

Together with Venerable Nandisena, Ricardo founded the Asociacion Hispana de Buddhismo (Hispanic Association of Buddhism) in 2012, with the aim of spreading Buddhism in South America. With the majority of South American residents speaking Spanish, Ricardo chose to use the word “Hispanic” for his association, rather than simply “Spanish.” It should also be noted that Buddhism has been present in South America since the early 1900s, and is older than Buddhism in Spain, where the Eastern religion only began after the fall of Franco's fascist regime.

Non-sectarian, the focus of the society is the translation of the Pali Canon into Spanish, although many articles and books from various teachers are also translated. The society also offers meditation classes, classes on Buddhist thought (up to 40 a year), and mindfulness meditation.

“Publishing and translating are our priorities,” says Ricardo. “I have translated the works of Bhikkhu Bodhi, Venerable Dhammasami, and Venerable Shi Da Yuan. Without translations that we can pick up and read, we have no hope of spreading Buddhism.” He explained that the Pali Canon is essential for Spanish speakers to understand the fundamental teachings of Buddhism.

Ricardo said he modeled it after the way Buddhism has been introduced in the United States, where many Buddhist traditions are taught. It is the center of “Western Buddhism” – a unique and diverse spirit, adapted to American society, culture, interests and priorities. He felt that Spanish speakers needed to move toward a similar spirit.

“We lack the canon in Spanish, we lack works by Buddhist scholars in the language,” he said. “Spain has never had a real relationship with Asia, except with the Philippines, so it is extremely difficult to have Spanish-language materials available.”

The society is headquartered in Madrid and is open to anyone interested. Ricardo says there is already a Buddhist community in Madrid, and more people are turning to Buddhism for answers they can’t find in Catholicism. In 2011, Venerable Nandisena helped establish the Instituto de Estudios Buddhistas Hispano (Hispanic Institute of Buddhist Studies), which operates under the association’s umbrella. The institute offers Buddhist degrees, and students can take classes online.

Despite the association’s many accomplishments, progress has been gradual and often slow. Ricardo once wanted to establish a temple in Madrid with help from the 180,000-strong Chinese community. But he couldn’t raise the money, and had to abandon the idea. He also acknowledges that the idea of establishing a temple uniquely Hispanic won’t always resonate with the aesthetic sensibilities of potential supporters, many of whom have Asian heritage.

“We don’t want to open the kind of ‘ethnic’ temple that is seen in other cities – while we welcome many different cultural communities to open their own temples; we need a genuine Buddhist center that is relevant to the Hispanic identity, and not simply an import of Asian expressions,” he said.

Ricardo believes that Buddhism needs time and patience to spread in a society that has been assimilated to other religions. He believes that with its meditation methods and ethical teachings, Buddhism provides a necessary alternative to the crisis of human values in Hispanic societies today.

He said: “The traditional answers are not convincing, and many people are looking for what they do not know is already there and useful for them. We have suffered so much, with economic and social crises. Buddhism can support those who are suffering. But, although Buddhism is an individual practice, it still needs support from the community. One person cannot do anything without others. That is what this association provides.”

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