Top 10 celebrity Buddhists
Bodhipaksa (June 5, 2007)
When we started putting this list together it seemed like it was going to be nothing more than a shallow, trivial — although perhaps welcome — distraction from all the news about disastrous wars and sordid political scandals, but as we dug deeper into the web we found that we felt at times inspired by reading about the practice of famous Buddhists, some of whom have had their trials. We hope that you too will be inspired — and entertained — by Wildmind’s Top Ten List of Celebrity Buddhists.
Our criteria were simple. To be a celebrity Buddhist a nominee had to be alive, a celebrity, and — wait for it — a Buddhist (more on that later). And our voting process was simplicity itself; we counted the hits returned for an exact search on each name on Google. Well, that’s not too unscientific.
But to give ourselves some credit for our hard work and research abilities, it’s not always that easy to work out if a celebrity Buddhist is actually a Buddhist. Lots of websites may say that Keanu or JLo are practicing Buddhists, but the truth is far harder to pin down. We didn’t accept that a celebrity was a Buddhist unless we could find they’d said so themselves. And we discovered that in fact some much lauded “celebrity Buddhists” have explicitly said that they are not Buddhist practitioners (e.g. Uma Thurman: “When asked if I consider myself Buddhist, the answer is, Not really,” and Keanu Reeves: “I’m not Buddhist.”)
Joining Keanu and Jenny on the not-really-a-Buddhist list were martial arts actor Jackie Chan, and rocker/poet Patti Smith. And although they’re serious practitioners, not quite making the top ten because of lack of hits of Google were 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, better luck next time.
Anyway, we know you’re dying to know who’s in and who’s not, so without further ado let’s introduce the top ten in reverse order.
10. Aung San Suu Kyi (1,170,000 hits)
With impeccably non-frivolous credentials we start with nonviolent pro-democracy activist, leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and noted prisoner of conscience, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, Suu Kyi campaigned for the democratization of Burma, which was (and is) under a military dictatorship, and in 1989 she was placed under house arrest. In 1991 Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship. She has been in and out of house arrest since then and has been sustained in her long confinement, during which she was not allowed to meet her dying husband, by her vipassana meditation practice. Commenting on her long isolation, she said “Isolation is not difficult for me. Maybe it’s because of my Buddhist upbringing.”
9. Steven Seagal (1,340,000 hits)
The Buddhist world was, to put it mildly, in a state of deep, deep bemusement when Hollywood star Steven Seagal announced in 1997 that he had been recognized as a Tibetan incarnate lama, or tulku. “Wait,” we said. “That Steven Segal? The action-movie hero who specializes in toting powerful guns and blowing stuff up?” It seemed as bizarre as it would today if the Pope were to appoint Paris Hilton as a bishop, and many of us checked the calendar to make sure it wasn’t the first of April. And yet the other shoe failed, resoundingly, to drop. In fact His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, a respected Lama, indeed publicly confirmed that he had recognized Seagal’s tulku-hood.
It turns out that Segal has a long history of practice. Hemoved to Japan at age 17 to study martial arts, acupuncture, and Zen, and he spent 15 years there before returning to the US. While in Asia he had significant contact with Tibetan lamas escaping China, whose torture-induced traumas he treated with acupuncture. Seagal himself tends to be a little coy about his practice: “I have been doing serious meditation in my own pitiful way for probably twenty-seven years.”
8. Kate Bosworth (1,390,000 hits)
At last we hit some real frivolity, with the delightful Ms. Bosworth of Blue Crush and Superman Returns fame. Or do we? Are we being harsh in thinking Bosworth only started practicing because then-boyfriend, Orlando Bloom, was into Nichiren Buddhism? Perhaps. And yet we’re happy to welcome Bosworth into the top ten, even though she and Orlando broke up (“He snores and is cheap”) and she may well have moved onto romantic and spiritual pastures new.
Still, while it lasted Bosworth’s affair with the Buddhadharma really seemed to mean something: “It’s just a really incredible state of mind. It’s just a beautiful place to try and be at. It’s basically about constantly growing and making yourself a better person and focusing on what you want for yourself and the world and really putting it out there. It’s amazing.” To which we can only say, “Awesome!”
7. Richard Gere (1,560,000 hits)
For many he’ll be the first celeb Buddhist to spring to mind, but Pretty Woman and Chicago heart-throb Richard Gere isn’t even in the top five — and that’s despite a friendship with the Dalai Lama.
Gere is a passionate advocate for human rights in Tibet; he is a co-founder of the Tibet House, creator of The Gere Foundation, and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Because of his support for the Tibetan cause he’s banned from the People’s Republic of China — and he’s also banned as an Academy Award presenter because of using the podium to denounce the Chinese government. Richard, you’re always welcome here.
Gere scores high marks for sincerity of practice, and meditates daily. “It helps me set my motivation for the day,” he says.
6. Herbie Hancock (1,590,000 hits)
One of the most revered contributors to modern jazz and former collaborator with Miles Davis, Hancock is a longstanding practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism, which has a heavy emphasis on chanting as a form of meditation. Hancock is a member of the Japanese Buddhist movement, Soka Gakkai International, which also counts Tina Turner and Wayne Shorter among its members.
Hancock became a Buddhist after seeing the effect it had on the performing abilities on bassist Buster Williams, and reckons that his own practice has been integral to his artistic development: “Buddhism opened me up to being out of my comfort zone — to exploring things and being courageous enough to try new things.”
Next: The top five celebrity Buddhists
Welcome! It looks like you're new here, so I hope you don't mind if we draw your attention to a few things (you should only see this message two or three times before it vanishes). We have a ton of free material on meditation here. In the menu above you'll find links to our self-paced tutorials on various meditation techniques. You'll also find links to our blog, which has a gazillion articles, book reviews, etc. And if you'd like to support the work we do you can find links to our meditation supplies store, which has meditation CDs, MP3, and other stuff that can help you develop a meditation practice. Oh, and you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Comments
Comment from roosta
Time: June 13, 2007, 4:02 am
Great list, but I think Adam Yauch (MCA) of the Beastie Boys should be here. For an entire generation he is one of the most recognizable and vocal Buddhists. Hardly a review of the Beasties can be written without some reference of his transformation from hard-drinking brat to serene Buddhist.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: June 13, 2007, 10:30 am
Excellent comment, Roosta. If we’d chosen the top 10 list based on more subjective criteria (such as our favorite celebrity Buddhists or those celebrity Buddhists whose practice we most respected) Yauch would have been right up there. But our reporting was based simply on the number of hits on Google for each person. Even allowing for the fact that Yauch goes also by the name MCA, the most we could scrape up was 205,300 hits, which was well below anyone else in the top ten.
But we promise to do a more serious piece on Adam’s practice sometime in the future!
Comment from Justin Whitaker
Time: June 13, 2007, 2:14 pm
Great list Bodhipaksa! And for the record, God gets 342,000,000 hits (to Buddha’s 23,600,000 and Jesus’ 143million), all blowing Tiger out of the water. Good fun for all.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: June 13, 2007, 5:50 pm
Great to head from your Justin, and I’m glad you like the post. For anyone who doesn’t know Justin, his blog was nominated for a Blogisattva award this year and is well worth checking out.
Comment from roosta
Time: June 14, 2007, 7:06 pm
Excellent comment, Roosta. If we’d chosen the top 10 list based on more subjective criteria (such as our favorite celebrity Buddhists or those celebrity Buddhists whose practice we most respected) Yauch would have been right up there. But our reporting was based simply on the number of hits on Google for each person. Even allowing for the fact that Yauch goes also by the name MCA, the most we could scrape up was 205,300 hits, which was well below anyone else in the top ten.
AHh!! I just noticed that criteria…think I jumped head first into the Top 10 too quickly! Apologies!!
Pingback from Monkey See, Monkey Do » tiger woods meditates?
Time: November 24, 2007, 11:38 pm
[...] to practice after seeing the effect it had on the performing abilities of a fellow musician. (Bodhipaksa 2007) 10:38 pm [...]
Comment from michelle
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:49 pm
thanks for the wonderful list, together with the video. It’s been great to read through it!
Comment from grace
Time: September 21, 2008, 8:14 am
i think the beckham family should b up there… but good
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: September 21, 2008, 12:58 pm
Hi Grace,
The stories of the Beckham’s conversion to Buddhism didn’t appear until more than a year after we put this list together, although there’s a Buddhist connection that goes back several years. If this isn’t just a flash in the pan or media hype then the Beckhams should top the list next time we run this story; at the moment David has 20 million hits on Google, which makes him bigger than Tiger. We’ll probably run the “competition” again next summer.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: September 27, 2008, 9:41 pm
Note to self: Since k.d. lang has 4 million hits on Google and is now confirmed to be a Buddhist remember to add her to the list next year.
Comment from Buddhist in GA
Time: December 2, 2008, 11:17 pm
I am always interested in learning about the different philosophies of Buddhism and who practices what philosophy. So of course people are always fascianated with celebrities and this was an interesting list of people. I am a Buddhist myself and practice Nichiren Buddhism the same practice as Tina Turner, Orlando Bloom, Herbie Hancock and Patrick Duffy. What a “Wonderful” group of people to share the same philosophy with in life! I only wish that I could chant with them personally! Thanks again for the list!
Comment from Derrick Calloway
Time: August 7, 2009, 8:26 pm
I’m not so sure about not including Keanu Reeves. He is in the documentary with Richard Gere entitled, “Discovering Buddhism.” At this point he is a relatively well-known practitioner of Buddhism. As for your quote of Reeves saying, “I am not a Buddhist,” your source is from 1994 right after he finished filming Little Buddha. Since then it is clear he has dedicated himself to Buddhism.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: August 7, 2009, 8:33 pm
Well it’s about time we did an updated version of the list, so I’ll take a closer look at Keanu. Thanks for the tip, and if you have any links to articles where he discusses his Buddhist practice I’d appreciate you passing him on.
Comment from Mponi
Time: October 24, 2009, 12:33 pm
Wow, interesting list. I knew of Richard Gere and Tina Turner. . . but Tiger Woods and Orlando Bloom – how cool!
As a Buddhist myself, I would be interested in knowing who, on this list, have actually taken the vows of Going to Refuge to Buddha
I’d also like to know who practices Mahayana Buddhism and who practices Hinayana Buddhism.
Thank you for the list!
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 4, 2010, 1:17 pm
Good question! I confess she wasn’t considered, but as it happens there are only 793,000 hits for her on Google so she wouldn’t have made the top ten anyway.
Pingback from Brit Hume tells Tiger to ditch Buddhism for Christianity [video] | The Daily Caller | TheDC.com
Time: January 11, 2010, 2:16 am
[...] Senior Fox News analyst Brit Hume has found himself in some hot blogospheric water after implying that Tiger Woods should drop his Buddhist faith and convert to Christianity if he wants to find forgiveness and salvage his spiritual life. (For those wondering, Woods really is Buddhist, but he admitted to bloggers even before the whole SUV-crashing-into-a-tree incident that “I don’t practice Buddhism on a day-to-day basis, just when I feel like it.”) [...]
Comment from Rajitha
Time: February 3, 2010, 12:36 pm
It’s nice to see these celebrities Who are Bubbists,But if there was Keanu Reeves it would be Better,He is also a famous
buddhist, but some how this is good.
Comment from Annie
Time: February 19, 2010, 6:08 pm
Isn’t it rather “obvious” putting the Dalai Lama! Of course he is a Buddhist and a great man.
Readers may not be aware that like christianity there are many different types of buddhism. Of course most philosophies and religions work towards peace, but after some extensive reading Nichirin Buddhism seems to the best to cope with the real world. Listen to Tina Turner’s interview.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: February 19, 2010, 8:51 pm
Steady on, Tiger. You’re already on the list at #1.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: February 19, 2010, 8:53 pm
If we’d missed His Holiness off of the list, Annie, no doubt someone would have pointed out that he should “obviously” be on it :)
There are of course many kinds of Buddhism. Nichiren Buddhism certainly isn’t for everyone, but I’m glad it’s working out for you.
Comment from Erik
Time: February 27, 2010, 12:00 am
Which type of Buddhism does Tiger Woods practice? Is it Nichirin Daishonin? I have practiced it in the past. Just started again recently.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: February 28, 2010, 12:38 am
Isn’t his mother Thai? I guess he’d be familiar with Thai Theravadin Buddhism.
Comment from KONATE N’GAMGLE
Time: March 10, 2010, 9:21 am
J en connais un qui a marqué son temps.il s’agit du grand joueur italien le divin codino(ROBERTO BAGGIO) qui reste pour moi l’un des meilleurs joueurs de tous les temps.Baggio est un bouddhiste convaincu mais j’ai remarqué que vous ne l’avez pas cité.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: March 10, 2010, 1:23 pm
Veuillez excuser mon français. Je n’ai pas parlé depuis longtemps. Roberto Baggio est un bouddhiste, et il est bien connu, mais notre liste a compté le nombre de pages que Google a indexé pour chaque personne.
Aung San Suu Kyi, numéro dix sur notre liste, a eu 1,170,000 pages, mais Sr. Baggio a eu seulement 858,000 pages. Il est bien connu, certainement, mais pas assez bien connu pour être inclus.
Write a comment