The Sumeru Press is currently updating our directory of Canadian Buddhist organizations for www.canadianbuddhism.info and we are asking for participation from Buddhist organizations across Canada. More than 15,000 people a year turn to this website and its sister news site, www.sumeru-books.com, for information about where to practice and learn about Buddhism in Canada. We want to make sure that the information they find is as accurate and current as possible.
To this end, we have embarked on a new project in association with the Department for the Study of Religion, at the University of Toronto – to create Canada’s first printed guide to Canadian Buddhist organizations, including not just their contact information such as address, phone number and website, but also information about teachers, programs and related activities. Our goal is to publish in the summer of 2012.
There are more than 500 Canadian Buddhist organizations to be included! If we were unable to reach your organization directly, please make use of the link below to download a survey and send it back to us.
The survey has two parts. The first part contains questions about Canadian Buddhist organization that are important for potential members of, and visitors to, each group. In the second part, we are gathering sociological information about the state of Buddhist organizational development in Canada. No study like this has ever been done before. The data we hope to collect will be extremely valuable to benchmark each group’s activities and place them within the larger context of Sangha in Canada.
The survey is entirely voluntary, and all of the data we collect in the second part will be presented in a way that does not identify any individual organization specifically. In other words, responses to part two of the survey will remain entirely anonymous.
The survey is presented in an interactive digital document – answers can be typed right into the form. It can be saved as a new file and submitted electronically. Printed versions of the survey are also available. Click here for a copy of the survey package: NEW Canadian Buddhism Interactive Survey Package. A low-tech version of the survey is also available in Word .doc format. For that, click here: Canadian Buddhism Survey.
This research has been formally approved by the Department for the Study of Religion and the Office of Research Ethics at the University of Toronto. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact me (buddhismsurvey@sumeru-books.com), or Dr. Frances Garrett, Associate Chair, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto (frances.garrett@utoronto.ca or 416-978-1020).
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