Racial Diversity and Buddhism in the U.S. (2006)

When we speak of Buddhism in the United States, we are speaking of a cultural movement that has brought to this continent ancient Indian, East and Southeast Asian, and Tibetan spiritual teachings and practices. For the first time in history, these teachings have arrived in a land that is racially heterogeneous. At the same time, they are taking root in a society that was founded, by a white majority, on the unwholesome seeds of colonialism, genocide and slavery. In this meeting, the values of community, interdependence, and collaboration come face-to-face with the values of the pursuit of individualism, self-interest and competition. Deep bow meets handshake (1).

With these words, Hilda Guitiérrez Baldoquín, the editor of Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism, describes the historical and current diversity of Buddhism in America. In the almost one hundred and fifty year history of Buddhism in the U.S., racial diversity has been an ever-present concern. One of the challenges facing American Buddhism today is the need to fully recognize the experiences of Asian immigrants in the U.S., Asian Americans, European Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, as well as all other people of color who practice Buddhism.

People of color are negotiating spaces within predominantly European American sanghas (Buddhist communities). Buddhist centers across the country are starting to host people of color retreats and meditation groups. These efforts are led by Buddhist teachers of color whose work to reduce the isolation people of color have felt is starting to have an impact. They work in tandem with a handful of organizations for people of color to sustain these efforts beyond just one or two retreats. Additionally, White people active in Buddhist centers are working to understand racism in their own lives and communities. Together, these efforts are attempting to reshape American Buddhism into racially diverse and integrated communities.

This report provides snapshots of the work American Buddhists are doing to nurture racially diverse sanghas—it is not a comprehensive collection of these efforts. The research is based on journal articles, books, email and verbal conversations and interviews with several Buddhists of color in the U.S.

To download the full report as a Word document with hyperlinks, click here.
To download the full report as a .pdf without hyperlinks, click here.

Endnotes:

(1) Baldoquín, Hilda Gutiérrez, ed. Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2004: 18.

http://pluralism.org/reports/view/36

Oprah Talks to Thich Nhat Hanh

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Oprah-Talks-to-Thich-Nhat-Hanh

In the Lineage of Sister Mary

Dharma teacher RALPH STEELE’s journey from speaking Gullah as a child in the South to the teachings of the Pali Canon

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/in-lineage-sister-mary?offer=dharma

Questions For Henry Louis Gates Jr. After the Beer Summit

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14fob-q4-t.html

I like that after all or at least most of the headlines have faded, these two men did get together for more beer...

For me the moral of the story is that decent people can get caught up in extraordinary circumstances that may not bring out the best in us but that there is still time for redemption, reconciliation and more beer...

Although the issues this incident raised were and are still important, fundamentally we are all trying to get by day by day... A little understanding and compassion can carry us a long way...

A Path With Heart chapter 3: Take the One Seat

"Outwardly, it means selecting one practice and one teacher among all of the possibilities, and inwardly, it means having the determination to stick with that practice through whatever difficulties and doubts arise until you have come to true clarity and understanding."

I have been with one martial arts school for 25 years now... and one meditation style for 4 years... I have come to look at these practices as my craft, something to do, put my time in for, day in and day out, not to expect but just keep going. In my martial arts school there is a saying from the first grandmaster. "Jangan yakin akan kemajuan. Harus yakin akan disiplin." Which means don't be sure about advancement. You must be sure about disipline.

This is a difficult thing to do and it seems like the process is never complete. When do you come to true clarity and understanding? There is definitely something there - developing familiarity then intimacy with a practice, dealing with boredom, maxing out and finding a way to go further. But there is also at times frustration, feeling stagnant, doubting, wondering about other paths... And whatever level of advancement or achievement reached brings new doubts, frustration and boredom... I think this is where compassion for oneself is important along with a realization that these feelings are natural and part of the process.

For years I neglected to practice long movements or our equivalent of "kata" seriously. I couldn't see the direct martial application and preferred to spar, practice throwing and evasive blocks. Recently though I have really started to appreciate the poetry and self development aspects of daily polishing long movements. It really does feel like moving meditation. Sometimes I try and cultivate a global awareness and at other times a specific focused concentration. The energy and breath I watch without forcing or striving and see what manifests itself. Sometimes forceful and explosive and others subtle and nuanced. My job is to watch it all unfold. So much beauty, poetry and connection to now. For this I am grateful.     

A Morning Reflection by Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Marselean Manuel

I am not free.  I am not free because I  define myself by the Buddhist robe that was given to me.  I define myself by titles like Reverend or Buddhist.   I define myself by my dark skin color and its history.  I define myself by my sexuality.  I am not free because I am still angry about what has hurt me in life.  I am not free because I want to be important.  I want to be heard.  I am not free because I have spent my life becoming, becoming, becoming.  I am not free because I have completely abandoned my true nature to be prosperous.  So, I have mounted a campaign of freedom for Zenju and for those of us who are trapped like me in the clothes that were given to us.

Everyday from this day forward arouse within the true being.  Be warmed and fed  by fire, cleansed and hydrated by water, touch your feet to the earth, and speak from the bones.  Grandmother says we could be beautiful if we could be true.

These things that we say we are only appear when we cannot see ourselves.  Identification may be necessary for the compartments of our brain but it is not necessary for our freedom.  Who breathes here is identified but goes beyond any identity.  Free Zenju, I say to myself.  Free Zenju. Svaha (and so it is)!

http://zenjuearthlynmanuel.com/

A Path With Heart chapter 2: Stopping the War

“The unawakened mind tends to make war on the things are.”

I feel like this describes most of my life. From elementary school to high school, college, much of life has been spent doing just that – making war on the way things are. Rejection, aversion, rebellion, avoidance, but not a lot of acceptance much less wisdom. It’s the same plot with predictably unsatisfactory ending but with different characters, lines and locations.

“The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but organically through gradual training.”

Along with the war, this process of gradual training has been there too. Reading, looking to Taoism, Henry David Thoreau, MLK, Malcolm X, Gandhi and alternative education in high school seemed to be part of an innate process which has all been part of the path. But this was in the mind and part of the ongoing war was the contradiction between what the mind knew to be good and right and what manifested through the body and actions. This contradiction has often been very painful.

“When we let go of our battles and open our hearts to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice.”

Meditation can be a microcosm of this war. The physical pain of sitting, boredom, wanting to do something else, be something or somewhere else, conflicting emotions, memories, and thoughts all do war with the way things are.

“To stop the war and come into the present is to discover a greatness of our own heart that can include the happiness of all beings as inseparable from our own. When we let ourselves feel the fear, the discontent, the difficulties we have always avoided, our heart softens”

Goenkaji often says “Accept things as they are, not as you want them to be.”

It’s a saying that comes back over and over usually when I am not accepting things as they are but rather hoping they’ll be as I want them…

Listening to this, realizing what is going on but without reproach, brings about some softening, melting in the body, in the heart and at times even in action.

“As we allow the world to touch us deeply, we recognize that just as there is pain in our own lives, so there is pain in everyone else’s life.”

Yes, how true. Can we use our own pain as a gate to understanding and offering compassion to others? Perhaps at the start this is silent and from afar but with time, aspiration and more melting, this becomes action however modest.