Eastern religions build larger presence in Valley

Stacy J. Willis

Sunday, Oct. 25, 1998 | 9:25 a.m.

It is prime real estate.

A dirt lot -- almost five acres -- nestled in the up-and-coming Summerlin Arbors neighborhood near a well-groomed park.

In a year or so, it will be the home of a new Hindu temple.

"We just felt the need for it," Dr. Ranjit Jain, a Las Vegas urologist, said. Jain, who is organizing plans for the temple, is among "about 1,000 families" who are Hindu in Clark County.

"There already is a small temple in Las Vegas, but it is in someone's home," Jain said. "We needed a common place for the Hindu community."

The first phase of the temple will be a 3,000-square-foot sanctuary, to be followed later by a 7,000-square-foot Indian cultural center.

"Las Vegas is my home, and I have children growing up here, and I think religion should be a part of everybody's lives," he said.

Eastern religions -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and others-- are on the rise across the United States and are making similar strides in Southern Nevada. In the last 30 years in the United States, the number of Hindus has increased from 100,000 to about 1 million and Buddhists to nearly 2 million. Meanwhile, Jainists have shown up on the map for the first time.

The increasing numbers are largely attributable to migration of people from Eastern countries -- especially in the cases of Hinduism and Jainism. Buddhist communities in Las Vegas are made up both of Eastern immigrants and, increasingly, of converts from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Local followers estimate that in Las Vegas there are at least 3,500 Buddhists, 1,500 Hindus and 11 Jain families.

Most of the Hindus in Las Vegas are of Indian heritage, according to Jain. Hinduism is the dominant religion in India. Followers of the faith believe in multiple gods and reincarnation -- and that each action a human takes will affect his or her rebirth. The ultimate goal is to end the cycle of death and rebirth, the samsara, by achieving spiritual perfection, or nirvana.

"Nirvana is the kind of state where you are totally free and don't have to come back to earth," said Hansa Singh, a Las Vegas Hindu. "It is the goal in all three religions -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism -- not going to heaven or hell, but to become totally free.

"But you cannot make it in one life-- it takes thousands of lives," Singh said.

"Every day, I do my little meditation, sing, and always -- we have rosary beads, 108 beads -- I say my chant for each one. For example, if I believe in something like peace, with every bead I rub I repeat it: Peace for you, peace for me, peace for everybody."

Singh is married to UNLV professor Shagwan Singh, who specializes in the philosophy of religion.

"Even going to heaven would not emancipate you from the cycle of birth and death, the samsara," he said. "A man is born and keeps on dying different deaths."

"Knowledge is the highest in all three religions. The phrase 'Knowledge alone will set you free' is from these religions," Shagwan Singh said. "It is the key point."

Hindus have no call to proselytize.

"We do not try to convert people," Jain said. "We have the numbers to support the temple, and the community has been very supportive.

"Many of the Indian people who are here are professionals -- doctors, professors, business owners," Jain said. "They contribute hugely to the political field and contribute a huge amount to the economy here."

The Hindu community held two fund-raisers to purchase the land, which was one of two parcels zoned for religious buildings in the Arbors section of Summerlin. The land was purchased for about $300,000.

They hired Shashi Patil, an architect from Pittsburgh, to design the temple. Patil has built about 15 Hindu temples in major cities across the nation, Jain said. Once it is built, they plan to begin combing the nation for a suitable leader -- although Hinduism, generally, has no formal hierarchical clergy, Jain said.

"The temple will be the centerpiece for the Hindu community," he said. "(The Hindu community) is going to grow, like it has been growing."

(Subhead: Finding Buddhism)

Twenty-five years ago Vahan Tafralian, then a lapsed Catholic, left Michigan in a van.

Seven hours after arriving in Las Vegas, he had lost his life savings -- several thousand dollars -- to gambling.

He was 26.

"So the next day, I pawned everything in my van, and I got into drugs. And kept gambling. I was a macho, chauvinist pig," Tafralian recalled. "And I was into the buck -- money meant everything to me."

Over the next few months, he watched his life spiral downward.

"Then I was introduced to Buddhism through a girlfriend," he said. "And I was taken in by the sincerity of the people at this meeting I went to. So I stayed around them, although I had no intention of becoming religious."

Eventually, he said, he tried chanting -- the Buddhist meditative practice of repeating meaningful phrases to enter a spiritual state of mind.

"The first time I ever did it, I was in my car," he said. "And I could start to see things in a different way. I could see that I needed to get my life together ...

"As I did it more and more, wisdom came forth," he said. "It was very mystical. Then things began to unfold at an even faster rate. I stopped gambling, stopped the drugs -- and no one said I had to do that to be in the Buddhist organization -- I just wanted to stop."

Within a year, he said, his life had turned around. He started an advertising firm, now known as Ryan & Associates.

"Buddhism gave me an energy force, a feeling like I am a happy and strong human being," he said. "It's peaceful, but for a guy like me, peacefulness sounds boring. It's more like confidence."

Today, Tafralian is a part of the Soka Gakkai ("value creation") International-USA Buddhist organization -- one of many sects -- that includes about 1,000 people locally. Buddhist sects range from from Zen, which focuses on seeking enlightenment through introspection, to Theravada, which stresses monastic discipline.

Generally, Buddhists believe that the ultimate goal of living is to achieve nirvana, as in Hinduism, by making correct spiritual choices during each reincarnated life. But Buddhists do not believe in any god.

"Buddhists are very much about letting humanity be," he said. "There are no rules, no commandments. There is a teaching by the founder, but no judgment. We believe in the respect for life."

Trasalian said he prefers Buddhism to his Catholic upbringing because of its "less judgmental" nature.

"Isn't life stressful enough? If your religion adds to that, what's the point?" he said. "We have no political affiliation, we don't endorse any programs -- that brings a great deal of judgment.

"Every person has the potential for Buddhahood. Some people come by it without studying Buddhism. Others use the teachings. It's just a peaceful state of being."

Each morning, Tafralian goes into his living room and sits in a folding chair in front of a six-foot wooden altar, the doors of which open by remote control to reveal a Buddhist scroll.

"Nam-myoho-renge-kyo," he chants, over and over. He said that the words, loosely transalated, represent basic concepts of Buddhism: devotion, an embrace of the universe's power, respect for the law of cause and effect, and energy.

(Subhead: Jains worship together)

Jains -- followers of the 3,000-year-old religion Jainism -- believe that gambling is emotionally violent.

And since the religion teaches nonviolence, Atul Gandhi faced a moral test when he decided to open a small hotel in Las Vegas.

"Gambling brings out a lot of evils with it," he said. "It is playing with people's emotions, and that is an act of violence. I have yet to meet a gambler who has a 100-percent-right value system -- it's just not feasible."

"But we designed (the hotel) wired for slot machines," he said about his hotel, the name of which he preferred to withhold. "People said, 'If you don't do it, the next hotel will.' "

But before opening the hotel, he spoke with a Jain priest in India about offering gambling.

"He said, 'Do not do it,' " Gandhi said. "And he was right. So now, there is absolutely no gambling in my hotel. You have to practice what you preach."

The 11 Jain families in Las Vegas meet once a month at someone's home to read, chant and discuss their faith. All 11 families are first-generation immigrants from India.

Jains believe in 24 gods, or Tirthankaras, reincarnation and karma, and the ultimate goal of being one with the gods to achieve eternal peace. Gandhi said Jains believe they have total control of their fate -- because they will be reincarnated according to their most dominant thoughts.

"If a person always thinks about sex, when he dies, we believe he becomes a pig, because that's what a pig does," Gandhi said. "God will give you whatever you want if you have faith, whatever you think about most. So if you are hot-tempered, when you die you will become a violent animal -- a lion or a snake. When we die, we take our mind and feelings with us."

"No external factors can determine my state of mind," Gandhi said. "Nobody in the world can make me happy or sad. Happiness lives within."

(Subhead: Learning Zen skills)

In the Desert Mohave Zen Center, housed in an industrial center just a couple of miles from the Las Vegas Strip, Thom Pastor is asking the pertinent Zen questions:

"Does a dog have Buddha nature?" he says.

The question is intended to teach would-be Buddhists about the Zen state of mind.

"Zen, at its core, says, 'Don't know,"' Pastor said. "Use your 'before thinking' mind."

About 30 people attend the Zen center, which opened four years ago. Inside, Buddhists sit in a circle in the dharma room on mats to chant. An altar anchors one end of the room; a three-foot meditation bell sits at the other end.

"It's more than a religion or a philosophy; it's a skill and a way of living," Pastor said.

"All of us are trying to manipulate things as if we can really control life," Pastor said. Instead, Zen Buddhists seek "vast emptiness."

"That's not to be interpreted traditionally as nihilism," he said. "In many cases people think it's very nihilistic and that Buddhists are are somehow preoccupied with death. But it's very liberating to be 100 percent there in what you are doing, not thinking about controlling things.

"It means 'void of any self, void of ego. It means great compassion -- asking only, 'How may I help you?'

"You should be 100 percent present. That's all Zen teaches: How to access the moment," Pastor said. "Still body, still breath, still mind."

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