Omega Women’s Leadership Center
Everyday Zen for Inclusivity
Being Black in Buddhist Community
The spiritual practice must include inquiry into hidden bias and cultural conditioning. angel Kyodo Williams, the author of Being Black and Radical Dharma, talks about why Buddhism must be an inclusive community.
There is no doubt in my mind that Buddhism is a religion. It has rituals, traditions, schools, and hierarchical structures. However, Buddhist philosophy, in its purest form, is just a set of principles to help you become awake to the life that you have so that you can live it more completely. If we go back to the original ideas and strip away the extras, if we take the “ism” out of what a brother named Buddha taught, then it's no more and no less than a way of planning your life. It's setting up your social structures and actively engaging your time on this planet by waking up and getting a fundamental grasp on what’s really important. With a little awareness of who we are and our shared humanity with others, we can begin to relax a little
It doesn’t mean we drop our battles, say "racism and violence don't exist anymore," or lose our passion for pushing for the rights and space that we should have as human beings. Maybe, though, we can begin to approach those efforts more like the work that is here for us to do, like washing those dishes in our house after someone else ate off them, rather than as a struggle, which makes us feel constrained as soon as we hear it. We set ourselves up for an “Us vs. Them” mentality, which is dangerous and in all honesty, unrealistic. Wherever we are is Our House, and we must all live in this house together.
Read the full essay here: https://www.eomega.org/article/everyday-zen-for-inclusivity
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