Does western Buddhism have to be counter culture?

This question has pestered me ever since I first visited a Dharma Center.  I grew up in white middle class suburbia.  Somehow, Buddhism took hold of me past the waining interest enough for me to to go to a dharma center.  Since I’ve been probably 20 I’ve visited 5 different Dharma centers in both Ohio and Tennessee.  The majority of the sangha at all of these places have had  2 major things in common:

1.  The majority of people are older than 40.

2.  Most of the boomers and some of the younger people were either hippies or hippy-ish

Now I know that in recent years, there has been a surge of young practitioners in the Dharma Punks movement stemming from Noah Levine and Brad Warner.  But once again, the interested parties come from a movement of counter culture.  Now don’t get me wrong, I understand where these people are coming from and why the Dharma attracts them.  Buddhism is can be seen as radically different from the norm, from Christians, from the nuclear family, from republicans, from typical American culture, etc.  Bu if we were somewhere else where this is ingrained, say almost any country in the east, I don’t think that it is counter culture but just culture.

So my question is, does Western Buddhism have to be counter culture?  I’m interested to see what other people think.  Please feel free to comment.

Sincerely,

ben

the West Chester Buddhist